Home

I decided I want to be more regular in posting on my blog. I got the inspiration from reading Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson. (Side note: this is a great book, and an easy read in one day if you need something to read. It was a DI special =). Perhaps you've heard or seen of Stephanie-she is a popular LDS mommy blogger who had burns over 80% of her body in a plane crash. In her book, she explains that while she and her family were living on the East Coast, she felt really homesick for her family and friends in Utah, so she decided to start a blog to reach out to those she was no longer physically close to.  I was inspired by her dedication and love for motherhood, and like her, I have felt the everyday joys of being a mother to beautiful children.

While I live hours away from the closest family, I feel so at home right where we are. I don't feel homesick, but I do want a way to document to myself and others what home and motherhood is to me on a daily basis. We have made friends quickly here, and we love the low-key environment and close community. This is our sixth place where we've lived in our 4 years of marriage. Our first few homes that we lived in were each temporary, mostly because we were still in school and we didn't know where our post-school plans would take us. Because we didn't anticipate living in those apartments for very long, we were able to endure tight, old, dirty or inconvenient living spaces.

When we took our first job in Magna two years ago, we were excited to have a real job and be in the real world on our own. It was the biggest apartment we had ever lived in, and it felt huge to us. (And then we had two more kids there and started to feel just a bit cramped by the end. . . .) When I look back on those first few months there, I remember feeling mixed emotions. Even though we had a good home, I remember feeling a heavy weight of worry. Mostly I worried about three things: not having a car, having a baby soon, and not having home internet. In time, each of those situations worked out well for us, and the absence of those things taught me self-reliance. We had good friends there, and we were sad to leave.

But here-we felt right at home from the first day. This was really the first move we've had that had ward members help. Previously, we lived close enough to family that they helped us. When he got here, someone brought us dinner that first night, someone else watched the girls while we unpacked, and we had a neighborhood fire pit that night. Our kids love playing with the neighborhood kids here in the complex (often nicknamed "The Compound"), especially the Gosneys (Spencer, 9, James, 7, Carrie, 3, and Leah, almost 1) and the Muhelsteins (Joy, 4 and Ammon, 18 months). Laura plays outside every day, rain or shine (unless she's grounded). Jacob has a garden that he loves. Lucy is just happy wherever we are or whoever she's with. Sam gets cuddles and lovin' from all the soon-to-be-grandmas in the ward. We have 7 closets in our apartment. Jacob walks 100 yards to go to work. We walk across the street (and two cattle guards!) to church. We have the missionaries over every Friday for dinner.

Life is good. We are so happy here. And it feels like home. Magna felt like home, but I think it took a while for me to really feel like home there. Perhaps that was because of the lack of those things mentioned above, or perhaps because our closest friends there moved in after we had been there a year or so. This feels right. This is right. I thought I would miss Magna, and in a way I do. But now it's just one of those previous homes that carries wonderful memories. .. similar to the home I grew up in. I had wonderful times there and I will never regret living there, but right now I am where I need to be.

I've got two naked girls who need to go potty, and a baby who's crying, but I'll throw in a picture of the view from our kitchen window.

Until later--

This was during a thunderstorm, and you can barely see a rainbow in the picture. Isn't this beautiful?!