Feeling Nostalgic...

What makes a home?  

Is it the family and loved ones that share the walls with you?  

The colors you pick out to dress up the walls (and the colors they pick out to scribble up the walls)?  

The pillows you lovingly create for your family to lounge against (or to build forts and barbie houses with)?  

The decor and pictures that adorn the nooks and crannies (even the homemade Mothers Day variety)?  

The meals your family has come to call favorites (like top ramen, cream tuna, and don't forget the trusty oatmeal, waffles, and cold cereal...we're going for high class here...).  

Or perhaps the laughter and pitter-patter of feet that makes it come alive?

Or is it the bookshelf that holds your children's favorite bedtime stories?  

Or possibly the actual stories that are told within the walls of a home...from the scriptures, a favorite magazine, or from Izzie's amazing imagination?  

Is it music that fills the air?

For me, it's a little bit of all of them.  Certainly just having my family with me is enough.  But to me, there is a great appeal to homemaking.  Truly, It is an art.  I am the MAKER of our HOME.  That, coupled with being the mother of our home...What a greater calling could there possibly be?

I dusted the shelves and cleaned the house from top to bottom one last time... and then snapped away to document the walls of this home...this home that we are forced to walk away from.  This home that I have poured my heart and soul into as I have every other, this home that we wanted to raise the kids in and spread our roots...

But I'm okay with it.  Truly, it's a difficult situation but I can see the positives and the 'twisted' stability that will come out of this decision that we would not have made on our own.  The walls of our home will always be filled with that same love, the same crazy sounds of six children bustling about, the same aromas, the same care.  I may not be able to call it 'ours' and express myself freely, but it will still be 'a home'...  I will always be the Maker of our Home.

THAT IS, if someone will finally choose us and let us sign a lease!  We have been discriminated against in trying to secure the perfect place for our family.  It's been an eye-opening and truly astounding experience...frustrating, to say the least.  And the thing is...the ones who have 'rejected' us have actually come out and said, "the owner just doesn't want to rent to such a large family."  Excuse me, who else did you want to reside in a five bedroom 3000 sq ft+ home?  Something will work out soon... soon, we'll know what address we'll call 'home' this summer and beyond.

As we're sitting amongst some packed boxes and bare walls (I am trying to pace myself and not leave it for the last minute), I am soaking in the feelings I have for our current home...feeling a bit nostalgic.  There isn't a corner in this place that I haven't touched with love or that isn't saturated with memories...in only three short years.  

A few of my corners...  okay, a lot of my corners...  actually, EVERY corner.  Just so I'll never forget our 'castle.'