Yesterday was a good day at the Avdi’s.  We all slept in, then I started working on the garden, and one by one, the whole family followed suit, pitching in with very little prompting.  Avdi picked up two loads of bagged compost/manure and topsoil, to be worked into the various garden beds.  I finished clearing the herb area, then started hoeing around the outside of the veg garden.  We added and raked in amendments to each area.  Then E did a final tilling of the veg garden, Y and I did the same by hand around the outside of it, and then the herb beds.

Some friends dropped by for a while, so the kids played and the grownups hung out with drinks and snacks.  Even K pulled himself away from schoolwork and made an appearance.  E built a fire and roasted some food.  It looked a lot like an unofficial spontaneous B&B!  I worked all day and got exhausted, in a good way.

It also felt like our family was a team, and Avdi has turned his place into a haven where our tiny developing “village” of the atypical can feel safe and at home.  Probably not coincidentally, the kids seem to have turned a point where they all trust me and notice when I’m not there.  Possibly related, S has been making some progress overcoming some of his meltdown issues.  “Some ” is still something!  I myself even feel more comfortable and accepted there.  I can be my real self.