Our world changed today

Yep, our world changed today. I woke up this morning hearing a strange sound. Sort of a :pow-pow-pow.” Sounded a bit to me like small gun shots, but I knew it was probably the work beginning on the new subdivision across the road. Actually, I thought they were tearing down a metal building, but I discovered that it was the sound of a front-end loader. By the time I got to the window, he had already taken down several trees. After Daddy left for work, the girls and I went out to the front lawn to watch the excitement. Anna was thrilled. I ‘do declare,’ that child could find delight and happiness in anything! Raven was not quite so thrilled. She was much more aware than Anna that our world was taking a major turn and things will never be the same again. I certainly had mixed emotions. It was very sad to see such beautiful, tall, graceful trees falling. I kept thinking that they just didn’t stand a chance, even in their mighty strength, against such a powerful mechanical force. Each time the operator set a new tree as a goal, it was only a matter of a few minutes before it, too, was overcome and defeated. No, I’m not a tree-hugging environmentalist, but I do have a deep appreciation of nature.
I would not have shared my sorrow with the kids for anything, out of concern that I would make them sad. And especially not since I could see Raven was struggling a bit. She said it was awful that people could just destroy God’s trees. I gently tried to nudge her feelings to a better place by pointing out that if they didn’t take the trees down, there would be no place to put the new houses. Thankfully, it seemed to be the right thing to say to her. Then later she again expressed frustration at loosing the trees. I said “Turn around and look at all the trees we still have on our property. They will still be here.” Most of our land is wooded. She turned to look behind her and I could tell by her happy ‘light bulb moment’ “Oh, yeah!” that I’d said the correct thing. I also reminded them that with so many new houses hopefully they will be able to make some new friends. Well, that sure brightened up my little social butterflies! (I have been amazed to discover how much of parenting is pure marketing and salesmanship! I truly am able to mold my tiny angels by my own words and actions. And I never cease to be amazed that God trusts us feeble humans with such an awesome responsibility.)
The subdivision plans include a playground just across the road from our first driveway. Of course, the girls are excited about that. Yes, even with 2 swing sets (one metal and one of the wooden site-built play yards complete with a tree house), a pool, a huge flat yard to run to their little hearts’ content. yada, yada, yada --- sort of like when you give a kid a Christmas present and they play with the box.

But, of course, there are some good things about the new houses going up. Mostly, we’re hoping that DSL will come our way. Don’t much care for hughes.net. Nope, don’t like ‘em at all. But it’s either satellite or dial-up. And way out here in the ‘sticks’ dial-up is p-a-i-n-f-u-l-l-y slow.

Oh, well, the bottom line is we can’t change it anyway. The subdivision is happening and that’s just the way it is. Might as well look at the bright side.