GATHERING

It's no surprise I love to fill my home with people. Growing up our house was always busy. People coming and going. The smell of food cooking was a constant. Now, as an adult, I associate that smell with laughter/happiness/love.



I feel I have taken pieces of my parents' personalities with me into my life as a "grown up".



(so weird that I am actually a grown up now....I don't feel grown up)



My mom: always welcoming people with open arms and a smile. Wanting nothing more than to have her children and their friends running around her house giggling. We would stomp up and down the stairs playing who knows what...I can still hear the sound the metal stair rail made as it squeaked back and forth.



My dad: laid back and ready to laugh. If the people around him were having a good time, so was he. Such an easy laugher my dad is...and I love him for it. His name is Michael but my friends call him Mike....he didn't ask them to they just do. My friends nicknamed my dad...that's the kind of guy he is...and I love him for that too.



When Stone and I first bought our house I couldn't wait to fill it with happy memories of people gathering.

I day dreamed of our friends coming over for dinner/cookouts, to celebrate holidays or for no reason other than to laugh and have fun. I day dreamed of our kids and their friends playing in the backyard, running into the house for a snack (that like a good mama I have waiting for them) and then rushing back outside to finish their game of hide-n-seek. I want an old screen door, rickety and fragile, that slams every time "the kids" come trekking in and out.


A little ball of joy finds it's way into the pit of my stomach when I think about having my home full of the people I love most.