The New Home

Here we are 6 months into our new house.  Sweet friends have stopped asking if we "feel settled," so it must be assumed that we are....or should be.  I often answered that question with an enthusiastic, "Yes, we love it!"  But the truth is we're still getting there.  Surprisingly, I was in a serious funk in the months following the move.  I felt lonely for our old neighbors, or lack of new neighbors as 2 of the 3 houses around us sit empty.  I missed our old hangouts and routines.  Every time a train went by I wondered if we had made a mistake buying this house.  After months & MONTHS of non-stop house projects, I was unsure of what to do with myself in this new space.  It doesn't NEED much work at this point (we can't afford to do much anyway,) but it still seems like someone else's and I don't have a peace here.  After the first month I decided repainting needed to wait so we might as well start hanging stuff on the walls.  That helped.

Summer was especially hot, like so hot parks were out of the question and the punishment of the volcanic car almost made a trip to the pool unwanted.  The kids were not getting along.at.all.  At one point Daniel said he missed the old (bigger) yard and I realized we needed to change the way we play.  We went from grass & gravel to dirt & blacktop so it was time to break out the bikes, scooters, chalk and find a basketball hoop on craigslist.  We spent a ridonkulous amount of money on soil prep and grass seed, and thanks to Steve's hard work, we have grass.  Aside from a rather dangerous 2 weeks in October when we feared serious head injuries from falling walnuts, we've had some pretty good times in our new yard.  Steve's wheels are now turning on a playhouse/swing set.

The really bright spot has been the new school.  The kids love it and have made fast friends.  Addie's class is so small, ALL of the kids (and moms!) have become friends.  I'm proud of Daniel for the buddies he has chosen. We have great confidence in the teachers and administrators.  The school and PTO appear to work as a well-oiled machine.  The other parents have been over-the-top welcoming.  We love that half of the kids from House Group are at the same school.  "Church friends" are becoming "best friends."  All affirming that this was the right move for our family.

In the past weeks, the funk has morphed into pent-up creative energy, which I can divert into non-house projects, so it's manageable.  We've met more neighbors and kids on our street thanks to my chatty husband and more-outgoing-than-I kiddos.  We've had school friends over to play and new family friends over for dinner.  I don't notice the trains so much and Nate thinks they're awesome.  School conferences went well, confirming from the teachers' perspectives that our kids are happy here.  Steve is a little fidgety (for lack of funds) for the next big project, but our garage is incredibly organized in the meantime.

We have a garage.  And a bunch of other great things in this house to be grateful for.  Slowly, gratitude is drowning out my second-guessing.