We Bought a Farm: Sounds and Weather of Florida

We are in Florida.

South Florida.

Like the very bottom of it.

Two eight hour driving days and here we are.

JB and his dad are still back home. Working. Taking care of the farm. His mom and I are here in South Florida to celebrate my brother's new baby and attend a baby shower for my sister-in-law Danielle. Of course we also get to see my parents and Roy and Joni too.

Last night as Abigail and I snuggled in my parents' guest room bed, she told me she was scared.

"What are you scared of?" I asked.

She told she was scared hearing all the cars whizzing past my parents' home.

I contemplated that.

To me, those car sounds were like white noise. Is it true that once you have lived in the "city", the "city" never leaves you? I grew up living in a home on a six lane road. Cars whizzing past must be my norm. My default.

But for my little girl? She is used to hearing nothing. After two years in Turkey on a very quiet base and two years in our home on the Azores where cars rarely came by at night and now on our farm "way out in the boonies", my little girl isn't used to the sounds that don't even phase me.

My parents laughed when I told them. They don't even hear the cars anymore.

But my kids do.

Speaking of our farm, six inches of snow began to fall as we drove away from the farm. I wasn't sad to escape the 9 degree temperatures that were hitting our home there, and truly, snow carries with it a combination of emotions for me. I love seeing the snow, but I don't love being trapped inside with my kiddos. And I especially don't love the fact that my husband, as a first responder, is not allowed the "stay home" commandment that so many other people are issued.

(He has to go to work. Thus one of the reasons we got him a big truck with 4-wheel drive.)

But this snow I am a bit sorry to miss. Six inches in Tennessee is not an everyday occurrence. Not even an ever winter occurrence. And we've been excited for a snow good enough to sled our big hills in.

Oh well. I'm sure there will be more.

And wearing capris and short sleeves and flip-flops in January?

Awesome.