As the
6 month anniversary of moving into our new house approaches, I’ve been thinking
about how it finally feels like home. We’ve settled in well: making friends
with our neighbors, becoming active in the community, and adding to the yard to
make it more suitable for the kids. Nothing in the interior of the house has
been changed other than some electrical work we had done soon after moving in,
but the boxes have (mostly) been unpacked, our belongings have found homes and
the superfluous done away with. We’ve picked up some furniture to fill some
holes, reassigned other pieces to serve different purposes and identified what
we still need.
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We celebrated Ūsiņdiena with ice cream downtown, one of the many things we love about our 'hood |
It’s
true that we have fallen in love with the neighborhood. North Main is close to
downtown, not quite walkable with the boys, but definitely doable without driving if we walk to
the trolley. The giant, mature oaks lining the streets provide shade, color and
character. The street is inhabited by an eclectic mix of families, young
couples starting out and neighbors who have been here since they were children.
We can walk to two parks, one of which is part of the school the boys will be
attending in a few short years. Friday I walked to the school with Lauris and
Mikus to check out Arts Alive, the annual fundraiser featuring music, food, games,
rides and a silent auction to benefit Stone Academy. It was nice to recognize a
few of the families that live on our street, and even nicer to know that by
having fun all afternoon we were helping to support a top-rated local school.
Mikus loved the “Dinosaur Dig” activity, a sandbox filled with buried treasure
that both boys dug around in for quite some time (for them the digging was more
fun than finding the prizes). Lauris especially remembers getting a train
painted on his arm and his hair colored pink. He wanted to participate in the
paintball-style glitter fight, but I thought that was best saved for when he is
a little older. We left balloons in hand about three hours later after a meal
of snow cones, hot dogs, pizza and popcorn. I’m very glad we went to check out
what was going on; I had seen a few ads for Arts Alive, but thought it was an
art program for the Stone students. When we saw the news helicopters circling
that afternoon I figured out it was something more – over 2,000 people were
expected.
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In the last picture, notice the pink hair... |
We’ve also
recently joined the neighborhood community group, and Thursday evening attended
a membership drive at the local soda shop to meet more neighbors. It was only
recently that we learned such an organization exists; due to several
developments being built nearby there have been concerns over subdividing,
retention ponds and the loss of mature trees, and we attended an informational
meeting to learn more. The social meet and greet Thursday reminded us that there
is an organization looking out for the general health of our community, and we
had fun meeting new people and checking out the fire engine from the local firehouse.
In our
six months here we’ve managed to make some big changes to the backyard. During
the winter we built two raised beds in the sunniest portion of the yard, which
were immediately appropriated by the two little guys as their own personal
digging site. With some pressure treated lumber, rebar and a saw we were able
to quickly put together a very solid, easy to assemble (and disassemble if
needed) raised garden that hopefully will be productive for us this summer.
The
spring however has so far been a constant struggle to keep Mikus from pulling
everything up from the garden, and we had talked for a while of building a
sandbox to keep them otherwise occupied. While Zinta was in town our neighbor
stopped by to let us know she had seen a sandbox on the curb a few streets over
as she knew we had been thinking about building one and hadn’t yet found the
time. I left the boys with my sister and went to take a look, finding an
adorable wooden sandbox in great shape. Good (free) finds don’t last long in
this neighborhood, and after measuring and deliberating and trying to figure
out a way to fit the playset in the car without taking it apart I was resigned
to waiting for my husband to get home with the truck. At that moment yet
another stroke of luck occurred, as a neighbor saw me and offered to give the
sandbox a ride to our place with his pickup. Roberts has fitted the box with a
cover and yesterday we filled it with river sand, a cheaper alternative to the play
sand that sells at home improvement stores.
The
sandbox is not the only “lightly used” play equipment taking up space in the
backyard. A while back we went out to Anderson to a farm that belongs to some
friends of ours, and they offered us they playset that their girls had outgrown
and was taking up space where the pool was to go. After determining that it
could be taken apart we accepted the offer, knowing that putting it back
together might prove more of a challenge than getting it home. Sure enough,
between having to replace a couple of boards and the awning, to having to “tweak”
things a little, the result is not exactly how it originally looked. The important
thing however is that the two boys now have a swingset and slide to expend
energy on, and that Mikus has become a little spider monkey climbing up and
down the rock wall.
With
all the settling in and changes in the last six months I’m curious to see what
the next six will bring. I’m excited to see what happens with the garden, so
far it looks like the squirrels and insects will provide me a challenge with
some of the plants. And we keep adding more; a raspberry bush has joined the
blueberries and the grape has finally budded, some hostas will be joining the
shrubbery out front and the mint that a friend dug up from her garden has
finally established itself in the back close to the irises our neighbor separated
for us from her gorgeous garden. She’s the one that had to give her three
guinea hens to her brother; we are simultaneously sad and happy to see them go
as we (especially the boys) loved collecting the beautiful feathers that
occasionally landed on our side of the fence, and that they would keep us
company while we played and worked outside, but the early morning wake-up calls
will not be missed. Never a dull moment, it looks like we’ll possibly have some chickens for
neighbors on the other side in the coming months, should I complain a little in
order to secure a bribe of fresh eggs? Changes
on the block aren’t restricted to new development either. Friends on another
street (with a French connection) have decided on a move to California, and we
are sorry to see them go, but new friends we refer to as the #2 pencils (we
first met them as a family on Halloween, when they were dressed up as…) remind
us that there are tons of families with kids of similar ages as L & M on
our street.
I wish
to end this overly long post with the following thought - everything happens
for a reason. Upon moving back from France a lot earlier than originally
expected we regretted selling our house; the first home we ever owned, the
house Lauris spent the first months of his life in, the friendships we formed
in another tight-knit community. But now I realize that if we still owned that
house, we would never have bought this home, in a neighborhood that has already
brought us so much happiness. Now wouldn’t it be cool if the rumors of an owl
living in our tree were true (well, except for maybe the new chickens...)?
Thanks for interesting post! It looks that you were very busy for the last 6 months, and you are very open minded and sociable person. When we moved in England, first 6 months we spend just settle down and didn't know any neighbour. Perhaps, it is coming for culture differences. As you know Latvians in Latvia usually not much confident and not open to the strangers. That is one more thing what I learn in the UK and see for you it is comfortable. I wish you to gain more and more nice experience in your neighbourhood. And your backyard is becoming great space for all family, specially for boys!!!
ReplyDeletePaldies Inese! Domāju ir gan starpības kas atšķir Latvijā dzimušus/augušus latviešus no ārzemju latviešiem, un attieksmes ar kaimiņiem un vietējo sabiedrību var ieskaitīt tajās... Paldies par mīļu kommentu!
DeleteNot overly long, but rather super enjoyable. AND, helping me get through early labor contractions. ;)
ReplyDeleteYes! Keep up the good work, momma! Keeping you in my thoughts and waiting to hear the good news. Stay strong!
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