Most of you already know that we have moved to the county. I think blogging about our experiences will be a great way to log the changes that are happening as well as my thoughts about it all. I have lived in the city all my life but I grew up in Modesto, California. It is a very agricultural town with many orchards surrounding it. One of my best friend's family growing up lived in the small town of Ripon on a farm in a big ol' farm house. I loved going out to her house to spend time in her screened in porch or playing around in her barn or just running barefoot in the grass. Her mom made the best home cooked food and freshly squeezed lemonade.
My whole life I've loved the county or the idea of country life. I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons! Who wouldn't want the joy of running through fields of wildflowers, climbing trees, having farm animals as pets and swinging on tire swings. Now that I have children, I want that for them. Nature is a beautiful thing to behold and living in the city makes it awfully hard to appreciate it.
Well, we didn't move way out in the middle of nowhere. We are only an hour from the big city of Dallas and all it's conveniences. Being fifteen minutes from Wal-mart makes life a bit easier. We aren't farmers by any stretch of the imagination but more like country bumpkins! We did purchase a small parcel of land that we can do what we want with. The kids have room to explore and see a bit of God's creation. Our neighbors aren't squeezed in right next to us instead they have land too and are doing their own thing. Raising cattle is popular or having a donkey or some goats. We get to enjoy their livestock too because their pasture buts up against ours. I could go on and on about the pluses of country living but I'll save that for another post.
I really wanted a tire swing. My kids love to swing but I didn't really want a rickety swing set that would rust in the rain and that they would grow out of in a couple of years. So I stopped at a tire store yesterday and asked the greasy looking tire guys who were sitting around doing nothing, if they might have an old tire for a the purpose of a tire swing. To my surprise they did have one and gave it to us for nothing! Score!
We already had rope in the garage so I assigned the job of hanging it to my oldest son, Anthony. He loves to work on projects and fix things so this job was perfect for him. It took him awhile since he had a tall branch to figure out how to get the rope up to. I pulled out our knot-tying book and it came in real handy! Finally after over an hour of working on it, he and his younger brother figured it out and produced a "countryfied tire swing!"
So far it is a hit! My prayer is that this will provide hours of fun and memories will be made for the future. Anything to get kids outdoors and away from the T.V. and computer is worth the investment. And really, it doesn't take much of an investment to come up with some simple things like this to have some summer fun. The hardest item to come by for this is the tree to hang it from. If you live in the city, you can be creative. I've seen tire swings at parks these days and they aren't hanging from trees.
I'm not going to promise that I'll be blogging regularly even though that's my goal. Life for me is getting back to normal these days so it is possible but I'll refrain from making promises. If I could just figure out how to make these short then I might actually be able to find the time!
Love,
Kristin
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