Four Weeks Later

First of all, I want everyone to know that updating my blog has been on my to-do list for a couple of weeks now 🙂 Somehow, it keeps getting moved to the bottom of the list!

I have to apologize because this post is going to be kind of haphazard. There are several things I want to write about, but they aren’t all related and I just don’t have time right now to create smooth transitional paragraphs. Ha!

First of all…here are things I love about Colorado, in no particular order except as they occur to me at this moment:

1. The radio stations here are 100 times better than in Birmingham (sorry guys). I love, love, love the Christian radio station here (K Love). In the early days after Sarah was born, when I felt overwhelmed, just listening to their music always improved my outlook and mood. There’s also a great country station out here that Tim just found for me. It’s called God’s Country, and it plays all country music, but not the songs about cheating on your wife or drinking beer, etc. Basically, it’s family-friendly country music.

2. The landscape here is breathtaking. I love driving down the highway and seeing the Rockies in the distance. It’s a daily reminder of how BIG our God is and how small we are, yet how much He loves His creation. I also love the wide open spaces here where we live, on the plains. You can see so many stars at night. I wonder if I will ever get tired of just taking in the scenery here.

3. I love being able to walk around our small town. We walk to the post office almost daily (we don’t get mail delivered at our house). And we walk to the library. There are many small stores about a block away from our house and also a playground.

4. The area where we live is largely agricultural. Everywhere you go there is a field of corn ready for harvest, or a field that has just been harvested. There are sheep farms, dairy farms, and lots of cattle and horses. There are horses right next to Naomi’s school. Driving down the road you can see people riding horses in pastures; in the Pawnee National Grasslands you can see antelope.  Many people here have backyard chickens. Last night a lady from our church brought our family a case of farm-fresh eggs…from her niece’s farm! We have eaten at backyard barbeques where the hamburgers came from cows that used to roam on that same ranch.

Even though our family doesn’t even have a vegetable garden yet, we are daily surrounded by reminders of how human life is connected to and depends on the land. For most of my life I have largely been around people who work in offices or buildings. There’s nothing wrong with that; we need business people. But everybody, regardless of profession, depends on the resources of the land.

5. Tim’s flexible schedule! I love having him work at home, or next door at the church. He takes Naomi to the bus stop every morning. I can’t explain how helpful that is to a new mom. If I’m nursing Sarah and Rachel has to go to the potty, I can send her downstairs to Tim and have him help her.  (I am trying to get her to go by herself, but she is resisting it for some reason.) I enjoy walking to pick up Naomi from the bus stop in the afternoon, but if I can’t for some reason, Tim is usually able to take a break and go get her. He comes up from his office to have lunch with us and will often put Rachel down for her nap after lunch. He does ALL the grocery shopping (go ahead and be jealous, moms). And…since his commute is a short walk up the stairs, he cooks and prepares dinner every night. I know how blessed I am to have this arrangement and I am not taking it for granted. Most moms don’t have this kind of convenient schedule for their husband. We didn’t have it in Alabama, and we probably won’t have it permanently here. Things will get busier. But, for now, I am extremely thankful for having so much support and help from Tim during this transitional time.

Now, here are things I miss about Alabama:

1. Our friends and my kids’ friends. 🙁 I pray that Naomi and Rachel and one day Sarah will make friendships here that are as good and wholesome as the ones we left behind. We are blessed that, because of moving to a pastorate, we also moved into an automatic community of support and the kids had new friend in the church from day one. However, it will take time to develop those friendships into close relationships.

2. Football game parties…Thanks to ESPN and Dish TV we get to watch most UA games, but we watch them alone (except when we have family visiting!). It’s also weird to not automatically schedule church events around the games. I remember last year, our church had a fall festival on a UA game day because it couldn’t be helped. However, we showed the game on the TV in the sanctuary!! On a similar note, it’s strange to go to church on Sunday mornings and not run into any disappointed Auburn fans (ha!).

3. Usually I don’t pay attention to my accent, but every now and then I will be talking to someone here and I will become extremely self-conscious, something that never happened back home.

4. I miss being a half-day’s drive from the beach.

5. I MISS TACO CASA!!

I am going to consider these lists works-in-progress! Now, off to eat some lunch before Sarah wakes up.