Coming to a close in NOLA...

Well almost 5 months have come and gone since we've started the adventure of moving to the wonderful and ...er... not so wonderful city of New Orleans.  If you don't know/remember how we ended up in this giant house, it is from the sheer generosity of David's boss/Archbishop who said, "Listen, David, I heard you're having trouble selling your house. We have a vacant house close to the office. Why don't you and the family stay there rent free until your house sells... take all the time you need. "

I find myself reflecting quite often these last few days over the sheer number of gifts and lessons (and honestly chuckling when encountering the things I will NOT be missing). There are a lot of things about New Orleans that people who have liven here all their lives that they categorized as things you just get used to. I will choose not to give them credence by listing them in this blog post, and instead I'l focus on what we've learned and what we will miss...

Next Wednesday we are closing on a house in Mandeville. We should be moved in just before Thanksgiving....

So we'll be moving from 4800 square feet to 1946 square feet... something I am quite grateful for... It was SO HELPFUL to have so much space in New Orleans proper, because I didn't let the kids outside by themselves (something I really didn't like) with all the traffic (both car and foot traffic). I had to constantly watch little Micah man and make sure he didn't run (with glee) into 6 lanes of traffic on Carrollton Avenue, and make sure Therese and John Paul didn't invite ANYONE who walked passed into our house to come see trains/legos/littlest pet shop, etc. With outside being a bit of a source of stress, the 6 bedroom house allowed for a dance room, a train room, a changing room, a play room, a staircase, a napping room, and a racing track (if you ever made it to the house, you know what I'm talking about). With 3/4 of our possessions in storage, I also spent the last 4 months NOT ironing, NOT vacuuming, not having 1/2 our toys/books to deal with, and NOT dusting. It's been pretty nice. I'm sure the temporary nature of living this way made it bearable...

 We only did the downtown thing one time (with the exception of the gazillion trips to the Aquarium), it's tourist glam is a bit clouded with some inappropriate- uh- professions that we've since avoided for the sake of young children's eyes. Believe me there is plenty to do even if you avoid downtown completely...

We started first grade and preK...

 We took a trip to the beach...

 We enjoyed New Orleans summertime, which means beautiful flowers, butterflies EVERYWHERE, and sweet summertime afternoon showers...

 We discovered that God gave us a parting gift from Lake Charles. Our BABY GIRL is coming in March...

 Mommy made lots of solo adventures while Daddy learning his new job...

 Micah danced with Mary every time we went outside...

 Micah decided he wanted to start school too... the requirement was that he is ALWAYS in Therese's lap...

 Micah learned to go up and down (and up and down and up and down) the 18 stairs. Therese is the BEST helper in this department...

 We will REALLY miss the parks: Audubon, City park, Daneel... the kids are feeding the BEAUTIFUL Wood ducks...

 PARKS PARKS PARKS! These saved us this summer because the trees in New Orleans are big and shady, making playing in the park totally bearable for mommies...

 We will miss this most of all... sigh... Daddy worked ACROSS THE STREET! We went outside to watch him cross the street almost every single day. The Mandeville commute is about 45 minutes...

 Mommy is thankful for NETFLIX...

What we are grateful for...

• The resilience of the children through the transition. It's like they never noticed the traffic, the road construction (which is on ALL the major roads of the city thanks to the $$$ from the Army Corp of Engineers). They enjoyed the fun, bumpy ride while all I could think was "my poor shocks."
• The Audubon institute membership. We had free entrance to the zoo, the park, and the insectarium, so we went to one or more at least once a week.
• The beautiful front porch. Despite the crazy traffic, I took my sister-in-law's advice and allowed it to sound more like waves. Coffee after a short nap on the front porch NEVER got old.
• The older three share a room. We call it the "Peter Pan" room bc it looks just like that. It was also upstairs and they stayed in their room (according to the rule) until 7:30 every morning. David and I had coffee and prayer time in (almost) silence until 7:30 (which is also because home schooling means that we don't have to be anywhere at a certain time).
• I am grateful for my children and what a joy they are. Having many many family and friends at my fingertips while in Lake Charles meant that I never had to really dive into my children if I didn't feel like it. Living in a place where the friend list is much smaller (though precious, indeed) and all my family members here work during the day, I had a choice to make: be bitter and resentful if my children were being "difficult" or really be present to them and learn more about them. It really has been such a gift that I've had such a desire for... praise God for this grace! 
• I'm grateful for the lesson that my children have learned here that we are VERY fortunate to have what we have. There are so many poor and hungry people here- and where we live, they are on EVERY corner asking for help. Therese has noticed it the most out of all of us, and her precious heart hurts for them. 
• Notre Dame seminary is right across the street...

        Just 10 years ago, David was a seminarian in this beautiful place. We have friends from Lake Charles who are here, as well as old seminary buddies, now priests/professors who are here. David's dad also runs the New Orleans Catholic Community Radio out of NDS. We attempted daily mass here a handful of times, but as you can imagine, there is no cry room, and we didn't want to scare anyone out of preaching to people "like us"... I'm partly kidding. but the lack of cryroom means that whoever takes Micah out has to pace the halls of the seminary rather than what would happen at a "normal" church parish. We'll have our sweet guys on the northshore from St Joseph Seminary College will be nice to have too...

• All the Beautiful Church parishes that we were able to check out...

St Anthony of Padua on Canal is where we frequented...

Mater Dolorosa on Carrollton...

St Francis of Assisi on State...

St Patricks...

• I'm also really really thankful for this restaurant Ye Olde Collge Inn. It is next door to our house (after you cross through the organic gardens that we were allowed to "check on" whenever we wanted. The Blancher family owns this restuarant and the Rock-N-Bowl (where David took the older kids on their feast days)

This family came to us the first week we were there with flowers welcoming us to the neighborhood. They have never stopped checking up on us. What a gift.... not to mention this...

My favorite thing: fried green tomato shrimp po-boy!

I'll leave everyone with that image. You have a week and a half to get down to New Orleans to have a free place to stay (well, it may cost you a po-boy). I'll blog next from our new home:

204 Governors Court Mandeville, LA. You may be wondering why we're choosing a 45 minute commute over living just minutes from Daddy's work? Well because I''ve chosen not to list what we don't like about NOLA, you'll just have to trust two very simple things: 1) owning a larger than 1100 sq ft home in New Orleans in not the most affordable option and 2) Mandeville is (a lot of) the beauty of New Orleans with out the noise and danger... and most of all because God made it QUITE clear that He wants us to live on the northshore...

...where I have no doubt that the blessings and the lessons will continue.