Is it okay if we visit?

For the past two days the Down to Earth forum has been experiencing problems. Some people can get in, some can't, some can post, some can't. I am getting help to fix it this morning and hope to have it back working properly soon. Please be patient. I'm learning as I go with the forum and this is the first major problem we've had. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

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I take every opportunity to walk away from the computer to move into real life and embrace it. I do a lot of writing on the computer and I have my blog, forum and forum maintenance as well as trying to keep up with all the emails that come my way. I enjoy my work but after spending the past 25 years earning a living staring into a computer screen, the breaks away from it are becoming more precious to me. I enjoy living life rather than just writing about it.

Shane, Sarndra and Alex arrived for a surprise visit on Thursday night. We had the pleasure of watching Alex run around, looking at the chooks, playing in the backyard and sitting at our table with Shane and Sarndra. It's the first time we've all been together for many months so we enjoyed catching up and just relaxing at home with them here. 

On Saturday, Kerry, Sunny and Jamie joined us for lunch. There were two highchairs at the table and after lunch the boys cooled off in the little wading pool Hanno set up next to the sandpit. It was hot, the umbrella provided shade and both Jamie and Alex did what most kids do, they mucked around in the water and had a lot of fun. After a great couple of days together, they left yesterday morning to go back to Gladstone and I guess it will be a while before we see them again. I hope we'll have a few sessions on Skype in the coming months to watch as Alex grows up and starts to talk.

Jamie and Alex aren't quite at the stage of playing together yet. They watch each other, smile and scowl and share toys but they're still pretty wary of each other. One of the things I'm looking forward to in the future is when they can both stay here for a while, give their parents a little alone time and get to know each other. We have a great backyard for children to play in. I know that my boys would have loved this backyard when they were eight or ten but we came to live here when they were teenagers. They were a bit beyond swinging on vines and camping out under the stars then. Still, I have high hopes that Jamie and Alex will see the potential for adventure here and embrace real life in our backyard.

And now we're back to normal again, being a two person house after three lots of visitors in two weeks. We get up when we want to, make noise early in the morning, eat when we're hungry and sleep when we're tired. It's amazing to me how different it is with just the two of us here. After 20 years of being the four of us, two seems so natural now. But we both love getting those phone calls that say: is it okay if we visit?