Good Things

We have been busy & having fun. Cid was here last July & fell in love w/ 8 & 1/2 acres right outside of town. The realtor who happened to be there at the time told him to not bother, it was already under contract. BUT, he went by there again & it is now new, improved & on the market so he had taken us to look at it.
I could see he was excited for us to look at it, so being silly & spying an old lipgloss that had fallen out of my grocery/ restaurant catch-all purse, I put it on & made flirty eyes at him. He rolled his eyes but started laughing when Victor asked in his very serious little boy voice, "Mommy, why do you want other men to look at you?" My sweet little man, you are wise beyond your years. I wiped it off, apologized for being silly & put it in the trash bag. There was unmistakable relief on his face & a big smile as I put on my usual chapstick instead. How thin a thread their security can hang! I was sorry, to have made him worry so. I do think that that was the last of my make-up too, if it isn't the other stuff is all too old to be healthy to wear anyway.
Anyway, we got there before the realtor & so got to walk the property w/out him & it's almost perfect. I actually don't know of any faults yet, but I've only seen it once. It's kind of in a valley, the acreage going up a timbered mountain. Not very thickly timbered though, easily cleared w/ several trails running through it. A road has already been cut in, & though it needs work going further up & there are several sites suitable for building. I think it is Grandfather & Tablerock Mountains you get good views from at the top.
The house itself is a doublewide from 98' & is fairly huge, 1600 sq ft. It's been landscaped, recarpeted & painted & has a well. I saw some newer looking T-posts out in the woods from an old clothesline, there is no dryer or dishwasher & I'm glad, the dishwasher made me lazy. Now that a house is a real prospect, Cid is enthusiastic over the idea of another homebirth, which makes me glad. I know he didn't want to rent a cabin & he'd mentioned the hospital once or twice as a maybe. He's been trying so hard to find us a nest, I love him.
There's also a well up by the road, a dilapidated shed & a year round branch that comes down the mountain & cuts through the front yard. Cid is making his usual defensive position decisions & we've been talking about when to get what animals & put them where. There's only one spot for a garden for now, as only the front 1/2 acre is cleared, so we'll keep our first garden very basic.
But the best part is that that after offering, counter offering & counter-counter offering, they've accepted our bid & we are able to put 1/2 of the cash down up front; we've been preapproved & our mortgage is so low the payments can easily be doubled & probably paid off in 5 years, barring something horrible happening. He plans on going back to school for fun & extra income like I did & all kinds of castles in the air are floating over our fire pit. The inspection is scheduled for Wed. Praise God!
School-wise we've not done so well. We went to the library & some homeschool information was posted there, but not for the region we're moving to. I did get a pamphlet on the NC homeschool association. It was easily the worst library day I've ever had. It's a small town intimate library, w/ the librarians seeming to know everyone (we had just missed story time) & noticing the new people (us). The children's section is downstairs & very nice. Victor had decided ahead of time that he wanted to read about Eskimo's, Australia & goats. That's how we do the library, it makes it easier to get in & out & leaves time to read some stories while we're there too. He always has a random combination of subjects.
We were there, reading stories, collecting his books & WHAM! A terrible odor assaulted me from the next aisle. It could only be from Charlotte who loves the library & was running & playing peekaboo through the gaps. I had to chase her down, & right when I caught her she unlatched her disposable diaper tab (how did she get by that?) & stepped right into whatever had been fermenting in her little tummy. My changing pad was in the next aisle over & I used my loudest inside library voice to get Victor to assist me as I furiously unbuckled her shoes & smeary socks. I was between the front desk librarian & a re-shelving librarian. I could feel their eyes.
This was an etiquette crisis. There was no way I could take Charlotte, who was flipped over my knee w/ her sludgy bottom waving, squealing in joy at this new naked game upstairs past the other patrons to the front desk to get the restroom key. But, it is completely inappropriate to change a toddler (my opinion) in a public aisle of anything. I did have to break w/ my opinion on this one. There was no way to hide the diaper. Smelling as it did I just could not leave it in the regular trashcan.
Charlotte was now barefoot, so I had to carry her, the diaper, changing mat & Victor's books upstairs. He very gamely volunteered himself to carry her shoes. When we got to the front desk to get a library card & check out we were told that it was impossible as we had no permanent address. No one likes a gypsy, even today. Victor was kind of in shock; he wasn't sure how to handle it. The library has always had open arms for him. He opened his mouth & loud & slow started sobbing "But I want to read about Eskimo's! I want to check out books!"
We'd created enough of a scene so we left, but all the way home it was the same chorus, "I want to check out b-o-o-o-o-ks!" Except for 1/2 way there then he started asking me did I swallow the baby to get it in my tummy? Well how did it get in there? How did God get it in there? And then more "I want to read!", so I was kind of saved.
We are doing an alphabet caterpillar right now, I write the letters out for him & he colors them, cuts them out & pastes them to a paper plate. Then he'll look for the letter in several books & point them out to me & we go over the sound & think up all the words we can that start w/ that letter. When he colored the face for the caterpillar, he made a cyclops, but recognizing his mistake he drew another eye, though it was on top of the first like a flounder. Easily, it is the creepiest caterpillar I've ever seen.
Charlotte is reading to herself the books she knows, it is so cute. She'll babble & match up the actions & sounds I say w/ the right page. She can say, "pretty, kitty, book, ball, bacon, mama, daddy, maynya (naked), piggy, shoe & others I can't remember. She has 3 teeth cutting through but is very sweet on the whole, unlike w/ the rest of her mouth. She sleeps poorly though.
Victor himself has had a fever on & off again the last couple of days. I've had both of them sleeping in Charlotte's bunk Irish style, w/ a head on either end to keep warm on the colder nights & stack the blankets. They both sleep better & don't argue or kick like I expected they would. God is so good & we've been blessed us w/ so much; it's very humbling looking at it all.