Kaleb came walking into the kitchen this morning with a red face, runny nose, tears in his eyes, asking if I could keep a box of Kleenex in his room. He had been sitting in there, clutching a picture of Duchess, his favorite neighbor dog back home, crying his little heart out. He misses her so. Even after he wiped his eyes, blew his nose and got a big hug from me, he went back in his room and cried some more, letting his tears drop on the glass of the picture frame as he stared into her eyes. He then sent her an e-mail that said how much he missed her. He was spiraling downwards into a dark pit when the neighbor girl Sabina showed up and some switch got flipped and he was out the door riding his bike up and down the streets of Myrland. He was gone all day and never even came home for lunch. I saw him through the window – flying by on his bike several times with Sabina and her friends. I tried to get a photo of all of them together but they were going too fast. I’m so thankful for Sabina!
We live on a dead end street so there is very little car traffic going by – just a few cars to the houses beyond us. After the houses is vacant land, and then past that – a cemetery – so it almost feels like home here. (Kory’s grandparents are buried in that cemetery.) The best thing about where we live is the whole front of our house is nearly floor to ceiling windows and we can sit all day and watch the foot traffic. Everyone walks their dog or rides their bike past our house. It’s part of a huge loop that people make a few times a day, either to get exercise or to walk the dog. Kaleb sat for a while yesterday and timed the dogs. On average, a dog walks by every seven minutes. It’s nice to see so many people outside! I guess they get cabin fever with the long dark winters. Turid told me in the summer, the outdoors becomes everyone’s living room. I guess that’s why they all have tables and chairs in both front and back of the house. Most people also have a roll out awning covering the back of the house so they can still be outdoors if it rains. And as Odd says, “If it’s summer, we eat outdoors.” (And they do – rain or shine!)
I think the loneliness set in this morning for Kaleb because he was with just us for the bulk of yesterday and never saw Sabina. She was off to a friend’s house for a sleepover and Kaleb couldn’t understand why she would do that on the day they had decided it was HIS day to pick what they would do. I’m sure she never understood that agreement, as her English is pretty limited, but he swears she did. At least all is right in his world now. I LOVE that he is getting this “kid” time… something he sorely lacked in our neighborhood at home.
Kaleb and I picked more blueberries today (free food – woo hoo!). We bought a berry picking tool so it went quickly (I got two cups in about 20 minutes and Kaleb got three cups in the same time frame). It took longer to clean them, than to pick them, but now I have some in the freezer to make Lemon Blueberry cake for when company comes over. This afternoon I went for a three hour walk around the neighborhood. I love looking at all the houses and immaculate yards (not ours, however). People paint their houses with high gloss paint so they all really do shine. I timed the walk to Kaleb’s school – 20 minutes from our house. Now he will have real stories to tell his grandchildren about walking a mile through the snow to get to school, and it’s won’t be an exaggeration. (They have no school buses here – everyone really does walk to school.) Kory spent the day driving rods into the ground and getting his measuring system on the buildings set up – waiting for the ground to move. Remember that Carole King song, “I feel the earth move, under my feet….?” Well, I hope I don’t need to start singing it anytime soon.
We live on a dead end street so there is very little car traffic going by – just a few cars to the houses beyond us. After the houses is vacant land, and then past that – a cemetery – so it almost feels like home here. (Kory’s grandparents are buried in that cemetery.) The best thing about where we live is the whole front of our house is nearly floor to ceiling windows and we can sit all day and watch the foot traffic. Everyone walks their dog or rides their bike past our house. It’s part of a huge loop that people make a few times a day, either to get exercise or to walk the dog. Kaleb sat for a while yesterday and timed the dogs. On average, a dog walks by every seven minutes. It’s nice to see so many people outside! I guess they get cabin fever with the long dark winters. Turid told me in the summer, the outdoors becomes everyone’s living room. I guess that’s why they all have tables and chairs in both front and back of the house. Most people also have a roll out awning covering the back of the house so they can still be outdoors if it rains. And as Odd says, “If it’s summer, we eat outdoors.” (And they do – rain or shine!)
I think the loneliness set in this morning for Kaleb because he was with just us for the bulk of yesterday and never saw Sabina. She was off to a friend’s house for a sleepover and Kaleb couldn’t understand why she would do that on the day they had decided it was HIS day to pick what they would do. I’m sure she never understood that agreement, as her English is pretty limited, but he swears she did. At least all is right in his world now. I LOVE that he is getting this “kid” time… something he sorely lacked in our neighborhood at home.
Kaleb and I picked more blueberries today (free food – woo hoo!). We bought a berry picking tool so it went quickly (I got two cups in about 20 minutes and Kaleb got three cups in the same time frame). It took longer to clean them, than to pick them, but now I have some in the freezer to make Lemon Blueberry cake for when company comes over. This afternoon I went for a three hour walk around the neighborhood. I love looking at all the houses and immaculate yards (not ours, however). People paint their houses with high gloss paint so they all really do shine. I timed the walk to Kaleb’s school – 20 minutes from our house. Now he will have real stories to tell his grandchildren about walking a mile through the snow to get to school, and it’s won’t be an exaggeration. (They have no school buses here – everyone really does walk to school.) Kory spent the day driving rods into the ground and getting his measuring system on the buildings set up – waiting for the ground to move. Remember that Carole King song, “I feel the earth move, under my feet….?” Well, I hope I don’t need to start singing it anytime soon.
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