What makes a home?

What makes a home?  That is a question I have pondered on this week.  While talking to some customers who have become friends this week I was talking about "home" and then it got me to thinking...what really makes a home? 

When I first moved into my house a couple years ago, I remember looking around and thinking I didn't know if I could ever feel like I was "home" here.  It was almost 1000 square feet smaller than the home I had built with my now x-husband.  At the time we built our home...I thought that would be the place I would be forever...that I would raise my children, that I would have my grandchildren come visit....that was my home! 

When my husband and I divorced a few years ago, (which honestly has been very hard for me to admit to people and hard to talk about...we have 4 children and there is a lot of guilt for me  that goes along with the feeling like we let them down.) But I was the one to move out of our "home"...we had built our house right next door to his parents and on his family land...I think moving from our home...and moving our kids from our home was the hardest and most heartbreaking feeling I have ever been through.

At first when we moved here, there was excitement from the kids to be in a new neighborhood in town with lot's of friends to hang out with..  But it didn't take long to start missing their old "home"...we went from 4 bathrooms to 2.5, 5 bedrooms to 4, and a whole life of memories.  It took me forever to quit calling my old house my home....I would catch myself saying "home" when I referred to  their dads house for months.  Our house was nice...but it wasn't home...not yet.  After about 9 months of being here, bringing in this and that, hanging pictures, cooking meals, playing games, making memories here, new memories...this became "home"...I have actually noticed my kids calling our house "home" and our old house "dad's house"... (they call it that way to him too) My kids love their dad, and he and I are still good friends...but his house doesn't have that "home" feeling any longer.  Even my X-husband comes to our house a few times a week just to spend time with the kids...I don't mind.  I want him involved with them as much as possible. But they would rather he do that than go out to the "old" house all the time.

So as I was talking to my friends the other day...It got me to thinking, Is home where mom is? Is home where there are candles burning and making the house smell sweet, is home where there is something good cooking in the oven?  Is home just a feeling? Is it more a feeling than an actual place?  I think so.  I want everyone who comes to my house to feel welcomed...and I guess why I am writing this on The Mixing Bowl Blog is that that is an extension of my home....My family and I spend so many hours there that it feels like our home also:)  I want it to always feel warm and inviting and hope when you are there you feel that feeling.