.........The Middle Of No-Where.

`I was raised in a small rural town and never got the memo that your life will not be complete without the necessary experience of living with neighbors sufficient to fill a sports arena and traffic sufficient to make you stop at "Yield" signs. So I never tried it. But we can't have life be TOO predictable so I occasionally traded one small "town" for another. And people say ".......You live where? Oh! That's the middle of no-where!"
   Have you ever noticed how there are the same sets of fabulous and crazy people everywhere you go?
   I actually like the middle of no-where. I've had at least 13 years practice at it. I still choose it.
We've lived in a number of lovely places all outside the city limits with only one exception. (Only 1 next door neighbor on the last street in town with a gorgeous view of the mountains!)
There are a few things that people don't seem to understand about "The Middle Of No-Where-ness".
 - Conscientious Earth-dwellers give me dirty looks for driving the old and cheap version of an SUV. I really do need  8 seats and 4-wheel drive. Promise.
- The UPS man is my best friend- next to Amazon Prime. :) I don't know his name but he sure knows a lot about me..
  -The road from our house to your house is much shorter than your house to mine. Weird but true. "We really don't come to visit you because it's so far. Why don't you come see us more often??"
  -Everyone thinks that all you do is sit around and enjoy the peace and quiet and clucking of chickens. I do love me some good peace, quiet and clucking...............okay, now I'll have to ask you to excuse me - I'm going to go feed the chickens, and pigs, and horses, , and dog and get the four-wheeler out of the mud. I understand that all some folks do is go to the theatre and shopping and .......you see what I mean.
- The nice ladies at the dentist's office wonder why you look like you've been run over by a truck when you show up for your appointment at nine in the morning with all the kids in tow. "Why does she do all of them in one day and she didn't seem too happy about her appointment time......" I should have picked a dentist closer than 2 hours away.
- Everything that starts right after dinner or lunch for anyone planning the event can expect my kids to be crabby- they weren't hungry when I fed them early to make it to your thing and now they're starving. And when we leave early, it's to go to the grocery store (to buy them some bananas so they won't eat all your cookies) before it closes because I'm too cheap to drive that much without getting groceries and gas.......and anything you can't order on Amazon Prime. :)
- Girls don't baby sit for you. At all. If they're old enough to drive they're too busy. And everyone loves that one lady that takes her kids everywhere with her. Believe me, I can tell from their looks.
- When you call two hours before youth activities start to let us know that they have been canceled that day- we've gone in time to go get groceries first and we'll show up anyway. Again.
- We love it when every kid's church group meets on a different day so we can spend an hour in the car for every hour long activity. Sometimes I give them a dollar to stay home. Maybe I'll just send them out to ride their bikes to Scouts....
.....and there's the things I love about it.
- My kids are each other's best friends.
- The stars are gorgeous and the sky is immense as I sit in the house trying to get kids to sleep just like all you other moms, but sometimes when I realize that someone left the car door open or I forgot my purse in the car or someone forgot to let the horses out of the corral I get to walk out and look at them!
-I have lots of space and lots of dirt and lots of horizon to enjoy.
-Phones.
-Costco is only two hours away....right by my dentist. I just wish that 8 seat /4 wheel Drive Earth Crusher had more cargo room - once a month shopping gets intense.
- CNG is cheap.
-When I make my kids do chores there are no nosy neighbors who think I'm worse than anything they've ever heard of.
-When I'm potty training the little boy and he pees in the front yard I know I'm not going to hear about it from the neighborhood.
- When I talk to my good friends who also have the same wide open spaces around them we can cherish our friendships even more knowing that it takes time and sacrifice to get together but it's oh, so worth it.  And knowing how needed friends are helps us be less critical.
And to all of you who have a sea of wide open city surrounding you and almost the same life challenges as me- or a small town full of neighbors that think they know all your business and almost the same life challenges as me- What do you love about it?