The Five-Mile Neighborhood

Moving from city or suburb to rural country is definitely a huge adjustment. Most people will tell you that the biggest thing a housewife would have to get used to when making such a move is being isolated from neighbors. But this is me we're talking about, and you know I have to do everything different, right?

I've had a lot of different addresses in my life, and of all the places I've lived I can honestly say that I've never had much relationship with neighbors, even when they lived just on the other side of the wall. But from the first week we've lived here, we've gotten to know not just the neighbors up the road, but people that live within a five-mile radius of our house. Seems everyone's eager to make aquaintances with the new folks that moved into the old plantation house. And they've all, without exception, been some of the friendliest, most eager-to-help people I've ever met.

It was even more overwhelming the first time we went to church. On our first Sunday, I think about half the congregation introduced theirselves to us. We were so surrounded, in fact, that the pastor couldn't even make his way through the crowd to shake our hands.

But the biggest shock came last week when I got home from my bi-weekly grocery trip and found two ladies from church waiting at my house for me. My first thought was, "Ah, here it comes, the pitch to join the church." Boy, was I wrong. Their sole reason for stopping by was...are you ready for this?...to ask if they could throw a baby shower for me!

I tell you, I almost started crying. It was just so sweet, I was speechless for about a full minute.

Once I pulled myself together, I said, "But you don't even know me!" To which they replied, "Oh, we know you. You're one of us!"

And no, they didn't mean it in a Stepford-y kind of way.

I've always been a shy, reclusive person. I've never made friends easily. But who would've guessed that moving out to the country, where I can't even see my neighbor's house, would put me squarely in the middle of such a close-knit, loving community?

With neighbors like these, I think I can overlook the bugs.

T Minus 9 and Counting...

I'm 31 weeks pregnant today. Only 9 weeks to go!

Typically, I go about 2 weeks overdue, but I'm really, really hoping that by some miracle I'll have the baby on my due date this time. Hubby's birthday is July 29th, Big Girl #2 turns 12 on the 30th, and I'm due on the 31st. Wouldn't that be so cute, to have their birthdays lined up like that? At the very least, it would be easy to decide when to take a week of vacation every summer.

And I have to admit, I'm anxious for this baby to come. I can hardly wait to hold this sweet little baby in my arms and marvel over this precious miracle. I'm looking forward to seeing my husband's eyes lit up with joy and pride, to hear my big girls ooh and ahh, and to see my little guy lean down and kiss his baby brother or sister on the head and say, "So cute." (I'm not sure how my little princess is going to act, but I'm hoping it's not the "Who is this intruder?" attitude...time will tell.)

As long as the next nine weeks will seem, I know it'll be gone in a snap. Time is the ultimate paragon of contradiction that way. It seems to take forever, but it's gone in the blink of an eye. In the meantime, I need to savor this time with the four I have and take each day as it comes. There's so much to do, but I've got a better chance of having my house in order if I take it one step at a time instead of my usual, frantic, last-minute rush.

The clock is already ticking...

Lost in Transition

Shortly before our move, I lost track of the cord for my digital camera. You know, the one that lets me download pictures onto my computer? I figured hubby must have packed it, and it would turn up eventually. Well, we've been in the house for over a month now, and I still haven't found it.

It's killing me that I can't post any pictures here. Like, how big our garden has gotten already. So far, we have corn, sweet potatoes, peas, pole beans, tomatoes, zuchinni, carrots, radishes, potatoes, garlic and a salad mix of greens. And that's just the first round. We'll be planting different things (like broccoli, cauliflower and pumpkins) in a few months, after we harvest this crop.

Then there's the fruit patch and the orchard. We've started strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and grapes in the berry patch. The orchard has apples, peaches, plums, nectarines, a hazelnut tree and a sugar maple. I know it'll be some years before we get anything out of the trees, and a year or two before we really reap the berries, but it's fills me with awe to see all these little plants flourishing now, and to imagine what it'll look like in the future.

But what I really miss is being able to share pictures of the kids. There have been so many great moments, watching them laughing and playing in the yard, doing all the cute, wonderful things children do, and seeing how much they've grown, even in so short a time as a month. And for probably the first time in my life, I actually want to share pictures of myself, just so everyone can see my baby belly. Braggish? Maybe, but isn't that a mother's right, to brag about her babies?

So, it looks like I'm going to break down and buy a replacement cable. I'm reminding myself that if we were going to lose anything in this move, at least it was just a camera cord, and not something really important...like my mind.

I managed to find that yesterday.