Home, Home on the Range

Home is a tricky word. Is it where you were born? Where you grew up? Where you've lived the longest? Where you live now? Home is where your heart is, so your real home's in your chest (Captain Hammer). I think it's easy to accumulate homes but it's hard when your current plot just doesn't make the cut. Despite having lived in the prairies for nearly three years, I find myself referring to Ohio and Southern Indiana as home. I've had a hard time grafting myself into this clay soil. Maybe it's how many times Buddy Holly and I have moved in those short three years. Maybe it's the fact that I never really imagined myself here to begin with. It is taking time but I am coming to call this home. I find myself saying "ya'll," I talk to my house and genuinely miss it when I'm away, and I'm beginning to think only mountains could improve on those sweeping sunsets.

But really, I think it's people that make your home. It's challenging for me to be so far from my natal family and I dearly miss my Belle and Pocahontas. But Buddy Holly, Drake, and Elena are my home. I will follow him, follow him wherever he may go. And I have had so many wonderful individuals make this patch of the Plains more homey. It's hard being a forward-thinking, progressive, bleeding heart liberal in redneck territory and I really don't think I could claim this land as my land without the likes of other like-minded folks. Where would I be without Miss Right? How could I survive mundane Mondays without coffee time with Charlotte and Esmeralda? With whom else can I share elucidating conversations about Mao Zedong, Sarah Palin, Henry VIII, and Downton Abbey - all before ten in the morning? And though she's gone to God's Country (apparently that's in Ioway), my first years in the Plains would have been rough ridin' without Kari.

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to get around to is that my mother always told me to bloom where I'm planted. I'm just thankful for the companions that make this garden more lovely.

Geddyup Jingle-horse!

 I love having big, lazy, brown dogs. I also love capturing them in their natural lazy element.


Elena is not exactly what you'd call ladylike.

The lump they are curled around is my leg.

 

Just a mess of brown dogs.

 But they also have their moments of intense symmetry.

Synchronized napping.





Synchronized chagrin.





It's almost Christmas. Perhaps, you knew. I had my shopping and wrapping done way early this year , by which I mean December 3rd, because we will be visiting my family, which requires traveling and so I had to have everything done. Also due to traveling, we did not have a tree this year. We always have a live tree but there's no point when we're going to be gone for most of that time. But I couldn't help doing a little decorating.



Cashewlock Holmes - crackerjack private investigator

My zany music stand lent itself to multi-colored lights.



 

Reindeer are my favorite Christmas motif and a perfect backdrop to a cozy cup of cinnamon hot cocoa. Tasty!

 

 P.S. Buddy Holly and I have agreed that if ever we purchase a horse, we will name it Jingle.