Home Sweet Home. Life as One Big Vacation.

John captured this photo of Kylie late afternoon yesterday after we arrived home.  How could we resist that face?  We couldn’t and she got lots of hugs and kisses!

It feels wonderful to be back home.  Vermont and the mountains will remain in my heart always, and though I feel like I could live there, I also don’t think I am quite ready to leave what is home sweet home to me.  Maybe later in my life I’ll venture there for good– or maybe it will be in a different life time.  Who knows.

All I know right now is I’m happy to be back in my writing cottage and grateful to have gone to Vermont, where I always wanted to visit.  I’m so happy to hug and kiss Kylie again. She was SO HAPPY to see us, as we were happy to see her, too.  I can’t seem to hug and love her enough.

As I shared while on vacation,  we visited the Tasha Tudor museum (children’s book author/illustrator) where we were able to watch the one and only documentary that Tasha let camera’s into her home, and her only interview about her life.  I can’t get out of my head the one thing, of many things of wisdom she said, but what really sticks with me about how others have viewed her life as hard, but when asked about this she said, “My whole life has been a vacation.  I never saw it as hard.”

As our vacation was winding down a friend posted on my Facebook wall to enjoy the last days of our vacation as we would have to come back to “reality” soon.  Perhaps to imply that we were out of touch being on vacation and soon it would be back to the “grind” of life.  I used to see life that way and would say the same thing to others coming back from vacation.  But I try not to do that anymore.  As much as I enjoyed vacation, I love coming back to my “reality.”  I love routine and structure. I love the life I’ve created with my sweet hubby.  And yes, it is not always easy– been some really tough times– but looking back at those times we can say we made it– and continue to make it.

It also made me think that we have to carve out time for mini vacations even just at home. I love doing my Yoga practice every morning, but quite honestly, I was tired of it as we left for vacation.  As I did my first practice again after 14 days of not doing it, it felt incredibly good.  I thought to myself that perhaps even when home, it’s okay to let it go for a week when I am bored with it– it’s okay.  I came to my practice today with a whole new energy and it was awesome.

Tasha lived a very busy life with all that she did, but as I watched the documentary it didn’t feel that way.  She did everything she loved from her creative work of illustrations, to writing, to making goat milk and soap from her own goats, to tending her huge garden, to close to 100 birds she cared for, to cooking, cleaning, tea with friends, taking care of at least two corgi’s at a time, and her family.  But everything she did, she never hurried it and it simply got done.  She truly enjoyed every moment of her life and only did what brought her joy.  So indeed, that is a vacation and something I plan to strive even more for right here at my Home Sweet Home.

PS:  The Tasha Tudor documentary is called, “Take Joy” and it is so fitting to how Tasha lived her life and what I plan to try to take more of too.