Adjusting

As we settle into our third week in Tennessee I can look back and now tell you we are going to be okay here, at first I didn’t know 😬

For first few weeks have been full have adjustments. 

The outside wilderness aspect of this area is exactly what we thought. Green, lush, beautiful. Rivers and creeks galore. Trees covered with vines. Rocks covered with moss. Sometimes when we are hiking I get the feeling this might be a sliver of what the Amazon is like. I’m just thankful there is pretty much only one predator we have to be alert for…the iconic black bear of the Smokies. Thankfully we’ve only seen one; while we were eating dinner on a cafe porch and were able to hop inside when we wanted! (And we think we’ve had one in the campground but just didn’t see it….although Mac did find its 💩 and it did destroy my bird feeder🙈) With the outside environment being what we thought, that’s pretty much the only thing that’s gone as expected. 

Upon coming to this job we thought my job was recreation/activities with some occasional housekeeping hours. They had asked office or housekeeping, I choose house keeping because it’s something the boys could actually come along side and help with. Well the hour dynamics are reversed….all housekeeping with occasional rec hours thrown in there. I felt jaded and mislead. But a little mental adjusting and I’m alright. House keeping is fine. I work 8-12 ish most mornings and I listen to sermons pretty much the whole time (more Jesus time…can’t be upset about that!). Mac has come to help clean a little bit but they’ve enjoyed hanging with daddy and doing daddy school. Not what we expected but we’ve adjusted. 

Our first site we were given was RIGHT next to the road. It’s the main busy highway leading into Gatlinburg. It didn’t have a picnic table or a fire ring. Never expected this….we tried sleeping with fans, we tried getting used to it but it’s hard to get used to your windows rattling…we asked to move to the back of the campground and now we have a much quieter spot. We moved earlier this week and we are still getting settled in our new spot but we’re adjusting just fine here! (picture below: our first site vs the current one)

With the terrible camp site and the job not being what I expected my first couple of weeks I didn’t know if we’d stay here the whole time or not. But with some mind set adjustments and with some literal campsite adjustments I think we are going to make it. We have 6 weeks left and we’ll make the most of it!