It's been almost a year since our move to Missouri. It isn't as if we hadn't moved a number of times before, but this one was so hard. We lived in Maine for 15 years and the last couple of winters had been back breakers with snow and ice.

With advancing age (my husband and I were in our 60's) and health problems, we made the reluctant decision it was time to move. We lived in a rural location with a mile long gravel driveway, a place we both loved. We could watch deer and moose, listen to the birds, raise our chickens and have a big garden, play on our pond and take long walks.

Now, with a new grandchild, we had decided to move near our daughter and son-in-law by Kansas City, Missouri. We settled in Blue Springs right in town. There are neighbors all around, pleasant but not the privacy we were used to. So it has taken some time to acclimate ourselves, but it's feeling like home.

My art has taken a back seat. I am starting to feel the pull, though, and signed up for an online workshop to slowly get back in and move at my own pace.