My Home

My home is where I most want to be. To me, living in the country is almost like being on vacation every day the sun shines. When our school day is finally finished, I can't wait to greet the afternoon on my deck. I close my eyes and take it all in...and then when I open them again I can't help but be refreshed by the beauty before me. Sometimes, if I really ponder it, it takes my breath away and can even bring me to tears. I say out loud, "I can't believe this is where I live," and I thank God.

About six months ago our family was able to expand our property line by an additional twelve acres. It took Adam several years of planning, saving, and negotiating to sign those final contracts. As with anything worth having, the sacrifice stretches our limits. However, I find peace in the simple rewards. Joyous squeals coming from my kids who are playing down by the creek. The hum of our antique Ford tractor at the base of the valley. Freshly cleared four-wheeler trails...made by us, not by our trespassing neighbors. These sounds. These views. These moments. Irreplaceable. 

I credit my dear Adam for this beautiful place we call home. With the help of God, he realized our dreams and continues to do so. Our home is perpetually changing. He fixes, builds, plants, and cuts down. It never ceases. His ambition is one of his best qualities. I support him as best I can and bring him down to reason when his imagination runs wild. As we grow more and more accustomed to being married, we learn to trust in new ways. When he says, "I can create that!" I rarely question. And when I say, "I can beautify that!" he rarely questions. When it comes to our home, we have found our niches and developed our rhythm. Working together, our home flourishes.

Rain or shine, we take advantage of every minute. The land allows our lives to be full, yet simple. We cringe on days we leave the sun shining at home to attend engagements elsewhere. And, for the most part, we look forward to the work that is constantly begging to be done. There is great satisfaction and pride within every completed task. And when the day is done, we retreat to the comfort of our lovely house...or to a crackling backyard fire.

If you would have asked me fifteen years ago what I thought my life would look like now, my answer would have paled in comparison to what it truly is. Life is so much more than people, places, things, and actions. It's also full of colorful adjectives and lively adverbs that give depth and meaning. But words often fail...because there's no way to accurately describe heaven. No, my home may not be perfect, but it's the closest place to heaven that I've been to so far.

Blog Reboot and Reminiscing my Pink Nokia

Sometimes I click on my blog to read posts from years ago. The other day I was reading a few and noticed far too many typos and unintentional grammar mistakes caused by auto-correct and brisk typing. It was driving me nuts, but I wasn't sitting at my computer so I couldn't easily click back to edit. I also noticed how boring and meaningless many of the posts were. I was writing 7-10sih posts a month for a while! They were all about the day-to-day happenings of our mundane lives with a sprinkling of my thoughts here and there. Yet, I would constantly get comments from people who loved reading and would complain when I'd take a hiatus. Being a stay-at-home-mom of non-school-age children can be incredibly lonely. At the time, blogging was a catalyst for having presence in a world from which I felt isolated...embarrassing typos included.

It's been almost a year since my last post. What happened? Besides the obvious "my life is too busy" answer, I think that Facebook captured and ultimately satisfied the world's curiosity and need to be heard. Who wants to read a stale mommy blog when you can engross yourself amongst the lives of 500+ "friends?" For me, Facebook spiraled into a craving...an addiction. It was actually starting to cause unnecessary stress and anxiety. Once I recognized it, I reevaluated my priorities and set myself free.

Facebook is an incredible tool. As long as it exists and is used for positive purposes, I will participate. Scheduling events, sharing useful and thought provoking information, catching criminals, and encouraging friends are all excellent reasons for staying connected. However, strong opinions and agenda-pushings have caused separations among friends. The internet has become a smorgasbord of manipulation, misinformation, and misinterpretation. Personally, I carry an ample dose of empathy and a giant pink Himalayan salt crystal with me to every article, status, and blog I read. If I don't, then I might allow myself to exclude some of the people I actually hold very dear to my heart. Maybe more of us should reexamine the reasons why we participate in social media and how it affects us? Once I started thinking about it, I was having a hard time remembering what life was like without it. I now yearn for the days of Nokia phones and incessant email forwards. Ponder that!

So, back to my original thoughts...

I suppose with the distractions of my life today, I had forgotten why I started blogging in the first place. Boring, meaningless, mundane. If that is my life, so be it! It wasn't my intent to please an audience, ruffle feathers, or even boast successes. I think Facebook does a first-rate job of fulfilling those objectives. This writing was meant to document memories for my family and to be an outlet for some of my thoughts. It's a public journal, and you all are welcome to read it. If you are encouraged by it in some way, then I am thankful.