A Mixed Blessing.....

It has been almost exactly two years ago that our family moved from our home state of Indiana to Illinois. It wasn't fun, trust me - and after going through it, I am in no hurry to move any time soon! Now that we are here, I admit there have been some huge adjustments on my part, too.

Where I once could hop in a car and go to lots of major stores and towns and restaurants within minutes- now I must plan a 25- 30 minute drive. Where once I saw trees and hills and lots of houses- now I see miles of flat fields and maybe a clump of trees in the middle now and then. And a farmhouse or two once in a while...We got visits from time to time to from family, but now that has died off.



Since I am trying to make the best of this major upheaval, I have been trying to find things that are good about the situation. Since the land is so flat, I see beautiful sunsets like I never saw in Indiana. And while I miss the trees, I have found a kind of beauty in the fields and fields of green cornstalks that are now gold, and watching the farmers with their machinery harvesting the acres and acres that stretch out on either side when I am driving.

And while we are out where no relatives are, and haven't made a whole lot of friends as of yet, that can sometimes be a mixed blessing, if you know what I mean! We can maintain our privacy and have a pretty good reason not to go to reunions if we don't want to drive the distance...:)

At any rate, with the upcoming holidays, I have been keeping busy increasing my holiday characters since last year I was caught a bit short handed in that department and sold out of what I had. With less time running countless short trips into town, I now spend more time at my designing table- and have found more and more ideas to translate into my artistic endeavors...another benefit to living in the country-like spot that we do!