Together on Tuesday: There's No Place Like Home

Home is where the heart is . . . home is wherever I'm with you . . . home sweet home. I've been thinking more about home lately . . . well, more about houses and where we'd like to live for the next chunk of our life. And babies change everything.

I wish I had studied abroad in college. I can't think of a better time to live somewhere else. Now, as a married woman, and especially as a mama, it is all but off the table. I still dream of it. I've had flashes of moving here countless times:

This is our Russian home, Sovietsk, in Kirov region. It's beautiful. Life is slower, though not always simpler. The people are warm and welcoming, and we love the children who live here with all our hearts. Daydreams often take me here.

I've always had the travel bug, and though I travel much less than I would like, everywhere I go I imagine living there. I could see myself bounding around, as long as I had my people with me. Life near mountains . . . or water . . . or in a slower-paced culture, away from materialism . . . it's all very appealing.

So if the opportunity came to move to some wonderful destination, would we take it?

The payoff would have to be amazing, and we would have to have finances and schedules that allowed frequent, regular trips to family. And even then, I'm not convinced we would say yes. Reality almost never lives up to the dream, and building a life away from treasured family and friends requires a lot of sacrifice. We've lived somewhere where we knew no one, and we said it would take a LOT for us to do that again. If I could teleport--my superpower of choice--this conversation would be SO different. But I can't.

My son needs stability and roots. He needs grandparents nearby, aunts & uncles, cousins, friends. He needs a sense of home. I was lucky enough to grow up with one. No way would I take that from him. So would I leave home for greener pastures? Never say never, but right now . . . No.

Indianapolis is my home, and it has been Ben's home for 7 years now. It gets a bad rap, but I love it, and it keeps getting better. (Though for the record . . . more innovative vegetarian restaurants couldn't hurt!) My people are here, and Ben's family is in easy driving distance. I could easily list what I love and what I could use more of in Indianapolis, but I think I'm going to focus on the house itself. Now we live in a little ranch in Beech Grove, and we are pondering moving on . . . staying home, in Indianapolis, but finding a new little nest to call our own.

We don't want to lose some of the things we love about our current nest: safe, walkable neighborhood (where we can literally run out to the store at just about any time), nice backyard for the boy and the garden, good neighbors, 10 minutes from downtown, close to grandparents and friends. But we wouldn't mind losing the busy street, one little bathroom, two little bedrooms, and nowhere sneaky to hide the litter box. (Eww.)

For years Ben and I have been eyeing downtown living, Fountain Square, Irvington, or SoBro/Meridian Kessler/Butler Tarkington neighborhoods. We love the vibe of older homes, and we believe in using existing structures to their fullest instead of building new. We want a diverse neighborhood, in many senses of the word. We want to be in walking distance to parks, groceries, food and entertainment, and even friends. We are weighing driving--to work, to church, to grandparents and friends--in terms of time, money, and environmental impact. If we could find a home that minimized energy use and maximized natural light, that would be great. If we could find an older home that was affordable, ready to go, and didn't require much upkeep, that would be a miracle.

What's crazy to us is we are finding quite a bit of that in a neighborhood we never imagined . . . the good ol' subdivision. Yep, we're considering it, quite seriously. While the one we're considering isn't in walking distance to stores, that is pretty much the only thing missing from our list. And it happens to have a pretty great family already living there.

We don't ask for a lot, we just want a simple home where we can focus on what really matters to us . . . you know, just living. So, it just may be that this little boy is moving me from wild dreams of living abroad to a little subdivision where he can ride his bike and play with his friends. And that is perfectly OK with me.

Check out Charlotte, Danielle, Michelle, and Nancy to see if the grass is greener on the other side of their fences.