The Comforts of Home

March 17, 2015
 
The days here are slowly trying to warm.
Mother Nature's gentle pushes trying to nudge old man winter out is met with chilled air and snow flakes. 
It's once more that time of year when your not sure what to even wear when you leave the house.  The weathermen predict temperatures in the forties and fifties and the thermometer reads thirties.  But the minute you walk out of the comfort of  your warm home, the sun shining down on you reminds you spring is winning.
 
We had our day planned out today.  One that was a long time coming and thoughts of it kept me up a bit last night.  Nothing dramatic mind you. Just a small milestone that can be appreciated by those who have been here too.
 
Today we paid off our home. 
 
When we were married, I moved into my husbands one bedroom, three room house.  A new wife and a small child would make this cozy dwelling...even cozier. And maybe it is what helped build the foundation of our relationship.
 
But truth be told, cozy can't cut it when you go from one to three.  So we purchased the house in front of ours.  A large half of a double house. it was the most common style of home in our area.  The great thing about that was the cost was incredibly small...and the house was huge.  My first home. A place to plant my "roots" after a life of moving around a lot.
 
Here everyone had a place...but it didn't have a garage.  I have spent a lifetime of doing without so that didn't mean much for me...but it did for my husband.
We worked hard in making that house our own....even though it was connected to someone else's dream as well.
And after a short amount of time, the neighbors next door sold without asking us if we wanted it and we had a new kind of fun to experience.
 
We laugh about it now, hindsight and all....but what we thought was the new neighbors cooking drugs turned out to be he was making...bombs.
Apparently he didn't like his employer....and he was found out. 
 
It wasn't long after we found this single dwelling house and moved that we heard about what had happened...I mean who knew?  I thought his wife was just a bad cook...
 
But we were here... Here with a mortgage and all of the bills that go along with it.
 
Life.
 
And you plan your life...or so you think for all of the ups and downs that you think could happen... never expecting some that do.
 
But you meet all of those challenges one day at a time...while cozy and warm and grateful you are so blessed.
 
When we took the loan all of those years ago, we did so that the house would be paid for by the time hubby retired...twenty years ago... I was so young and had no idea...all I knew is I was a homeowner.
 
Today...the feeling was so different. Maturity. Life. Experience.
Today the culmination of those years hit me.
 
I stood in the bank as the last of the loan was paid...and I felt the tears coming. With him at my side I refused to let them out.  His hard work...my hard work...

The bank clerk handed me the receipt and congratulated us....

And then they came.

I was sipping tea tonight against the wall of the kitchen and hubby asked what I was doing.

Hugging My house.