Miss Betty.

She moved in to our old neighbourhood a few years ago.

Her and her husband had downsized from their buffalo farm.  They were elderly, and I imagine it was just time for them to live with less farm chores.  But you know what farmers are like.  They don't slow down more than they have to.  So, Miss Betty, as my kids affectionately called her, spent much time in her kitchen baking cookies and pies.  The only thing is, she needed someone to eat them.  She started coming to our door to deliver goodies to us.  

And let's be real here.  There is just something about that generation that knows how to bake.  When someone like Miss Betty knocks on your door with cookies or pies in her hand, your heart does a little dance.  Your "vow to stay away from sugar" just got thrown out the window.  

When we moved away from our old neighbourhood a few months ago I was ready to move.  There wasn't much I enjoyed about the place anymore.  But one of the things I was going to miss was seeing Miss Betty all the time.  And it wasn't just those goodies I was going to miss. It was the fact that out of anyone Miss Betty could have chose to bake for, to stop and chat with,to form a friendship with, she chose our family.  I don't know why, but for some reason she decided we were the ones she wanted to show love to.

You never know which friendships are going to stick, and which ones will fade.  Which ones are real, or which ones just work for the time being because of circumstance - you live next door to eachother, you go to the same church, your kids are in the same extra-curricular and so it is easy to be friends until your circumstances change.  All of a sudden the easy friendship takes effort.  Miss Betty is one of those people who was not just a friend because we were neighbours.  We met as neighbours, but that was just the beginning.

Miss Betty and her husband came over the other day.  And, you guessed it, She had a box full of goodies.  We drank tea and munched on her cookies she brought.  We talked about the old neighbourhood. We talked about our new house. And I just soaked it up.  

My new house is a peaceful place.  It is where I am happy.  and when friends share in on this joy it makes our new journey to homestead all that much more sweeter.