Home Is Where The Heart Is

Even when life moves fast, things stay still. Like this picture of our van in the hub of a trucker's wheel, taken while we were driving 70 mph!

Today marks 5 years we have lived in our house. A date that is kind of hard to forget, considering it's the deadline for filing taxes (have you done yours yet??).

5 years of making this house a home-- our family growing from 4 members to 6 members; adding chickens and a dog; another cat.

I've never been one of those 'instant decorators'. The ones who as soon as they move, the whole place is painted and decorated within a month. There are still a lot of blank walls in this house, spots we have designated for family pictures, but have yet to take and frame said pictures.

We have only just found the best arrangement for our living room, a large rectangle that could easily fit our old living room 3 times over. We had the couch on each of the 3 available walls, even in the middle to divide up the room, but nothing felt right. We had the TV here, there, over there, how about here, maybe there, no, back over here again. We had the shelves on every wall, either side-by-side or split up on either side of the room. We've had area rugs, no rugs. And then, shortly after Christmas, the moving bug bit and we moved the room around again, and we have finally, finally found the perfect fit for everything. 4 shelves side-by-side all along one of the short walls and it looks so good! The couch is back in front of the window, the TV opposite. The chairs are always being pushed around by kids who can't seem to settle in just one chair or fight to share another chair. But by golly! We did it! The room feels right.

5 years of coming home to a house we enjoy living in. 5 years of tucking our children to bed and waking up to another sunshiny day. 5 years of gathering around the table to say grace and eat our meals together. 5 years of a life made better by living in a home full of love. It's been a joy to live here, to share this house with Andrew and the kids, and now my Mom as well. It's not the perfect house, we still dream of a different house, sometimes, and a different location, but for right now, at this time of our lives, it's a great house and it fits us. But most importantly, I'm so happy that it's with my family-- my husband and my children; because without them, there's no home.

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