Deserving a Blog Post of Its Own
A few posts ago, I shared the frustrations of our summer and how our summer 2011 just wasn't what we had hoped it would be. I also mentioned a few blessings that reminded me just how lucky we are regardless of our frustrating day-to-day circumstances. One of those blessings that deserves its own post is our relationship with our neighbors.
One of the unknowns when moving into a new house is who your neighbors will be. In our old house, we had a fun couple next door, but other than that, everyone did their own thing. One of our hopes when moving into this house and neighborhood was to forge some real friendships with our neighbors. We have been very fortunate to have done that over the course of this summer. Yet another blessing to our rocky summer.
Throughout the summer, we have become good friends with three different families on our street. In two of the families, the husbands are hunting buddies of Eric's, and we've been able to get our families together. It's fun to pack up the kiddos and walk down the street to grill out. Their kids are older than ours, but all of these kids are really sweet to our girls. It's rare that you find a couple in which both husband and wife genuinely enjoy the other husband and wife. We have that with these two families, and Madeline really likes being around these older kids.
And, of course, these two porches have it goin' on with impromptu summer porch parties!!
A few posts ago, I shared the frustrations of our summer and how our summer 2011 just wasn't what we had hoped it would be. I also mentioned a few blessings that reminded me just how lucky we are regardless of our frustrating day-to-day circumstances. One of those blessings that deserves its own post is our relationship with our neighbors.
One of the unknowns when moving into a new house is who your neighbors will be. In our old house, we had a fun couple next door, but other than that, everyone did their own thing. One of our hopes when moving into this house and neighborhood was to forge some real friendships with our neighbors. We have been very fortunate to have done that over the course of this summer. Yet another blessing to our rocky summer.
Throughout the summer, we have become good friends with three different families on our street. In two of the families, the husbands are hunting buddies of Eric's, and we've been able to get our families together. It's fun to pack up the kiddos and walk down the street to grill out. Their kids are older than ours, but all of these kids are really sweet to our girls. It's rare that you find a couple in which both husband and wife genuinely enjoy the other husband and wife. We have that with these two families, and Madeline really likes being around these older kids.
And, of course, these two porches have it goin' on with impromptu summer porch parties!!
Above: Our porch
That porch (above) belongs to our immediate next door neighbors, Ty & Sasha. [Yes, we have basically the same house! Great minds think alike! :)] Over the course of the last eight months or so, we have become good friends with this family. Their children, again, are older than ours, but they are very sweet to our girls. We click with them, and again, it goes back to Eric and I both really liking Ty and Sasha as individuals as well as a couple. It's refreshing to hang out with another family without having to worry, "Is my house clean enough?" or "Is my cooking okay?" or "Can I discipline my child in front of them without making anyone uncomfortable?" While we have planned cook-outs with them, we've also had some impromptu get togethers on one of our porches after all the kids are in the bed just to chat, vent, complain, laugh, joke around, and be adults with adult conversation. Eric and I feel very blessed that we ended up having Ty and Sasha as our neighbors because we have become more than the friendly hello while getting the mail or "can I borrow a cup of sugar?" kind of neighbor. Sasha and I have shared some late afternoon "what a day!" cocktails on one of our porches, and I really appreciate that since I am holding down the fort solo many days out of the week. It's comforting to Eric and I to know that when he is out of town I do have people right next door to help me if, God forbid, something major happens. Eric and I look forward to continuing our relationship with Ty & Sasha and their children over the years.
Eric and I don't try to "keep up with the Jones'", and we are fortunate that we've found friendships in neighbors that are just normal people raising kids just like us this summer of 2011. So, as I said before, as I pray for patience, I should also say a prayer of thanks for having the best neighbors ever. Because truly, The Stewart Family is blessed.
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