A New Home

This is a picture of me standing in our new kitchen over a month ago. I am gazing out the window, wondering what it would be like to live in this Charleston home with hardwood floors and tall ceilings. On our last day of packing up the Williamsburg house, we received a call from the realtor that our very low offer had been accepted. (The one we had turned in over two weeks prior to that call.) We were surprised and excited, but oh so busy with the hard work of packing. Then we returned to Columbia, to our temporary home here. It seemed normal now to live in the heart of the city, in this old white two story house. The kids quickly ran next door to visit with Mr. Clarke, their new favorite friend despite a fifty year age difference, whom they missed during a week away. We unpacked and settled in once again to life here. Our realtor came by and said yes, we should make the end of September closing. So, two days ago we walked back through the new house. We measured and examined, looked at paint chips and imagined furniture placement. It all seemed so surreal. The new Charleston style home is big and tall and handsome, and right now, relatively quiet. Can we make it our home? It is wonderful and nice, but does our twenty year old sofa belong there? What about the mismatched chairs and inherited rugs that were all warm and inviting together in our old home? You could look at it all and see it wasn't purchased together, or stop to see each piece as evidence of how we have been generously loved by family. Only one or two pieces have we actually stepped out and dared to obtain on our own. Isn't that how it works though? Great grandmother's old rocking chair does match the in-laws recovered old sofa. The old wedding gift table works well with the new bench seating. The tall disorganized english major has fun with the short scheduled science girl. God always puts things together in ways that are creative and surprising. I am anxious to see how it all fits together once again in this new place. I know it will be a bit like a first date for a while with everything awkward and requiring such thought. It is harder to imagine doing this with children, bringing them into the transition. We will start with the walls, with new colors and paint. Our first step at making this house a new home for us all.

Transition Work

We just returned from the final "packing up" of our home in Williamsburg, Virginia. I can't really say much about it right now. Leaving that home is so big that I am still standing close to it in its shadow. But I did realize something about life and transitions: there is always work to do in a time of transition. Think of childbirth: the work of labor that comes as you realize your life will never be the same once this little person is born. As a doctor, I think of the work of dying and how often it comes and gives the person a sense that they are ready to move on, to leave this place. This week as I was packing box after box, coveting cardboard and treating Stearlite storage containers as if they were a precious commodity, I realized that moving is tremendous work. But the work is good. It keeps you moving and forces you not to simply sit on the floor and cry. Work was made for good, and sometimes the box after box after box, keeps you moving and allows you to walk through something that you simply couldn't do without the "work" of it.

I wanted to put in these few pictures from our makeshift schoolroom at the Clarke's house. We have finished five weeks of school now. There is much that I like about doing school together, although it has felt a little less than excellent in quality with the constant chaos of a move hovering. In this picture, Henry is coloring on the dry erase board, while Caroline does grammar and John Mac cuts with his scissors. School starts back tomorrow after a week of "vacation"! Hope the students had a better break than the teacher did....

"Because Me"

Hannah has a special saying of her own: "because me". The last few nights, Hannah slept in her ballet shoes. I asked her, Hannah, why do you want to sleep in your dance shoes? Her response: "because me". If you ask Hannah why she likes the color pink, she'll respond: because me. It's a form of "because I told you so" for the young spirited child. Hannah has adds a real joy to life around here and I think a lot of it is from her clear sense of "because me".

These pictures are from our recent first church picnic! It was so much fun. We had 75 people for fried chicken and side dishes on the beautiful grounds of our current temporary home. Clearly, the iced-blue cupcakes were a hit with the kids. I don't think I've really taken in how amazing it is that our first new church event had 75 people in attendance. How gracious God has gone before us. The people were all different ages and stages, nothing really in common other than a strange sense that they might be called to this new church. Ordinary miracles.

I had another ordinary miracle this week. Sitting in the kitchen, making my usual PB and Js for the kids, the song "All Creatures of Our God and King" came on (the patty griffin version...). Somehow the words struck me and I was so thankful for five mouths to feed all at once in a strange kitchen that is not my own in a new town that is incredibly hot in September with twice the utility bills. (how's that for a run on?)

Last thought: Texting. I didn't have friends that texted in W'burg, and I was fine with that. I'm kind of anti-technology. Here, everyone texts one another. And I have slowly joined in on my small 9 digit keypad. Here is what is fun about texting though: it takes me back to passing notes in junior high with your favorite girlfriend. That joy of having a thought and knowing someone couldn't wait a whole hour to hear it! It's been fun to be in a new place and think that I have friends to "pass notes to" already.

