Scenes of Spring

If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard…because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.

If you recognize this line, perhaps you too love The Wizard Oz. It is my favorite movie of all time. And I mean, favorite – like collected memorabilia, took a senior picture with said memorabilia, and wrote a high school graduation speech all around the concepts explored in the Wizard of Oz. (Really wish I could find that speech.)

The concept of home is ever-changing for me. Not a singular location; rather, a growing collection of places over time. Sometimes you may find, like Dorothy, that it’s right back where you started. Or, it could be wherever you are at that moment.

Home has been many places for us. First, in Iowa, where we grew up, went to college and got married. Then it was Wisconsin, where we built our careers, adult lives and started to raise our kids. Even we would mix up the phrasing sometimes on the weekends we would drive back to Iowa. “Going home” was used as we traveled in either direction.

Now we use it to describe England. This hasn’t been an easy time; yet, in many ways, this quarantine has allowed us to embrace this part of the world as our home more than ever. Endless hours, days, weeks in our house, garden, or the surrounding roads…where we’ve spent almost 100% of our time since mid-March. (I do like a carefree drive to gather my click and collect groceries – freeeeedom!!)

I used to be nervous to take walks on the winding, narrow roads, until it was my only option. And suddenly, the walks became my time. The boys will be done with home school for the day, may or may not be fed, are usually running wild but on their way to winding down with a movie…Tim takes over and I pop my headphones in, phone close to a low battery, and escape to the lanes around me. Sometimes I take one loop by the open fields of animals, sometimes another loop that leads to the nearby woods.  I listen to podcasts that range from light-hearted pop culture topics to sad or existential.

Usually I hear that nagging voice inside of me to RUN. Get in better shape, lose some lbs., what good is a walk, when you should be RUNNING and burning calories!! But I’ve allowed myself to let go of that. I still like to run. I do P.E. with Joe (look it up on YouTube if you’re not familiar; we’ve done it almost every weekday morning since school was let out). Or I’ll take advantage of my free trials of Peloton spinning, Les Mills On Demand, or some other fitness company that pities me right now.

But at this point of the day, anywhere from 5 to 7 p.m., I just walk. Occasionally the boys come with me. Bennett and I talk, and get deeper than I imagined we could. Nate and I chat, and usually he comes up with hypothetical situations of things that could happen in Mario Odyssey or things he could build in Minecraft or funny lines that he read in Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Big Nate. But usually, it’s just me.

I’ve also then taken up the habit of literally stopping to look at what’s around me. Because time is passing. It may feel slow, especially right now, but I know it’s actually going too fast. Someday, I’ll think back to the time our time here and I will miss it.

So, instead of another wordy post (this is already longer than I envisioned), I wanted to post some photos I’ve taken in the past few weeks. Spring in Cheshire. Cows calving, ducks swimming, crops growing, baby lambs baa-ing, horses just being their amazing selves, blooming flowers and trees, and more. Pictures of home.

This boy had his 9th birthday a few days ago. Happy birthday, B. We love you. Sleep tight under the stars. The birds will be chirping again at 4 a.m.