Growing Up and Living in the Country

 

One thing about living in the country is how people are here. 

Our church community is amazing, but not just that, even the people in the stores and out and about. Just driving down the road and you get the "Missouri wave" every time a car drives by. This is what it looks like. Not a big hand wave, but a slight lift of the fingers from the steering wheel. Just enough to let the passing car know you have seen them and you are saying hi. 

Today when we were arriving at zumba, four boys were coming out of the building and noticed Gavyn and all of them said hi and gave him a high five or a wave. I LOVE our community and how welcoming of our kids they are. The kids were invited to a birthday party and had a great time! 

We had a lot of rain, a hail storm, and tornado warnings. During the storm a tree came down along on one of the roads. Out here it is a volunteer fire department. We arrived on one side of the tree the same time one of the men from the fire department arrived on the other side. A couple minutes later another car with a guy with some chain saws showed up. A few minutes after that a guy pulls up in his truck and turns around and drives away only to return a few minutes later with a tractor. Within 20 minutes the tree was cleared off the road. We were so thankful. 

After it was cleared off the road one of the guys comes over and says thank you for being so patient. We thank him for his hard work and then drive forward a bit. The guy also says thank you to US for being patient. We thank him as well and shake hands with him, all the kids in the car are yelling out thank you to him as well. 

This is life in the country! 

Chicken Love

Working in the Garden

We have a WONDERFUL Home Depot who has staff that cares and ASKED US if she could let our kids help mix our paint. Of course the kids were super excited! 

Love this community!!

The youngest three kids are growing up so fast. Today Veronika saw her pile of laundry that had just been folded and without prompting grabbed her pile and put her clothes away. Earlier in the week she was helping wash the laundry. Yesterday she was getting the plates out and ready for everyone and passing out napkins and drinks. 

Gavyn has been looking for ways to help, yesterday he saw a mess and cleaned it up. He decided to sweep the floor yesterday without being prompted. Today at church he saw other kids cleaning and joined in right away.Willow has asked to help with extra chores around the house and made muffins for breakfast one day and cupcakes for a snack another day all on her own. She has also asked to help with washing dishes lately. 

I love seeing them grow. They are not just getting taller, but they are growing in their thoughtfulness of others. I think in part it is them working on learning about virtues in class, but it is also the way we are raising the kids, and the community around us that are loving on and nurturing our kids. 

Waiting patiently while daddy has appointments for his chemo