Snakes and Rats and such

Our last several weeks have been full of life's small difficulties: children with tummy bugs, one car on the side of the highway needing to be towed followed by the other car requiring a very large repair the next week, real estate losses one after the other on our home. But this week's interesting thing really bothered me the most. A few days ago, as the kids were playing they found a fresh snakeskin on the basement stairs. This was upsetting, but I tried to take it in stride. The next day, the owner of our house had someone come to investigate the snakeskin appearance. The news got worse. There are MULTIPLE snakeskin's in the basement, associated with large rat snakes (6 ft!) because there is also lots of evidence for RATS in this basement. RATS. I am currently living in a old large home with gaping old wooden doors, five small children and rats and snakes in the basement.

I am now ready to move. The beauty of this old in-town Columbia neighborhood can be appreciated at a distance.

Henry is 6!

Our first family birthday in Columbia, S.C. has come and gone! Henry turned six yesterday and we had a pool party for him. His first "official" birthday party! We had a gracious friend who let us use her beautiful backyard pool and we invited several new families of friends over that we have recently met. It was a "shark" party and we played water games, ate cake and had lots of fun.

Here is the birthday boy. The cake was my homemade attempt to make a shark. I tried to color the icing naturally with blueberries, eschewing the horrific blue and red dyes at the super market....which only led to a confusing grayish pinkish shark color. Does it appear to be like JAWS?

We had multiple ages and stages at the party. Here's some of the younger ones all crammed into the baby pool....rub-a-dub-dub...five in a tub!

William made it to the party. He was super tired after several hours of party but he was a trooper none-the-less.
And here's a picture of us with new friends we've made in Columbia! What a fun full first summer.
Lastly, I have to record a funny conversation I had with John Mac this morning. He is so thoughtful, but often his mind is working and you don't even know it. While I was putting on deodorant today, he asked me a question. JM: Mommy, does that make hair grow? Me: No, John Mac. Why do you ask that? JM: Well, it makes hair grow on Daddy. Every time he puts it on his hair there gets longer and longer.

Nature Walk

We found the river walk in Columbia yesterday. The ninety degree afternoon felt refreshingly cool to us and we headed out to explore new territory. The river walk is just downtown on the side of the Congaree river with large wide trails. We took scooters and a double stroller and enjoyed the scene. It smelled slightly brackish as we walked along the water and we passed a white egret. It felt familiar and comforting to be there, reminding us of lots of time spent along the James River in Virginia.

We have been looking at homes in the NorthEast for a while now. So much of that area has new developments with beautiful homes on small lots, in close proximity to one another. Yes, there are pools in the neighborhood, or perhaps even a manufactured nature trail...but somehow it feels so far from nature itself. I find myself wondering if I could really be happy in a neighborhood without much nature. Will I hear an owl there? Do you ever see a hawk resting on a branch? Can my children ever get poison ivy in a place like that? What do you watch from your window in that neighborhood? It may be that that is the kind of place we will live, but if so, I think I'll need to find a way to make it down to the river walk much more often.

A New Day

Jumping back in with two feet! It has been quite a spot of time since I was able to write, but I do so want to continue to write down these small memories, scraps of paper to save in the cover of a notebook. Life has been so full and with so many little bits of goodness. The small things are the ones that make up most of our days and the ones I am most scared of forgetting. We are now in a beautiful old temporary home in the heart of the city in Columbia, SC. We are here to watch God start a church in the NorthEast portion of the city...but we aren't even in the NE yet! I know this will be a significant time of change in our life; even more of a reason to record bits of it.

So I'll start today with a few recent joys:

We've had dear old friends visiting. The Wilmoth family came down from W'burg to stay with us and the joy of watching kids play with old friends was so great. Despite all the different ages and stages, they all jumped back into play together and were a happy lot. It was a good reminder of how God knits us all together over time and years. This is a picture of Caroline with Sydney. They were born six weeks apart and have been friends since that time. This visit they spent hours on roller skates in and out of the house.

And this is a picture of the whole group together; Skylar the oldest is twelve, and William was the youngest at 8months! (but he was napping for the picture)

We have had the joy of watching babies grow this summer. William is standing and trying so hard to keep up with all of his big brothers and sisters. He is quite friendly and affable, but when he is upset he is very very upset.

And finally, Hannah is continuing to teach us more and more of who she is...The picture below shows her in snow boots on a day when the temperature was recorded as 105 degrees. She loves shoes and clothes and changing them frequently! She is always spirited and keeps up quite well with all the goings on as the kids are able to run around this large old house and its' grounds. She has charmed the owners/neighbors with her smiles and energy.