One of Those 'It Is What It Is' Posts

See the little shelf thingamajig? Another yard sale find yesterday. Cute, huh? The price was marked $10, but Tom offered $5 and they immediately took it. I guess he does come in handy.

But oh my. I wasn't thinking that earlier in the morning. 

His city boy ways were wildly evident again when he went ballistic about the tiny, nearly microscopic ants that formed a circle on the counter top. They don't bother me, but they surely bother him, though he has yet to buy ant traps. (People who complain but do nothing, well, you know what I think about them.)

Well, then (I must confess) I did some ballistic whining myself and told him I just can't take his city boy complaining anymore. "Life on a farm will never be bug-free," I told him, then I said, "We'll just have to put this place up for sale next spring. Either that, or I will get ulcers."

Sigh. Anyone else ever do things like that? 

I'm embarrassed to share that, but I just don't feel right not being truthful with you. Tom's so often complained about those summer nearly-invisible ants and inside gnats and outside mosquitoes. And there's the tractor which is being fixed and the garage which is so full we can barely park in there and the five-foot-tall weeds and -- 

Plus, of course, there's our separate visions for this place and our totally different ways of handling all things farm-related.

Anyway, Tom left (in a huff), but he brought me back some coffee as a peace offering and things got better after that. Much better. And we both agreed that anyone who says Country Life is the Simple Life is, well, a big fat liar. We've never experienced so much complication in our lives.

Want the simple life? Move to the suburbs. You'll have a smaller yard to care for, the supermarket will be nearby, you'll use less gas going to where you need to go (so you'll save time and money). And that's just for starters. Yes, it's the suburbs where the simple life is, so if you are there, you can stop searching for it. You've found it.

And once we got that all cleared up, we had an amazing time at a country-town-wide yard sale event. All those farmhouses with all those tables of stuff! Fun for now, but we also spoke of how--when we downsize-- we'll have to totally change our outings. Our activities will have to center more around doing than buying.

So the idea of downsizing and returning to the suburbs is now playing inside both our heads. It's there now. So consider yourselves forewarned. Nothing on this planet is forever, including Tom and Debra Out on The Farm, but in the meantime, I'll make the most of the days I have left here.





Anyway, see this shelf? I hung it yesterday, too, in the kitchen and it conjures up incredible old-fashioned-ness for me.




I also tweaked the items on these red shelves (which look a bazillion times nicer in person). Busy, busy in the kitchen yesterday. I try to tell myself it's to make Tom and myself more comfortable, but now the thoughts of making the house easier to sell are squeezing themselves past that. Again, I'm just saying--

I hope you're not terribly disappointed in us. I mean, we'll always be grateful we did this farm thing! Oh yes. That we were this bold. Yet we all must know ourselves and how much we can take and how far we should go in pushing ourselves outside of the circle of Grace. 

And that's all I'm saying. For now.





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Of course, there's the chance Tom and I are just in a mood. Promise me you won't laugh if we live here another 10 years, ok?


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We find this kind of thing very inspiring.


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