What Makes a Home?

As I've made an effort to organize boxes and boxes of belongings and unpack some, thus far, I've found myself wondering what make a home... and, specifically, what will make this house our home.

What I'm discovering, little by little, is that, in our incredibly blessed life of abundance, home is made by the superfluous, sentimental additions to each room.  Within a few days, Hubby and I had located most of the belongings that we needed to survive as a family in this new space... but that didn't mean we were home.  If anything, we were camping, or on vacation, living out of boxes and suitcase -- and yes, we had what we needed, but we were not home.

For me, home is made, not by the items required to live our daily lives, but the items that are extra and unnecessary to our daily lives.

Last night I found the box that contained the manicure set that I keep in my bedside table, and what a sigh of relief I exhaled.  I use that manicure set all the time, FINALLY it will be where it belongs, in the drawer next to my side of the bed.  The manicure set is helping to make this place home.

Last night, I hung white Christmas lights in our bedroom, probably an incredibly immature habit I developed in college -- but I think one strand of Christmas lights -- either white or colored is the perfect amount of relaxing light to have illuminating my bedroom in the hours before bedtime.  When I was younger, I would always have a strand of colored lights, but since getting married, I like white lights -- I think they are more romantic.  These lights are helping to make this place home.

Tracey Ann has sort of been in-between two bedrooms for the past week.  We chose her bedroom and moved clothes and furniture into that room.  Then, we began the process of moving her to a big girl bed... and the bed was set up in another room.  She has now been sleeping at night, and for nap-time in her big girl bed for over a week, and so Hubby and I had to decide which room would be Tracey Ann's -- the one with all of her clothes, or the one with her big girl bed.  Yesterday a decision was made, and last night I made big strides toward making the "big girl bed" room HER room, and the room with the crib, the twins' room.  Knowing that I'm creating specific rooms for my children is helping to make this place a home.

As I am unpacking, I am definitely learning how many meaningless belongings my little family has... but I am also learning that some belongings are anything but meaningless, and they really do help to make a house a home.

There is a reason many women, myself included, devote their lives to the position of Homemaker -- a house does not become a home simply when a family moves in.  A house becomes a home first by loved ones who fill the space, and then, in time, each person in the family feeling safe, secure and loved in that space.