I'm a little nervous to try because during my time away I've taken an easy way of blogging by writing at my old blog to satisfy my need to create, but lately with comments turned off so that it's become more of a journal than a blog.
Many former bloggers have gone to Instagram now but that's just not me so Across the Way has worked for me. And yet I've missed the Window.
Back in January I had planned to do a one-year anniversary post of living here in this 1935 cottage that we now call Home Hill. But as you know, we'd had a rough fall and winter after losing Milo and Otis to leptospirosis, and then we were focusing on helping BreeBree and James Mason adapt to their new home. Time went by since my post about them and now summer is here, seemingly a good time to jump back into the water.
When I began looking for pictures to show you of Home Hill, I came across so many of the house we lived in while in Florida for 9 months after we moved from Valley View, our home in Tennessee of over 25 years. I only shared a few of the Florida pictures at the Window back in 2016 because...well, most of you know that I wasn't very happy there and I found it difficult to blog about.
So it occurred to me that it might help me to begin posting here again by sharing more of my Florida story with you, along with pictures that should help you to understand why I was such a fish out of my comfortable pond.
In order to do that I knew I had to start back at our 1920 home called Valley View.
Even though I am happier than anyone can imagine that our son Zack and our daughter-in-law Courtney now own Valley View, pouring their love and energy into it, I've had to admit that leaving it hit me hard.
I felt like I'd had a wisdom tooth pulled without any novocaine and definitely no laughing gas. It was just a couple of months ago that I was able to go back in my computer file of pictures of our lives at Valley View and not need the Kleenex box handy.
Twenty-six years in one beloved home forms you, has a part in making you who you are. It's not only part of your life, it almost is your life.
And so I will still do a post about this quaint little house we live in now, but I will begin with a post about Valley View next.
Then I will publish a post about our attempt to live in a Florida beach town.
I believe it will help me to do this and I hope it will help any readers who might still come to Dewena's Window to understand this process we've been through to downsize for our senior years in a way that was about as easy as having that wisdom tooth extracted with pliers.
Meanwhile, if anyone is curious to see posts that show that RH and I really have been around, even though incognito, I welcome you to visit us at my other blog:
Actually, after five months away from the Window, I hope you'll still find your way here!
Are you there?
I'm definitely here! I've been checking back every week or two, to see if you had a new post :-) And I didn't know about Across the Way. I will look there now as well!
ReplyDeleteMost of the time, if I read a blog regularly, I want to engage with the writer at least occasionally by commenting, even if they don't respond to most comments. Blogging is different that way, it seems, from reading a magazine article or the newspaper.
Thank you for checking back for me! And I have followed you in my daily feed, even when I didn't comment!
DeleteBut you're right, blogging begins to seem a little empty without that give and take of comments. So maybe I've hit on a solution that will work for me, the Window for keeping connections going and Across the Way for those frequent posts that are just something I want to quickly record.
Best to you, Gretchen Joanna!
Yes, I'm still here ... and happy to see you are back! Hope your time away has been restorative. I am looking forward to hearing about your journey as you share your home stories series.
ReplyDeleteI've blogged so little over the last couple of years that I thought I was losing interest. But I've come to realize that blogging is 'home' for me. I could never give it up completely. And even though I thought readers would be getting tired of the same old kinds of posts, it turns out that's what many of us, who are still here, like. Sharing the simple pleasures of every day life -- what we do in the kitchen, what we read, what pursuits we pour our hearts into, what we do in the garden and in our homes -- basically doing the same kinds of things day after day. It is in the way we offer our posts with our own flavour and viewpoint on all these similar activities that gives the newness to it.
You mention your being homesick for such a long time when you moved from Valley View. When I moved away from the home I had lived in for years as a single woman to marry my wonderful husband, it took me years to recover from my long roots being pulled up. I was very happy in my new life, but I felt the uprooting in my soul for a very long time. So, I completely relate to your own experience.
Happy blogging and mulling your stories. And we'll watch for them when you are ready to post. In the meantime, here's wishing you a beautiful day and a great summer ahead.
Brenda xox
Brenda, there is something missing when we give up on our blogs, isn't there? And then the more time that goes by the more difficult it becomes to return.
