Things we take for granted

My husband and I left the city life for country living about 2 years ago. It was easy to trade the sounds of cars roaring past the house with loud blaring music, horns beeping and sirens for the sounds of crickets, bullfrogs and roosters.



But there are a number of things that I have had to adjust to:

• I used to love having my car washed and waxed to a gleaming shine. We now live on a dirt and gravel road ~ no more car washes!


• Our newspaper and mail boxes are almost a mile away on the paved road. So if I'm not going anywhere - I'm still driving to the mail box - and even further out to the main post office if I have packages to pick up.


• The closest grocery store is a 20 minute drive, one way. I have learned that running out of anything means about 1 hour out of my day.

There is one thing that I truly can say I miss about the city ~ ice cream! In the summer we enjoy ice cream; everything from plain vanilla with chocolate sauce and nuts, to popcicles, and even the occasional nutty buddy. When we lived in the city, we took ice cream for granted. Now if we want ice cream, we have 3 choices: go to an ice cream parlor, take our chances on ice cream surviving a 20 minute ride home, or buy an ice cream maker and make our own.

So what did we do? We got an ice cream maker! It's not one of those old hand crank devices from the dark ages; it churns on its own. Once I read through the recipe booklet, I went to the store, bought my ingredients and I was well on my way to ice cream heaven!

Okay, I'll admit it. Buying ice cream from the freezer case is much more convient. Although I get a lot of satisfaction knowing that I made the ice cream that we now enjoy, I'll never take ice cream for granted again.