I Just Like Living Here

I know I have said it many times. 

I tell Gary several times a week that I am SO glad we moved here.  Usually it is when we are out on the road and returning from running into town or visiting one of the girls. 

Not having to drive an hour to see the kiddos or not having to plan several stops on a 'trip to Lafayette' so that we make the most of the time and the gas we have to use is just heavenly to me.

But last night it really hit me again how much I like this house.

Lynnlee and Cooper were downstairs playing when Hilary and Blaine, Tessa and Owen stopped by.  We were all in the family room, the kids playing and us visiting.  It was comfortable.  The mess was easy to clean up later.  The mess was contained --- and that was important.

Lynnlee and Gary went to bed early, but Cooper and I stayed up and he watched some things on the Disney+ channel.  At 10:30 he abruptly went upstairs to bed and was asleep before I could tuck him in.  Lynnlee, on the other hand. was fighting sleep.  She finally wimpered herself to sleep.  When she started the wimpering again at 5:30, I slipped out of the bed, stopped at the bathroom, then went in with Cooper to finish sleeping.  The way the bedrooms and the master bathroom are laid out we were able to get up at 6:30, I took a shower, and Cooper was watching tv again without disturbing the others.

Later the kids and I were downstairs and I eventually began working in the sewing room.  I love that space!  None of the kids are permitted in there, mainly because there are scissors and pins and rotary cutters that can hurt and cut.  Also someone fiddled with the knobs on my sewing machine and it had to be serviced again for everything to be re-set.  However.....Lynnlee spent some time with me today.  When I was pressing the binding for the quilt, she sat in my big chair and watched Baby Shark and other kids' nursery songs on my phone through the YouTube app.  Then when I started to actually sew, she moved to the floor and was lying there on her tummy, still watching the songs.  Her big concern was that the long strip of binding was lying in her space and she wanted it to be on my lap.  That worked!

Watching C and L over night is something that might have happened when we lived in the other house, but it would have been more difficult logistically and probably we would have gone to their house and we would have spent the night, then returned home sometime today.    Everything is just easier with our being closer to them.

And tomorrow...church at 11.  Then we invited Megan and family and Hilary and family for our first Family Dinner.  I read a post on FB a few weeks ago about how it was good to bring back the Family Dinners of years past.  I really don't remember having family dinners ever, but I do like the idea of getting together periodically so that we can just catch up on each other's news and what is happening in our lives.

For one thing - I always forget what I tell which daughter and this would be a chance to discuss what has been happening or ask questions all at once. One time.

For another --- the girls don't see each other as much now that Hilary is working and not watching Lynnlee.  For the last 6 years she had watched either Cooper or Lynnlee or both and she and Megan saw each other several times a week, usually every weekday unless Matt was doing the drop off and pick up for the day. 

And finally -- the kids can play together.  There is something about being able to play with your cousins. 

As I said when I was planning this event, a Family Dinner won't happen every week.  It might not happen every other week either.  But if we can arrange a time at least once a month for a family get-together, I will be happy.  And I don't mind cooking and planning it.  After all this is now the "home place'  and I have more time to do it.

Yes, I like living here.  I do.  I really do.