Home as a Haven

           “Victorian women were the moral, spiritual, and physical center of the home, responsible for creating a welcome retreat of beauty, comfort, and contentment that would protect, nurture, and sustain those they loved,”  says ban Breathnach. How beautiful is that?  Or better yet, how do I do that?  Make my home a welcome retreat.  Ban Breathnach goes on to say that “women approached the domestic arts of cooking, decorating, gardening, handicrafts and entertaining not as burdens but as a form of personal expression and a means of persuasion.”  Not as burdens.   Now that is something to ponder.  Setting the table, cleaning the house, changing out seasonal decorations, making available books and crafts and games so that the kids reach for those rather than electronics.  Those are the extras, the things I can do when I have time, that seem to get pushed aside because, let’s be real, I’m a busy mom with six kids. This season of life for us right now is a lot of busy.  Kids in different schools, school activities, sports, interests of each of our children, time for Tj and for myself… Life is very full right now.  I too easily get caught up in the list, the checking off of each activity as it flies by.  But it wasn’t that long ago that I was giving more time to our home. Bringing out holiday decorations and setting up our home for each of the seasons.  Its fun for me to do.  I enjoy it. It brings me joy to entertain people in our home.  I can’t forget that.

          I have the beautiful picture painted in my head of how I want the atmosphere of our home to feel as the kids walk in the door from school, and when Tj comes home from work. I want to welcome our family into a peaceful home, not a chaotic one. I know it was a lot easier to accomplish this when the kids were younger and less involved in activities. Its much easier to create a peaceful atmosphere in your home when everyone is actually there and not off in a million directions.  Though I do love to think back to that simpler time of life.  But, I must also remember that one day I will look back on TODAY and wish for it back. I think living in the present will help me.  Realizing what our life looks like now, and finding pockets of time amidst the busy running around, to just be.  To decorate, create, bake, garden, whatever that creative home caring task may be.
          Today I'm baking cookies and will welcome my children home from school with a smile and  sugar!

Taking a moment today to make one little space beautiful!