The weather broke (temporarily) yesterday, and the above-50 temperatures sent us and many of our neighbors outside. Annie walked around the block (the longest distance she’s walked since Malibu), and the girls discovered that our neighbors two doors down are a classical Christian homeschooling family with four kids (who love baking, crafting, and reading)! Everyone rushed through their schoolwork today, and my girls have been playing over there since noon.
Today I took Susie back to the doctor to have her ear checked (she had swimmer’s ear last week–never in all our years in CA, but something she picks up in the frozen, landlocked tundra of Indiana?!), and before announcing that her eardrum has ruptured and she now needs oral antibiotics for a middle ear infection, the doctor noticed that we were doing schoolwork while we waited and told us that his wife had homeschooled their kids and loved it. Crazy! (The secondary ear infection is crazy, too.)
We’re also just a few minutes up the road from Leslie and Brad and their crew, so Tommy and Aidan have enjoyed lots of reconnecting after being baby BFFs. Janie and Ella are kindred spirits and have been having so much fun together, too, especially while their six older siblings attend a martial arts class together at a church in between our houses. I usually drop the big kids off, then Leslie and I have tea while the little girls play, Brad picks everyone up afterwards, and we all go to bed happy and socialized.
And we’re going to church with the Raglands, so all of our kids are instafriends and begging for playdates as often as possible. Silly dancing, pillow fighting, or talking intensely about quality children’s literature? We’ve got it covered. The kids are hard at work on a joint newspaper–comment if you want a copy when it’s published!
Kindred spirits abound, we have Target, Walmart, Aldi, Chickfila, and Culvers just down the street (not to mention Hungry Howie’s, which is the kids’ new favorite pizza, lol), and even on days like today when I have to get up at 5:40 to take Derek in to work so that I can have the van for the day, I’m still home by 6:05 am (and he’s been able to catch a ride home at night with another law professor friend who lives a few blocks away). Yeah, the house is small and not up to my cleanliness standards, and I miss my kitchen, but we’re making do. It’s not even summertime, but in the Midwest, the living sure is easier!
This couldn’t be more different than your first month in CA. Yay for the Midwest!
I just love how much better and just natural things are going ❤️😊