Home As A Haven

Few things we can do in this world are so well worth doing as the making of a beautiful and happy home. He who does this builds a sanctuary for God and opens a fountain of blessing for men."   J.R. Miller

I love my home.  For most of my adult life, I have been home based.  Whether I am home educating, or planning a wedding, the bulk of my day is at home.

These days we are all at home most of the time.  Many people are not used to being home, or home with all the kids and their spouses either, other than on weekends.

I think it will be interesting to see how people's lives change after we can go back to our 'normal' lives.  I hope that people will have learned to really love their homes, and to make them a haven - a welcoming, safe place for their families.

I find that it just takes being intentional to make my home a haven.  I don't have to have a lot of money, or expensive things.  Here are some things I do regularly to make my home welcoming to family, and for guests.

1. Diffuse Essential Oils. Human beings respond to scent, and my favorite for our home would be lemon.  Diffusers are not expensive and you can have just one oil to make your home smell nice.  If I had to choose just one, I'd pick lemon, but you can choose whatever you like.

2.Tidy House.  Notice I didn't say spotless.  We live in our house, and Kyle and I are (right now anyway) always home!  Now, I don't have little ones at home anymore, and we all pick up after ourselves (mostly), but it's easy to have coffee cups left sitting out, or a boy's bedroom with socks in a pile.
I function better without clutter, and my husband appreciates a clean home.  So I work at it.

3. Books.  We all are readers, and we have a lot of books! Endless entertainment.  If you have young kids, I cannot stress enough how important it is to read aloud to them!  Even if they do no other school for the rest of the school year, if you read good books together and talk about them, they'll thrive!  It will become a favorite time together!

4. Good Food.  This is higher on the list for Kyle, but having good food in the house is a priority.  Funnily enough, my girls have been baking more during this shelter at home situation.

5. Talking together.  We nearly always eat dinner together, and in the evenings we often spend time talking, too.  Last evening we also watched a movie together.

6. Create Traditions.  I'm trying to bring back tea/coffee time in the afternoons when people are home.  Just to take a break and relax together.  And if people are home earlier in the day and won't be later, then we can do elevensies!

These are just some simple ideas to make your home a welcome place for your family, and after we can resume our lives, for friends, too!

I also find, that sometimes, my family doesn't really care about whether I am making a haven for them or not.  Especially now that they are all adults, or nearly.  But I find that the things I do to create HOME, I would do even if it was just for myself.  

I respond to beauty, and it helps me to feel as if I am thriving, when my surroundings speak life to me.  For me that means, flowers, books, tea, sunshine, thrifted silver, old mirrors, and plants.


What are things that you need to have in your life in order to feel at HOME?