DeleteWhat you wrote here about sharing the simple pleasures of everyday life, I agree that these things are exactly what I love to read about too. Sometimes I read a blogger's post where they wonder if there daily events are even interesting as they have experienced fewer visitors and commenters. I have to tell them that those are the things I love knowing. I think it's obvious that people are just so busy now and there are so very many blogs to read. And also that there are times when we have to prioritize where our time goes, right?
Thank you for telling me about your experience of being uprooted from a home you loved--even when it was to a new home where you were happily married! Wow, homes are such a part of us, aren't they?
Thank you for visiting and best to you,
Dewena
Welcome back my dear friend. I will be interested in reading your transition stories. Sometimes we have to make hard choices when we reach a certain age. I often wonder how long don and I can keep up this house. Each year it gets harder and we have to rely on more people to help us out. I want to stay here as long as we possibly can but the prospect of being closer to my sons weighs on my mind. I am so glad that you have come back to Tennessee and Home Hill. I can’t wait to read all about your decisions.
ReplyDeletePeggy, I hope you can manage to stay there as long as it is best for you. I know that you love it so. I also know how often you travel to be with family. I think you'll know what decision to make when the time is right. Meanwhile just enjoy your beloved home, and those family visits!
DeleteBest to you,
Dewena
I'm glad I'm subscribed to your email newsletter since it alerted me to this post! I understand if you don't want to deal with comments - that's your prerogative. But to hear about home is such a comfort in this day and age even if the home had some blips. It's a journey! Welcome back!
ReplyDeleteOops, replied to you below!
DeleteThanks for visiting, Leslie Anne!
ReplyDeleteI am finding a big change since I last posted here--comments aren't sent to my email anymore. Instead I have to go to "design", then click comments, then click "awaiting moderation". So is this what bloggers on blogger have been talking about?
Blogging changes but home is always home, thank God, or it should be!
Best to you,
Dewena
Welcome back to Dewena's Window, although I have visited Across The Way several times …
ReplyDeleteBlogging does change, some stay while others go, it is important to do how we feel …
I for one am pleased to see you back.
All the best Jan
Thank you so much, Jan! Everything changes, doesn't it? Sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad, but even that we get used to, don't we?
DeleteBest to you,
Dewena
I am so GLAD that you are back here in blogland. I've had my blog since Sept. 2008. I'm not on twitter, instagram or FB. Blogging is so much more personal and homey, if you know that I mean.
ReplyDeleteI don't blog as much as I used to and part of the reason for that is losing my dear husband in 2012. Just not as much going on here now that he is gone. I do enjoy blogging though and enjoy reading others blogs.
I look forward to your 4 part series on your homes dear Dewena.
I can already tell from the pics that it is NO wonder you weren't happy in your FL home. That style just wouldn't suit me at all. :-) I know a lot of people are happy with that, we are all different. I live in a simple little cottage and have lived here for 45 years. It is my little haven, although quieter and lonelier without my DH. Lots of memories are here though and I am thankful for this little place.
Home is where our hearts are.
Love & hugs ~ FlowerLady
Loraine,your Plum Cottage would have suited me perfectly for a Florida home! You know how much I love your little haven. I hadn't realized you were blogging so long, even before you lost your dear husband. I want to go back sometime and read those.
DeleteBest to you, dear Flower Lady,
Dewena
P.S. Thanks for the link to your other blog. It is a real delight.
ReplyDeleteThat's so nice of you! A lot of my heart has been poured into it but it is very nice to be back here too.
DeleteWe are here and looking forward to your upcoming posts! I really feel a connection to you and appreciate every time you write.
ReplyDeleteThat is so sweet of you! Your comment reminds me of what this whole blogging experience is about.
DeleteBest to you,
Dewena
Dewena it is so good to see you posting again. I have missed your post. I know we have stayed in touch through emails and you coming on my blog but I have missed you being creative and sharing your life on your blog with us. Losing your sweet fur babies was so hard and I know sometimes when we are grieving we need to step back in life. Dealing with loss can drain any of us. Glad you adopted the two new fur babies. I hope they are settling in great. I know they have the best mommy and daddy to care for them. Have a great rest of the weekend.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Kris
Thank you so much, Kris! The compassion over Otis & Milo that you expressed to me during that time helped so much, and the welcome you gave our new ones. BreeBree and James Mason are doing great and I am so grateful to have them. They are a joy!
