Farm girl at heart…

 

 

I was raised as a farm girl and there will always be a bit of a farm girl that lives in me.  I love what the farm life taught me.  It was a simpler time; life was easier and the pace was slower.  We worked hard on the farm and with a dad that had 4 daughters and no sons, we were expected to help at an early age.

 

Here are a few reflections of the simpler life that I miss:

• Eating each meal around the family table.  This is where life happened and where we connected each day
• Hanging clothes on the line and the clean fresh smell they had (except when the wind was from the west, than it was not so good… we lived on a hog farm.  You can imagine the alternative smell.  😦
• Riding your bicycle on country roads and being gone for hours.  Yes, hours!!!  And we were safe!!
• Growing and canning/freezing ALL your fruits and vegetables.  I appreciate this much more as an adult; not so much as a kid that had to help.
• Saving plastic bags.  ALL plastic bags.  Why buy Ziplock when you can recycle bread and hamburger bags?
• Washing your hair every Saturday night before you went to church on Sunday morning.
• Making homemade cookies and cakes.  To this day, my mother has never bought store bought cookies or cakes.  I never had a store bought birthday cake until I got married.
• Homemade pizza.  Again, it was ALWAYS homemade.
• Knowing without a doubt that on Sunday morning and night you would always be in church.
• Life revolving around the parents and not us children.
• Only 5 channels on the TV and it was only reserved for a few shows.  Instead of watching TV, we were so creative and adventurous in our play.
• Clothes that my  mother made by hand; I don’t know how she found the time!
• Dressing up when we went out to eat; it was considered a “special” occasion.
• Fresh eggs that we gathered every day
• Feeling safe and secure each day knowing that all was well in my little world.

I have such good memories of my childhood.  Memories of being loved and being a part of something bigger than me.  Sadly, many of these memories have not been passed down to my children.  I buy store bought pizza more often than home made, hanging up laundry on the line is much more time consuming than what I want to spend doing it, and  I would never let my children be gone for hours at a time without knowing where they were or what they were doing.  While the times may have changed and not all the things may be the same, the one thing that remains is the the love and security that our home provides.  And out of all those memories, that is the one that seems to be the most important.

So take a moment and enjoy the simpler things of life!

 

By the way…

The above necklace is a favorite of mine and can be purchased from Beki at The Rusted Chain which you can find at http://www.therustedchain.com