There are a few things I forgot to mention to Huck about this new life of ours.  The main two are the Pledge of Allegiance at school and the real communion wine at church.  Luckily he’s a quick study so it didn’t take him long to memorize the old-fashioned flag pledge, but I can tell he’s a little concerned about drunkenness each time he’s offered the goblet.  It reminds me of the time he was five years old and our friend took him to Sonic for the first time.  She asked if he’d like a cherry limeaid and he very nervously replied, “Does it have alcohol in it?”

And maybe I forgot to mention all the spiders that would be living with us.  For a kid who’s desperately arachnophobic, getting through each day can be a nightmare around here.  I keep hoping the more spiders and webs he sees the more he’ll get used to them, but nothing could be further from truth.  I should definitely stop saying this: “But Huck, spiders are everywhere!  We’re always surrounded by them!”

I also maybe forgot to mention that we live in a former slave state now.  Yesterday he came home from school disturbed by the Civil War, but very proudly stated that though Arkansas was a Confederate state, Fayetteville was on the Union side.  She’s always been a sweetheart of a town.

And it’s possible I never mentioned how many loved ones would come visit us, helping us through the occasional homesickness for everything we used to know.  Along with my Kansas family last week, our Brooklyn John and Shana were here last weekend, and our former Brooklyn and now California Russell and Cheryl arrive tomorrow.  Then our Illinois Tacketts come to town!  Several other friends are making plans to come later in the fall, and we are very glad to have a guest room.

Here’s what people forgot to mention to me: 1) There are less hours in a Fayetteville day. 2) Once you have a beautiful back yard, you only want to be out in it and then you fall behind on all your favorite TV shows.  3) All these beautiful hills make bike riding difficult on all these beautiful trails. 4) Not all grocery stores sell fresh olives or bagels. 5) If you don’t take your hammock down when it rains, you have to wait a while for your hammock to dry and then you lose good hammock time.  5) The only bad thing about all these beloved people coming to your new town all the time is that then they leave and you feel awfully sad for a while.

Flag, wine, spiders, confederate state, constant house guests, shorter days, back yards, hills, olives, bagels, hammock, house guests leave.  Got it.