In the Beginning

Well, beginning is always so great. So much hope, so much anticipation... I'm always great at beginnings - not always so great on following through.

I am blogging because I really feel the need to let folks know how great rural living can be. Despite the drawbacks - rural living is absolutely a choice that should be considered if you want a different quality of life.

I live in between two towns of about 1,800 a piece. Our school is combined with a graduating class size of between 45 - 65. I know how small that sounds, but there are so many advantages too. We have four children and moved back to this area when our children were 8th, 6th, 3rd & 1st grade. In many ways it was a wonderful gift to them - even though it's been somewhat difficult on the social side. They've always felt like the "outsiders" when it's come to best-friends and such.

One of the advantages of living in this area is if you can find a fairly decent paying job, you can purchase a great house for about $60,000 - $100,000. Great big old farmhouses, newer houses in one of the larger towns, great properties to build a house on. The list goes on and on! The schools are well funded in most areas and your children will get to do a variety of activities. In our school, my children participated in three sports each, participated in choir, band, stage band, stage choir, speech and debate, mock trial, national honor society, drama productions - including the spring musical and various other clubs. The point is, with such a small class size, all students are encourage to particpate in all things - not just one or two. This encourages them to be more well rounded as a young adult.

I've worked with the kids on the spring musical for the last 6 years and our school puts on one of the most awesome performances in the area. Our sets are well constructed, our stage crew can change the set without the audience seeing them - which is quite a feat! Our musical director has been wonderful, our director have great vision, some of the last few musicals have included large tap production numbers. Next time I'll include a bit of one of their best one's ever!

I'd like to encourage anyone who is looking for a change in the quality of their life to think about what they really want out of life and how are they going to go about making those come true.

Have a great day everyone!
Lori
www.brandybrookdesings.com
www.brandybrookdesigns.etsy.com