Hi, I’m Pattie Lindsay the daughter of Don and Joanie Wedow. I was raised in a small town nestled in the foothills of Colorado. I was one of eight children growing up in a small farmhouse with one bathroom, so you can imagine I became a great dancer waiting while the bathroom was always occupied! Our family, like many families in the area also had livestock and we grew our own vegetables in our gardens. We were taught to respect our elders, taught to love Jesus, taught right from wrong and each had our fair share of chores to ensure that on a tight budget, we could still get by. Sometimes I’m not sure how my mother was able to stretch the budget so thin and still keep her sense of humor. I could spend years telling you how amazing my parents were growing up, and there may be a time for that but for now let move the story along. Watching my Mom manage such a large family on a tight budget, organize a very small living space and still have a sense of humor is something I always admired and wanted to do. We lived what most would call a simple life and it was perfect.
As I grew through my teens and into adulthood, I met a man who completed my life. He was nothing like I had been used to, he was a “city boy”! Our geographical differences were no match for love as he won my heart in a short period of time bringing this cowgirl into his city lifestyle and making me his wife. Although the city surroundings were unfamiliar to me, the love he showed me was the same love I was raised with. We started a family and soon had three amazing children. We decided that homeschooling was our best choice for raising our kids with the morals, and ethics I was raised with considering the public school system had been lacking in those areas. (I’ll certainly get into the topic of homeschooling in one of my blogs so I won’t dwell on my decision to do that here). I had the family I had always dreamed of and wanted to raise them in the “simple lifestyle” I was raised in. A lifestyle of open spaces, fresh air, wildlife, the work ethics, and the security of neighbors that lived the same way. The same love that brought me to the city, brought my perfect city boy husband to the country. We packed up and moved to our little ranch house on the eastern plains of Colorado. I believe everyone remembers their roots and where/how they were raised but after all these years, you couldn’t pay my “city boy” husband to move back to the city… around here, he’s just one of us now.
Love grows best in little houses, as Doug Stone’s country song says. Bunk beds, shared closets, and a showering schedules were part of our daily lives. I learned to cook everything from scratch and to plan and prepare meal menus and shopping lists a month at a time. Our nightly activities weren’t gathered around a television but reading as a family or drawing, listening to music or playing games. Meals were and still continue to be a family affair. We always ate dinner as a family and talked and laughed during meals.
As my kids grew up and the economy changed drastically, it forced us to leave our little ranch and move into our little town of Byers, Colorado. We don’t have a stop light, but by golly, we have our own little grocery store, bank, motel and a gas station. Don’t forget a bar and one single cafe that has limited hours! Every little town is complete when they have a feed store! While searching to buy our “town home” we continued our tradition of living in a small house. One thousand and ninety six square feet and a single bathroom, without a dishwasher and a wood burning stove for heat. The perfect little house for me!
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