Born country!

You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl.  I was born country and that's what I'll always be.  I always thought that I would be raising my family in Iowa, raising my littles country the way that I was raised.  Now to clarify I didn't live on a farm, but throughout my childhood, we visited my grandparents' farm no less than once a week.  But we always have free run of the farm, going to see anything that we wanted and playing anywhere that we wanted.  And we did have a cow pasture as the back perimeter of our back yard with a corn field directly adjacent to it.  So although, I didn't have to get up at 5am everyday to milk cows, I claim country roots.

But life takes unexpected turns and in some ways, those turns are better than you dreamed of and in others, they aren't quite as good as your dreams.  I've seen more of this world than I ever thought that it would or realized that I wanted to see.  I've also brought some travel to my family who probably would have never saw New York City if it hadn't have been for my crazy cross-country move 10+ years ago.  But there is always a part of me that wishes that I was raising my children back in a small town in Iowa.  Only one problem... E was born in the Bronx and is by NO MEANS a country boy -- he is a city-slicker with soft feet who will dabble on the country side.

While I would love to move out to the middle of "no man's land" with no light pollution at night and a huge yard, he thinks that it would be too lonely and boring out there.  He has to have the close option of having the big-city feel.  If he could choose one place to live that would make him happy, he would chose NYC.  And maybe having parents with two separate ideals is going to bring the best of both worlds to our children.  So I'm teaching Finn (and E) to love country music and cows (I've caught E on an occasion or two actually singing along with the country songs when I wasn't around) and E is going to teach her street smarts.

I've always teased E about buying a cow and setting her up in the front yard as our own built-in lawn mower.  Yet, our city won't allow pet cows (darn it all!).  Maybe I'll be able to talk him into some chickens.  I think those are legal and fair-game.  What little girl wouldn't love her own pet chicks?  Besides -- everyone knows that my favorite smell in the entire world is baby chicks under a heat lamp.  I think that it's only fair that we give sister the chance to realize that it may be her favorite smell, too.