Home. Sweet home.

We went to the Seattle Science Center today (with Mary Grace and crew) and we had the best time!

Girly Pie did great in her first big outing with the Ergo. ;o) Goose was enchanted with the moving dinosaur models. The butterfly house was a big hit for everyone, as was the science of bubbles demonstration we watched. Finny and Punky had a blast. We really and truly had a wonderful day.

Too much fun stuff to post here in my short time on the computer. But I did come back with a very clear realization...

Yes, the Science Center was great. Sure the kids loved a big day out in the city. Sky scrapers, the Space Needle, taxi cabs and buses with the fancy little poles on top that let them run off of electrical wires in the city rather than diesel fuel... it is all quite fascinating... on a rare occasion.

But as we left the hustle and bustle of the"big" city and drove the +/- hour back through freeways, suburbs, highways, smaller cities, small towns... and the concrete faded away as the green of the countryside where we live took over... I was overcome with a deep gratitude for the simple and beautiful place we are blessed to call home. I was so thankful to turn onto the last highway heading to our house, and to see fields of grass and flowers... and old weathered barns and pastures dotted with cows. The mountains were just visible as daylight faded away and it was so nice to see how dark they all looked, way out there - no big city lights blaring all around us. I had felt borderline claustrophobic in that city. I hadn't realized how on-edge I had been all the time we were driving in the city. It wasn't until I hit the home stretch of our drive home and I looked out at the vast expanse of the valley leading home that I literally took in a deep breath and finally felt myself relax again.

I'll take inconvenient-but-peaceful-and-beautiful-green over in-the-middle-of-all-the-action-gray any day.

Indeed it does take us near half an hour to get to a decent grocery store. And no, my children will not be exposed to a whole lot of opportunities for expanding their minds with fine music and theater and all that other great stuff that I'm sure big cities must offer. But I wouldn't trade our simple, beautiful home for anything.

I like that going into the city is an event... concrete and sky scrapers and big freeway interchanges are something to be marvelled at.

And I love that fields of green are... home.