Rural Wonders

I admit it, rural life certainly has its perks.  I've always know that I'm not a city girl at heart.  Even though I've lived in nothing but cities for the last 30 years or so. 

But even I am surprised by how quickly the yearnings for city conveniences have fallen away.  Granted, church and school and groceries and Target are only 20 minutes away.  I do miss having a Costco 5 minutes from home.  And I know that we're trading away the chance for the kids to do sports and other after school activities and lessons, at least for this year.  But the joys of country life have thus far more than made up for these changes.

The kids get to walk on a deer trail through the woods to get the the neighbor's house to play.

Poor B doesn't like that part very much.  She is rather heartbroken when they take off to play right after their homework is done.  It's so hard being too little to tag along.

Shaggy gets to walk the dogs down this driveway, onto a road that has very, very little traffic.

When we go on walks in our back woods, we find places like this.

And fallen trees to sit on with amazing, golden-leaved backgrounds like this.

In our backyard, Shaggy can do this anytime he wants. 

And J can spend the afternoon shooting acorns with his slingshot (in his mother's sandals) with no fear of broken windows or mocking.

And he has plenty of space to share his passion for learning how things work with his baby sister.

He can also teach her the fine arts of frog catching in the fire pit-turned-mini pond.

Wait, did I mention fire pit?  Which is totally and completely legal?  Where there is no fear of no-burn days or zealous neighbors?

Why, yes.  Yes I did.

And we can make real live s'mores 20 feet from the house.  Whenever we want.  This is a pretty big plus for the kids.  All except K who has suddenly decided that marshmallows are disgusting.  Teenagers, sheesh!

B's got it right.  She finds nothing wrong with marshmallows, except the fact that she never quite gets as many as she wants.

K spends the majority of her outside time on the inherited swing set.

Swinging right side up is not a priority for her.

We get plenty of rain and thunder which is rather exciting . . .

and a little bit scary.

This place holds many wonders.  And I think that we have only just scratched the surface.  I seriously love this place.  But not just the casual "sure, I love my home" type of thing.  I am beginning to love this place fiercely.  Like I sometimes have nightmares that we have to move away, kind of fierce.

But then again, our very first hurricane is supposed to come through town in the next couple of days.  Maybe check back with me then to see if my feelings have changed.