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A Long Way From Home
Home is where the heart is. An old but true maxim for me so first and foremost home has to be with my family: those who live with me, and those who don’t but drop by often. Grown children, grandparents, aunts and uncles, we see them all often.
Home means somewhere safe and secure, but for many of the children I’ve fostered this hasn’t been true in the past. I spend time making sure they feel safe in this their new home. It is so important and something many of us take for granted.
Home means somewhere to relax and feel comfortable, away from the outside world, for all family members.
Having said that I am a people person so I like my friends and my children’s friends to visit our home.
A garden is part of my home, especially in summer when we can open the patio doors and invite the outside in. Bird song, long evenings, with the patio doors wide open is bliss for me. Before I was lucky enough to own a house with a garden I made do with the opening the window and gazing out.
I love having photographs of my family on show in my home. Framed photographs adorn many of the walls and shelves. A photograph captures a moment in time that can never be repeated. I hold family photos very dear.
Victorians were the ones who started having potted plants in their homes and I like my home to have some plants. They seem to thrive. But the saying that plants are like children and don’t like to be moved is true. Some of the children I have fostered have had multiple moves and struggle to thrive and put down roots.
My home also means having a family dining table. We try to eat together every evening, more at weekends. It’s a social place where we can meet, eat, talk and share our days.
A cosy bed that welcomes me after a long day is a must.
I like a pleasant smell as I enter my house to welcome me home. Flowers in summer or a reed diffuser in winter. The one I have at present is jasmine.
Last but not least home is where I can be me, warts an’ all. No pretence no having to put on a brave face for the outside world. Just me and my family.