Good day to you all!
As many of my friends know, I am a country girl at heart - who is now a TOWNIE! It has been one year since the family moved to town, and I must say that a lot of reflection has been goin' on. For some silly reason, I thought you may like to hear what has been running through my mind regarding this topic. And if you don't - consider this my therapy, and just smile and wave. :-)
*EARLY DISCLAIMER: I do not think that townies are evil! HA!
In all seriousness, God created us different. Some love the big city life; some love small town living (bedroom communities, we call them); some love living in the country; some love "living country". And that last one is me.
To be fair and extremely nice, I will list all the positives I have found about living in a small town Amish Community:
1. Horse manure on the streets! LOVE IT!
2. Horses and buggies passing by my home all day long. :-)
3. Convenience of being near the store and gas station.
4. Yotty's ice cream.
5. The school park across the street.
6. Being able to take walks on pavement. (Almost all Iowa country roads are gravel.)
7. Friends close by for the children to play with.
8. Bike rides.
9. Meeting people.
Now on to the good things that I so horribly miss about living country:
1. Hog manure, chicken manure, cow manure (I love walking by the sale barn in town just to smell it!)
2. Hardly any traffic passing by my home all day long.
3. Not living near the store and gas station - Save money that way ;-)
4. Not being 5 blocks from Yotty's ice cream - hard on the budget! LOL!
5. Not having the school traffic at 8 am and 3 pm.
6. Not having lights when out walking at night, other than the open, starry sky.
7. When living in the country, the children only had each other to play with. I am finding they got along so much better when friends were not competition for sibling play.
8. Riding the four-wheeler
9. Neighbors not living on top of you. I did not need curtains on the windows and could walk around the house naked if I wanted, and no one would ever know. I did not have to worry about the children screaming too loud or breaking a neighbor's window.
*Notice the lists kind of being the same? Let me add a few more...
Hard, sweaty labor! Oh my goodness...there is a huge difference between telling the children to "make your bed and unload the dishwasher" and "clean the chicken coop and sweep the barn floors"! There is much more boredom for us here in town.
The farm fun, like milking the cow and spraying the kittens' faces with it. Talking with the ladies (chickens) and running from the men folk (roosters).
The dreams of homesteading: how to make your land most productive and the whole family working together toward that common goal. Family unity like that is beautiful.
I have literally cried many a day over this past year. The traffic bothered me for a long time. I hate closing my bedroom curtains to get dressed...especially on those days when I have "nothing to wear" and go through 20 outfits. HA! HA!
I am a country girl at heart with a Laura Ingalls Wilder spirit. (I confess to still being a novice and green horn at it all.)
I hope that the Lord will move us back to the country again some day, but if I have to be a townie...I am living in the best little community to be one. I could not ask for a nicer, friendlier, simpler town to live in.
Still giving thanks in all things and still learning about contentment. It is a great place to be.
Have a great evening, folks!
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