On again, off again

These last couple of weeks or so, we have been on and off with our water. As my Scott and Farmer Scott are digging up and laying a new water pipe line, the old line keeps getting hit, broken and then no water. So, I will get periodic text messages or calls that say “no water until later” or “should get the water back on soon” and things like this.

So much about living here is about making do with what you have which is sometimes not what you want or expect, what you thought it would be or how it was suppose to go but all that really just does not matter!

Here are a few examples:

• Well, the water is one. There are days I have some plans to do a load of laundry and that just does not work out. Mind you, I can only do about 2 loads per day because all the electricity is solar and we do not want to run out at night. I simply do not even do wash when it is cloudy! How great is that....I look out the window at the weather of all things, it's cloudy – I smile! NO laundry.
• No dish washer. Well, I guess I am the dishwasher. Although both Katie & Hunter have to help out with it 2/3 times a week. It is a wonderful “after-supper-time” together thing we do and I love it. We just stand shoulder to shoulder, looking out the window, chatting about the day.
• No air conditioning. Now that is such a luxury to me and I was always one who was like “if we have it – we are gonna use it!” and it was on! The weather here is different. So dry that you can work up a great sweat and your clothes are dry in 30 minutes! Here's to no more of that sweaty upper lip!!
• Making friends is hard to do – no matter how old you are. There was a special event at the local park so we thought we would go as many of the area families would also be attending. We are all there hanging out and I looked over at Ben and suddenly, he was pure white. In no time, he was puking over by the garbage cans. So we left. And did not really have the chance to meet any new friends. Oh well – there will be other times I suppose. At least we were not in the middle of the event because that would have been an impression that I would not have wanted to make. “Oh....is that the new family in town whose little boy puked all over the picnic table?? I remember them!!”

Ben certainly does not mind being without water. He said to me the other morning after I told him the water was off, “That's ok, Mama. I can just go poopy outside if I need to.” And it is true – he can! I could not help but laugh.

And then made it very clear that just because you COULD does not mean that you WOULD.

There are times I get a little impatient with all this but that quickly fades away as I look out beyond the deck and there lies a mountain reaching for the blue sky, I listen to the hawks screeching to one another or look up the red rock canyon and watch the trees move as they are gently caressed by the wind. I don't know what exactly it is nor do I really care to put my finger on it because it seems then that whatever that magic is would be “under my thumb” and would just not feel the same anymore if I were to grasp it and name it. So, we just enjoy it.

There is time here – and it all just rolls into the next day or week and it all eventually gets done. Maybe not quickly, but it does get done. I think about how kids (at least the ages that ours are) do not really get the concept of time, but what they do get is the feeling of being rushed, that pressure to “hurry-up”, the overwhelming feeling of GO, GO, GO.

We stop here and as a result, we can breath here. And yes it's true, we can breathe everywhere, but it is more of the way we take the time to connect with our breathing here – if that makes sense.

Honestly, I cannot say we have found whatever we thought might have been missing before – we never really felt like something was “missing”. Besides, I do not think Life happens that way. Like all of a sudden, bells and whistles go off and that missing component hits you like a freight train and then you can say “oh, it was THIS or THAT.” But I can honestly say that something IS different. Our family unit is different here. We function differently. We can. We have made the time for it. And it is there for the taking. So we are drinking it in (and it is damn good!).