Sometimes it's the Little Things

When people learn I am new to South Carolina, first they ask if I like it then they ask if I am homesick or if there is something I miss from home or if I find it a lot different. So far I haven't been too homesick although it kind of hit me today.

There are definitely things I miss, things I probably took for granted some are huge but others are just little:

• the pain au chocolat from Boulangerie La Vendienne;
• the trails at the research station;
• Peter's Pizza;
• Ross Farm;
• the ocean;
• the organization of the grocery store (why is the bread in two sections at the stores here?);
• the butchers and farm markets;
• Don Connolly, Stan Carew, Carol Off and Barbara Budd (NPR is OK but between the markets and the election, well, it is getting a bit boring, the highlight of my days is listening to the Radio Reader?!);
• phoning up a friend and saying let's get together today;
• Happy Valley Kennels (oh, how I miss Ella and Mike);
• our neighbours on Belcher St and the block;
• walking to downtown Kentville to do errands;
• Frenchy's...

I think it is also just now hitting me that I am a stay-at-home mom. Not so much that I don't rush off to the office everyday (that part I don't miss), but that I don't have an income of my own. I was thinking tonight that since my parents started giving me an allowance between babysitting and summer jobs and then real jobs - I have always had money of my own which, as long as the bills were paid, I could do with what I pleased. I know this is probably something most new SAHMs work through and I did think about it before we moved but now I think about it every time I think about buying something for myself. Sometimes the purchase wins but often my frugal side prevails.

I do have a couple of projects which I need to work on - one for my old job and another new, stamp related, thing but I am finding it hard to find a chunk of time to work on them without interruption. The three hours that Isabelle is at school seems to disappear too quickly.

So, I am in a bit of a funk right now. Maybe I will start planning a post-Christmas trip somewhere to take my mind off the things I miss...