country roads, take me home, to the place i belong...

I just read my last post for the first time in many weeks.  I was a bit amazed by what I read.

"But...I dream of space...and trees...and peace...and quiet...and stars...and maybe chickens...goats...barefoot girls running across a big open yard and around trees and squealing with delight...growing our own vegetables...fruit trees...blueberries... blackberries...scuppernongs...all those little trees and plants that Brandon has dug up on walks and transplanted and nurtured finally finding a permanent home...a quirky old house that doesn't have to be so perfect...room to roam and explore...room to be messy...room to create...somewhere I can plant herbs in an old sink and no one will complain...somewhere to reconnect and escape.

And Brandon would say, within a good school system and near a good grocery store. ;)"

We closed on the sale of 1928 Bungalow at the end of June.  In mid-June, my mother-in-law went back to the neighborhood where my husband grew up.  She stayed with her former next door neighbor and spent days visiting old friends.  In doing so, she discovered that the house across the street was coming up for rent in the next thirty days or so...and it was in our price range...and it was on two acres of land...and it was in a fabulous school district...and the homeowner has a HUGE garden between his house and the rental house...and that the owners were old friends of the family.

Tonight my children sleep in a large bedroom painted pink and purple, with room to spread out their toys and play.  Tonight we sleep with windows open to the sound of crickets. Tomorrow morning I will possibly see the family of deer that live in the neighborhood and visit us almost daily, including two fawns that have almost no fear of us.  Tomorrow I will drink my tea on the front porch which is just a few feet short of the width of our entire lot at 1928 Bungalow.  Tomorrow my children will run in the grass in this huge yard and look for the turtle that lives here as well.  Tomorrow we will take a walk down a quiet road where they can run in the middle of the street as we walk.  

The house is not old and it is not new but it is comfortable and it feels like home.  It is like returning home even though I've never lived here; everyone here watched my husband grow up and it is an amazing support network already built into place before I ever even knew it existed.  My children get to have my childhood, and his, and their own.  It feels safe.  It feels good.

As I sat and watched the girls play in the backyard the other day, I noticed how familiar the patio table placement seemed.  It's at the back corner of the house, under some trees.  It's not exactly like my dream but it's uncannily similar.

And the grocery stores?  Ten minutes away in one direction we have a choice of three situated across the street from each other.  And one more within ten minutes in the other direction.  And in between?  Pasture and fields...cows and horses, goats and donkeys...stars and open sky.