Country Mouse and Not-So-Much Country Mouse

When we left our lives in Vancouver to find our new home in the Okanagan I knew there were going to be adjustments needed. I had grown accustomed to walking out my door and being a block or 2 walking distance from Starbucks, sushi, grocery stores, bakeries, street life, etc. (god, I sound like one of those chi-chi city folks). I was prepared to be making some changes in how I lived my daily life, and frankly, in how I saw myself. I was going to at long last let that vision of the swank city-girl die; my swank city-girl image had been languishing on shoddy life-support for quite some time. Moving to Vernon was the compassionate way of unplugging the ventilator let's just say.

So the question becomes, just who the heck am I anyway? I have a general idea, I'm a mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, would-be-writer, knitter, cinephile, waaaaay overly anxious, waaaaay over analyzing, just trying-to-do-the-right-thing, Lady In Waiting. And now I'm working on translating that into this new, and frankly very much appreciated, phase of my life.

All this self-analysis is trying to go somewhere here... I am standing at the precipice of another major life style decision here. The question that begs to be answered is just how country am I willing to go?

There's a really lovely house that we looked at yesterday, we're in the process of house hunting. It's one of those standard 70s rectangle boxes, very family oriented and utilitarian, just what we need. The price is great (way below what we thought we'd pay for a house). It's in a great little neighbourhood full of kids. There's plenty of opportunity for the kids to ride bikes, and adventure, and play, and explore. BUT it's smack dab in the middle of cow country. And I mean Smack Dab In The Middle. This little 4 block by 4 block suburbanesque oasis is surrounded on all 4 sides by ranches. It's also a 15 minute drive from town, which I know doesn’t sound like a lot but in the last 7 weeks I've gotten used to the closeness of everything. I love that the library is 4 minutes away!

I am now wondering if I am up for the challenge of rural living. Can I relax and just enjoy the peace and tranquility of the country? Or is this just all too much for an ex-city girl? The angst-ridden and often annoyingly loud part of my brain is screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! But the more logical and sensible part of me thinks it may be worth a try. Hmmmm, I wonder which part of my brain will win...