Surviving

I will be the first to say I never would have made it as a pioneer. Face it, I've been a city girl all my life.  Or rather I was a city girl, now I'm a country girl, sorta.  Until this week it's been an easy adjustment.  

This week we had our first major snow...okay a full blown blizzard. Once I got home I didn't want to leave.  Once Reno got home (and it took him forever) I didn't want him to leave.  It was a safe at home, snowy but safe.  Someone should have pulled me aside discussed this with me.  Or given me a "how to survive winter weather in the country" class for a housewarming present. 

In one storm I've learned which roads to stay off of, that a front end loader is a godsend, that you can get stuck on flat ground, that a towing chain is a good investment.  I learned when the drifts are really high the dogs can walk right over the top of the fence.  I am learning that a few good neighbors in the country can mean more than a whole block of neighbors in the city.  And I've learned it is humbling to be the one who knows nothing...and even more humbling to have a neighbor repeatedly come to your assistance. What a blessing that they are so gracious and willing.  It's what neighbors do, I am told. It's a lesson I am learning anew. 

I admit today was a weepy day, frankly I wanted to go home. I'll let you figure out which home I wanted to go to.  For the life of me I couldn't find my big girl panties.  Had I been a pioneer, my husband would have tossed me out of the covered wagon not far out of town.  For the good the wagon train, I'm sure. It may have been a wise decision.

But luckily, there was no wagon train involved.  I survived, we survived with a little help from our friends.  Life is like that, a learning process.  If you are lucky like we are, help is there for the asking.  It's how we survive and thrive.

Tables, Feasts and Guests

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It's Thanksgiving.  At least once a year we ponder and give thanks.  If we live our lives right every day is a Thanksgiving.   And we feast (okay, luckily this happens more than once a year).  This year we were both host and guest. We served one dinner to my kids and we were guests at another.  We traveled hours away one day, and another day we enjoyed the blessings right at home.

There were guests in other forms.  My Great Grandmother was there, well, her china was.  My Mom was there.  At least her good silver was.  Aunt Barbara was there too.  Her vases graced our table.  There was a whole lot of history with us at the table.  I hope as time goes on my kids will cherish these treasures.  Old recipes, new recipes, new babies, new family and old friends. Hands across the generations united.

If tables could speak ours would have groaned in joy.  Perhaps you heard it. We experienced that joy ourselves.  Perhaps in the quiet of our hearts. Being with family, those you chose or those you are born into is indeed a gift.

This year we added the new tradition of a beer tasting and bon fire to our celebration.  Sometimes traditions are created as you go along in life.  It's a good thing.  Celebrations are meant to evolve and to honor.  This year we embraced them all.  

House Warming Gifts

The older I get....  Wait, this sounds like a recurring theme.  I could finish that sentence in a thousand ways.  Cause the older I get the more appreciation, understanding, intuition, wisdom, humor, serendipity, insanity I have.  But I digress.

The older I get, the more I appreciate little celebrations.  No offense to the big celebrations of the world.  They are important too.  We've received two house warming gifts and a card.  They touch our hearts.  A card is "just" a piece of paper in an envelope. However, the envelope holds a shit ton of good wishes and happy thoughts.  Someone cared enough to honor us with love.  Gotta love that.

One of the gifts we received is a load of fire wood.  Literally, a house "warming" present.  Can't wait to use some of that. Nothing warms our hearts like a fireplace, and the gift of comfort from it.  Last but not least, we received an awesome gift box of wine, cheese, fruit and snacks.  Lordy, after moving we needed the extra sustenance.  Beautifully packaged, carefully selected all manner of yummiliscious.

Any way you look at it we've been blessed.  A warm house with gifts of love.  We'll share, you know. C'mon out.  Just look for the little white house on the prairie.  It's special, we're special and we have special gifts to enjoy.   

Room With A View

We recently moved  from the city to the country.  The house was surrounded by cornfields.  I admit to being a bit afraid of how I would feel about the landscape after the corn was harvested.  Corn makes a pretty good privacy fence.  

It made me think of the walls we all have, that keep other things out.  We usually suspect removing them will be a bad thing. Indeed a scary thing.  In the case of the corn, it's a dusty thing. Noisy, but fascinating.  We are such country living newbys.  We share our lane with the farmer so he has access to his fields.  We didn't have to, but seeing as there was a tradition in place we chose to honor that. 

