Progress In Suburbia

I have to admit I've been feeling increasingly guilty about our current house purchase. Promoting urban sprawl and all. It seems this town's once gorgeous downtown area is being abandoned for building housing and businesses elsewhere, out where the grass is greener and the people with the money live. In the meantime the downtown crumbles and decays, and not just the buildings. My husband reminds me that we had very few reasonable options in our minister/stay-at-home-mom price range for clean and safe housing. He's right. Alas I do live in a brand spankin' new house in our own little piece of gated Suburbia and progress is being made.

It has been very exciting to see the first strip of about 10 houses go up in only 6 months, quickly sell and become homes to our new neighbors. I do still have plans to bake a bunch of cookies and make the rounds to meet everyone. I'm still living in this 50's dream of being the neighborhood welcome wagon and in so doing inspire the personality of this new neighborhood into being one of community, instead of what seems to be the modern norm of privacy and seclusion above all else.

Now they are building on the other side of our house and in a few short months we will have neighbors on both sides. Until then this is the view out of my craft room window. And out of my boys' window the view is: Porta-Pottie, big trucks and a constant stream of people.

As much as I hated to see the trees plowed down in the next lot over it was also really fun to watch the bulldozer dig and shove until he was victorious. That tree put up a good little fight.