I love to travel so much that sometimes I forget how much I love to be “home.”

• I love to wake slowly in a bed that doesn’t come with a checkout time.
• I love to sip my tea and read the news without hurry.
• I love knowing that there is absolutely nothing on the agenda for the day.
• I love having nowhere to go, and nothing I *have* to do.
• I love starting a load of wash while chatting with a faraway friend, comparing notes, morning and evening, on opposite sides of the globe.
• I love spending a long hour just hanging out with The Man, talking about nothing… today we spent that hour in the hot tub.
• I love starting dinner before I start lunch, a long meal project that is art, and not just a means to an end.
• I love taking a long walk through town, wandering in and out of shops, stopping to watch the boys tear around the skate park with new friends.
• I love going to the market and buying raspberries on a whim, realizing I can make a pie tomorrow if I like.
• I love The Man pouring me a gin & tonic as I make a green salad to go with dinner and hearing the kids playing in the living room.
• I love dinner around a table that actually seats six, the boys laughing, Hannah making silly faces.
• I love watching the sun melt into the sea behind an island from my comfy space beside the wood stove.

Today I did all of those things:

In a lovely little house nestled in behind Kapiti Island, on the fringe of Paraparumu Beach. We’re on our second day of a month long house sit, the first one that we’ve ever done, a foray into new waters. We’ve been entrusted with a home and a cute little fox terrier, Ramona, who is missing her people a little bit, but who’s trying hard to wag her tail and be cheerful, and show us the ropes around town.

Today, we rested.

The kids played games, and Tony with them. We played outside and threw sticks for Ramona on the beach. We bought Elisha new shoes (which he sorely needed.)

I cooked. 

My very first slow-roasted leg of lamb.

It was magnificent.

Of course tomorrow is Monday and there is much work to be done. We’ve set aside this time to dive into some new projects and make progress in a few places it needs to be made. But today, today we were home, and we rested.

It was a beautiful thing.