Living-Deliberately.com

is that how it goes? Anyway, it’s stuck in my head.

Today was beautiful. Simply gorgeous. Days of rain have gone away and left us with a high blue sky and soft breeze. I had 3 loads of wash on the line, plus a load of sheets, and the air smelled sweet.

I realized that people around here (and places north) have a real freedom to rejoice in summer. They really know in their bones it won’t last forever!! I think with Florida temps, I always kind of was afraid it would never relent, and some years, we really did have warm winters and no fall. A day like today would never happen in Florida in August; maybe in October. And I’d have relished it every bit! It’s unbelieveable to have it here now!

When hubby came home for lunch (mung beans and rice, freezer pickles, scrambled eggs and tomatoes; it’s the day before groceries LOL), he announced we were going to the county fair tonight! We’d planned it for the weekend but tonight was family night and admission was free.  Those stinkers asked me every 15 minutes for the rest of the day if it was time to go yet and we actually left a half an hour early just so I wouldn’t have to hear it one more time!

And what fun it was! The exhibit hall had jams and jellies and cakes and pies and plants and veggies and huge watermelons with their ribbons proudly attatched. I spoke with a lady who attends a church we plan to visit and who knows tons about the 4-H group and she told me a bunch of stuff for contact info plus told me about the soccer sign ups next week! I”m so glad we havent’ missed them! Cramming it into the budget will be interesting but it’s a great way for the kids to get to know some people up here. Only Andrew is old enough for their 4-H group but we met the man who heads the ag program and he told us about the homeschoolers club they have.

From there we met Dad and got their hands stamped. Unlimited rides for 12 bucks. You would have thought we gave them the world! And I almost disolved in tears watching them: three redheaded kiddos laughing their heads off, total joy and delight on their faces as they were spun around a zillion different ways, hung upside down, and rotated high up in the air in the ferris wheel. Wheaton was just barely tall enough to get on the rides; good thing his hair was spiked tonight! And the admission guy stamped the Giant Baby’s hand for free so he got to ride the baby rides with Wheatie. Mostly, he just wanted to eat ice.

They all shared a funnel cake and then it was back on the rides for round two. David and I people watched. We saw the girls who want to be Miss Morgan County fair with thier faces full of make up. We saw 14 and half  year old girls with too much eye liner and big hair giggling and following 16 year old boys. We saw said 16 year old boys swagger with more bravado than they could really sustain. Some things never really change!

But wait! There’s more!!! Blogless Leigh told me just this morning about “tractor pulling” and lo and behold guess what night it was at the fair?! ATV PULLING! Boy Howdy!! What kind of fun is that! (yes, I’m snickering, but honest and true, the crowd was pretty large and the Giant Baby couldn’t get enough!) The object is to see a four-wheeler pull a big trailer so many feet into loose dirt. They measure and compete. It’s serious stuff. This is actually  where I broke away to go pick up eggs and bread for tomorrow’s breakfast and let Daddy bring the chickens home. We’d been warned though: Do NOT go to the fair on Fridays! That’s MUD BOGGIN’ NIGHT. Thousands turn up for that and it’s “unreal”. ’nuff for me!

I got our vittles and as I walked out of the store, I was greeted with mountains bathed in  the pink light of a spectacular sunset. My favorite thing about Wartburg: the mountains are right in your face. The sky was streaked with pink and blue and the sun was sending up sharp, angled rays, like the ones little kids draw on their landscapes. The ride home held pastures and hills shrouded in faerie light. It’s almost chilly at night lately and it was just eerily beautiful.

And I’ve come to the conclusion: country life might be humorous and it may take some adjustments to get used to how things are done. It’s very easy to loftily imagine these people too backward to keep up in today’s modern pace. But that’s the point. They aren’t trying to keep up! There’s a peacefulness out here, a tranquility that can’t be bottled and sent elsewhere. It’s worth a few differences, a few changes. Somewhere amid mud boggin and big hair and stores still full of VHS there’s  simplicity that’s almost a secret.

A year ago I sat in a traffic jam and imagined a place like this. How delightful to know that it’s real and that little old me gets to live in it.

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