New Home: A block about moving....

No, we are not moving anytime soon. At least, not that I know of. But as I continue on in showing you the squares, now block centers, of my Diary Quilt I've arrived at the block titled "New Home."

One of the suggestions in the book was to include a block tribute to your first home together in married  life, or the family home you built with your husband/children, or whatever favorite abode you had in your life.

I laughed.

Because we've had lots. More than our fair share, really.

In our thirteen and a half years of married life, we have lived:

• in a converted garage, attached to my in-law's home
• in a small 2-bedroom "married student" apartment while The Chemist finished his BS degree
• in a larger 2-bedroom apartment after he graduated
• in an even larger 3-bedroom apartment in time to make room for The Artist to join our family
• in a very nice 3-bedroom rental  house
• in our first ever, very own 3-bedroom house that we owned
• in a small 2-bedroom + office rental house when The Chemist started with the current employer
• (in a 2-bedroom hotel suite for a month, but we debate on whether to count that or not)
• in a 4-bedroom, 10th floor apartment 
• and now in a 3-bedroom rental home 

Nine homes. Plus the month-long hotel stay that The Chemist says doesn't count. In less than 14 years. I think you'll agree, "New Home" has sort of been a theme in our life thus far. 

"New Home"
the movement suggested by the pinwheel was an obvious choice for our nomadic lifestyle
and the red at the corners a tribute to The Chemist, who holds us all together each time we move

In fact, The Artist used to ask when it was time to trade houses again. He also offers that, still, as a possible solution anytime we complain about any aspect of whatever house we live in at the time. Too many ants in the summer? Why not move. Needs painting? Why not move. Not that we've ever moved for silly reasons like that, but he's developed the opinion that houses are not permanent things. 

I'm not so fond of that attitude, and wonder if we've not messed him up for life, teaching him that houses change, no big deal. 

On the flip side, I console myself with the very desirable truth -- that what he has learned instead is that family is what makes a house a home, not location. That family is permanent and nonnegotiable, even if living quarters change on you. To meet change head-on, unafraid, because the family will be together no matter what and that's the part that counts. 

I do still hope that one day we'll settle down, that one day our record length of time in one house will be longer than three years. But I'm glad the boys know that stability comes from family, not from the walls around us. And that is worth memorializing in the quilt, for sure. 

How many times have you moved in your adult life? and are you happy with that number?