Such a surprise to see a combine, tractors and semi's in the back yard area while they harvest.  Instead of city lights and noises we are seeing farmers at work late into the night.  It's a different world and we are thrilled to have a better understanding of it.  

As to the view, I find I love it either way.  Before we were in a cocoon of corn, now we have wide open vistas.  Fairly flat vista's because this is central Nebraska. Makes us appreciate the rolling hills we do have.  The wall came down and it's all good.  

New Digs

We took a leap of faith and bought a new house.  Now the task begins to make it a new home.  It will be the first house that is ours.  Not mine/ours.  Just ours.  It represents many firsts.  First house in our new locale.  First house in the country.  First house that doesn't have neighbors, unless you count the wild life.  Nice change from the wild neighbors from other neighborhoods.

About a year ago we pulled up all our roots and moved.  Just about a year later we are moving to put down new roots.  Basically, it's a leap of faith. 
Faith in real estate, in our jobs, in new adventures. 

Already one of the dogs tested the boundaries and made a run for it.  Luckily she came back when I notice a white blur on the wrong side of the fence.  I called she came.  Good girl.

No doubt this move will test our boundaries.  Those of patience, endurance, adventure.  And, I have to believe, it will give us new gratitude for house, for home, for roots.

Security Questions

Can one human actually remember all the passwords and security questions needed to manage their accounts?  I guess, some do it without issue.  Not this blonde.

I thought, at one time, that an easy security question for me to answer would be my favorite hobby.  Thus far I have tried the following answers to no avail. Sewing, beading, quilting, gardening, writing, reading and cooking.  Hmmmm....still haven't come upon the right hobby to give me access.  What else could I have chosen? Perhaps I should try the following - shopping, eating, drinking, dogs, Pinterest, Ebay or Facebook.  

Thank God each time I fail at the first two attempts I'm prompted by another question, father or mother's middle name.   Those I haven't forgotten yet.   Seems like if I consistently fail at the first question (as in 100% of the time) they should be intuitive enough to say "hey, blondie, would you like to pick another first security question?"  Would that be too much to ask?

I'm secure in the knowledge I don't know what my favorite hobby is, they could be secure enough to ask me to play again.  

On-Line Miracles

By chance, many years ago, a group of people ended up single.  By choice, by chance, by loss of a spouse to death, some had never been married.  None of us expected to be there, all of us were.

Life drew us together sometime thereafter through a local singles group.  The beauty of that was while some met future spouses, all of us made friends.  Girl friends, guy friends, guys who were just friends and vice versa.  We joined a site, but were blessed to become part of a community.  Since then we have shared trials, tribulations, successes, wildest dreams.

So, you're wondering where this is leading.  Yada yada yada, you've heard of on-line dating.  Some judge it's success only via a marriage license.  I beg to differ.  I wouldn't be where I am today without the use of a singles site. Okay, several singles sites. 

The good Lord doesn't hesitate to use the computer world to bring people who need each other together.  He probably doesn't experience the same glitches we do.  I suspect his computer never gets virus', or crashes on Him.  Or runs out of memory, or needs to be backed up.  His system would put Bill Gates to shame.

But He manages to bring us together, no matter our circumstances.  Which is cause to celebrate.  This weekend a couple will exchange their wedding vows in front of friends who they met through that same singles group.  Their invitation came via email, which has been the thread that has bound us all together.

  

While we can't physically be with them to celebrate.  We'll do the happy dance from afar.  Miracles come in a multitude of ways.  On-line we celebrate them all.

The Big and Little of It

You know the saying, it takes a village...  It's funny how that works.  I've always been a big city girl.  Until about a year ago.  Of course part of me still feels that way.  Probably always will.

But life took us down new roads and I've developed a new perspective about cities, towns, villages.  I am beginning to wonder if the smaller the town the more people you know.  Granted your odds increase when the population decreases. I still miss seeing people I know when we go places out here.  Now if I cross paths with someone it's a huge deal.  First time I ran into someone I knew at the grocery store was a red letter day.

What got me thinking is the conglomeration of people who group together to build a life.  Some are large groups, some are medium, some very small.  Not unlike the pioneers who pulled their wagons into a circle for safety's sake. There are our work groups, church groups, quilting groups, etc.   There are groups that form randomly because of a tragedy. Groups that form in neighborhoods.  You catch my drift. 

