Small-Town Christmas – 40 Days of Thankfulness

It may not be as extravagant as the Macy’s Parade, but the West Liberty Christmas in the Village Parade has quite a crowd. Taking all of 15 minutes, different service organizations, churches and businesses create floats out of whatever they can find and toss candy to children along the route.

 

Our neighbor is Santa Claus!

There is free hot chocolate, the lighting of the village tree, a 5K luminary walk before hand and of course Santa for all the children to see. Just two blocks away it’s an easy walk even in the cold, but the community feeling really warms your heart. 

Snow Mornings – 40 Days of Thankfulness

Today is the second day this season of waking up to snow. Since it snowed on Oct 23, it is believed that we will have 23 days of snow this winter/fall. So this is day two and it’s beautiful.

And to top off this wonderful beauty is that it is a clear day with bright sunshine making the snow sparkle and gleam even more for a winter wonderland kind of feel.

It’s also the first day that I am working at the cupcake shop in town so I get to walk to work in the glistening snow and hopefully avoid the annoyance of ice along the way.

There’s just nothing like it. Growing up snow free, I really appreciate the purity of the perspective and the chill in the air, especially with the warming sun to counteract the shivers.

Thank you, God for such a beautiful day – it is such a treasure. 

A Walk In The Woods – 40 Days of Thankfulness

Have you ever just taken a walk in the woods just to take a walk? No preconceived notions, no expectations, no map with a destination?

Paul and I spent today walking around, and up and down Clifton Gorge and the John Bryan Park outside of Yellow Springs. Though most of the trees had dropped their leaves it was still an amazing time. We just went to walk. Dressed in layers to keep the 32 degree temps at bay, we shivered for a first few minutes debating if we should turn back. We had no map and just followed the trail around and down into the gorge around the other side, up the ridge and back around to the beginning.

We only encountered a couple hardcore hikers, some students from nearby Antioch College and a deer. It was amazing. Part of the trail we followed was an old stagecoach trail that took 18^th and 19^th century passengers from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh, though it would have been an incredibly bumpy ride. I think I would have stayed to the river route.

Unfortunately they discriminate against our 4-legged children and they can't come with us, but with Polly's new blindness it may not be a good idea anyway. 

I am so thankful for this walk in the woods. 

I Could Have Been Dorothy – 40 Days of Thankfulness

Sound asleep at midnight, snuggled up from the cold and howling winds outside, which are very soothing to fall asleep to.

An alert on my phone “Tornado Warning for Logan County until 12:15am”

OK. What does that mean? Which is worse a Watch or a Warning? I forgot. With hurricanes you can follow the sequence, but what about this disturbance.  I’ll find out in the morning I tell myself as I closed my eyes to slumber.

SIREN!!!! The town’s tornado siren screeched to life and the curse words flowed. Paul, half asleep, asked what we should do. How should I know? Turn on the TV and check the weather? I grabbed the remote when Paul suggested we should probably go downstairs. Good idea. Dogs (including the blind one who was very confused), jacket, slippers and down we go.

Midwest living is all-new to me and this really freaked me out. Standing in front of the big window in the livingroom (I know, not the best idea) I saw the winds whip trees, branches and our trash can down the street. The siren continued throughout the whole ordeal as I found ways to avoid going in our incredibly scary basement.

Thankfully, after 5 minutes the warning was lifted, we were out of danger though incredibly shaken and could return to our beds though sleep would not be upon us soon.

I am so grateful for this test. It let us know how unprepared we were and what we must do to protect our family just in case we do get a real threat. I am grateful that no one in my town was hurt, and I learned many didn’t even know it was going on since they live outside of town and didn’t hear the siren. I am thankful that though I am paralyzingly frightened of our basement, the imaginary fear of what evil may be in the basement is far less powerful than the real threat of a tornado.

Though I love Friends of Dorothy, I don’t want to be her.

My Letter Home - April 16

This week started with a fabulous win for my boy, Adam Scott. I’m not a golfer, but Paul is and he likes to watch the big matches on Sundays. I have gotten to know some of the players and picked the cutie from down under, Adam Scott, as my favorite. It was so nice to see him win and to be so gleeful about it. Great job Adam.

From UK Telegraph.com

In other news this week, Paul and I, and our entire congregation, were invited to the neighboring church, the United Methodists, for a potluck luncheon on Sunday to welcome us to West Liberty and to introduce us to our neighbors. When I say neighboring church, I mean right next door – only a parking lot separates us. Ideologically, we’re pretty similar. It was a great feast, and no one expected that more than 60 people from our congregation would show up since many of them are set in their routine of leaving church right after service and heading to their favorite restaurant. We had so many people show up, that the Methodists had to get even more tables and chairs for their congregation. We hope to do a lot more with them, such as movie nights, vacation Bible school and maybe even field trips.

Note: There were 5 different kinds of macaroni salad, 4 kinds of potato salad and sloppy joes – Paul was in heaven. I loved the fruit salad and spinach salad along with coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate and almonds – yummy.

Where St. Pete nightlife was all about going out to eat, drink and be merry, nightlife in West Liberty is about high school sports. We’ve been going to baseball games several evenings to cheer on the West Liberty-Salem Tigers. Several of the players go to our church and it’s nice to speak with their parents out of the church setting, plus the boys are really good. The girls softball team is pretty awesome too with a win last night of 20-0 against the Catholic school, or as Paul says “The Papists”.  

With the house almost completely together (I only have the silver left to polish), it’s time I start looking for a paying job. I’ve done some freelance, but that is few and far between. I would like to get back into the game, but now it’s all about what I want to do. As a writer, I have several options, but in a small town only a few opportunities. Do I want to drive the hour plus to Columbus for a full-time marketing job with all the stress I left behind, but with the perk of being in a city? Or do I want to try to get a part-time gig locally at Adriel, the assisted living facility or maybe a funeral home? I’ve been teaching myself In Design and PhotoShop so I can expand on my resumé and maybe do some other freelance pieces. For now, I am just enjoying the freedom to be a housewife.

Thing I Miss Most About My Old Home: Being 10 minutes away from downtown where I could get any food I wanted and enjoy the action.

Thing I Like Most About My New Home: Being 5 minutes from downtown (walking) where a nice afternoon walk is picking up the mail, getting a cup of coffee at the cupcake shop, browsing in the local thrift store and going to the grocery all while chatting with people and feeling quite alive.