Submitted by Melony, Spokane

A home is more than just a house with four walls. It is for raising babies up to young men. It is for celebrating all life’s events from birthdays, good report cards, anniversaries, Halloween (with parties for ALL the friends), family holidays and family visits. It has memories of little ones snuggling into your lap for a board book after they’ve taken a bath and are warm and sleepy in their footed pajamas. It has memories of daddy and son wrestling matches. It is also memories of some sad times that are far outweighed by all the good times. A home is more than just people…it is furry friends. It is one-on-one conversations with girlfriends over a cup of coffee or tea, and tea parties for bridal showers or groups of friends whose conversation and laughter ring through the house. A home has wonderful neighbors alongside and just down the street…the kind of neighbors you can call when you realize you are short an egg or a cup of sugar in the middle of a recipe. The kind of neighbors you can call when you feel like your life is falling apart and you need to get out of the house for a walk. A home is full of everyday and fancy meals and also boxed macaroni and cheese. A real home is full of laundry, laundry, laundry…and dirty dishes. That sometimes have to wait because building a new Thomas the Tank track is more important. But while all these things are precious and good they will be memories from this home. We will keep in contact with our friends and family here. But the four of us plus our two furry family members will go to a new place with four walls and do new things that make new memories and will make that house a home.

Thank you so much for sharing your definition of home Melony! We love it. In honor of home we are dedicating the next few months on our blog to posts about Home. We would love to hear from our readers…how do you describe home? Submit photos, poems or a short essay. Each home story will be reviewed and could be placed on our blog.

If your story is featured we would like to use your first name and city. Send all submissions to homes@steveandtracy.net. Use #homestoriesbysteveandtracy. Feel free to enclose a photo with your story. We can’t wait to hear about your home.