What does the title of this blog and the above words have in common, you might wonder!? Recently we've gotten in the "naming mood" again. What do we wish to call this piece of land that we call home and that we have fallen in love with? Can we find something that rings true and would be lasting. We've bounced things around in the past but recently it has felt like the time to get more "serious" about the endeavor. Part of the reason for that is that there have been a lot of changes around here in the last number of weeks. It seems that a whole bunch of things came together over the course of a number of weeks and as of July 1 we found all the bedrooms (and possible bedrooms) in our home full of wonderful, fun people. So as we started talking about the community we will inevitably be building together, how much we want to intentionally be together, how we will live/work/play side by side, etc... it felt fitting to have some kind of name to refer to the conglomeration of people and animals and plants that call the left side of Fruit Farm Lane home.
In our first evening meal together, the possibilities seemed endless, but many of the names didn't "grab us" or they felt like they could have as easily been the name of a subdivision. When "Tangly Woods" was mentioned as something that Kali had offered earlier in the day, a number of us almost immediately exclaimed, "I like it!" So, for the few faithful blog readers, what do you think? It's programmed in at least one GPS, I've gotten one piece of mail with it included in the address, I've seen it in one email signature line to date, and we are all having good fun letting it roll off our tongues to see how it feels. We aren't etching it in stone yet, but it's fun to have a name to try out. I like how it is what this place was before humans came along and it is what this place will likely be when we are gone. It is clearly descriptive of parts of our property but it also captures something about the relational dynamics here - the blending of various families and the beauty and fun and messiness (tangliness) of that! But the woods feels like a sheltered place, and one that provides relief from the heat. So far with the comings and goings around here, I feel energized and supported by the people we are sharing life with currently. We're excited to see what the coming weeks and months bring.
What has been the most exciting thing for me of all is to see our girls flourishing and getting comfortable quickly with new and more people around. It's so fun to see Alida get scooped up and to hear her giggle with delight. It's great to hear Kali chattering away and hanging out with all of us (not wanting to ride her bike too far ahead on an evening walk since she doesn't want to miss the conversation). We have benefited from extra adult hands around, most recently with a swing set extension project that was wrapped up last evening and which I enjoyed this morning by sitting on the recently hung porch swing while snipping beans for the first green bean canning of the season.
Speaking of green beans, I need to get the canner going and should wrap this up after sharing one more Alida story, that she will likely groan when reading a dozen years from now or so. The backdrop to this story is that I often have a little flurry of cleaning up when I get home from work. It's just that I find that I can get into my evening at home better once things are back in their places (at least for a few minutes before our little tornado girls makes her rounds again). That normally just involves me going from room to room with Alida and/or Kali for a few moments. Well, yesterday, I was in the bathroom putting something away when I noticed a very substantial poopy sitting in Alida's potty. Jason has been known to occasionally forget to empty out the pee from her little potty, but I've never found poop in it. Awhile later I took the girls out to the swingset where Jason was finishing up securing it to the ground. I attempted to mention it very nonchalantly, but clearly was thinking that I would be letting him know that it might be best to not leave it in there in the future. He looked at me with the most confused expression and went on to let me know that he is 100% sure he was not with Alida when she went and didn't know when she accomplished that. There was a time during the day, he remembered, when she wanted to go potty but then didn't and so he gave up but she was running around for a bit without her diaper on. She must have slipped away, deposited her load, and ran back to play. Silly and impressive baby!
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