- your internet stinks!!! We have two jet packs that barely get us through the month and once it's gone we might as well have dial up.
- your neighborhood bookclub reads Where the Crawdads Sing. It actually was a pretty good read but sounds so southern, doesn't it?
- aside from discussing the book at bookclub the ladies also discuss how to kill snakes while sipping on wine and enjoying hor d'oeuvres
- everyday you come close to running over a chicken, dog, pig or deer crossing the road
- there are no street lights and once the sun goes down it's as dark as the inside of a cow out there
- you can see the stars on a clear night
- date night includes a trip to the Texas farm supply store where you each pick out large bags of poison designed to kill something
- date night dinner cost less than $20
- an hour or two to get to Costco seems like nothing and totally worth it
- you greet your neighbor out on their lawn with "Whatcha killing?"
- your husband runs over the carcass of an armadillo just for fun
- when the troublemakers in the neighborhood are a herd of deer
- when an email from the local homeschoolers email tree is wondering if anyone wants a pot belly pig - the caveat being not to eat but to maintain your garden
- you start using the phrase "going into town" regularly
- you have no cable!!!! We've been watching DVD's of old TV series rented from the library. Z and I are currently into Victoria from PBS and W and I are watching the old Kiefer Sutherland series 24. No more Dancing with the Stars, The Voice, and This is Us. At least until it comes out on DVD and our library gets it. Or we give in and get satellite television.
It was my goal initially to get Zanna involved in a few activities as soon as possible to integrate her into the local community and get to know some kids. I had narrowed down my focus to finding a violin teacher and getting her into something swimming related. We found a violin teacher but there didn't seem to be anything for her level of swimming in the area. We considered traveling an hour and half several times a week for a swim team but that seemed extreme. It just wasn't working.
Truth be told, I was starting to panic. She was missing her friends back in Ontario and questioning our sanity in bringing her here. Funny ... I was missing my friends and questioning my own sanity. After joining some homeschool Facebook pages for the area, I started making some connections. There were a few very friendly moms that were willing to give me help and pass on some information. We were also invited to come check out the local homeschool group's girls' volleyball team. We were too late for her to join volleyball but basketball is the winter sport. I made the executive decision then to sign her up!
Meanwhile I got wind of a new Classical Conversations (CC) group starting in the area. I had heard about it before but had never participated. I figured we could check it out and at least meet some people. Needless to say I was surprised (since we live in the middle of nowhere) to realize that the group met down the street from me about five minutes away. It's a small group - just two families - but they both live down the street just outside our subdivision. They each have a girl close to Zanna's age. They're both very nice!
Not only have we met some great people but the program is amazing! They meet once a week. In the morning all ages work on memorizing and singing subjects like math facts, history facts, geography, timeline, science facts, english, and latin declensions. They'll also do a science experiment or art lesson. It's crazy!!! The afternoon is for the older three girls and they play math games, work on a writing project based on Institute for Excellence in Writing (which we've used for years), and work on grammar and diagramming sentences.
Meanwhile these two mamas have been gifts from God and totally inspiring! Between the two of them they make their own bread, steep kombucha tea, raise chickens, work full time, raise 7 kids, have gone back to school, steep iced coffee, can produce, kill snakes, and one is a Master Gardener. Take note of this last one...because we bought a home from a Master Gardener who landscaped the heck out of this property. I am the complete opposite of a Master Gardener. I'm more like the Master Killer. I've killed a cactus before.
These gals remind me when I start freaking out about all the weird stuff around here and whine how I'm a city girl, they remind me that now I'm a country girl and for crying out loud to pull myself together!!
So Zanna's started basketball practice and is having a great time!! Homeschooling is serious business in these parts and because there's so many, it makes for a very substantial sports program. She has fantastic coaching and is learning the basics of basketball. The girls are so sweet and I'm struck by how much they encourage and support one another.
Then there's life on the church front!! We have a very active sewing group that I'm pretty sure expected me to participate in when they initially mentioned it to me. However, I'm not a sewer but my 12 year old is! So she's been going once a week to that and learning how to sew "quillows" which is both a pillow and a quilt. She is loving it and is learning how to "stitch in the ditch" and hopes to "meander" someday. Not only that but she's brought her friends from CC with her and they are having a blast learning what has threatened to become a lost art.
My girl is something special. Our church doesn't have an active children's ministry right now. There is no one exactly her age. She is the Sunday School. But those retired ladies who sew with her love her and she loves them back. She is being mentored by some strong, mature Christian ladies! She's being taught Sunday School by a retired district president pastor. She's ministering to a few families with small kids and organizes little craft projects after church for them to do. When I start to lament the fact that there's no Lutheran Girl Pioneers for her, no more Upper Canada Village overnight experiences, or synchronized swimming group I am reminded of all the new opportunities she has here and how it's developing her into the woman she'll become.
Wayne is falling into his routine at church. His main office is over there and that has taken some getting used to. He also has a church secretary that he really appreciates! His schedule has been busy this month with a lot of traveling almost every week. He's also busy with every member visits, some of which Z and I are invited along to.
I love these beginning days of a new ministry! It's such an honor to be invited into people's homes, to get to know their stories, and start making an eternal relationship. We've been able to do more entertaining that we've been able to do for years. Wayne isn't busy in the evenings like he was in Ottawa with meetings and Bible studies, etc. We can have people over for dinner or at the very least not have such a crazy evening! The change of pace and different ministry opportunities have been nice.
I still pinch myself that we live here. I still find myself mentally tallying up my Target purchases and grocery runs for the border until I realize there's no border to cross! I still revel in the fact that I can do the laundry any time of day on any day I want and not be charged extra during peak hours. I continue to savor morning devotion time on my screened in porch even as the temps cool off as we get deeper into fall. I'm still enjoying the flowers blooming and cutting off enough to bring inside. I still feel like I'm sinning when I'm in people's homes and don't take off my shoes. Often I will take them off just to appease my conscience. I'm learning to think in Fahrenheit again even though my vehicle keeps me posted on what it is in Celsius.
This life ... this new life in the country ... ain't so bad. It's just different. I miss apple picking but I've got a pecan tree right outside my door! I miss the fall colors but I'm still picking flowers!
