Settled In

When I was growing up my dad was in the Army and we moved roughly every 3 years.  Don't feel sorry for me, I liked moving around.  The run down of places I lived:  Stuttgart Germany (born), Williamsburg Virginia (2 years old), Olympia Washington (4 years old), Indianapolis Indiana (5 years old), Berlin Germany 6-9 yrs old), Colonial Heights Virginia (10-13), Monterey California (14-15), Fairfax Virginia (16-18), Rome Italy (college years).

Pretty cool places to live, I should say!  When you move around a lot and change schools and communities so often you develop a set of skills to help you cope with all those new things you need to figure out pretty quickly.  You learn not to by shy (that gets you nowhere).  You learn to adapt to different situations quickly.  You learn that you can count on your siblings because they know just what you're going through.  You learn the church is true wherever you go and good people are everywhere.   Many times I lived in communities with lots of other Army kids so everyone was quite friendly and accepting.  Sometimes we lived in civilian communities so we got to see how "the other half lived". 

I have now lived in my little blue house for about 4 1/2 years.  This is the longest I have ever lived anywhere.  And even though I have lived in several houses since having children, they have all been within 5 to 10 miles of each other.  So I really feel like I am quite settled in this little part of the world.  I have a home.  I have a place I am from.  That may not seem like much, but I've never really had an answer for where I'm from.  My family has always been my home and I have not felt at a great disadvantage because I didn't have a home town.  But lately, I have really been enjoying the stability of being settled into a community.

Here are some things I am LOVING about being settled.  They may be small, but they are comfortable and lovely to me.

• Knowing when and where to sign up for little league sports

• Knowing how to best use the public library system

• Knowing the ins and outs of Bethany's dance studio

• Having a 2nd child do Tae Kwon Do at the same studio so we know what to expect

• Knowing where everything is in several local grocery stores

• Knowing just how much Halloween candy to buy because you have almost an exact count of how many trick-or-treaters we'll get

• Finding a great gymnastics school for Faith off a recommendation from a friend I hadn't talked to in years 

• Knowing the traffic patterns

• Having a car place that knows the history of our cars and hopefully isn't completely ripping us off  

•  Book clubs and school clubs for everyone in the family

• Having a friend to walk with every morning

• Watching my children's friends grow up along side of them

• Feeling like those kids are partly my children too

• Watching real progress over time for my piano students

• The reason for being released from church callings is just because it is time for a change rather than you are moving across the country (Side note:  There is no imminent release for me from my Primary calling--just thinking)

• Knowing when the store advertisements will come in the mail

• The weather patterns are predictable because they are cyclical

•  Knowing when to and when not to put out our carved pumpkins (all neighborhoods have a few delinquents, right?)

• Holiday traditions with friends and family

• Loving your neighbors and ward members more because you know them better 

Even though my children do not attend the local public schools, I feel like we have a great network of people and organizations we are involved with.  I am feeling very grateful tonight for the good things in our lives.  If you are reading this, you are most likely a part of those good things.  Thank you.