Our new home

When you enter the front door, the living room is immediately to your left...










...and the dining room and kitchen to your right.











Through the living room is the hallway to the Rhodes part of the house. On the left hand side of the hall is the family room (green), and boys room. On the other side of the hall directly opposite the boys room is our room, then the bathroom, and the chapel. Directly behind me is the stairs leading up to Nick and Via's space (3 small bedrooms, bath, sitting area and door onto the roof.
























































This is our backyard and the entrance to "Muddy bikes urban garden," a community gardening project.





We leave you in the prayer garden at the back end of our property with the cross, tiki torches and fire ring.

Overdue

Hi Family and Friends. Yes, we are way overdue for an update on our blog, and we promise that some pictures of our new house will be posted soon. We just haven't taken any pictures yet...

But we are settled into our new home, and we love it. Most of the indoor renovations are completed, with a few odds and ends to finish up. Some of the things we like most about living here are: lots of light in our rooms, a big airy light kitchen with a big window above the sinks (missed that in our last home), the location - we can walk to church, walk to downtown, Martin can ride bicycle to work in less than 5 min, etc., and we have enjoyed getting to know our neighbors - of whom most are friendly. One of our neighbors, Tom Benevento, heads up a project here in Harrisonburg called New Community Project (http://www.newcommunityproject.org/grounds_keepers.shtml)
and he also has lots of gardens in our yard. He and his wife and 2 sons have been extremely hospitable and we hope to develop a kind of community lifestyle with them as well, having a meal together every week, sharing yard space and some possessions, etc.

We also enjoy living with Nick & Sylvia Meyer and look forward to developing a rhythm of community life. So far we've been on vacation one week after they moved in, and now they've been on vacation for 2 weeks, so we haven't really had time to develop a pattern of community living yet.

Our boys keep saying "I like our new house", and Elliot will occasionally say "We'll ask Nick & Sylvia that when they get home" if he has a question that we don't know the answer to. It's taken a while for them to adjust to a new home, especially Elliot. However, it hasn't just been a move to a new house and sharing a bedroom, it has also included about 3 weeks of renovations and a week at the beach prior to this move, so their predictable routine of life had been disrupted for quite some time. I think we're finally figuring out how to handle the unusual behaviors but ask for your continued prayers as we continue to adjust as a family. It would certainly be nice to have a routine home life before Francis makes her appearance!

So, in summary, we're very happy with our new home and look forward to finding out the variety of ways we can be a Christ-like presence in our neighborhood and surrounding community. Pray for us!