a happy home

Since becoming a mom I have often reflected on what type of home I want our children to be raised in.   Of course a home full of warmth, love, acceptance, safety, security and happiness.  I am blessed to have a wonderful husband who shares the same vision of creating a happy home for children.

My childhood was great.  There were some rough times for sure but we made out okay.  We moved around a lot, lived overseas several times which afforded me tremendous growth and opportunity.  But I always longed for a place that I could always call home, even now as an adult I yearn to go back to my childhood home, accept I don't really have one.  The one place that I consider to be home is my very best friend and basically sister, Em's house.  

I spent 3 summer's at Em's house and many sleepovers, picking blackberries off the bushes in their yard, swimming, playing, creating, working, imagining, and exploring.  There were big brothers that beat up on us, little siblings that followed us around.  Em's parents, Greg & Teresa, have lived in the same red farmhouse their whole married life.  They have raised all of their 7 children in the same house.  They taught me how to work, how to be a child, how to honor and follow God, how a family is supposed to be.  

I want to create that sense of "home" for our children.  Our next house will be our last, it will be our "forever home".  A place they can always return too and remember their happy childhood.  

I love farmhouses.  I think I am drawn to them because Em's house was a farmhouse with a lot of land around it, maybe a few acres.  They still had neighbors but they had a huge backyard, lots of trees, grass and room to explore.  I equate farmhouse with happiness.  It is not hard to see why, they are gorgeous.  One day when we build our "forever" home I think it may look similar to these homes.  There will be some land, lots of privacy, blackberry bushes, a million lilac bushes, hydrangeas, tree houses and forts.  I want to have a big front and back porch to sit on and sip homemade lemonade, color, blow bubbles and watch my children play in the yard, read.  Maybe some chickens and a dog but not too many pets.

my secret blog

this is my secret blog.  i just need a place to store all of my ideas and inspirations from blogland and maybe use it as a journal that i can put into a book one day.  i think one day i will make this our family blog but for now it will just be my little secret.

my biggest treasures in life are my husband and daughter.  most (warm) days are spent, at least long enough to eat a popsicle, or sing a song) sitting barefoot on our porch swing.  the rest of the time i get a view of my porch swing every moment i spend in my kitchen, living room or dining room.  before eliza was born colin and i would sit and swing on warm summer nights gazing at the stars.  when eliza was just a baby i would sit and swing on it with her singing her songs and cuddling.

i have an amazing husband.  he is kind, works so hard, perseveres through his many physical ailments (life with cystic fibrosis has not always been easy).  he loves me.  he works hard to make my dreams come true. i start a lot of projects and he is the one that always ends up finishing most of them and he doesn't even complain.  he is an incredible father to our beautiful and adorable daughter.  he is so sweet and loving to her.  he loves and adores her and couldn't be a more proud father.  i love him and am so grateful and blessed he is my husband.

i have an amazingly sweet, bright, curious, giggly, happy, loving, adorable, beautiful daughter.  she is always beaming with delight whether it is putting on a shoe, eating, mimicking her parents.  she is the light and love and joy of my life.  being her mother is the best calling God has given me, a role which I love, cherish and would never trade for anything in the world.  i was born to be a mom.  i love teaching her, spending everyday, all day with her.  i miss her when i am away.  she teaches me everyday to reach deeper inside myself and find more strength, more patience, more love, more happiness.

i am truly a blessed woman with a beautiful family and every night i thank my Heavenly Father for my life.