Bits of Normal

Life is slowly starting to feel life-ish again. There was a time, when my big kids were babies, when we changed addresses often. I look back now and can't fathom how we did it. This move has been far more challenging, physically, mentally and emotionally, than I could have imagined. And at times, more than I thought I could handle. We left behind our friends and home of almost ten years, moved from a fun big city to a boring small town and to add to our depression, it's rained for weeks. I do not adjust well to change and there has been a lot of change in my life. But I can see glimpses of normalcy returning.

After spending the morning sitting alone in the car crying, I decided we needed to take a break from our endless to do lists  and get outside. We found this awesome little park, right around the corner from our house.

It's right on a river and had several little trails to follow.

My water obsessed baby kept asking if she could go in the "pool".

I don't know if you can see this picture very well but we were curious about this big hole in the sand. Upon further inspection, we discovered a rather large turtle living inside. 

Part way through our walk, it occurred to me that this was the first time that I didn't bring the carrier with me. My big girl walked almost the whole time by herself.

Occasionally, carrying treasure.

The kids and I were watching Pirates Of The Caribbean the other night. There's a scene where Jack Sparrow and Will Turner trap air underneath a canoe and walk on the bottom of the ocean so they won't be seen. Dominick and Aravis were very intrigued by this and wanted to see if it really worked. So they dumped the toys out of a plastic bin and took it to the pool to expirement.  Turns out, it works......kind of.

The bin did, in fact, trap air but the pressure from the air forced the bin out of the water.

BUT, if Aravis sat on top of it, they could submerge it almost entirely.

And when Dominick went in it, it was filled with air, not water.

They were very excited with their find!

They spent the rest of the evening playing with the bin.

There is still so much to do and it will take time before we start to really feel settled but it's been comforting to feel like some things, like walks through nature and impromptu experiments, are getting back to normal.