Settling in

D: When will it start to feel like home here?
W: (Knowing that she wants to see a date on the calendar) Well, honey, it's hard to say. It's really something that happens slowly over some time, not really like one thing happens that suddenly makes it home. Does it still not feel like home here to you?
D: No. I miss our old house and I miss my friends in New Hampshire.

Me too. Well, not really the house, just the trees. I told her it takes me about a year to feel settled in a new place. Of course, she doesn't know how long that is and it probably won't take her that long. We're getting there, making friends, learning our way around. But the excitement of newness is wearing off for her, so the difficulty of starting all over is starting to hit.

How fun!

Concord grapes, picked from our yard-


Fruit leather- my first attempt, ever!


It's like grape jelly in your hand mmmmmm.....

Pictures

Corryn, almost 20 months, in the front yard:

Dillon shucking corn. Mmmm...yummy Midwest sweet corn:

Our back yard-
Just kidding- it's really a local park :)

Up and Down

That's where we are- good and bad, up and down. Dillon has made a couple of friends, but is still definitely missing her friends in NH. She spent a good bit of time with one of her new friends-one of our neighbors this weekend. Unfortunately, the fun ended when the little girl- M- got in Peaches face & Peaches responded by snapping at her, leaving red marks on M's face. No broken skin, but scared M quite a bit. I just knew that would be the last time M would be able to come over to our house.

I talked with M's mom last night after the excitement all settled. She was very understanding and assures me that M will still be able to come over. Her husband was more upset by it, but says he'll be OK with it. I assured her that Peaches will be kept out of kids' access from now on. Peaches has always been so good with my kids, I just never imagined she'd snap at another kid. In any case, lesson learned.

I'm enjoying having Dave around more, though it's lonelier now that he's gone back to work. I liked the moms at the homeschool group last week and have made friends with M's mom, though she works full time. I have to admit that I don't really enjoy this process of starting all over again. Certainly I like making new friends, but enjoy it much more in the setting of having an established set of friends rather than having to do it from scratch.

It's still good overall, really. I know that it takes time and we've not been here that long. We're checking out the parks in the area, doing our best get out and do things. Corryn's unpredictable napping makes it hard to participate in things since I know if I take her somewhere when she's tired or likely to be tired on the way home, there will be screaming in the car seat the entire way home. I hate having her scream in the car seat, but I don't really think it benefits us mentally to be home all day waiting for her to nap. It's all about the balance and I'm struggling some with establishing a new rhythm and routine for us.

Here are a couple of recent pictures. Notice the new bike-

Must wear big sister's helmet even though I have my own that also belonged to big sister...

To my NH friends

What to say and how to say it? There are so many sentiments swirling around in my head that I'm having trouble collecting them into a cohesive expression of how much you've meant to me.

You were what made leaving New Hampshire difficult. You were what made it livable for me while I struggled through the seemingly endless winters and made the far-too-short-for-me summers so much more fun. It was all of you that helped keep me sane while my husband-against any wishes of his own- worked way too many hours.

You helped me figure out my way in parenting and solidifying the decision to homeschool. You were my family when mine was so far away. You celebrated with me when exciting things were happening and supported me through the difficult things. You bouyed me when I was just so burned out I didn't think I could survive this process of a husband in medical training coupled with 2 young children.

You made the agonizing process of saying goodbye both so wonderful and so difficult all at the same time. We were so very well fed, given heartfelt well wishes and beautiful remembrances. You entertained my children so I could take of things and helped get us out the door to close on our house. It meant the world to me, but made it heartwrenching to leave behind.

I cried as we left town for the last time.

To say thank you isn't enough. Helen Keller was quoted as saying "What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us."

You are now a part of me and although things are pretty good here, I miss you a great deal. I pray that I find something as wonderful here.

So far, so good...

Finally, a chance to write a little. Dave and Dillon are taking my mom to the airport in Indianapolis while I'm home with a napping Corryn.

We're doing pretty well, I have to say. My mom has been here for 2 weeks and has been a tremendous help in making this transition with 2 young children. The house is functional, though there are still boxes to deal with. It'll get done eventually.

The rental house is pretty nice- and a good bit bigger than what we moved from. And lighter. We had the darkest house in New Hampshire, so all these white walls and windows are a welcome change for me. We're in a cookie cutter housing development which is fine for the time being, but definitely isn't our dream. The neighbors, thus far, are really nice & keep bringing goodies our way. There are also a few too many door to door salesman for my tastes. Sidewalks are everywhere, which we've taken many walks on already. Dillon is now a pro at riding the little bike that we have & is beyond ready to graduate up to a real bike. We plan on saving like crazy for the next year to 2 years to find/remodel/build our dream house.

The community is mostly good as well. For the first several days we tended to drive through the industrial parts, just because that was the most direct and most familiar route. I started hearing this little voice inside my head "what have we done moving to this ugly, industrial place?" I made an effort to start taking different routes & it has made all the difference. I really do like it here. The farmer's market is good, though vastly different (disappointingly so for Dillon) from the one we left behind. THere are tons of parks, so we're making it our goal to work through them. The people are friendly. I can get pretty much all the foods I like to buy (such a small thing that makes me so happy!).

We start horseback riding lessons today and believe it or not, have a playdate set up for friday morning. When we met with the owner of the horseback riding place, she offered to connect me with another homeschooling family that she knows. Lo and behold, I got a call from her yesterday. We had a lot in common, so we're getting together. It's a good start. We're going to take the girls to the Indianapolis Children's Museum friday afternoon since Dillon's already been asking to go.

So that's it in a nutshell. I have my moments of sadness in leaving New Hampshire and definitely miss our friends. But I also have a good bit of time in which I'm feeling really good about this move and really excited that we've finally reached what we've been working toward for 12 years.

It's going to be just fine.

Doing OK!

Just a quick note to say that we arrived in Indiana safe and sound. After accidently standing up the cable guy a couple of days after arriving, we got it rescheduled and finally have internet access again. We've made a good bit of progress through the boxes and are settling in a bit.

I'm going tomorrow to try to get my drivers license. To get one from out of state here, you have to re-take the written test, so I have to look over the actual rules of driving (after a number of years of doing so...)so that I'm am not ashamed to show my face in public having failed a driving test! I'll write more & post a few pictures as we get a bit more settled.