Just an Update

I know you were all just dying to know how things were going for us in general here in Ohio, so here goes...




When I first wrote about our first impression of Ohio, I said that people weren't very hospitable here. I feel I should clarify that a bit, because, as it turns out, we have met some very nice people, and the church we've been going to is especially welcoming and friendly. And while our neighborhood seemed a tightly closed shell in the dead of winter, warmer weather has opened it up to reveal some friendly souls as well. Each afternoon Drew is hailed from across the street by the troop of boys who play basketball and football together until dinnertime, and Aimee's company is requested by the little girl who lives across the street, or the older one who lives around the corner. We still encounter some abrupt people while out and about (people seem less tolerant of the kids here, and behave as if we had twenty wild hooligans in the store with us), but since our social life is otherwise rounding out fairly nicely, who cares? Maybe they just have the winter doldrums and will thaw out with the Spring.




Spring does seem to work an even more noticeable magic and feeling of excitement here, probably because there is one, for starters. Instead of going from winter-ish weather straight to 80 degrees, the warming-up process is gentle, and the tilt of our corner of the Earth towards the sun seems more perceptible here than down South. And since winter was so cold, gray, and dreary, that the combination of the sun, singing birds, and temperatures over 50 degrees is enough to make one practically giddy. Each warm and sunny day finds us trying out a new park (the metroparks are pretty nifty here), or at the very least, finds the kids out riding bikes and scooters in the cul-de-sac (on which we really enjoy living) and playing with the aforesaid friends.

Having just mentioned the metroparks, I'll say again that I love them, as well
as the myriad of other things to do here. The library is still fantastic, and we even found another library system in the city next to us (still only about 3 miles away) which is a better place to take the kids. So now I have a slightly bizarre system worked out in which I enjoy the best of both libraries (no fines at one, so I put all our "school-ish" books on hold there, and just run in to check them out, and nice facilities at the other, where we like to hang out). Dave took a look at our library basket recently and said, "Do we really need all these books?" What kind of question is THAT? That's like saying, "Do we really need all these channels?" Oh wait - that's nothing like it, is it?

Okie, dokie, moving on! So we love the parks, the libraries, the museums. We also just recently joined our local Y, and that's pretty wonderful, too. It looks like the summer will open up some more fun opportunities. We like our church, as well as the local LLL Group, where we've found other homeschoolers with several children each (so we don't feel so completely crazy all by ourselves in these categories!). But that brings me to some of the downsides. We haven't filled the gap in the homeschooling support category. I just haven't found a support group like we had back home, and that troubles me a bit. In fact, I'm having trouble finding many stay-at-home moms at all, or moms of many (or of several, depending on your perspective!). I miss having this kind of camaraderie on a regular basis.

And sometimes I just miss home. I miss the South. I feel a little panicked sometimes about the possibility that the kids won't grow up as true Southerners, the way I had imagined they would. Sometimes I still feel like an outsider, and I wonder if I'll ever feel otherwise...and then I wonder if I really want to feel like I belong here! It's tricky. But I have a feeling that that's all normal for a big move like this. Overall, it's been positive so far for us, though. My kids have scattered into the Spring-like winds while I've been writing this, so off I go to round them up again!