HOME - November 2007

Last month I sang the praises of "home" life. This month I'll introduce you to my "house". I'll just have to paint with words as I don't have a picture to put up here.

The original part of the house was moved to its present location from across the street in the 1920's. I know this because there is a part of a wall sticking out from under the side/back porch in which someone has scratched 1926. Also, I was speaking with a home school mom from across the street and she told me that my house used to sit where hers does now, and that it was moved. But I got the bonus tidbit that the house sat in the middle of the road overnight (for whatever reason) and that the woman who owned it slept in the house ... right in the street! There's a few cars that pass by now every once in a while, but back then, I'm sure it was just a dirt road with like one or two cars a month passing by. *lol*

I think the front part was all there was to the house when it was moved. So that would make it 3 rooms: what we use as our bedroom, the living room and the "hallway" / entryway. Then at some point, the back part was added on, effectively doubling the size of the house. (And thank goodness for that, because we are cramped as it is.) But there is another bedroom, the kitchen (which is the largest room in the house), a bathroom and small storage/utility room. The back part of the house is not as wide as the front part, but longer, so there is a little "hidey-place" on the one side that I like. I can go out on the back porch and not really be seen from the street, which is ok with me. It is the back porch of inspiration, that gave me the name for my other blog, Back Porchervations. A porchervation is an observation made on a porch. *lol*

There is only one interior door, and that is to the bathroom. That was my biggest adjustment. I'm used to doors. I like doors. I probably wouldn't pull the covers over my head so much if there was a door to my bedroom. :p

Well, that's my house in a nutshell. It isn't very big. Real estate agents might call it "cozy".

I like the back yard. There are a LOT of trees that must be 100+ years old. It looks like a forest, and I like to think that it is much as pioneers might have found it back in the day.

HOME - October 2007

I hate it when blogs go away. I had posted a great entry on Homes to an old blog of the same name at selectablog.com, then went there one day and it was gone! ARGH! So, I start over ... again.

What is a "home". Dictionary.com has 31 definitions under the word "home". I'll go with #2 as my favorite, which is "the place in which one's domestic affections are centered".

For me, it doesn't matter where you lay your head at night, a mansion, an apartment, a trailer, a tent, a lean-to ... house and "home" are two different things. Why lay your head in luxury if there is no home. (OK, maybe once in a while on vacation.) And love can even make a stone pillow feel a little softer.

So, it doesn't matter where you live, but more how you live, that makes a house a home. There is a great sense of 'belonging' or 'fit' in a home. This also allows the concept of home to extend beyond the 'domestic' units mentioned above, to work and social settings. There are 18 cottages where I work, that house the residents. One of them is definitely my 'home', because I belong there.

Many of the Mommy Bloggers out there write about their homes, more than their houses. While I enjoy the occasional "house improvement" (yeah, I know the expression is 'home' improvement) entry, I am more interested in how someone and their family reacted to or dealt with the situation. Human interest, ya know.

One of the definitions I found listed home as "(in games) the destination or goal". After work, we want to go home. If you are like me, after the dentist, you want to go home. After school, kids want to go home ... and then leave their homework there while they go to the mall or to a friend's house. You can always retreat to and regenerate at a home. Homes nourish our souls.

So, how do we strengthen our homes? Have family mealtimes, tell the people in your family that you love them (and mean it), and don't spend too much time on the computer! *lol* (I really shouldn't talk because I owe my house and home and family to the computer. DH and I 'met' online a year before we met in that bus station in Salt Lake City.)

How will you strengthen your home this month? I invite you to leave a comment with your answer! :)