A new adventure

Well, it's official. We are moving to Texas! I am both excited and a little scared. We have never gone so far away from everything we know and everyone we love. Our families are all here, 21 hrs from where we will be. But we feel good about this and we know it will be a learning experience for our family. It is wonderful to know that we won't have to worry about what the schools are like when we get there - school for us will stay the same, with maybe some new opportunities for outside activities. The most important things will stay the same - we will have eachother, our faith, and our connections (thank goodness for the internet and telephone to keep in touch with loved ones!). I'm sure we will find good friends who also value the things we do. There are great people everywhere. We are excited to find new ways to serve others, and to stretch ourselves in different ways. I'm not as excited about the adventure of selling a house and packing and moving all of us cross country, but I'm sure that will be a learning experience as well. We have already had to adjust our schedule to make sure the house gets clean (in case someone wants to see it), but I am trying to keep things rolling with homeschool too. We were finally getting into a groove and I hate to mess it up just because our house is for sale. I think when the weather permits we will be spending a lot of time going for walks and to the park, to keep from messing up the house too much. I am finding that the allure of the television is harder to resist when I am trying to keep things clean, but we are trying to keep from using it very much. I have found that the kids have just as much fun putting on a CD of fun music and dancing or chasing eachother as they do watching a show or getting out a bunch of toys, so we are doing lots of that.

I already have some ideas of new subjects we will do some studying on when we get to Texas:

Texas history (this is a state education requirement, and it is always a good idea to learn the history of where you live anyway)
How to garden in Texas (I learned recently that they have spring and fall gardens rather than summer ones)
How to be safe in a tornado
Indiginous creatures of Texas and natural bug repellants

I know my kids would love to learn more about horses and farm animals so I hope we can live somewhere where they will be exposed to that. My kids also want to get involved with First Tee, which is a kids golf program they have there. I'm sure we will find many other great options to get involved with.

In the mean time, I am trying to take advantage of, and savor, all the wonderful things here that we will miss. We saw bald eagles in the field behind our yard the other day, one of my kids went sledding with his friend, and I have been making a point of watching the sun rise over the mountains and reflect on the snow (they don't have mountains or snow where we are going). We are going to try to spend more weekends visiting family and playing with cousins. We are going to try to notice the things we have taken for granted and be thankful for all we have been given, the things that change and the things that stay the same.