DeleteBest to you,
Dewena
Dewena, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pic of your Florida place. It’s lovely, but definitely NOT your style at all! Very cookie cutter, but that’s so typical of so many parts of Florida it seems.
ReplyDeleteI hope you’ll hurry up and write about your experiences (no pressure lol). I have a feeling we are all in for some good reading :)..
xxx
Isn't that strange, Doreen? As much as we've exchanged pictures in emails and yet there were so few glimpses into where we lived during that time. That has to tell us something, right?
DeleteI had planned to run Part 2 on Wednesday but maybe I should get it out there sooner? After all, you're going to be very busy in another week.
Best to you,
Dewena
What a wonderful surprise to find you here - I've just recently discovered that you've been posting on your "Across the Way" blog and was really enjoying reading that. You surely have a gift for words, describing all that is dear to an old heart (hopefully to young ones, too!) It would be wonderful to find you published before long. Please look into it!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm a blog reader only and haven't even been the least bit tempted by social media. I'll be reading you as long as you post, or as long as I can sit up and take nourishment!
I copied this from a calendar a long time ago - it wasn't attributed to anyone:
Home is the sacred refuge of our lives.
I just don't want to be anywhere else! Staying home and reading blogs - what could be better than that.
Wishing you all the very best, Dewena!
Thank you so much, Ruth! I appreciate so much that you read here and at Across the Way. I read blogs for several years before I began blogging and know that I will continue to even after I stop blogging someday, as long as my computer holds out.
DeleteI feel the same way as you do about home and I love that quote.
Wishing the best to you too, Ruth!
Dewena
I am so happy to see you back writing here. I've missed you and I know you needed to take some time with all of the recent events in your life, happy and sad. I will also go have a look at your other blog. You have such a gift for writing, I'm glad to know it's there.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I feel about moving. I lived in my family home until I was eighteen, I then became a wandering nomad, living in no fewer than ten places. When I got married we settled down in this house and that was thirty-two years ago. There have been times I've not enjoyed the old girl, she has a lot of quirks, and wrinkles covered up with makeup(!), but I fit here like a puzzle piece. Whatever I don't have here, I have at the lake. Like two mismatched mittens, but cozy all the same.
I'm so looking forward to your writings on your memories of Valley View. Have you ever heard the song The House That Love Built by Miranda Lambert? Its a goodie.
Sending love,
Jane
Oh dear Jane, it is the quirks and wrinkles of a home that I love the best. And I admire both your two mismatched mittens, what a great description of them!
DeleteOf course I've heard The House That Love Built, love it and adore the video!
Best to you, Jane,
Dewena
I'm a new reader, started right before your left. So, I'm happy to see you back. I've been blogging along time, too. And yes, it has changed but I think those of us who started long ago, find it comfortable. My problem or sadness is that I grew close to a lot of women who have left blogging. Some left for FB, others Instagam. I don't do either! So, I've been searching for "new" blogs of like minds. I love to blog!
ReplyDeleteSo, with that said, Welcome Back. I'm excited to get to know you.
Thank you, Christine, I'm so happy to meet you too!
DeleteI've missed bloggers who left too, some went to private blogs. But if they're happy, that's what's important. Now I'm going to go and try to find your blog! Hope to see you there.
Best to you,
Dewena
Yes, we're here, Dewena! I wasn't aware that you were posting at Across the Way. I'll have to go back and read some posts. I know a lot of bloggers have turned to Instagram exclusively. I can't do that as it doesn't allow for the creative expression I feel I have with blogging. I am looking forward to all four parts of your "Home" story. So happy to see you back here!
ReplyDeleteNow I don't feel so behind the times, not Instagraming, if Amy doesn't do it either!
DeleteThank you so much, Amy!
Best to you,
Dewena
ANY story you tell, I KNOW will be an excellent read. How lucky we are to be getting 3 stories about the different houses in your life, all important, I believe for having brought you to HOME Hill. It's the first time I'm hearing about the new name for your forever nest, and I can't wait to hear about the journey there!
ReplyDeleteSending love,
Poppy
Thank you, Poppy dear!
DeleteAnd Home Hill was my choice the first month we moved here but family members contributed some choices too, including a lovely one from Gurn--Sunset Pond. Nothing else really stuck in my mind though so Home Hill it is!
Love to you,
Dewena
and finally here I am right after PoppyK!
