Less House More Home

I give full credit of the title of this post to our dear friends who gave us a sweet gift upon our arrival home.  The gift included a beautiful blue sign saying, "Less House More Home."  My first thought was how thankful I was to have friends that know us so well.  For the past few months we've been talking about how reducing the size of our homes would give us more time to live in them.

So here I am, finally in our new home, finally moved out of our old one.  We tried to move 3 years ago. We've talked about moving for many more years than that.  This time, everything came together perfectly.  Everything worked out.  This time, we moved.

When we were about 5 miles away from our new house after our trip home from Montana, I started getting butterflies in my stomach, the same kind you get when you're about to meet someone new.  I felt anxious and excited.  I was finally going to get to walk into our house when it belonged to us.  I had visited it many times while they were still building it, but I didn't get to move in when my family did. They moved in a week before me.  They got to spend a couple of nights there.  I hadn't been there yet. I was thrilled, yet nervous like it might not like me.  I knew a house couldn't do that, but I felt nervous anyway.

We walked in and saw the thoughtful gift from our friends.  Each day since we came home, I have read that sign over and over as I walk through our house and unpack and organize and make it home.  I'm not sure of the moment when your house becomes your home.  Perhaps it is when the bed shows up, that's where you will sleep.  It could be the arrival of the furniture where you will sit and socialize. Maybe the presence of the dishes upon which you will share meals with family and friends makes it home.  It could be the pictures that decorate the wall and remind you of where you've been and what is important to you that turn it into a home.

For me, it was the moment that I realized I was happy be in it.  I was happy to sleep in my room, to use my bathroom, to clean up the kitchen after a meal, to walk through the halls, to simply see it and know that it is the place where I will rest and settle and enjoy all the gifts life gives.

Technically, the making of a home takes nothing but the presence of a person who settles there.  Our old house was our home for a very long time and we enjoyed it, but there was always something between us and it that didn't mesh.  We were a bit different.  Our old house encouraged us to be separate and live in our own spaces.  Our new ones encourages us to be together, we like being together better.  Our old house asked to be fixed and maintained constantly, our new one enjoys being cared for, we prefer the caring.  Our old house forced it's lifestyle on us, our new one welcomes our lifestyle to exist with it.

We are very happy, very content, and eternally grateful.  We know this is a gift.  We know we are blessed and welcome the many years we have to be at home in our new house.