Recap of 6th Living Out Loud project: Going home

I'm super pleased with the participation on this month's project themed on Going Home! As always, it's a joy to read about all your histories and ideas. So let's see what you all have wrought: Sarah's I have found me a home NOTE: I forgot to include this in my first rendition of this recap. Sorry, Sarah! I blame pregnancy brain. I was friends with a guy in high school whose parents were divorced and it always seem strange to me that he had "his Mom's" and "his Dad's" but nothing was necessarily Home. But in a lot of ways it's like having two homes, kind of like I have now as an adult.

Gina's Where is Home??? I always forget that Gina is from my relative neck of the woods originally, but more importantly spending even just a few minutes around her it's obvious how much her personal version of Home means to her. And thankfully, they're pretty portable.

Jen's Home is where the spark is ... The fireflies really got to me. In all my travels back and forth to Richmond, nothing beat that feeling of pulling up into the driveway and knowing you were about to be Home.

Jessica's Living Out Loud - Going Home Having been to her parents' home and seeing what it's like out there, I can see how it would give off strong feelings. I wouldn't want to be a teenager there, but I'd always love coming back to it as an adult.

Deb's So, where you from? I like how she explains where she's from as not a place but a frame of mind. Also interesting in that Keilyn and I were just chatting recently about the idea of being more "free range" as kids. Lots of food for thought here.

Collette's Nostalgia is a wonderful place to visit but no place to live Hooray, a guest post! I love getting these because it means the project compelled someone to write something that they weren't even sure where they'd put it, but it needed to be said. And I fascinated by most of the foods and drinks she listed, having never had any of them.

Kim's Living Out Loud Project: Home First, I love the look on Jack's face in that photo. And I can totally commiserate with the idea of having two homes, I just solved mine by putting them spitting distance from each other.

Rich's Home One day we'll go back to Germany together. And I'm eternally grateful that he agreed to come to me and leave his family behind.

Karal's Going home. This made me realize how spoiled I am to still have the freedom to visit every home I've had as a child. In may ways, though, home is just what you make of it and as she says you get to pick and choose what you take with you.

Megan's I wrote my name on the wall Oh my god, all the great old photos! Having spent most of the weekend sorting and scanning relics myself, I love looking at others.

Travis' Home (He tried to sneak this in and not submit it, but I'm adding it after the fact because it's awesome.) So fascinating that each of his examples, save maybe the last one is not something you'd immediately think of quilting into a blanket to depict home. But wow, what an awesome blanket this would make.

And my own OV and me

Interestingly, this project taught me that I have so many stories to tell that it's hard to put them all in one entry. I want to tell you about my Daddy's farm, about the beach houses where my mother lived where her brother slept in a closet so small his feet stuck out the door, about the decision to build onto our first house and keep it once we still bought a much bigger house, and about the struggles of choosing a home for ourselves and making it ours. So look for all of that soon.

As a note, I hope I got all the entries since a few folks wrote them but didn't send me an email with the link. If I missed your entry, just let me know and I'll add it here! I'm super excited that we had three new participants this month who all join the esteemed ranks of LOLers.

It was tough to pick a winner this month with so many quality entries. But I have a soft spot in my heart for guest posts, so I'm declaring Collette our winner! Collette will receive a collection of Sanders sundae toppings, for the nostalgia of it all.

Thank you again, for all of your support and enthusiasm for this ongoing project. I hope you all enjoy reading these trips down memory lane and that they've given you food for thought on what is important to you in a happy home.

On a related note, I'm pleased to say I've been asked to co-present one of the Room Of Your Own sessions at BlogHer conference this year titled Realllly personal blogging, how much info is TMI? with the talented Miss Britt and Terra. I'm really looking forward to it and am curious what others will have to say in the session as well.

And stay tuned for the theme for our next LOL Project!