text: what do you prefer : countrylife or (big) city life?   we moved from a big city to a rural area about 8 years ago. i didn't expect that i would miss some of the things i miss about living in town. i guess i just didn't think much about them until they were gone.   i miss the incredible library system to take my kids too that we used to have. we went every week and loved it! the lone libarary building in our county houses a mere 2% of what we used to have access to. they don't even interlibrary loan there. we have had to get an out of county card ($$$) to get access to a slightly larger library with interlibrary loan that we drive 120 miles round trip to access. needless to say, long gone are the weekly library visits.  i miss having businesses within a quick drive. driving so far to get anywhere can really become tiresome when you live way out. it is about 60 miles round trip to the grocery store. want to see a movie? the nearest theater is 120 miles round trip. now that i have two kids in the church youth group, i find that the time i spend on the road has increased or i have to tell them no to some of the church events because of the 60 mile round trip drive.  i worry about whether my children will be able to live nearby when they are grown because job oprtunities are few here.  ok, now what do i love about the country.   i love the wildlife moments. i love seeing deer come up and drink from the stream that cuts through our yard in front of our living room window. i love the experiences like hearing a noice on the front porch and stepping out to find yourself 4 feet away from a fox or an armidillo - right there on the porch with you! i love hearing and watching the hawks that perch on the kid's swingset in the rain as they watch for crayfish, snakes, lizards, rabbits, and mice that stir in the yard or the edge of the woods. i love the 8 month study of stream life we did two summers ago where we monitored our stream daily, caught tadpoles, minnows, and crayfish for study in our indoor tank before releasing them full grown to create the next generation of crayfish and frogs. i love being surrounded by woods and enjoying the cool of them on hot summer days.  i love the people of the southern countryside. on average they are so much more humble, friendly, and willing to love you than the average city dweller. a retired lady two doors down calls me darlin', and hun' and always says goodbye with 'i love you.'  i love that we live in a 2000 sq. foot house with a nice big yard and it only cost $40k. we watched one of those home shows on pbs last week and our jaws dropped at the prices they said that moderate priced houses in dc go for. yikes! how can anyone but the ultra rich ever survive there?  one warning about rural country life though, when you move to the country they pay you welcome visits even before 8 am in the morning. not one, not two, but about twelve neighbors and church members paid visits in our first two weeks after moving in to our house all before 10am in the morning. mornings in the country are an active time of the day.  so what do i prefer, country life or big city life? i guess after eight years in the country i must be adjusting pretty well now. i guess i will take the long drives to access the conveniences i once enjoyed mere miles and minutes away for the love of country neighbors, the wonder of god's creation, and a morgage that we can afford and still have a life after.