one week in

Yesterday marked one week here in ND.  Whoa.  It takes only a day or two to get the luggage unpacked and everything physically "settled"... but hearts and minds, they take a bit longer.  We are most definitely still in transition, but I'm encouraged that we are mostly moving in the right direction most of the time.

Parenting in these seasons seems to take extraordinary amounts of time and energy, and (of course) their needs spike when I'm already feeling pushed to my limits.  Lots of time with my people seems to be the best remedy.

I also moved printing photos and "personalizing" our home up to the top of my to-do list.

When the world around us is swirling it's good to re-affirm who we are, where we come from, and the people who journey with us.

It's also good to sit in the backyard and eat peaches :)

And the yard, well it is just about perfect.

The garden is producing insane amounts of cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes too.  We culled out the gourd vines and found a few pumpkin surprises under all that leaf!

Lydia stood at the sink and washed cucumbers as fast as we could bring them in.

There will be plenty for refrigerator pickles, and all of my kids eat raw cucumbers like crazy.  Look at that big one Isaac is chomping into!

We even hosted our first guests!  College friends of Matt's, passing through town... it's fun to have a home with extra bedrooms :)

After dinner last night I dropped Julianna off at a friend's house for a sleepover and this morning she and 30 other youth left on a three day youth trip to Minneapolis.

Seems a bit crazy to me that she's old enough for this!  She was super super excited!

We've got a family birthday this week, Lydia hits double digits on Tuesday!  We usually start homeschool the week of her birthday, and it's definitely feeling different to not be getting out the books and making plans.  I will be missing the schooling, but I'm also encouraged that this will be a great fall for all of them.  Me too :).