Mayberry

I have ex-city slicker friends that tease that their new suburban hamlet is a lot like Mayberry. We tend to tease the same thing about our particular hamlet. But all kidding aside - that's exactly what we were looking for when we decided to ditch big city.

The other day I saw a billboard for a new suburban subdivision that touts "Small town living at it's best" (or something along those lines) and it made me realize what a trendy little family we are. Apparently we're not the only ones searching for that Mayberry experience.

I really like the idea that Maggie will go to kindergarten and first grade with every single five year old in the community. And I love that while we were taking an evening walk around the neighborhood today, a police officer waved at us with a smile on her face. WAVED at us... SMILING! (meanwhile my first instinct is still to assume that I must be doing something worthy of jail time - what is wrong with me?)

Sticking with our new country-fied lifestyle, Jason and I decided to take Maggie to an apple orchard today. The particular orchard we chose happen to be closed on Sundays - and our back-up family farm destination wasn't so hot - but we finally made our way to a pick-your-own raspberries farm. And as Maggie ran down the aisles of raspberries, and insisted on holding the basket - and subsequently insisted on helping pick up all the raspberries that tumbled out of the basket - I thought to myself... this is soooo right for us. It is so right that we're spending an afternoon picking raspberries, and that we don't have to drive two hours to do it.

All that time in the city, and I guess I'm just a country girl at heart. Yee haw, ya'll!