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Glenn
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| Posted: Aug 03 2005 at 6:51pm | IP Logged
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I am trying to make a home for our family, but in reality I don't have a clue of what makes a home. I grew up with an uncle, who happened to be a priest, and spent most of my early years in the rectory. Needless to say, it wasn't very homey. Does anyone have ideas about what makes their house a home?
Glenn
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Glenn
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guitarnan
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Well, we change houses every two years or so, and we seldom get to live in the one we actually own. For us, "home" is where we live...surrounded by our family photos, lots of religious art (I love my icon of the Blessed Mother and Jesus...it glows on the dining room wall), beloved kitties and lots of seasonal window clings. We don't garden too much because we have to move the plants to the next house. Most plants we like are in pots...and most are herbs (for cooking, see below).
One thing that really helps is to keep religious holiday celebrations consistent from year to year. We have the same Christmas decorations...we add a few each year...the same Advent wreath...the same Easter baskets and bunny garland...and I try hard to have most of these holidays at our house. This is hard on our extended family, because they would love for us to fly to California, but it really helps make us feel "at home" to celebrate Christmas together each year, wherever we might be, in the same way. We added St. Nicholas Day in honor of our cousins who live in Amsterdam, and two years ago also added La Befana (Epiphany) because we were living in Italy. We'll be celebrating these special feast days forever.
Another thing that makes our home cozier is bedtime reading. My son is 13 and still sits in (Dad's reading "Centerburg Tales", the second Homer Price book, right now). During the school year, we have a second reading time during the school day (and sometimes a third and fourth...). We sit on our old beat up sofa and read, read, read.
For us, home is really...us. The kids like to know that they have their same furniture and toys wherever we are. We always unpack their stuff first. (I used to do the kitchen first, my favorite spot!)
I guess that is the other big thing...home is where mealtime is. Every day that we can, we sit down to dinner together. This is usually 6 out of 7 days, unless it is baseball season. Then we eat late, but together, unless there's a game. We all love to cook and enjoy feasting on our creations. (Today my daughter and I made banana bread, marinated olives, and pasta sauce.) Sharing meals together is special. Preparing them and sitting at a pretty table is special, too. Then, when Father Mario talks about sharing the Eucharistic meal, my children know what sharing a meal is all about...
Does this help? I look forward to others' answers!
Does this help?
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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Leonie
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Like Nancy, we move a lot.
And I have come to realise that home is where the people are and, as such, part of my role as a keeper of home is to help make the current home an inviting place for the members of the home ( my family.  )
The first part of the cookbook Laurel's Kitchen ( The Keeper of the Keys) speaks to this role.
Some other books that have been helpful for me in creating a homey home  are A Mother's Guide to Homeschooling by Marty Layne, The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer, For the Family's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macualey and lots of good fiction - the Little House books, the Anne of Green Gables books, the Meet the Austins series. They give me an idea of what I can create in order to make our home more inviting.
Its the little things - moving furniture to create a play space on the family room mat, creating a nook near the piano/sofa/new computuer in the sitting room, mum in the kitchen making something nice to eat
( hopefully!) and being readily available to talk - that kind of thing.
These little touches make our current house a home in that the space is made suited for our family as a whole, and for each member.
Leonie in Sydney
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saintanneshs
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What makes a house a home? For us it's...(thinking here)
...yummy smells from the kitchen (cookies and bread, fried chicken and baked beans) and the yard (flowers and fresh-cut grass), clean smells in the bathrooms, water from our well
...soft sheets for everyone to sleep on, warm blankets and slippers in the winter, fire in the fireplace, well-loved sofa for piling onto
...beautiful artwork (I especially love our Holy Family canvas painting) and a nicely set, very simple dinnertable, little feet hanging from the baby swing, various piles of Lincoln Logs throughout the house (in the process of being "hauled" somewhere), Rosary basket sitting on the shelf
...the noise of children, music to work and dance to, books read out loud, lots of togetherness
These are the things I miss most when we go away.
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Kristine
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Becky Parker
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I love all that I have read above. I want to add that a "home" means all the wonderful sights, sounds, smells and textures mentioned above but also the love and caring that happens along with those things. I have been in houses that were immaculately clean with homemade cookies just out of the oven and beautiful art on display but there was no sense of home. I think it was because all was done there out of a sense of duty and not love. I think store bought cookies and crayon drawings could do as much to make a house a home if love is the main thing.
I also want to add that when I enter a home, seeing their family pictures on display somewhere gives me a sense of hominess.
Becky
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cjmr
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| Posted: Aug 04 2005 at 1:43pm | IP Logged
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For us it wouldn't be home without:
cats
a big comfy chair for me and the kids to pile into to read out loud or pray together
something blooming outside the front door (I'll even take weeds, if that is all I can get)
bookshelves
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: What makes a home?
