Way Out of My Comfort Zone

I've forced myself to do a couple of things over the past week that are WAY out of my comfort zone. A week ago Saturday was our neighborhood cleanup followed by a neighborhood bar-b-q. We don't really know any of our neighbors well. We are spread out enough that we never have to interact with them if we don't want to. Since there aren't alot of kids in our neighborhood we've never made much of an effort to get to know our neighbors past waving hello as we pass each other on the road. The majority of the people on our street are all the original owners of their homes. There is only one family that has moved in after we did five years ago. The majority are also retired and they are a close knit, highly involved group. So, anyway we did the neighborhood cleanup (for the first time ever, sad, I know) and then Jason insisted that we attend the neighborhood bar-b-que. I had zero desire to go. I must admit that I am embarassed that we don't know anyone and I felt like we would be crashing the party. Jason literally dragged me there and we ended up having the best time. We were the center of attention with our huge family and all the old folks were so nice to the kids, commenting on how much they enjoy seeing them playing outside as they drive by our house. We ended up talking a lot with our next door neighbors and they are SUPER nice. Of course I ended up being so happy we went and thrilled with how nice everyone was to us.



Well today this little journey outside my comfort zone paid off when Jack burst into the house at full speed to tell me that the neighbor yelled at them to stop picking his daffodils. On the front of this neighbors property they have a huge patch of daffodils that bloom each spring. They are gorgeous but the kids have never touched them before. I had a little talk with the kids but inside thought this was really no big deal because the neighbors have so many. Soon I had a voicemail from my neighbor informing me (very nicely) that she sells the daffodils and has an order of 100 daffodils to fill tomorrow. I was HORRIFIED. I called her back immediately and left another voice mail offering to correct the situation in anyway possible. Then I talked to the kids again and sent them outside to play. They all came running back to tell me that they had gone to the neighbors house to apologize. Lily had told him that her heart hurt she was so sorry. So I rushed over to their house to talk to them and we had the best talk. He was so nice and so impressed that the kids apologized. We had Anna's friend Natalie over to play so he was assualted by four cute and energetic kids pouring their hearts out. It was pretty dang cute. These neighbors have the most AMAZING gardens I have seen. They grow everything and have been at it for forty years. They offered to help us set up a garden. We are probably too late to get it done this year since we would have to build a fence, etc but we are going to spend this summer preparing it and be ready for next spring to plant.



Another step out of my comfort zone happened on Friday when I chaired our school's family dance. With Eli and Jonah I was so involved with all the parents of their classmates and made lots of great friends. As we were adopting Lily and Jack and taking care of their medical needs life was crazy. I basically stepped away from all that wasn't necessary and took a big break from life. I took the kids out of extra activities and just laid low for the past couple of years. As a result I don't know a lot of people at the school anymore and those I do still know I feel a little awkward toward since the years have flown by with such little interaction. Luckily I had my friend Carolyn who is our PTG president to walk me through planning the dance and then I had my friend Rebecca to be at the dance setting up and running everything so that part was easy. But man, on the way to that dance I would have given everything to just turn around and go home. But, again, I was so glad I did it and it's been a great way to step back into the school community which I think will be so important since I will have four kids at the school for the next four years.



My epiphany: sometimes the things that make us the most uncomfortable can turn out to be big blessings.