I snagged a friend to get a picture of us before we left.
When we got home, of course right off I compared it to last year...
Blessing 2: Summer is coming. It may be coming in bursts, but it's coming. Munch has been asking me since winter when we could have a pool again, so on the first day it hit 80, we had our first pool party of the year. :) A party of 1, I will add. I was more than content to just sit back and catch up on my National Geographic while she played, and besides that, the water was like ice. Her poor little legs were all red after just a few minutes, but she couldn't have cared less, she was having so much fun! The hot weather stuck around for a few days, so we enjoyed a couple other pool and/or sprinkler days both at our place and with my nanny family.
Blessing 3: Summer's coming, and I hardly had anything for this growing kid to wear. I was just getting ready to go to some resale events that were happening right around Mother's Day, when my employer offered me Sister Bear's out-grown summer-wear to root through. It was perfect. Perfect timing, perfect fits--I got sundresses, swimsuits, shorts, t-shirts, tank tops, light-weight pj's, you name it. She's totally set for summer, and I didn't have to spend a dime. YAY for hand-me-downs! They are one of the best things EVER. :D
Blessing 4: And speaking of hand-me-downs, do you even KNOW the treasures that can be got from the alleyways in this city? Last Sunday at church, a friend of mine asked me if we had a tricycle for the Munch yet. I told her no, we hadn't yet, but it had been on our minds. To which she responded, "Meet me at my car. My brother found a Radio Flyer sitting by a dumpster in our neighborhood, and he brought it over to us. It's in great shape, just needs a little cleaning!" As soon as the Munch saw that trike, and was told she could have it if she wanted, she couldn't take her hands off it. She knew exactly what to do with it too, and rode it all the way back to our car in an adjacent lot. It did need some cleaning, and Daddy had to tighten up the handle-bars so it didn't come apart when it was lifted up, but WOW. A free tricycle!!! Now she has something else to ask me for every day. ;)
Blessing 5: My kid is super-smart. Lately we've enjoyed some quality time walking around one or two blocks in our area, just exploring and enjoying the time outside. It's a good compromise between going to a park that's several blocks away or staying in a backyard that's full of tree gunk. Of course she loves the park and is always asking for it, and I've gotten the stroller out a number of times in the last couple of weeks so we can enjoy it, but today, with the wind blowing hard, I figured she wouldn't want to stay out too long. We went for a walk, and I let her chose the directions. She chose to walk north from our house--fairly normal, as we usually start out that way. We came to the first intersection, and she chose to continue going straight--a little unusual, as normally she wants to turn right away. We came to the second intersection, and she chose to go west--also unusual. Then (not before, but right then!) she started telling me how much she wanted to go to the park (which couldn't even be seen yet). And that was when I realized...this kid just chose this path BECAUSE she wants to go to the park, and she waited to tell me until we were obviously on a path that could lead us there, so I'd be more inclined to say yes. Well. How can you argue with that? Clever kiddo. So today, we walked to the park. And we may do so again. :)
Blessing 6: Tomorrow would have been the day we closed on our new house, but it's been pushed forward a couple weeks due to a late appraisal. I'm glad. This month has whirled past us fast enough, without that whirling up on us too. This change means we won't have to pay both mortgage and rent in July, but only for August, IF the place isn't rented out by then--and it means we have a little more time to prep and purge and pack...which we have been doing in earnest now. We've been purging in a number of ways, and it's feeling lovely...First in stuff--things that I never used for the Munch, things we haven't used for ourselves in a long time, etc. There hasn't been a ton that's gone out, but what's gone has felt good. Second in old papers. Would you believe I still had phone bills from my first apartment more than 10 years ago, just sitting in my folders? I never had a shredder to get rid of them properly until a couple months ago! And I keep finding more stuff to shred. I've saved us at least a couple boxes at this point...and there's still more to sift through. Then thirdly in some bad debt. The loan is contingent on us showing either proof of payment or proof of satisfaction on three items, and those items have been nagging at my brain for months now, but we couldn't do anything about them until an actual loan application went through. Our lenders specifically advised us to wait until then. Credit scores are messed up...paying off a bunch of old bad debt will actually make your credit worse for a while, which then jeopardizes your ability to get a loan! So now my credit score stinks, but the loan is already locked in with the old, slightly better score, I feel MUCH better, and we're good to go. :)
Blessing 7: We got the result from the appraisal back, and it is excellent. Higher than what we are paying, but not so much higher that something seems fishy. We know God's given us an amazing deal with this house...I was poking around casually on zillow today, and noticed that the 2-flat building directly north of our house had the second floor condo for sale...for the same price as what we are paying for a full, spacious house!!
It's true...Trust Him, show some stewardship and care, and He comes through big-time. I continue to be amazed and thankful.
And man....June is going to be one heck of a month!! :D
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