What we love about Texas, part 3

We live on a very quiet suburban street which makes our front yard a safe and inviting place to play.  Many of our neighbors either work from home, stay home with their kids or are retired which means that we all watch out for one another.   We knew nothing about our neighborhood when we moved in but the fact that the majority of our neighbors are home during the day is evidence that God orchestrated the details of this move.  I have so much peace of mind knowing that there are multiple doors I can knock on if something came up and I needed help.

I choose to spend time with Nicole in our front yard in order to be visible and available to the people who live around us.  Nicole and I both wave at every vehicle that drives by.  We know our mailman and we love making a habit of watching the garage truck pick up all of the trash each week.  I still consider us new to the area but I also consider it my responsibility to open myself up to our neighbors.  Visibility, avalibility and genuine warmth  have helped me slowly meet the people who also call this quiet suburban street home.  

I waved to some of our neighbors as they got in and out of their cars day after day for a couple of months but it wasn't until we brought them Christmas cookies that they started to stop by to visit while Nicole and I play in the yard.  The mild "winter" weather has given us many opportunities to share a warm greeting and a quick conversation with them.  Their granddaughter will be in town in a week and wants to play with Nicole.  I enthusiastically agreed to the playdate and said a silent prayer of thanksgiving for the opportunity to keep getting to know them better.   I greeted another neighbor while we were out walking over a dozen separate times before one day she was ready to engage us in conversation. She has now intentionally stopped by just to see Nicole and always tells us to "come back and see me!" each time we visit her.  A new friendship has formed.  It has taken a lot of time and intentionality to get to know the people who live around us but I think that good neighbors are part of what makes a house a home.

We continue to extend friendship to the people we encounter here and we are progressing towards our goal of learning to love Texas.  I will probably never love the bugs here but I can really appreciate the excellent service of the pest control company we hired.  It's likely that I will always struggle with the intense summer heat but I am thankful for air conditioning in our home, our cars and the establishments we frequent.  I miss how easy it was to gather with our family but I love the quiet weekends we spend together as a little family of 3.  The energy we are investing in learning to love our new surroundings is making the weight of this move a little easier to bare.

Before I wrap this post up for the day, I wanted to revisit the original list Shawn and I made on Valentines day to talk about why I love one of my favorite places here in North Texas; the library.

The library.  
One of the things I loved about babysitting growing up was reading picture books aloud at bedtime.  When I became a teacher I loved each and every opportunity to read aloud to my students.  I almost never have time to get wrapped up in a novel or sit down with a non-fiction book but I sometimes spend hours of my day reading aloud to Nicole and her friends.  I have bins filled with books strategically placed all over our house and the majority of the books we read come from our local library.  We love the librarians and the programs.  We love the books and the building.  We love the people we meet while we're browsing books and the animal puppets that anyone can play with.  I have this pie in the sky dream that someday Nicole and I will read every single picture book our library owns.  Until then, we are enjoying the plethora of board books the library has on hand and avoiding anything that can easily be torn by curious fingers :).

What do you love about where you live?
I hope you are well!
Love,
Erica