I don't know about you but I think neighbors can either make or break a homeowner and thankfully, ours are good!
We have Glenn and Cindy who are fabulous neighbors. The week they moved in they repaired a fence the previous owners had neglected for years. Cindy just went through major surgery and is dealing with unexpected set backs like infection and kidney problems. She is really just so a sweet person - I plan on putting together a little gift bag for her next week :-)
Then we have Louie. Louie has lived in his house for 80+ years. Louie is . .well 80+ years old HA! Yes, he has lived in the same house his whole life. He is the best neighbor. Nice, quiet, kind and always has a smile.
Finally, our third neighbor is Eric. Eric moved in about 6 years ago and is really a great neighbor. Yes, he has a foul mouth at times and plays his truck stereo way too loud but anytime he sees us needing help with something, he steps in. Just yesterday, he saw my husband getting attacked my bees and quickly came over with spray to start going after the next. Or one time he saw us working to secure our new willow tree - he walked over with long pieces of metal rod, beat them into the ground and then helped Darryl tie the tree up. He's just a good guy. We never thought we had any impact on him until recently when he was going through a super difficult time after witnessing a co-worker get crushed in a machine. He came to us and just cried and asked us to pray for him. Which we did.
So, where is this post going? Simply this, we have now run into something we've never had to deal with and I know many of you had! Eric's girlfriend just moved in with him this past week and she has two girls. The youngest is somewhere around the age of my boys. Yesterday, she came over and literally spent the entire day in our yard with the boys. We have never had neighbor kids to be concerned about since, well, there aren't any HA! So, how do I graciously limit the time this new neighbor is over? The little girl is slightly bossy and is frequently knocking on the door asking for things. Darryl and I are uncomfortable having a child whose parent we don't know in our house so the rule is they kids play outside, in our yard . .. yet several times she managed to wonder inside uninvited. She asked for drinks and to come to lunch (I did give her a bottle of water but sent her home for lunch) and to use the bathroom (I sent her home for that too) Any suggestions on how to be gracious yet firm? If I'm going to babysit her, well, her mom needs to compensate me :-) (And I don't want to babysit her!) We also have to deal with the fact that she uses not always language we would approve of and have already (after one day) had to talk to the boys about being examples of Jesus in the words we use.
I know this is an odd post but I figured I would ask to see if I get any comments!
