Our new place doesn’t need a name, but I wanted one. It has an address for identification and we call it home. We called it Mom and Dad’s for 20 years. Even after their deaths in 2011 and 2013, we still called it Mom and Dad’s.

At some point, I noticed my struggle and my sisters to call it something else. We needed something less sad. It happened naturally to start calling it the farm. Even though it isn’t a working farm today (unless you count briers and privet), it has the acreage for possibilities. We didn’t think it too unrealistic to call it the farm.

It doesn’t take long to realize the wind blows all the time at the farm. When I was young, we lived across the road in the house that Mom and Dad built in the 1950s after they married (They built this house after retirement.). I remember sleeping in the front bedroom with the wind whistling around the corners until I covered my ears to sleep.  I had lots of dreams about The Wizard of Oz when the wind howled at night (I actually thought our apple trees turned into tornadoes….that’s another post.).

In summer, the wind provides much needed relief from the humidity and heat. In winter, the wind is not a good thing. It’s brutal. It pierces your skin and chills straight to the bone. When Mom was still here, I remember ringing the doorbell and waiting….and waiting……and waiting. Between Mom’s loud music playing (My own loud music and reading addiction came from Mom), her slower pace, and the square footage, it could take a while. When she finally arrived to let me in, I would fall into the doorway with my teeth chattering from the wind. Granted, it isn’t North Dakota frigid, but for the south it’s pretty darn cold.

So although I spent years in marketing and trying to be creative, it wasn’t that hard to find a name for our home. The truth is…the wind blows all the time. Our house is on a hill. I’d love to tell you it was something much deeper and emotional that created the name, but just plain calling it like we feel and see it.

Windy Hill it is.

We love this life on Windy Hill.