I had a revelation as I was driving to the grocery store earlier this week thinking about my 3rd born. His 10th birthday was a few days ago and we moved to Lemont when I was 8 months pregnant with him. That means we have lived in Lemont for 8 years {I know what you’re thinking, that my math is off. We moved away for 2 years but we still owned the house so it all adds up to 10 in the end}.
8 years in one place. That’s a record for me. 42 years old & I’ve never lived anywhere longer than 5 years – until now.
If you would ask me today, “Where are you from?” my answer would include a pause, followed by a smile and “Well, it’s a long story but I live in Lemont, Illinois now.” After 8 years, you would think that I would call Lemont home, right?
My entire life has been in a place of transition. From birth until today, I have moved 23 times. Half of those moves happened before I got married & the rest have been with my adventurous husband. Looking at my past, it’s no wonder that it has taken me a while to call Lemont home, even though I have lived here the longest that I have ever lived anywhere!
When I pulled into the grocery store parking lot I immediately grabbed my phone to text Greg & shared with him my revelation. I had to apologize to him because it has taken me too long time to call Lemont home. I felt guilty and selfish.
I spent the next 3o minutes filling up my grocery cart, lost in my thoughts for a while. As I was driving home, the guilt & selfishness slowly melted away as I realized this truth: Lemont isn’t home.
Home isn’t about the name of a town. Home isn’t about your mailing address. Home is about the people.
Every time we have moved, Greg & I have always said “it’s not about the place, it’s about the people.” Everywhere we have lived, we have met some incredible people. People that we now call family. Lemont is the same.
You put in roots where you are planted. Some places require a little more work to prepare the ground for the seeds that will be sowed. Sometimes you have to clear out the weeds first.
Moving back to Lemont after being away for 2 years has had it’s challenges. Friendships we had before weren’t the same. We were not embraced by some and that was hard. More for me than for Greg. For the first time in the three years we’ve been back, I finally realized that I needed to let that go.
Thankfully, God didn’t wait for me to get my act together before bringing new people into our lives & giving us a renewed sense to embrace the ones that stuck by us.
Want to know the bigger truth?
I hope that our home, whether it’s Lemont or the place that will be #24, will be a small glimpse of the place that I will gladly call home one day – Heaven.
Side note: On Gunnar’s first day of high school, he sent me a text during his lunch asking if he could stay after school & get some info about the freshman football team. His friends “recruited” him & of course he went & loved it. His first game was last weekend {he plays defense} & I was the one in the stands watching with one eye closed. Sadly, one of the players on the other team took a tough hit & he had to be carted off the field into an ambulance. Justification for watching with one eye closed, right?
ps – I was also the mom in the stands quietly taking pictures & pretending to be a sports photographer {that’s him making the touchdown saving tackle!}.
Our garden is growing. Slowly & small, but it’s growing.
Our family has decided to ditch the sweets for the month of September. We aren’t being legalistic about it, just choosing to not have desserts every night after dinner. We all realized that we over-indulged on the sweets this summer & it can’t hurt to take a break. And whatever happened to dessert being spontaneous instead of expected? Dessert loses it’s specialness if it’s always expected after a meal, doesn’t it? {at least that’s what I’m telling myself & my kids this month…}
So, what do I do all day now that my kids are all in school? I know you’re all dying to know. Well, maybe not all of you but it has come up in conversations and emails and text messages.
Obviously, that isn’t an exhaustive list of everything I do, just some of the new stuff. If I really listed everything, you’d be completely bored. Maybe one day I’ll do a “day in the life” post just for fun so you can see how completely exciting my life is that day! {wink}
Rarely do I get on a soapbox but here it goes: What other profession {and yes, stay at home moms and/or dads is a profession!} gets asked the question “What do you do all day”? Can you think of one? I can’t. If I asked my friend that’s a doctor, “What do you do all day?” they’d laugh. Am I right? The job we’re doing of raising babies to toddlers to kids to teenagers to young adults to adults is a profession. The hardest one in the world. Just because we have the privilege of staying home doesn’t make it less difficult.
Thanks for sticking with me on this journey and reading my random thoughts & daydreams. I am truly thankful for you.
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6. A wedding. Congratulations to Jonathan & Whitney!
7. Family reunion!
8. Grandpa’s visit & homemade ice cream!
9. Brown Sugar Maple Bacon ice cream! {If you’re in the Asheville, NC area, find 
10. We went to our first 
1. Driving & Dreaming ~ long road trips are the perfect time for Greg and I to discuss dreams. We talk about BIG dreams. Then ponder for a while then come back to it. Dreams sessions while driving make long road trips seem shorter.
2. Also, apparently some people can fall asleep while riding on the back of a motorcycle going 70 mph – that’s a whole different level of dreaming!
3. Another “Last First” ~ Eden lost her first tooth. She is my youngest child so this is another “last first” of many for our family.
6. Stainless steel can remove the smell of onions, garlic, etc from your hands! Where has this little snippet of knowledge been hiding all of my life?? Thanks Brad & Embassy Suites for this tid-bit of knowledge hanging up in your hotel elevator.
8. I have fallen in love with beets all over again! We planted them in the 
10. Did you know that your tear ducts can become clogged? I’ve heard about it happening with infants but not as an adult. What I thought was my emotions making my eyes water was actually a tear traffic jam! This will be a “to be continued” for Things I Will Learn in August. I have another appointment with my ophthalmologist in a few weeks to see if they can fix it. Let’s hope it’s a simple fix!
