"In Progress" by Brooke Gale

The Gale Family Motto

Kitchen remodel now in progress, it will be amazing!

The art space in the Gale's basement "school room" where Brooke is currently teaching pre school children. This has been a mudroom, and a guest house for many of us who want to visit our friends in the old neighborhood...

All of the Amazing Gale family! I love every one of them

Brooke and I met 2003 and I have loved her every minute since. We used to get together once each month to visit teach for church. We also took time to go running together, ride bikes on Saturday and swim in the open water of Clocktower pond near down town Boise to train for the Rush Triathlon. Brooke is genuine, kind, intelligent, beautiful and altogether "real". Being in her home is being home, because always you are welcome...

Thoughts from Brooke:

When I was 16, I had a map on my wall with pins in it for all the places I was going to visit. I was going to be a photographer who took pictures in 3^rd World countries and made an impact in the lives the people living there. I had a dark room and a camera, I practiced, I thought I would join the Peace Corps. Sometime in the process of my travels I would meet a like-minded guy and we would adopt a couple of children and raise them together wherever we happened to be at that time. Home would be each other, not a physical building. It would be a tent in Africa, or a little hut in South America.

Fast forward my life….instead of the Peace Corps I joined the LDS church, married my high school sweetheart (after 6 years of letter writing), survived a horrible accident that I feel the effects of daily, graduated from college in developmental psychology (not even remotely related to art or photography), had 4 kids, bought and sold a few houses, and moved to Boise, Idaho. Boise, Idaho? Sometimes I have to ask myself how I ended up here.

That brief history brings me to the question of the day….

What does the concept “home” mean to me? I’ve thought and thought about it, and I would have to adopt as our family motto…..“A work in progress”.

We are a marriage “in progress” on it’s way to being something old and perfect…

Kids “in progress” on their way to being responsible citizens of the world…

Heavenly souls “in progress” working on making it back to our heavenly father…

Even our house is constantly in a state of progress….possibly by the time we have finished the final project, we will be ready to turn around and redo the first thing we ever did on the house.

Finally, we are definitely parents “in progress”. Each stage of our children’s lives brings us something new. We haven’t figured it out yet, we hope we do in time!

Sometimes, this “in progress” thing is really hard for me. I want my kids to be responsible NOW, I want my kitchen finished YESTERDAY, but life doesn’t happen in accordance with my wishes. My own history proves that. I guess that is what makes it life.

I have learned through all this, that I can’t possibly create the perfect home. But sometimes, every now and then, that perfect concept of home that is in my mind just happens. Sometimes I look around and realize that ALL of my children are hanging out together on a Saturday night. We are laughing, we are smiling, there is no place that any of us would rather be! Last weekend, the fire was on, two of my kids were lounging in the family room totally engrossed in reading. The house was relatively clean after the whole family had finished the Saturday chores. My oldest daughter was playing beautiful music on the piano that filled the house. My husband and youngest son were playing a board game quietly on the floor. I was trying a new soup recipe a neighbor had given me. I found myself smiling. I wasn’t in a refugee camp on the other side of the world, but I was definitely home.

We do a lot of things that keep me sane and keep my home running smoothly such as working hard together, not having cable, paying monthly library fees (reading is that important!), lot’s of teasing…in a good way, giving our kids freedom to make choices I don’t necessarily like, and letting the kids budget themselves within our means. I think, however, the most important thing we do that helps our home feel like a home is that we try to always remember that our home and the people who live and visit here are “a work in progress”. I try to remind my kids, that this is our safe haven…perfection between these walls may sometimes happen, but is never expected. My hope in doing this is that everyone will always feel welcome in our home. As long as you are trying your hardest, no matter how big the mistake, how great the shortcoming, how scary the failure, you are always welcome here.