Mayberry moment

Taking a moment today to appreciate my front porch.  Yes, my porch.  I LOVE it!  Everyone should have one.  Seriously.  Absolutely lovely.  Not one of these tiny, concrete postage stamps on all these new construction homes, but a real, oversized, across-the-front-of-your-house-step-back-in-time-just-like-in-Mayberry kind of front porch.  Like another room of your home (only colder in the winter and hotter in the summer).  It's made my family closer, it's made me friendlier with my neighbors (and even strangers that walk by), it's made me slow down, take a moment to myself to relax and have a quiet cup of coffee, watch the squirrels gather nuts for the winter, just breathe -- it really makes me happy.  Waaay better than therapy.  Or hard liquor. Or pills.  Seriously -- LOVE IT!!

The perfect place for a porch swing - the hooks are even in the ceiling from the previous owner (probably one of the only things we kept!).

Some of my favorite porches from around the Internet:

A front porch just makes a house look friendlier, doesn't it?

My kids in their pj's drinking hot cocoa while watching a movie AND getting along! It's the front porch - it's gotta be.  And maybe that they're getting to stay up late drinking hot cocoa. Outside. In a tent. Nah, let's just say it's the front porch.

P.S. The day after I posted this, my neighbor called to tell me she had just left pumpkin smoothies for us on the porch.  See?!