Open windows invite the world in

We had a little cold(ish) front blow in the last few days and it's been nice enough to have our windows open again, all day and all night. It's so funny to hear the world around us. Funny "ha ha" and funny "could someone please close the windows?!?!?"

I believe our neighbors behind us have moved, because last fall, all I heard all day was, "Keifer! GET! OUT! SIDE!" Little Keifer and his brother would run around in their diapers with no clothes on, outside for hours. (yes, I got nosey and peeked from my upstairs windows once) Their mother was horribly mean to them. It broke my heart and I felt led to pray for them often. Sending kids out to play for a little bit is one thing, but when I heard her scream at them to "get back outside!" over and over again at various times all day, well, it really ate at me. When she wasn't yelling at them to stay outside, it was "what are you doing!??!?! NOOOOOOO!" What did she expect from toddlers trapped outside? They're unsupervised!!!

All sorts of things are allowed into my house when I open my windows. Smoke, for instance. Someone nearby goes out in their backyard to smoke every night and in a matter of moments, our entire kitchen smells like a sports bar.

Then there are the neighbors directly next to us with 4 kids and one on the way. The oldest is a teenager and she screams...a lot. When they started swimming last Spring, the screaming...OH the screaming! It was obnoxious. When she got splashed, when her younger siblings annoyed her, when she was delighted, very loud screaming for hours.

A few weeks ago, another neighbor bought their dog a new squeeky toy. The dog gnawed on it. All...night...long. I wonder if someone said something, because I haven't heard it in a while. Or maybe they brought the dog in the house at night. Either way, I'm glad that's over!

Then last night, a pack of coyotes must have found some food in the preserve near our house because there was quite a howling celebration. As it began, I actually thought it was Kaylin crying faintly, until I realized it was a choir of cries. (ironically, she did start crying about an hour later...still not sure why...do kids get nightmares this early?)

But I'm saddened that we're going to have to close up the house soon. Before long, we'll be begging the kids to close the sliding door behind them "because the A/C is on" and there won't be a gentle breeze drifting through the house. Of course, I won't have to dust nearly as often and the bottoms of my socks won't be black at the end of the day. The daily vacuuming, dusting and sweeping I can live without. Fine...every other day, but still. The cool breeze will be replaced with the scent of sunscreen as we spend our days in the pool and run all of our errands before 11am to avoid melting in the parked car. I guess we can still have picnic lunches outside, as long as everyone has wet bathing suits on to keep them cool. Okay, I'm mentally ready for summer now that I've worked it out in my head! Bring it on!