And so, we moved. Well, sort of. We aren’t finished yet. Moving a family of our size plus a home business, requires more than one day of work apparently. We still have to go back to get a few things that wouldn’t fit the first time around and finish cleaning the house for the next renters. But we are almost completely moved. We are not almost completely unpacked though. That will take some time.

For those that missed the news, our new house is another rental, but quite a bit different than our old one. It’s an old rock farmhouse, sitting in the middle of farm country just west of Decatur. It’s 25 minutes from Siloam, which will take some getting used to, and it’s not within walking distance of anything, at least not anything that I know of. So that will also take some getting used to. But it’s on a beautiful piece of property, has a huge old barn we can use, has a small shed that we can turn into a goat shed, and has room for gardening and a chicken coop. It even has a clothesline, which I made use of today. In this heat, the clothes dried in less than an hour, though I waited until the temperature started dropping before I headed back out to take them down from the line. They smelled wonderful, and were all so crisp and wrinkle free, you would have thought I’d starched and ironed them. I love clotheslines!

I thought the kids would miss the large circle drive that we had at our last house. They used it a lot to ride their bikes back and forth. But I discovered today that it doesn’t even compare to the long straight drive we have here. Will was having a great time racing back and forth, getting up to speeds he couldn’t easily manage on our much smaller old drive. The cows in the field next to us, which belong to a man who rents the acreage behind us, stopped their grazing to watch the antics of their new neighbors.

So far we’ve spent one night in our new house, and once the kids have been asleep, we’ve all slept fine. the boys went to sleep faster last night, tonight they have been testing their mother’s patience by not falling asleep, even though I put them to bed over an hour ago. I think it is finally getting quiet in there. Elise seems to be doing better than she did last night. Last night she was so emotional over the move that she had worked herself into quite a state. She was sure she was sick, and said she couldn’t breathe well. She finally came right out and said, “I want to go back.” Meaning of course the old house. She’s been struggling with adjusting to this move for the last week, and is just not sure she’s going to like it here. There are plenty of things she does like about living in the country, but she doesn’t like being so far from her friends, especially her next door neighbor who she had gotten quite close to over the last year. I’m hoping she’ll adjust quickly and love this house as much as she did the last one. You can pray for that.

The boys, on the other hand, are adjusting very nicely. Will loves it here, and even in the terrible heat, disappears outside to ride his bike or dig a hole in the dirt. Seth, as John says, is always up for anything. His newest thing right now is pretending he’s superman, and apparently that can be done anywhere. As long as he still gets to see his Nana, Pops, Grandma, Brennan, and multiple aunts and uncles, I think he hardly notices where he lives. He has been a bit more clingy than usual, but to be honest, that’s been nice since there are still so many boxes he could get into when he wanders off.

John and I go back and forth on our feelings about the move. I love it here. It is peaceful and quiet. I like waking up and seeing a field outside my window. I like hanging clothes on the line and watching them swing in the breeze. I like my new kitchen, even though it is a bit old-fashioned, and my newly polished wood floors. But it does feel a bit isolated. I wonder how comfortable I’ll be asking friends over, knowing how long the drive is and how high gas prices are. I wonder if I’ll get lonely during the day when John’s gone and I don’t have a good enough reason to drive into town. I wonder if I’ll get weary of having to add 30 minutes onto both ends of each and every trip to town. I guess I feel a little like Elise right now. Liking my new place, but missing my old at the same time. I’ve told her that this is an experiment. This is where we discover if we like living on a farm as much as we’ve imagined we will.