"Takin' Time Out"

Definition:  the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.

 

So as I was typing I clicked over to google to see what it says about the word HOME.  Amazing I found HOME improvement, HOME & Garden, HOME Cooking, HOME Cleaning, HOME Decorating, HOME Health, HOME Business, HOME Design, HOME Fashion, Nursing HOME & HOMECOMING.  The list went on and on but what do you think of when you hear the word HOME?  Maybe HOME Sweet HOME or HOME is Where the Heart Is?

 

So many times people have a tendency to think of a house as a HOME but I think of a HOME in being so much more.  It isn’t the size, the space, the location, whether your own or rent.  It is what you make inside those 4 walls of space that is uniquely yours and where you feel comfortable, safe, secure and loved. It keeps you warm in the winter and cool in the summer…Welcome HOME!

 

Unfortunately so many well-known authors, comedians, public speakers and a few friends of mine have shared their childhood experience where HOME LIFE was an environment of abuse whether it was physical, verbal or mentally from a parent or close relative.  It breaks my heart that anyone at any age could afflict such trauma on the innocence of a child, young adult or spouse.  Yet this happens every day in HOMES across America and the world.  Even people you wouldn’t expect are guilty.  Fortunately people have become more aware and open about these types of situations and there is hope and help for those who have the courage to speak out and ask for assistance.  While others remain quiet and are convinced this is a normal way of life.  My prayer is God will help set them free and their horrible mess will be a message to others in need and their trials are turned into triumph.  As Joel Osteen so often states they no longer are a victim but victor.

 

For me personally I was so blessed and have profoundly be shaped by the HOME in which I was raised.  A great deal of my love for my HOME today has been inspired by pleasant memories of the place I was nurtured in as a child.  Not only from my parents but from both sets of grandparents that lived in our close knit community.  For me I can still feel the warmth of my childhood HOME, my Mom and Dad exemplified diligence in every way.  We lived on the ranch in the ole HOMESTEAD house from my great-grandparents.  Dad was a very good visualizer and he added on a room here and there as they could afford through the years.  My mother taught me dignity, purpose and tidiness.  Even though she had outside interests and part-time jobs our HOME was always her priority.  Both my parents understood their investment was in the HOME we lived, the time we spent and the ethic of hard work and dedication to each other.

 

Looking back my bedroom was my first HOME, yes there were other parts to the house, but for me my bedroom was where I pretended with my imaginary husband and baby doll to live.  I had a small little kitchen set up in the corner of my room, then my Grandpa Charlie owned the Ford dealership and he ordered me a bench seat you sit in the back seat of the car to raise you up as a child with no seat belt (that was way before the traditional car seats we have today).  I used that as my couch.  I had a little cradle and high chair for my baby doll named Tiffany.  My imagination would run wild; I had pretend friends over for tea.  I can even remember I loved pickled okra and it would not fit in my little bitty refrigerator so I placed it under my bed for safe keeping until my mother went looking for it in her refrigerator for dinner.  I had to explain it was in my room. Oops!

 

I have always been such a visual person and I love quotes and sayings, in fact as I grew up and moved from pretending to be married to pretending I was a teacher in my bedroom HOME transformed into a classroom with my stuffed animals lined up classroom style. I would spend hours tracing letters and cutting them out of bright colored construction paper, taking scotch tape and spelling words and phrases on my closet doors. I would change them out monthly.  I loved that I had the bi-fold closet doors so plenty of space to stick those letters on the painted wood but you had to be careful as they would pinch your fingers while shutting if you weren’t careful.  You don’t see those kinds of doors as often anymore in the newly built HOMES.  Or what about the ones that slide across the track and depending whether it was the front you closed first or the back, they always seemed to eventually slip of the track, when my children were smaller we had the sliding doors that were all mirrors which really helped to make the room look bigger but with small children their messy little fingerprints were smeared across the door about knee high.  Now that they are grown I refer to the precious little fingerprints when they were that age I was always wiping and cleaning and felt my job was never done.   Guess what it still isn’t done…so much negative, resentful energy spent worrying about something I should have stopped and been thankful or grateful for.   I read a wonderful article from another blogger this week about putting on our “perspectacles”.  Yes I think she created a new word…check it out at www.momastery.com/blog.  It was her August 11, 2014 posting. She states sometimes it seems that our entire economy is based on distracting women from their blessings. So often we look at things that need repairs, updates, enhancements perhaps things look shabby or worn out when really we need to put on our perspectacles…do you have a refrigerator and does it keep your food cold, do you have a faucet that produces clean water anytime day or night, do you have a stove and oven to cook or bake your favorite meal and dessert?  Oh let us not forget, can you brew your favorite coffee or tea in the morning, I like to refer to it as a hug in a mug…be thankful.  By the way yes, I am sipping on the most scrumptious blend of China Tip Green Tea….yummy warms my soul. “If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think we’d be happy with more?” Unknown.

