I am a homebody by nature. I like piddling in the garden, eating a home cooked meal and sleeping in my own bed. I’ve always enjoyed coming home after a vacation and getting back in my routine. I can only stand so much eating out and idle pleasure; it depresses me. And, yet, here I find myself, after 6 weeks, still living out of a suitcase and at lodging number 5…. I am ready to get to Maire Street.

This begs the question, why did we do it? Uproot our family, the routine, the house. Everything was so cool and easy. I had a great house, great friends and work that I loved.
Truth is, were it not for Duane, I probably wouldn’t have moved to New Zealand. Of course, were it not for Duane, I might not be an artist. We might never have bought that old crack house…… I might not have done a lot of things.

Duane has always taken calculated risks and debunked societal expectations of what one is “supposed” to do. He’s done things his way and along the way taught me to be suspicious of popular culture and what is and what is not important. I can draw pleasure from simple things and not from cars and clothes and stuff. A good day involves sweat and accomplishment…..weeding a bed, painting a room, pulling an edition of prints. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy eating out and buying things (especially art and music), but all with temperance.

So, there are a multitude of reasons for leaving. Reason number one is kind of that nebulous “because it was there and we could.” We did it for the challenge of it and to give our kids a taste of nature and broaden their experiences. It thrills me to see them riding bikes to school, exploring tidal pools (with Andrew exclaiming "I love this place!") and buying nickel candies at the corner store. I am happy to spend this quality time with them now, rather than travel when I am older.

Six weeks into it, has it all been fun and games? No. We’ve spent an ENORMOUS amount of time together in small quarters. Having nothing but Hallmark moments with your family is pie-in-the-sky romanticism. The weekends can be quite long as we’ve yet to make friends and have only each other. Nonetheless we feel like we’ve gotten our kids back after their nonstop social lives in Houston (especially Dean) and it’s been good. Am I ready to move into a bigger house and get working? You bet. Do I miss Houston? Yes. Am I excited about what lies ahead? Totally.