Less is more/Making friends

Since leaving our 1900 sq. ft. house on half an acre to move into a much smaller ranch house with a modest back yard, life has gotten simpler.  I thought we would be scrambling to fit even our basics in here comfortably, but that has not been the case.  Sure, it's taken some creativity to find the best arrangement of furniture, but we've made it work.  And the space has caused us to evaluate all of our possessions and be honest about what we need and use and what is just plain excess.  We sold and donated quite a bit before moving, and I just took two more boxes to Goodwill yesterday and 2 bags to the dumpster.  Isaac's mini trampoline and slide now live in the backyard as there is not a bonus room or basement in this house.  His toys are neatly stored on one side of our very open living room and in his bedroom.  He even helped me sort out his "baby" books from his "big boy" books with none of the sentimentality that a mother might feel about them.  I thought we would really miss having the play room, but we don't.  Isaac ends up playing with his toys so much more now that he's not over run with excess and now that he doesn't have to go down to the basement to do it.  We get to be spending time together while doing different things, and I've really enjoyed watching his creativity as he plays.

We do miss our friends, though.  Isaac asks about them every day.  Our plan so far is just to keep hitting up the parks in the hope of making new friends and practicing social skills.  Yesterday I nearly hugged a woman because she was wearing the red version of a blue shirt that I own and it was a good conversation starter.  I tried not to blurt out "PLEASE BE MY FRIEND" too directly during our time together. I'm sure the only thing that held me back was that she shared that she blogs about her political affiliation.  If you know me, you know that my eyebrows are somewhere in the region of my upper forehead right now.  She was nice, though, and I hope we get the chance to see her and her kids at the park again.  Wish us luck for round two of Please Be My Friend today.