Little by Little Things

Hola! Saludos de Nuevo Mexico, la Tierra del Enchantment.

Hello! Greetings from New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment. It's been good to be home. Even though Atlanta is now our home, this will always be home, too. It's a muy bonito place, in a very stark way. And it's so, so good to be with family. For those of you who haven't had the privilege of visiting these tierras hermosas, especially our little farming town, here's a primer. Some things that have made me smile:

Discovering that on Saturday, the temperature was actually an unholy 91 degrees Farenheit (sorry, Sam---I don't do degrees Celsius) but I had no idea because there was a brisk breeze and very little humidity...

Eating green chile, and lots of it...

Seeing the sky, and not just a green canopy overhead...

Meeting up with old friends at the (nice, clean!) Wal-Mart, the social hub of the county...

Did I mention eating a lot of green chile?

Waving at people on the road and not having to worry about scaring or offending them (you just wave at everyone because that's what you do!)...

Watching Food TV at my in-laws (okay, that's not unique to New Mexico by any stretch, but it is a perk of coming home since we don't have cable at home, in an effort to actually leave our sofa at times)...

My own rusty attempts at Spanish. I grew up here and still can't speak the language very well. Muy embarazoso!

Seeing the random small-townisms: "Taco Box, taco 'bout good, full of Boxpitality" and "RC Feed & Supply, Bridal Registry Inside..."

Getting about 80 hugs from the sweetest group elderly folks you will ever meet (I think I missed the first half of the worship service trying to get them all in)...

The homegrown newspaper, with interviews with local school children and typos galore...

Buying 3 jars of real, fresh, New Mexican salsa from our favorite restaurant, to bring home and promptly devour...

I could go on and on! It's been a fantastic week, and I'm grateful to be here. But it will also be nice to be back home tomorrow. There are little things there, too, that make me smile:

Having our entire Square Peg Artists collection at my fingertips on our computer (iPod for Christmas? I wouldn't complain)... Listening to Scarce and Appendix A doesn't get old, per se, but I miss Miracle of Forgetting and Love and Thunder, among others...

Getting to promote the Square Pegs at work whenever I can---last week I got to write down some websites for a lady that really liked Jars of Clay but had never heard of Caedmon's Call or any of the Andys (gasp!)...

Watching our plants grow as we count down to eating city bred tomatoes (mmmm, love that acid rain!)

Spending time with our awesome friends who generously hooked me up with plane tickets to see my Mom for Mother's Day, who pooled their resources to help my parents through a rough financial time, who love the Lord immensely, and who are the best, most refreshing kind of crazy, to boot...

Harrassing our crazy cats, who love every minute of it...

Watching the little countdown clock on my desktop that is counting down until football season starts...

Reading aloud, with all the voices, to Kennan after a hard day of work...

Hearing the Word of God preached in a British accent, with that dry British humor...

Knowing that I'm home! ...but I guess that's true wherever I am. How blessed am I.

Las Gracias esten al Dios! Thanks be to God!