Home

While I was catch-up-blog-reading this morning, I was struck by two very separate posts. One from Don Mills Diva about moving into a new home and all of her reasons for it. That was quickly followed by reading Chookloonks and her question: These days, how do you know when you're "home"?

I greatly enjoy DMD and admire their recent family choice to downsize and make their life work for them rather than working for their life. At the same age, and with less children, no doubt I'd have considered the same choice. Oh, that would have also required a different husband. Louis loves suburbia! I'm a downtown kind of girl. Oakville is our "compromise" and let me tell you, our most recent move, to Bronte, has made it far easier for me to embrace our suburban lifestyle.

I know I'm home when:

1. The temperature has dropped a few degrees and the wind has picked up.
2. The hum of the washer or dryer is constant.
3. I can have my morning cup of coffee on the balcony outside my room.
4. Hockey Night in Canada is enjoyed in the most comfortable leather chairs ever made.
5. Books can be found in every room of the house.
6. Shoes and sport equipment greet me as I walk through the front door.
7. During stormy days you can hear the lake from the front of the house.
8. Giggles and shouts of laughter (and the occasional fighting) come from the basement in the winter and the back yard all summer.
9. We can be surrounded by complete silence with every member in the house on a computer, iPod, DS or some sort of quiet pursuit.
10. Chloe wakes the house, only on the weekend (she sleeps in on school days), to her singing at the top of her lungs. Actually, all the kids sing at the top of their lungs and really think no one can hear them. I hear, I smile.

How do you know when you're home?