 

No matter whether it’s shabby, chic or brand new when building your HOME it is truly a reflection of the people who live there.  Do you want it comfortable, cozy, or stark and sleek?  Definitely as I have advanced to my halftime in life I look around at all the stuff I have collected through the years.  Some of it is important to me but most of it really is not.  It seems as newlyweds we start off with very little and through the years accumulate so much and by the time we get what we think we needed while the children were young, they have grown up moved on and now we are stuck with these entire things.  I will never forget when I moved 150 miles south away from my HOME and community I grew up in, my Dad clearly stated to just take the bare necessities as we were not sure if it was permanent or temporary.  Well if you know me I packed up everything off the wall and all the knick knacks and décor I had.  To me this was the necessities it was what made a HOME.  Have you ever walked into a house and there is nothing on the wall or floor to me it’s cold, bare and empty.  You add a little color, some art and my favorite things and bam it instantly speaks to you.  I was so excited when I found a company “If Walls Could Talk” and they print your favorite verse or saying in the coolest font and you can stick it on the wall.  Quotes like:

1)   “The most important work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own HOME.”

2)  “HOME is where Love resides, memories are created, friends are always welcome and family is forever.”

3)  “HOME is where your story begins”.

4)  “This HOME is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy.”

5)  “The magic thing about Home is that it feels good to leave and it feels even better to come back.”

6)  “A house is made of brick and stone but a HOME is made of love alone.”

7)  “What I love most about my HOME is who I share it with.”

8)  “HOME  is where the pants are stretchy and your Wi-Fi connects automatically.”

9)  “Your HOME should tell the story of who you are, and be a collection of what you love brought together under one roof.”

 

As I am “Takin Time Out”, breathing deeply looking around these walls HOME  really means security, it provides a safe place to let my hair down, take my make-up off put my yoga pants on and let me be me.  Yes, I love a clean and tidy HOME but some folks I live with prefer a few things left out or the pillows and blanket ruffled not neatly placed on the couch.  Yes, shoes live under the table and not the closet, a chip bag is on the coffee table and dog hair on the floor but overall I find peace, love and comfort.  We cry a little, laugh a lot and live fully in our HOME.  Sunday night dinners are my very favorite part of the week…now the kids have become adults and having children of their own, it is so important to me provide a HOME cooked meal whenever I can and have family and friends come over to share.  Whether it is watching a movie afterwards or giving the grandbabies a bath.  HOME is truly where the heart is the heart of LOVE!

 

It’s kinda funny I still call the community I grew up in as back HOME.  I haven’t lived there for over 30 years yet it will always be HOME even though I don’t own any brick or mortar and there is no longer any close relative who lives there.   I love listening to elderly folks refer to the ole HOME place or how we look forward to a HOMECOMING!  While typing this and after my quiet time this morning I read the verse found in Hebrews 13:14 “For this world is not our HOME; we are looking forward to our city in heaven, which is yet to come.”   A gentle reminder this is only my temporary HOME while on earth.  I do look forward to the day as a believer we are all called HOME to meet our creator and be reunited with our loved ones who has gone on before us.  Carrie Underwood’s song just popped into my head here are the lyrics…

Little boy, six years old
a little too used to being alone
Another new mom and dad
Another school, another house that’ll never be a HOME

When people ask him how he likes this place
He looks up and says with a smile upon his face

“This is my temporary HOME, it’s not where I belong
Windows and rooms that I’m passing through
This is just a stop on the way to where I’m going
I’m not afraid because I know this is my temporary HOME”
Hmmmm………
Young mom on her own
She needs a little help, got nowhere to go
She’s looking for a job, looking for a way out
‘Cause a halfway house will never be a HOME

At night she whispers to her baby girl
“Someday we’ll find our place here in this world”

“This is our temporary HOME, it’s not where we belong
Windows and rooms that we’re passing through
This is just a stop on the way to where we’re going
I’m not afraid because I know this is our temporary HOME”
Hmmmm………
Old man, hospital bed
The room is filled with people he loves
And he whispers “Don’t cry for me, I’ll see you all someday”
He looks up and says “I can see God’s face”

“This is my temporary HOME, it’s not where I belong
Windows and rooms that I’m passing through
This was just a stop on the way to where I’m going
I’m not afraid because I know this was my temporary HOME”
This is our temporary HOME
This is our temporary HOME.

As you are “Takin Time Out” this week look around your HOME again it might be someplace you are renting, it might just be a room or a dorm maybe 6 months out of the year it is in an RV.  But it is your place and space.  Does it reflect your personality, your taste in color, décor and is it a bit messy or exceptionally clean and tidy… does it bring you peace, love and security?  What is your favorite part of your HOME?  Does your HOME have a special odor or smell?  My Grandma Pansy loved Vanilla, to this day I smell a candle or room freshener I immediately think of her…Is there a special room, chair, nook or my husband calls it nesting in the corner of your favorite room with my tea cup, books, journal, I-Pad, and blanket?  I have learned to be mobile I have a space in our bedroom and then one in the livingroom and lately the guest bedroom works pretty well too!  It’s where I can curl up, wind down, sip scrumptious tea and do my visualizing, blogging, planning or just plain “Takin Time Out!”  I hope you have a special place too….count your blessings for your unique space and HOME until next time my dear friends…breathe deeply, love often and let’ all be thankful for what we have…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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