Falling Back in Love with Kwaj

  D and I have been having a hard time appreciating Kwaj lately.  I think a big part of it is our itchy feet and desire for a challenge.  We haven't had one for a while and we're starting to get a little more irritated at the little things here.  But lately, things have been really good and we've been starting to remember why we love living here so much.
  This past weekend was a perfect Kwaj weekend.  On Saturday evening we had friends over for dinner and really fun card game called Cards Against Humanity (it's really terrible, you should try it!).  We had so much fun just laughing and talking, telling stories, and just spending time together.  Sunday morning was church for me and the kids and beer-brewing and meat-smoking for D.  Both kids took naps after lunch so at about three in the afternoon, I found myself doing the last of the cleaning I wanted to get done before our homestudy, with nothing else left to do.  The notion of free time is still pretty strange so it took me a little bit to decided what to do.  I finally settled on paddleboarding.  It was a beautiful day, sharp, clear, and hot,with just a puff of a breeze.  It felt so good to be out on the water, to be able to kind of center myself before the homestudy, which I was pretty nervous about since it was our first.
  Of course, there was no real reason for me to be nervous about the homestudy- even that was done Kwaj style.  I  had asked the counselor here to come over for dinner, both because we like to feed people and because I thought that would give her the best opportunity to actually see us parent.  It went really well, no deep probing questions that we couldn't answer, just a new friend over for dinner.  Marion said that she would email us with any questions and that she'd have the homestudy written up by the end of the week.
 Monday started pretty early so by about 8:30 the kids were listless and whiny.  D had something to do that morning but before he left, he got out the bounce house and the kids and I set out around the neighborhood to invite all the other kids that live nearby to come play at our house.  We ended up with a crowd of five 4-year-old girls, one 4-year-old boy, and Fire running around playing chase and jumping in the bounce house.  When the morning got hot, I rolled up the bounce house and pulled out our slip and slide (still the best $17 I've ever spent).  All the kids ran home to put on swim suits and then came back and played for another couple hours.  It was so great to have Sky and Fire occupied and having so much fun with their friends.  I love that that kind of morning was so easy to put together and that it went so well. 
  Monday evening was the last Kwaj Running Club fun run of the season.  Sky ran the half-mile again and did great.  She came in at 5:04, effectively running half of a 10 minute mile.  Have you ever been so proud that you thought your heart was going to explode?  That's how I feel when I see my big girl do something like that.  She did it by herself too- D ran behind her but didn't hold her hand or coach her and she ran the whole way, never stopping.  Such a big girl!  A few minutes after Sky's race finished, I settled her and Fire into our dually jogger and ran the 2-mile fun run with them while D did the 4-mile run.  It felt like my legs were made of lead and like I was practically walking but the clock said 19:02 when I crossed the finish line, which means that I pushed 63 pounds of babies for two miles at a 9.5-minute pace.  A great end to a great day!
  There are still thing that bother us about Kwaj: how slow mail can be sometimes, the lack of variety at the stores, and the fact that pretty much everything is run by the company here, but there are so many great things about this place... it was nice to see them with new eyes again this weekend.

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