Life is pretty sweet here, aside from the massive hole in our heart, longing desperately for our family and friends in Boise. Aside from that, God is sweetly wooing my spirit here, believe it or not, in the middle of nowhere.
Small town life...
Riding bikes all over town.
Walking all over town.
Running errands in 20 minutes vs. 3 days.
Seeing people you know on every errand.
Visiting with 'the regulars' at the coffee shop and hearing them greet each other and visit.
My boss saves the paper when one of our customers children is in it to give to them.
I see the people I made coffee for this morning later at the school when we all pick up our kids and smile and say hi!
My pastor is at the school picking up his child and he is visiting with one of my regular coffee customers who is picking up his grandchild.
My child's teacher comes through the coffee drive through with her daughter who is in my daughter's class.
Walking on the Wellness Path with some friends each week. (big time b/c we each only have to drive a minute or two to get there from all different parts of town!)
Running to the great little locally owned market that 1. is NOT Wal-mart and 2. is about a thousand times smaller than Wal-mart, which I LOVE! to grab a roast and some potatoes and home all in about a half and hour! There, shopping and home! Half an hour! And at this market, my children go and greet the sweet woman who owns it and she is so happy to see them and even buys fundraiser chocolate from Phoebe. (Disclaimer: I do shop at Wal-mart most of the time. ) **I know there is no room in heaven for Wal-Mart, though, only delightful little farmer's markets full of delicious and beautiful things.***
Nice people who know you and greet you and say nice things and miss you when you are gone.
Teachers who people know and can tell you how great they are.
People from your church who are the teachers and principals in the schools.
Football practice is close enough that Jacob can walk there.
Nate rides his bike to jr high and home... and I don't worry.
When John stops in to say hi to me at the coffee shop, my boss, her husband, and even a customer or two all greet him and visit with him.
Waving to everyone you pass in vehicles or otherwise. And knowing many of them!
Knowing the owner of another little coffee shop downtown.
Having a friend who owns a little shop with baby/kids clothes.
Seeing my husband's designs on windows of businesses around town.
Seeing people we know from church and Awana and VBS at the bank working.
Knowing the owner of the little Bible book store downtown, which also has a beauty chair in the back and we get our hair cut there by sweet Miss Sandy!
People figure out where you live by who used to live in your house.
My kind boss, who isn't a grandma yet, comes to Phoebe's school to be a 'step grandma' for Grandparents Day and tells me that she went to that Elementary school when she was a child!
One day we hope God will grow us up enough to be able to send us back into the 'rat race', not that we miss the rat race, but that is where our family is and we would like to be there with them. In the meantime, I am loving it here... not enough to not want to move back near our family, but I am so appreciating God's blessing us with this time here to just do the small town life thing.
4 comments:
funny i never run into you doing errands in this tiny little town, i should come have coffee then i'll see you
having grown up in a small town, i can totally relate! in fact, my mom just called me, from that small town, to tell me that "history" is being made on the football field right now. the team is still playing--in the dark! there are no lights on the football field! score is 76 to 76 in sudden death overtime!
once you go "small town" a part of you will always be "small town"!
Beautiful. Now I just want to move closer to you instead of having you come here!
I would love to work with you at that coffee shop.
Walk the Wellness Path.
Shop at that store and invite your family over for dinner.
Sigh. Sounds lovely.
Miss you, my dear friend. Love you!
Oh the joys that you can see now after growing up in small town. Still going to visit my family it feels as though nothing changes. The same people doing the same jobs, living in the same house, now watching there granchildren in school instead of their kids. I do miss the atmosphere that a small towns brings, the closeness you feel to it and all that surrounds. But still enjoy visiting and not living in it again, maybe some day that may change. Missing you always!
Post a Comment