ReplyDeletebeing always late to the party gives the chance of reading all the wonderful comments and your replies. it's like dropping in on a lovely house party.
I am subscribed to both Across the Way and Dewena's Window. but every single subscription notice I have of blogs always arrives a day late! it's strange but true. I have long since stopped asking why. :)
I love that you will tell of us each place again.
I never tire of hearing of people's homes. there seems to be a hole in me that needs it. and you have just given me the answer to a post I could write. thank you darling sister mine. xo
Tammy, notices of many of my blog friends comes a day or two late also. Yours comes pretty promptly, I think. The difference between blogger and wordpress?
DeleteOh, I hope there will be a new Peanut on the Table post soon!
We need to keep current, don't we, Tam? Not vamoose the way we are sometimes tempted to! Love you!
It was so nice to see a new post from you pop up in Feedly this morning! I am torn about the comments thing, too, and can understand the desire to have a blog that doesn't have them. Perhaps having two separate blogs is the answer. I do like having the opportunity to interact with other bloggers, because it has been one of the things that drew me to blogging and one of the biggest blessings, meeting so many nice people. I can't decide if I want to continue answering comments through emails or within the comments. So many decisions! Welcome back, Dewena!
ReplyDeleteHello Karen, I often wonder how much more often sporadic bloggers like me would post if there didn't always need to be comment-tending in order to be a good blog friend. I think the other blog was my way of not letting important moments in my life slip by unrecorded, or even simple everyday moments. So perhaps this will work out for me and even help me to start being much more present here than in the past.
DeleteThanks for the welcome back,
Dewena
I didn't know you were back Across the Way, or would have been reading... so glad you are back to this blog.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Mary Ann! I need to catch up with you soon!
DeleteOh Dewena!! So glad to see you pop up in my comments and in my feed again. I have missed your posts. I can't wait to hear your home stories. I love tales like this. Of course, I wish the road to your new abode was an easier one, but glad to hear that you have settled in. I post occasionally on Instagram and Facebook, but really I love words and stories (telling them and reading them) so I will hold on to blogging for as long as it's around. Now I am off to peek at your other blog...and comments or no, like I said, I just like the words you share. xo
ReplyDeleteI'm so very thankful for blog friends who welcome a wandering stray back to the fold, Kim! And I love your stories, you tell them so well!
DeleteHello Dewena,
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you're posting again. I've missed reading your posts. I've been blogging so long (since 2007) that it's part of me and I don't think I will completely stop unless something drastic occurs. My posts are less frequent than they used to be, but sharing the simple things in life never gets old and I never tire of reading about other bloggers' daily activities.
Home is such a crucial part of who we are - a place to rest, to rejuvenate, to be inspired, to heal, and so much more. Home is a place where we can be our true selves. (Or it should be.)I look forward to reading your home stories. Perhaps they will inspire others to share theirs. I've moved 21 times in 41 years - the longest time I've lived in one home is our present one - 14 years. Some I've found easy to leave, but most were difficult - there is so much living poured into a home.
I didn't know you had another blog and I'll be off to read there later. Have a wonderful day!
21 times in 41 years? I'm a novice compared to that! And your comments about home say it so very well, Lorrie. That "where we can be our true selves" really strikes home with me. We're all looking for that, aren't we?
DeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI have missed you.
I am looking forward to your home stories. Home Sweet Home!
Love, Carla
I'm glad to see you back!
ReplyDeleteSo glad to find 2 posts at Dewena's Window to read! Missed you! And Across the Way, too? Wonderful! I've wondered how you've been doing!
ReplyDeleteSo very glad you're back and telling your life again!
ReplyDeleteit's so touching, and you always write so well!
I need to name my home. I like the names you have given yours. Look so forward to reading more about your home and how you are doing.
ReplyDeleteI don't really like instagram. I am glad you are keeping a blog. I find it so much more interesting than just scrolling through pictures.
I
As if, I wouldn't pop in as soon as a new post showed up! I have a bloglist on my sidebar and the order of it isn't alphabetical, but by when the blogger posted. So that's how I knew. I am so looking forward to all the pictures of the three homes. You asked a question of your readers. I blog as often as I can, I read blogs as often as I can. I have a private IG account - meaning someone has to ask to follow me. I post pictures there pretty often, and look at pictures, too. I am also on FB but don't post that often. I don't follow anything political. Welcome back!
ReplyDelete