month

I know, I've been slack in writing a daily blog, as well as in catching up on missed blogtime. There's lots to tell, and news piles up, in tiny pieces, faster than I can write it down.

But today we've been here a month. So by way of catching up, let's see where we stand now.

House.

The house is very slowly taking shape on a number of fronts. We have consulted now with a mason who will repoint the exterior to beautiful stonework, a carpenter who will replace our roof and check out any structural issues, a plumber who will sort out the drainage problem, and an architect who will draw up the house as it stands now. There's lots to do. We also need to sort out our heating, and some gardening issues as well. The general strategy is to clean up what there is right now, and then move on comfortably to the changes we'd like to see.

Our plans for the future are also evolving. Contrary to what I may have written some months back, we're now planning on living mostly on the top floor, with some guest/work spaces below. The kitchen idea is still in place, with some real-world modifications. Turns out the chimney from the gorgeous fireplace downstairs (the one we didn't know existed until we moved in), runs right up through the wall we wanted to remove. But we're working on a modified plan to accomodate it. The front bathroom upstairs will shrink to a small toilet/sink room, and the rest of the space there will be annexed by the existing kitchen, someday to become our library/tv room. But slowly, slowly.

And we have more and more functional rooms all the time. You've seen my desk, but there are other bits of furniture and decoration cropping up as well.

We now have a bedroom downstairs:

That's a real bed. I've never had a real bed before. I've always been a futon guy. It is nice, I must say, to sleep in that room. Even without a crackling fire in the fireplace, a rug on the floor, some art on the wall, it's a beautiful room. Sarah laboriously waxed the floor before the bed moved in, and it's gorgeous. And it's nice to use both floors of the house all the time. Live in one room for a while, then move on: a good way to get to know the rooms.

Our kitchen is quickly cluttering its way to hominess:

I'll backblog this because it was a big deal, but we got the fridge and our stove on the same day. Changed our lives after a week of picnicking. Here's Sarah washing up:

In the absence of the dining table which may someday go there, we also have a very makeshift TV room:

The less comfort in front of the TV, the fewer wasted life-hours, I think.

And of course, the necessarily most-developed room to date: Kepler's playroom:

We can do without a lot of comforts for a while, but we must play all the time. This room is critical to that effort.

We feel some urgency to get our house in order, while at the same time wanting to go slowly and deliberately. But in the words of Slartibartfast, "great things are afoot." It's a lot of fun.

Kepler.

Kepler seems very happy. He definitely knows that this is his house, and his garden, and he loves them. He cruises around on his bike, from the kitchen to the verandah to the bathroom, taking fast corners on two wheels, and singing to himself. That's happy.

He's also been in school for nearly four weeks now. Got him in right from the start. I'll certainly try to backblog this event as well, but he goes four mornings a week for three hours. For a while it was new and exciting, but as the novelty of it wears off, the difficulty for him becomes more apparent. He can't yet talk to anyone there, and so he must be very isolated at times. It's easy to say that kids learn languages quickly -- and he is learning so much -- but still, it's a big thing we're asking him to do, especially at first. Yet he approaches it sanguinely. Every day after school he gives us a complete rundown of what games they played, what songs they sang, what books they read, what art they made, what he did during recess, and what, if anything, made him cry, and what happenned to resolve it.

It's interesting for us, because for really the first time, he's standing on his own in a new social arena, defining himself as independent, being Kepler where we cannot see him. Except for Kepler's stories it's largely opaque to us, what goes on within the school, and we pass the mornings wondering what he's doing while he's away. He has several friends, and he tells us about them too, a girl he holds hands with, a boy whose name he learned. He's on his own there, and he seems to be doing well.

And the rest of the time, we play, and we drive around on home-improvement missions, and he's a great sport about it. So long as we keep telling him stories, he doesn't mind the car time at all. Excellent boy.

Society.

We have met a very few people since we've moved in. Mostly we spend our time on our own in our house, doing things in and with and to it, but we still have had some social contact.

Firstly with our nearest neighbors, whose house we can see across the orchard from our verandah. They're a cool young couple, just 3 months pregnant, and we've been invited over a couple of times. They've dined with us twice as well, all of us seated around Kepler's play table on the verandah. And, as luck would have it, they are 2 of the 4 teachers at Kepler's school. Audrey is his teacher now, and Alexandre will be next year. This is a selfish comfort for us, I must say, being friends with his teachers. Not only because we can talk to them and get another angle on what's happenning behind those closed classroom doors, but also because when we're together the 5 of us, they get a chance to see Kepler with us, to see how interactive and smart he is. I think it must help, their being able to recognize more of his potential in class because of our extracurricular evenings. He has a chance to charm them when there aren't dozens of other kids around. And I'm glad Kepler knows his teacher a little better too. Makes it feel like there's a familiar face, one we know, for him when he's away from us.

Since they are not fron Montcaret, nor even the region, we all share the status of outsiders. Village society can be hard, very cliquey. Us foreigners gotta stick together, since we won't be so quickly befriended by locals. And since our neighbors are cool, all the better.

We also spent an afternoon with a Scottish woman living in Bordeaux. How 21st century: we met her because she and Sarah found each other's blogs. She has two kids, one of whom is Kepler's age, and they came out for a visit last weekend. He was so excited to have a playdate, and to entertain and share. In English, too. He danced around, unable to contain himself. playdates are good. We've been invited to their toy storage facility (aka house) sometime soon.

And tomorrow we have lunch plans at the home of a very friendly British couple in a nearby village. He overheard us in the aisle of a DIY store, introduced himself, and discovering that we were new, invited us over. Doesn't get more friendly than that. We'll see how it goes. Maybe they live in a chateau...

Of course these are all new friends, and it's too early to say what will come of any of it, and we obviously miss our regular friends and family. But hey, that's what blogs are for, right? And telephones and ichat and skype. I even got something from Max in the post just today. No lack of communication avenues here.

And every time the moon is full, I'll know it's been another month living in the orbit of mars. This first one has been great. We're actually doing this, and it feels huge and long-term and right. And I promise, I'll try to keep the blog up to date more. There's just so much to do around the house...