What Makes My House a Home

Lucy at Lucy's Life is hosting a what makes your House a Home giveaway. You have until Wednesday to enter, and put your post on the Mr. Linky. I'll admit this wasn't as easy as it should've been. I mean there's the obvious stuff, but then what? She said to list 5 or 10 things; I only made it to five.

What makes my house a home:

First and foremost, it is not the house. I know we all know this, but I really know this. If you followed my Parade of Homes, you recall that we are currently living in our eleventh domicile in our almost seventeen years of marriage. That means that, on average, we’ve moved every 1.5 years, and every one of those places was home. So, if it’s not the house, what is it?

1. Family. This is high on everyone’s list, I’m sure. My children have lived in one house for each of their years of life, but where ever we were, we were together, and we were home. I wouldn’t recommend it really (moving so much), but my kids are none the worse for wear and have never felt “homeless” or transient.

2. My husband, Craig. I once read a very sad article about a couple whose son was murdered. In their pain, their marriage struggled and almost fell apart. In the end, they were able to hold it together partly by remembering that “before there was [their son], there was just the two of them”. That has always stuck with me. Craig is my rock, and together we are the foundation of this family.

3. Our “things”. Okay, I know that material things don’t make one happy, but that’s not what I mean. In all of our moves,our stuff came with us. Every house had a similar look, because of our familiar belongings. My great-grandmother’s dresser, the corner cupboard my grandfather made, the ceramic chickens I bought long before it was a huge fad because they reminded me of a pair that was always in my grandma’s house, my barn stars, my Ikea hanging bucket system. It’s an eclectic mix.

4. The mess. The unmade beds, the toothpaste in the sink, the piles of laundry, these greasy fingerprints on our slate fireplace surround…oh, what a fuss I make about them! But these are the signs of life, the stuff that says a family lives here.

It reminds me a poem my mom used to love, Pittypat and Tippytoe by Eugene Field.

All day long they come and go—

Pittypat and Tippytoe:

Footprints up and down the hall,

finger-marks along the wall,

Telltale streaks upon the door—

by these presents you shall know

Pittypat and Tippytoe...

…There are proofs of every kind

of the havoc they have wrought;

And upon my heart you’d find

Just such trademarks, if you sought,

Oh, how glad I am ‘tis so,

Pittypat and Tippytoe! (excerpted)

5. Our faith. Without God, without Jesus, we wouldn’t be who we are. The whole family dynamic would be different. We aren’t perfect by a long shot, and don’t claim to be, but this is what holds us up. He has blessed us richly, and brought us through dark times. I can’t imagine what my life, my family, my home would be like without this.

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