Near The Beginning

It makes sense to start at the beginning although, if I'm being honest, this is probably nearer the middle, or at least the end of the start.  So perhaps I should just start and see where the meanderings and wanderings of the mind and the adventure take us?

I moved away from home about 20 years ago, starting on a quest to grow up, move on and head west.  I was swept along by boyfriend, husband, kids, houses and, more importantly of late, employment.

But I'm no spring chicken any more.  In the words and thoughts of some I'm a middle aged, over the hill aging lady.  And even if that's half true, I'm homesick like a child on their first sleep over or school trip from home.

I'm 100 miles or two hours (at best) from home and I feel the draw to be closer to my roots, to the place where I was born and raised.  That my parents are both still there, most of the time at least when they're not travelling hither and yon, helps.  They're not getting any younger faster than I'm not and have my feelings of parental responsibility turning on their head; as my own children grow into their own independence my parents seem to move into my realm of responsibility.

'Home' is the place I remember most fondly.  It's the safe place, the warm childhood memories place.  It's probably not any safer or cleaner or better equipped than where we live now but it feels like it and it's a place, an environment and an experience I want my own children to be able to enjoy (or endure as they're starting to think of it), a little classic Enid Blyton freedom that sub-urban conurbations just don't offer or allow.

The husband has been switched, over time, for a boyfriend who has his own charges of responsibiltiy and, despite them all calling this place 'home' is sold on the rural(ish - I'm not sure about making the full, middle of no-where move) idyl, even if it isn't always as idyllic as we'd like to imagine it might be.

So, with my own parents more than fully supportive, nay, force-feeding new properties to be admired and studied, it looks like we may be making the move to a rural commitment.  Two parents, four children, two cats, one dog and two households to be melded and moulded into one, in as fluid a movement as possible.

What do you reckon are the chances?