Room to Roam

Lately our updates have all been on Zachary, but his big brothers are staying busy, too!  Once again I underestimated how busy they would keep me this summer, so I'm not getting the chance to write about their daily activities.  But rest assured, we're having fun (for the most part,) and for the first time ever, it seems summer is going too fast!  (Usually I can't wait for them to go back to school.)

Earlier this summer the boys delivered over 35 pounds of pull tabs that SEAS kindergarteners collected for our local Ronald McDonald Houses

Alex, David, and Joseph attend swim practice a couple times a week, and Alex has been participating in swim meets every other week.  Alex is also the lead engineer when it comes to water slides, and he seems to attract the whole neighborhood over for water fun (I wish he would charge the neighborhood an "entry fee" to help cover our water bill.)

David is spending the summer outside and has developed a deep dark bronze tan and bushy sun-bleached hair.  Ever since Uncle Michael and Aunt Lisa took him camping while we were in Michigan, he feels it is his duty to "rescue" and raise any little critter he can find hopping, slithering, or scooting around outside.  So far he has cared for frogs, turtles, snakes, a baby bird, toads, and lizards, and he has big plans for the chipmunks and hummingbirds we will see in Colorado next month.  He's having fun with water and DIRT, and goes through more outfits in a day than I can count on my hand!

Joseph spent the earlier part of the summer playing t-ball and getting to know more of the first graders he will be in class with next year.  He is eating like a horse and has the energy to prove it.  For the most part, he spends the day as Alex's and David's "yes-man" and enjoys getting into whatever type of trouble they may concoct.

Sammy rises early each morning and requests a bowl of cereal and an episode of his favorite PBS show.  His hands are always full of some type or gadget or another (currently an LED flashlight keychain,) which often ends up on the floor in just the right spot to trip an unsuspecting mommy.  Aside from gadgetry, Samuel loves being big brother to Zachary and knows just the right buttons to push to make him whine.

We still get out of the house every day, but I am finding that the boys want to have plenty of time hanging out at home as well.  They enjoy their basement entertainment alcove, and when it's not searing hot out, their imagination runs wild in our backyard.  But our yard these days seems way too small to house all the excitement and ideas of five growing boys.  And our house seems to be shrinking as our family grows!

When we moved into this house, we had one ten month-old baby.  Never in our wildest dreams would we guess that four active younger brothers were soon to follow!  Over the years, our guestroom was converted into an office, a playroom, and finally a bedroom.  Our large kitchen is no longer big enough to sit our family of seven comfortably around the table.  Steve's car has been banished from our two-car garage to make room for bikes and riding toys.  And my tiny patch of a garden is an exercise in frustration, producing just enough fresh vegetables to tease and tempt us for more.  The boys know not the limit of our < 1/4 acre plot of land, and can often be found roaming the neighbors' yards or the field of milo behind our house.  Our street which once was quiet and serene is now a motor speedway for hurried teenagers and commuters that live in the back of our development.  The boys are careful to stay on the sidewalk with their bikes, but all it would take is one careless street crossing for disaster to occur. 

So it's no wonder that, prompted by favorable low interest rates, Steve and I have started to research properties with a little more room to roam. We dream of a little larger house and a few acres of land on a sleepy road, with room for a shed, room for a kiddie pool, a garden, a slipper slide, a dog, room for five boys to roam!  Such homesteads can't be found in town, and even on the outskirts they come with a hefty price tag.  It has taken a couple years to recover from the pay cut Steve took when he moved from tech back to aerospace in 2008, and our medical expenses have been a bit CRAZY since Zachy joined our family.  But all his "excitement" is settling down, Steve feels somewhat secure in his job (hint, hint if you are reading this, boss...) and have I mentioned that interest rates are in the gutter?


Still, all expenses aside, the question remains:  Is it RIGHT to upgrade?  Especially at a time when our economy forces many families to downsize, is it simply greedy to want a bigger home?  We would love more space, but we don't NEED it.  My four siblings and I grew up with one bathroom.  Steve's family of twelve made it work in a small three-bedroom home.  We are blessed beyond measure to live where we do now; is it wrong to pursue more?


But still, the country beckons.  Steve grew up on a 2,000-acre farm, and while you can take the boy out of the country, you can't take the country out of the boy.  Our children have "farm boy" in their blood, too, and will run wild, either on a city lot or a big plot of land.  The decision is not one to take lightly, and will require lots of number crunching, lots of research, and lots of prayer.  In the meantime, I suppose it's a good enough excuse to purge all "unnecessaries" in our current house, to better organize our junk and stay on top of clutter... just in case we decide to start showing it.  So we're taking our ideas to God, and we'll just wait and see what He has to say.