We made a big move to a little city, but that only defines the geography of it.     Now we're getting ready to move to an even smaller city.  In the process our world increased.  We used to know bigger cities and the surrounding areas intimately. Now we know many more towns and cities.  The roads that lead to them have expanded our horizons. I guess the bottom line is little places are making a big impact on our life.  Part of that is still scary, but it means we're growing in our little part of the world.

In Between

They say these are some of the  biggest stresses in life:   getting married, changing jobs, moving, loss of a loved one.  Check, check, check, check and I'm throwing in another check because we are getting ready to move again.

I'd never make it as a military wife.  Never would have made it as a pioneer wife.  Thankfully we are past child bearing age, as would sure don't need that stress added to our life right now.

We are in that stage of moving where it doesn't quite seem like it is going to happen.  Thirty days from now we'll be in the thick of it. Luckily a lot of our stuff is still in boxes from our move just about a year ago. We could probably do without all the other stuff in boxes.  We've been using the essentials, the rest is extra. Honesty, it may be like Christmas, or a garage sale (I'm not sure which) when we finally get to unpack everything.  

For now we are in between. In between buying and moving, packing and unpacking, loading and unloading.  We are anxious, but not stressed.  Okay, one of us is.  

I hate to wish time away, but I do wish we could get on with it.  In the meantime, or the in between time, I try to figure out exactly how we should be preparing for this move.  So we pray.

Which Side Are You On?

Not whose side, but which side.  Of course there are two sides, or more to any store.  For example, my side and the wrong side.  The upside and the downside.  The inside and the outside.  The wet side and the dry side.

So, to get to it, there are days in marriage that neither side is happy with the other.  Days like this come and go.  Frankly, the always surprise me when they happen.  It's like a reality check.  Must have the bad with the good to increase our gratitude.

For reasons I won't go in to we switched sides on the bed last night.  My idea, guilty as charged.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  But man, I probably wouldn't offer again.  I like that other side for a reason.  It fits me, it knows me.  That side knows my flip flops and restless turns.  My side is roomy and comfortable.  The other side really didn't want me there.  It was not welcoming and not nearly as spacious as my side is.

But sometimes you just need to try and see which side works best.  Last night was an epic fail.  So I will appreciate my side even more tonight.  See, proof that discomfort, when embraced,  increases our gratitude.

Both sides are the same, yet completely different.  I will side with that concept.

Walks of Life

It's funny how life unfolds.  Now, my Mom would have asked if I mean "funny, sad" or "funny, haha".  Maybe it's some of each.


When you walk down that aisle it doesn't necessarily end at the altar.  It is one step of many, down the aisle, out of the "church", around the block, across the state.  Sometimes "I do" is a gentle embrace, sometimes it is a wild celebration.  Sometimes it's being dragged kicking and screaming to that new place in life.


It is about finding your way.  We've had a lot of that with getting married, selling a house, moving to a new city, starting new jobs. It's been harder than I thought to make new friends.  But I did ask the receptionist at the chiropractor if she'd like to have coffee sometime.  Life requires big and little leaps of faith.  She said yes, by the way.  


Guess when you look hard enough you find those second chances and new beginnings.  It is just a matter of baby stepping your way through those walks of life.

Oldly-Weds

We are just into our second year of marriage.  I think it's time to report in.  Maybe this blog isn't just about getting married. Perhaps it should be about being married and working to say married.  Because it is work, ya know.


I think we are oldly-weds now.  Not newly married, and older than most newly weds.  We are second timers with a new lease on life. It's had it's challenges.  Up days, down days, what the hell were we thinking days.  Even though we cohabitated for several years it has been a change.  


We moved from a spacious house to a little rental house.  From a big city to a little city.  Truly people should be required to move away from home in their 20's at least once.  I was an underachiever in that regard.


The best part is life as a team, a couple, as spouses.  It is still a celebration.  Well, when I'm not on the outside of the one bathroom door asking when it is my turn.  The wedding was one of the best days of our life, but it was just one day.  The rest is unfolding for us day-by-day.  Good days, bad days, rich and poor days.  Perhaps, we are newly weds as long as we choose to be.  No matter how old we are.