where art thou newman-o's?

Lack of quick access to my few vices was of the things I was nervous about moving “so far out,” as everyone likes to say (leaving me wondering how exactly that is defined, since the closest store that sells, say, milk is less than 2 miles from us, though the closest Wal-Mart is 30 miles, and I’m certainly not complaining about that one bit). My vices these days consist of little more than coffee and sweets, especially chocolate. It’s just that I’m picky about them. They have to be organic. Oreos are off limits. Newman-o’s are devoured by the box full.

Well it turns out funny things happen when you simply cut off easy access. You don’t need the things you used to depend on. You think about them, salivate over them in your mind. You think how delicious they would be. But then, you get over it and eat something you have on hand.

It’s weird, because living 5 minutes from a store that sold all of my favorite things made my mind games play out very differently. I would think about something I wanted, and then I couldn’t quit thinking about it until I gave in and drove myself to Kroger or Graeter’s or Blockbuster, if it was a show that was catching my addictive bone.

So now that option is off the table, unless I want a 60-minute drive, round-trip, to do it. And it truly surprised me that my brain just says, OK then, not going to happen, let’s move on.

When we ran out of cookies, we ate Easter candy with nuts. When we ran out of that, we ate toast with honey. When we had no food in the house to speak of, I used what we did have to make a delicious meal that could easily become a regular part of our summer suppers. Looking around at empty cabinets, I sprouted half a bag of mung beans, roasted 2 beets, and mixed it together with a can of kidney beans, some oil, salt, honey & 2 packages of restaurant-swiped mustard. Yum.

In the city, I would have been running to Kroger since we had “nothing to eat!”

I guess that’s why it seems so much more relaxing out here. I can’t remember the last time I sat in my chair in the morning, internet-free, TV-free, with no obligations on the day’s calendar at all, and said to myself, “Hmmm….what should I get into today?”

I hope that this more relaxed lifestyle will lead to me being a devoted homeschooler next year. This year I’ve been less than disciplined, and I’ve forgiven myself because it’s “just kindergarten.” To an extent, I believe that. On another level, I’m nervous that I don’t have the self-discipline to ensure the job is done properly.

I will say the opportunities for learning are always there if you look for them, though. Sassy and I walked to the mailbox yesterday through puddle after massive rain puddle in our driveway. On the way back, we played an odd-even game. I gave her a quick primer: 1, 3, 5 – odd. 2, 4, 6 – even. It goes every other, I said. I stepped, saying, ODD, EVEN, ODD, EVEN, as each foot went down. “Time to play!”, I told her.

Each time I said an ODD number, she could jump into a puddle as hard as she wanted to.

Each time I said an EVEN number, she wasn’t allowed to jump. It was an ODD-EVEN Simon Says, I suppose.

She got it after about 2 minutes and only a handful of mis-jumps. Then we played all the way back to the house. “Do it again!” she kept begging me.

It is a wonderful thing to embrace the mud and the dirt because it’s a fact of life. It’s a wonderful thing to put into practice the adage, “If they’re not muddy when they come in, they weren’t having enough fun.”

I can’t wait to have all of our friends to visit, and I'm looking at the first weekend in June to have a big old, weekend-long housewarming party. Mark your calendars & dig out your tents, if you'd like.

And please stop by Kroger on the way and bring some Newman-o’s if possible.