I’m a little overwhelmed. And to be truthful, even that’s an understatement.

I have lived my entire life on a public water system, in areas that have streetlights and sidewalks and your choice of three or four grocery stores within a ten minute drive. I now find myself in a town with no stoplight, half an hour away from a shopping center. We have a well whose water we’re not sure we can drink (more on that another day). There is no trash or recycling pickup. I left my LG digital front-loading washer and dryer in Baltimore and am now using a standard washer in my kitchen. The dryer? Three rooms away in what my husband refers to as “The Shop.” When we sat in the yard the other night, all we could hear were peepers and birds, not even the hum of highway traffic. That freaked me out.

Yes, this is what we wanted. It was a conscious decision to simplify like this. But holy moly, I didn’t anticipate the adjustment to be quite so rough, especially since we’re still just dipping our toes in the shallow end.

I haven’t left the house alone yet, except to walk about the new neighborhood. My first excursion took me down the driveway and across the street to the country store for coffee before I found my own coffeemaker amid the boxes. With one baby strapped to my chest, and the other firmly in hand, I set my Styrofoam cup on the counter to pay. The girl at the register immediately smiled and said, “Are you J’s wife? I’m so glad you’re finally here! He’s really missed you guys. Oh wow! She looks just like him!” Small town.

Tuesday morning, I walked to the post office in the rain. We don’t have a mailbox yet since there’s some confusion as to where it should be placed, so they hold our mail in a bin for us. The post office is a cute little place, with a community bulletin board in the lobby.

I’m hoping to check out the community center later this week. It’s housed in an old green and white church, right next to the town beach. I’m not sure what kinds of activities they hold besides a Tuesday morning breakfast advertised on their sign.