Making This “Ours”

Alright, everybody, today it is time to update you all on what we’re doing to make Niverville “ours”.

1) The boxes are being conquered, one by one, and the dishwasher is installed! (Ben has actually done many wonderful things to make our home feel more settled, but this is the only picture I took…)

2) The backyard has been tramped through.

There are killdeer birds everywhere around here, and Anika desperately wants to see one pretending to be injured, to lure us away from it’s nest. So she tried to chase them in our yard, and Kaylia ran around, talking about “killrobins”, and thought the whole thing was great.

Now what other kinds of adventures can we think up??

3) We are socializing! Anytime we see people we know, we practically beg them to please come visit! I’m realizing how much we grew accustomed to people dropping in at any time of the day when we lived at camp.

So if you live in Niverville, and need friends, please let us know! We are so up for friends right now! 🙂 And we are so very thankful for everyone who has taken the time to visit, or have helped us clean and unpack. We love you all!

4) All three play structures have been explored. It has been officially decided that there is no one favorite, but rather, we will be enjoying the variety of all three locations.

5) The sky saves me every day.

I used to look out at the trees each day, but now I look at the sky. I didn’t see it much at camp – the trees blocked the view. But now, it is beautiful and glorious, and I can sit on our couch and watch the sunset.

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And then last night, we went for a walk, and suddenly I felt like we would be okay. Maybe it was the water, or maybe it was stopping to watch the ducks swim by, or maybe it was just enjoying an evening together as a family.

Somehow, it felt like a little, old, familiar piece of what we used to have, tucked away among all that is new.

Whatever it was, it was a good feeling.

We’ll make this “ours”, a little bit at a time!

Getting My Social Fill for the Month…

Did I ever feel lonely? Did I actually ever feel like I needed a little more social interaction? I vaguely remember saying something like that to Ben on…Friday.

Problem fixed. We have interacted and socialized and connected with friends and family to our hearts’ content. Here’s a peek at some of the visiting we did:

I was able to go for lunch with a friend, and was also able to watch our girls enjoying family. I realized all over again why that’s so important – all ages, all accepted and loved and belonging. Ben’s grandpa greeted Anika at the door with a big hug, and enthusiastically said, “I love you! What’s your name?”

Everybody needs that kind of love from family!

Pictures of Our Weekend

We had a very full weekend – lots of socializing and visitors and playing at the lodge for hours at a time. Sometimes it feels like our socializing patterns are “binge and fast” experiences – very few people around for long stretches, and then all of a sudden an entire weekend of nothing but people time. Sometimes I wonder if we’ll have any idea how to function in the real world once we’re done with our time at camp. Other people’s schedules sound so weird to me, but when I think about it, our schedule right now is probably the weird one.

Anyway, I didn’t take a lot of pictures, but here are a couple of the girls playing at the lodge: