It’s been a little over six months since the family and I packed up and moved south to be closer to my family, and I figured I’d give y’all a little check-in on how things are going these past few months.
The kids are feral. Honestly, that could be the end of the whole update. If I thought the task of keeping small children clean was difficult while living in town, then moving to the country has only amplified this particular aspect of life. Half the time, I don’t even know where the kids’ shoes are. If they aren’t in the house, the two most logical places to look are: 1) in the car and 2) down the hill at the cousins’ house. (To be fair…the cousins say the same thing about their shoes. We just keep a running pile of “to be returned” items by the door.)
We had an incredibly mild winter, followed by an unusually windy spring and then an unseasonably mild June with several significant rains. I’m starting to think it’s us.
In the 20ish years I lived here before leaving for various other parts of the country, I can count on one, maybe two hands the number of times my parents sent us to the basement for weather-related reasons. In the six months we’ve been here, I’ve already sent my kids to shelter once and probably should have done it another time. The 7-year-old was not a fan. Now every time it rains, he wants to know if it’s a tornado. I still have never seen one.
Conversations involving the term AI need both context and well-defined terms. My dad and another gentleman had a lengthy conversation about AI, and neither of them caught on to the fact that they were talking about two totally different things. One involves computers; the other…does not. My pastor was greatly amused.
Speaking of cows, I’ve been in on a lot of that sort of work since being here. From grabbing newborn calves born in the pouring rain on a Sunday morning, to walking stubborn mamas down the chute to ordering my dad a battery operated squirt gun for fly spray operations, it has certainly been an adventure. My kids, however, are less thrilled with the phrase “let’s go work cows.” I suppose ever since that one mama cow found an open gate to where the kids were waiting for me, the thrill has left the chase. Perhaps being scooped up and tossed into a corner while I held a syringe gun in my hand was sort of traumatic.
Chasing the neighbor’s cows up and down the road last week probably didn’t help either.
I talked my dad into planting a pumpkin patch with me this summer. He made the mistake of letting me order the seeds. I ordered giant pumpkins. The side-eye has been deployed. I get a lot of those around here.
I’ve enjoyed still getting to stay involved here at SD SportScene, and to be honest, you have a good thing going there in South Dakota. From timely score updates, easily accessible rosters for all teams across all sports, and fresh content daily on this platform, it is truly a gem not found everywhere. Even finding coaching information here can be more difficult than it needs to be.
That about covers it, I think. Since moving here, our lives have certainly taken on different rhythms and contexts, but we still think of our former routines with gratitude. The backdrop of our current routines, however – those open horizons and rolling hills – that’s hard to beat.
