I Want a House with Fireflies

We went back to look at our favorite house last night, the one we couldn’t afford. We found a way to raise our offer, and thought we should take another look before we did. The house is out in the country, and it was really beautiful and peaceful out there. A more leisurely inspection showed that the roof is probably in its last years, and the windows, as we thought we remembered, are the old fashioned wood variety (which look like a bear of a job to maintain, to me). The lot is an acre and a half, all mowed, which looks absolutely lovely but would be a job to keep up. The kids loved the place! T. practiced rolling down a small hill, and the kids played on the swing set in the back yard. They loved that the house is surrounded by corn fields. The best part, though, was the fireflies. Just as it was getting quite dark and we were telling the kids that it was time to get in the car and go get some dinner, we started to see lights over the grass. I can’t remember the last time I saw fireflies, and the kids had never seen them before. There was something just sublimely perfect about that short time, with the pink sky streaked with gray clouds over the corn fields, the rolling green lawn, and T. running happily over the lawn trying the catch the brilliant tiny lights.

We had a good dinner at a little Italian place, where the waitress was absolutely stunned to hear that people would leave Florida to come to a place that, according to her, had absolutely nothing to do, and got back to our room just in time to catch a call from Tom-the-realtor telling us that the sellers wouldn’t consider our higher offer either. Oh well. We got to chase fireflies on their lawn, anyway, and maybe our new home will turn up today!

** Here is a happy little update -- the money from the sale of our old house has finally made it into our account! Hooray!