Some Things I Like About Living in Washington

I have been extremely lax lately in blogging.  But the flip side is that I've been doing a pretty good job keeping up with cleaning, and an excellent job (for the most part) in keeping the kitchen under control, which is the area that seems to most quickly snowball into an avalanche when I don't stay on top of it.  At any rate, I'd like to try to find some time for blogging while still being productive with my "job duties," so hopefully I'll be able to strike a better balance.

I thought it was time for some things that I enjoy about living in Washington:

• The ability to be home with my kids is #1.  We couldn't afford to live on one salary in the L.A. area, and probably in most of California.  Although my days can be tough, I feel so blessed to be able to be here for so much of my children's lives and am thankful.  I'm glad that I can do a job that I feel has value, since I didn't feel I was doing anything significant in my old job.
  
• It's so green and beautiful here.  Sometimes I forget to look around and appreciate it.  I recently looked at an overhead satellite map of our old neighborhood in Monrovia, and the difference between there and our neighborhood here is extreme.  It's so stark there by comparison, and I never thought it seemed very desert-y when we lived there.  But we're surrounded by grass and tall trees and bushes and have greenery all year long, even when some of the trees lose their leaves in the fall.
• A definite change of seasons - Although sometimes it's hard to tell when spring and summer are around, since the rain comes and goes and we have cooler days during those seasons, too, we do have pretty definable seasons.  I like having more variety in the weather, and I even like watching the snow, although I'm not a fan of driving in it.  Especially when it partially thaws, then freezes over, and the hill in front of our house gets slippery.  (But this is about what I do like, not what I don't, so enough about that.)
• Our church - While I enjoyed our old church for a season, it was a very large church, and therefore hard at times to feel connected to the church body as a whole or to the church itself.  I liked our Sunday School class there, but even that had so much turnover that there were very few couples still there in 2006 in comparison with those who were there when we started in 2000.  I think it's part of being in your 20s and 30s and having life changes happening which sometimes affect where you are and what you're involved in.  At any rate, I like our medium-size church and the people we've met there.  We're part of a small group of 5 families and a Sunday school class that has probably 10-12 families regularly involved.  I'm also in the choir and on worship team, and I've so enjoyed getting back into singing again.  We sing a lot of wonderful songs that really touch my heart.  Also, the teaching at the church is solid and Biblical and has been especially applicable for us lately.
• Walking along the boardwalk in Des Moines - it's a nice walk right along the water, good for some moderate exercise and a chance to enjoy Puget Sound.
• Being so close to the ocean - we're only about 2 miles away.  We don't take nearly enough advantage of having it that close, but I'm hoping that as warmer weather arrives, we'll make more conscious efforts to go there and enjoy it.
• Living near James' family - it's been wonderful getting to spend more time with James' family, particularly his parents.  I really wanted our kids to know them and not just see them once or twice a year.  We've enjoyed seeing them more often, too.
• Fred Meyer - woo!
• Seattle is a great city that, again, we haven't explored nearly enough yet.  We were going there once a month for a while but have gotten out of the habit, largely after Ben was born.  Hopefully we'll get back into that and be able to see and do a lot more.
• Affordable homes - Our home here in WA cost about $140K than the home we sold in CA, and it's about 600 square feet bigger.  It's also newer and was in better condition than our first home.  It was flipped by the previous owner, so all we've really had to do is cosmetic stuff like painting and some landscaping and working on decorative items.  We're still working our way through the rest of the rooms, but we're getting there, and we appreciated not having to undertake a huge project in moving in to a fixer-upper.  You just get more for your money here, in most neighborhoods.
• The views of Mt. Rainier, especially on a day when the cloud cover is gone and the sun is shining on its snowy peaks.  It's such a breathtaking sight!
• James is so much more satisfied and fulfilled at his job.  I'm glad he's someplace where he feels he can make a difference and where his work is often acknowledged.
• The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.  It's a great zoo with realistic environments for most of the animal exhibits (they're always working to improve).  Not overwhelmingly large, so you can see all of it in a day if you have kids who can keep up with you.  Otherwise, you can see a good bit of it and see the rest the next time.  I'm hoping we can get a membership again soon, maybe late this spring.
• Not having to water our lawn 9 months out of the year.
  

I actually found it easier to post about things I miss about CA.  I think it's the "absence makes the heart grow fonder" thing, and the fact that we tend to wax nostalgic about places from our past.  Not always, but I think that's often the case and that things seem rosier when we're no longer there and dealing with the day-to-day headaches.