Our New Normal

It’ll change some more in the future but for now, we are at our “new normal”. Evan and Eric are at their respective universities while Eli and Ethan are the only ones living at home with us.

We are now settled at this house in Markham, Ontario. It has four bedrooms but we can only use three as one bedroom is used by the owner of the house to store their things in. It is a spacious home with two living and two dining rooms, a finished basement, and a porch deck. We are thrilled to be living in this house, truly a wonderful provision from God!

Eric, Ethan, and Evan were belting out a song that was playing on the radio when this picture was taken. We were on our way to Evan's college to bring him to his townhouse shared with six flat mates. We took off one of the middle seats so our van could accommodate more of Evan’s things. Among many of the things he brought along were a bicycle and a rice cooker.

Eric is now renting a room in a pastor’s home in Kingston where he is attending university. The house is conveniently located less than two kilometers away from his school. He is able to use the pastor’s bicycle to get around. His bedroom window overlooks the church that he goes to. Along with the new digs, school, and course load, he is fixing his own meals. We’d be glad to see him when he visits this week-end.

Eli is happily attending Grade 10 at a public high school. He recently found out that he made it to the school’s soccer team. Ethan and Eli also joined the community’s soccer club that will play at a covered dome. They’ll start in October and can keep playing until April 2012. On Saturday, they’ll start a job delivering flyers to homes in the neighbourhood to help with their expenses. As seen on this picture, he rides the bicycle to school, usually with a helmet!

Ethan wasn’t too thrilled when he found out he had to tuck his shirt in as part of his uniform at his new school. Here he is wearing his cardigan and looking very dapper on Day One. He was so eager to get started. He’d been off school since late May and only started last week. Having had over 14 weeks of summer break, he was so ready for school. =) He started 5th grade.

A very handsome looking wild rabbit hops around in our backyard periodically. We enjoy watching it nibble at the grass and weeds in the garden. Our sons talked about catching it, eating it, or taking it to make it their pet but as soon as any of us go out to the back porch, it quickly hops away out of sight. Smart rabbit!