Home: September 19

Every Tuesday and Friday for the rest of September, I’ll be collecting posts on the topic of home. Do you have a post I should include? Leave the link in the comments here or email it to me. Poems, photos, lists, stories, you-name-it—it’s all welcome.

Recent home related posts

Jill, a first time contributor to the monthly them post here, celebrates four years in her family’s home.

I have trouble remembering life before we moved to Orem. Life before chickens; before we became gardeners and harvesters and hobby-homesteaders. Life before we wanted to be home, couldn’t wait to be home, spent as much time as possible at home, were most content at home.

A lovely post and a lovely home!

And another first time contributor, Deanna, urges us to open our home to friends, neighbours and family.

I’d say having Dorothy’s cross stitched picture on the wall would help make things homey!

I’ve posted yet another list: There’s No Place Like Home.

There's No Place at Home

Number 7 on my list of things to post when I’m too busy to think: When all else fails, make a list.

Here are 5 things that I think help make a house a home.

1. A front porch. My front porch is very small, but I stilI love to sit out on in the summer to watch the world go by as I drink my morning cup of coffee. And in the summer, it doesn’t hurt if the front porch has a few hanging baskets full of blooming flower.

2. Pets. Nothing makes the place seem cozy like a couple of dogs and cats sleeping.

3. Babies and toddlers, although I have no wee ones living here and no grandbabies to visit, either. But if I did, they’d help make the place more homey.

4. A little untidiness. A homey house looks lived-in. True confession: In my obsessively tidy days, I’d put every single thing away, clean from top to bottom, and then lay an open book here, a jacket there, a cup and saucer on the kitchen table and a tea towel on the counter, all in an attempt to make a too-tidy house look like a home. Fortunately, that phase of my life ended a long time ago and I no longer need such props—ever.

5. Fresh flowers. I always have them, and no, I don’t feel guilty about the money I spend on them. And when I can’t have fresh flowers—like when it’s -40C in the middle of the winter—I have candles lit as a bouquet substitute.

What about you? What do you think helps make your house a home?

Email and Other Bloggy Business

I have a big backlog of email that I need to respond to, but I’ve got other things to take care of right now. So if you are waiting for a response from me, it’s coming soon, but not yet. Unless of course, you sent me the kind of email mentioned in the next paragraphs.

I’ve been getting a lot of email requests for me to promote various Christian causes and organizations (and all good, I’m sure) on my blog. Unless I know you well, I probably won’t be promoting your cause or organization, no matter how urgent the need is. I just don’t have the time or resources to look into it to see if the need is real and the organization is up-to-snuff.

And I’d drive myself crazy if I tried to respond to all of the email like this that I receive so I don’t respond to any of them. I don’t like it much that I’m leaving what I judge to be genuine messages from caring people unanswered, but I’ve had to draw the line. For my sanity, you see.

Thank you to those who have sent me links to home posts to include in my collection today. Once again, the Home post will be coming later in the day. Sorry about that.