Home

I am trying to get better about writing and posting here consistently. To that end Here goes another subject I have been thinking about.

This morning I had the opportunity to talk with a young man who has done some work around our house. He commented on how much he likes our backyard and the decorating we have done there. I would like to take credit but I admit it is mostly my wife. I'm just the unskilled labor. Still I do get to enjoy it.

The conversation reminded me that I have had the blessing and privilege for almost 33 years of being married to a beautiful lady who has always made whatever place we lived in a home. A place where our children, and now grandchildren, have felt comfortable and secure, a place where family and friends have been welcome, a place where the worries of the world can be forgotten, or tackled, depending on the need.

One of our first places was a cottage in an affluent community. It was actually a duplex/studio. We lived in one side, a little kitchenette on the back wall, our small dining room table on another wall and our bed/couch on the front wall. We did have a separate bathroom and a hallway/closet between the main room and the bathroom, but it was less than 400 square feet. We lived there with our oldest daughter who turned one while we lived there. I don't remember ever feeling cramped, but it did feel like home.

From that studio we moved to another cottage, it sat behind another house on a busy street in the heart of Orange County California. It appealed to me because it had a separate bedroom for our daughter. My wife and I had our bed in the front room, although we rarely used the front door, it opened into the backyard of the front house. It had a large kitchen with room for our dining table, a hand-me-down a relative was going to throw out. The bathroom was different. When you went from the front room to the kitchen you walked through the bathroom, on the left was the toilet and sink, with a door, on the right was the shower with a curtain.

It seems like we had a lot of visitors in that cottage. We moved there for my job but my wife had relatives who lived close by also. For awhile we had relatives who would just hang out at our house, it was inviting, comfortable, a place people didn't seem to want to leave.

We have never lived in a large, fancy house. Our present house is the first we've ever owned. But each place we have lived in has felt like home.

We have often had people tell us that they like our home, inside and out. A few years ago one young lady, a friend of one of our children, told us she and her family had bought a home in a neighboring town. After we congratulated here she said, "now we just need you and your wife to come help us put our backyard together. I just love your house and backyard." I accepted the compliment then told her it is all my wife's doing, but she doesn't hire out, to her, my wife, our house and yard are still a work in progress.

This year it is my goal to get my wife to scale back on some of that work and sit back and enjoy the hard work she has put into making our house a home.

I realize this post may be seen as a little mushy. Next one I'll make a little more manly!