Things that make me happy...

My friend, Deanna, over at Creekside Cottage posed a question to her readers this morning.  

"What makes you happy?"

So, to follow her line of thinking, I decided to post the things that are making me smile this morning and link over at her blog.  Check her out and link to her too, it'd be fun to see a little glimpse into all of our lives on this chilly Saturday morning!

I'm smiling over this....and sipping it while I type...

and I'm smiling over this, because it means that at 10:30 my household is STILL sleeping

 and these pancakes will probably actually be lunch

 AND, I'm smiling over this, because it means that PBU has Fall break 

and all of my children are HERE under one roof!  Hooray!!!

 And, at the moment...while I snuggle up to this..

I'm smiling because I'm warm

and content

and full of Hope

and feeling Blessed

and anticipating a new day...

 "The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
      His mercies never cease.
  Great is his faithfulness;
      his mercies begin afresh each morning."

Lamentations 3:22-23

Home...

I love home.  I love being here.  I love knowing it's here after a long day of running everyone around.  I love locking the door with us on the inside.  I love knowing that every night at about 10 o'clock my whole family is tucked in their beds all under the same roof.  {Not the same now that one of us is a full time college student, and only sleeps in his bed about four months out of the year...} 

My love for home isn't about how it looks or the stuff I have inside it.  It's not even about the four walls that hold a physical building together.  It's more about a place of refuge.  Refuge from the stresses that the outside world puts on me...from having to live up to other's expectations and allows me to just be ME.  

HOME is the state of being comfortable and content.  It's a place where I contemplate who I am and who I am becoming.  Home affords me the ability to stop.  

To rest.  

To refuel. 

I want my children to grow up with this kind of HOME as their heritage.  I want them to look back on the years they spent living at HOME as some of the best years of their lives. When they look back on these years, I want them to think fondly of the great times the four of us have had together...but I also want them to remember the faces of others who have come through here, too.

I want to foster the kind of HOME where those who consider this their permanent address enjoy it as much as those who come in and out to visit.  I want the echoes of laughter and the memories of heartfelt conversation to bounce off the walls of this place for years to come...and in the hearts of my children forever.

It's a strange thought that years ago my own parents, who lived within these same four walls, may have said these same things about HOME.  It must be why I remember missionaries coming and going, and friends stopping by to visit.  And it must be why I have this need in me to share my space, and the peace I find here, with others.  I want my doors to be open and the contents of my kitchen to be shared. 

These days, most of the visitors are twenty and under and have a preference for things like cookies and chips...and I like it that way. I hope in some way these visitors will look back on their memories and also see that this was a place that afforded them moments in time to see how HOME should be.

I have a {secret crush} over a writer named Donald Miller.  He's somewhat unconventional and sometimes makes me stop and contemplate everything I think I feel strongly about.  He loves Jesus freely and honestly.   I know nothing about the four walls he calls HOME..but he wrote THIS on his blog today and I'm pretty sure I get it...and like it.

So, I ask you...what is HOME to you?

“Home is the most popular, and will be the most enduring of all earthly establishments”

Channing Pollock

Stripped down and bare...

We've officially begun the stripping down and de-cluttering process.  My mom arrived, bearing "gifts" of garbage bags, sponges, rags and rubber gloves.  I immediately snapped out of my temporary paralysis and got to work.  We filled bags of junk, boxes of the good stuff as the first of many days

of cleaning and sorting began...

The bathroom is completely naked - stripped of all color and waiting for a fresh coat of paint....

The kitchen hutch has been stripped and de-cluttered...china packed away.

and my kitchen counters are more bare naked than they've ever been.  Funny, because according to this picture, they're still a little cluttered.  I guess I have to wean myself slowly!

{mom...you don't understand...I HAD to put the silverware box back on the counter!  I paced across the room twice for a spoon....just NOT going to happen!  I promise you can take something else off tomorrow!}

Thanks to my main man, Mr. Clean, 90% of the scuff marks that made themselves at home on my walls have disappeared.  I'm not sure how he does it or what he hides inside those erasers, but WHATever it is, it's working for me.  Might even save on some paint costs.  I'm pretty sure there is some kind of spell in those magic things, too...something about them makes you WANT to clean.  You can hardly stop yourself from going room to room, daring it to take off another stubborn spot! 

That's IS magic if it makes me WANT to clean.

In answer to some of your questions, we DO have a moving destination.  After some deliberation, it's been decided that we should take over the home that my sister and I grew up in.  It's a little weird and exciting all at the same time.  Lots of work to be done on both this end and that one...but I think when it's all said and done, it will all be a good transition. 

Sort of like coming "HOME" again....even though it hasn't really been home to me for about 22 years!

{“Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to” }

John Ed Pearce

Day 3 of Project "Stuck-in-my-House"....

Day 2 of Emma's flu, Day 3 of being home all day.  If I had known the flu would hit, I might not have chosen to stay home on Monday...although it was a very beneficial day here.  Emma's feeling much perkier this morning...even ate a PopTart!  But, not quite up to a whole day of sitting in school...so, one more day here. (Dear Lord, PLEASE don't let Nick come down with it tomorrow!!!!!) 
She may, in fact, be up to a little car ride later to pick up homework from school...here's hoping!

By this time, I'm going a little stir crazy.  Not that there's not PLENTY of things to do around here, but it's that psychological thing....the fact that I have no choice but to be home again today that makes me think I'm going to go crazy by the end of it. 
But, I won't...

Truth be told, I'm so thankful that I have the privilege of being home and available to the kids for this period of time.  I make it sound like it's an inconvenience to be here...but it's really not.  I love home.  I love home when my kids are in it.  And, I love home when my kids are not in it.  My ideal life would be to have a flexible enough schedule to be in and out of HOME as I want, and still have a paying job.  Sounds a little idealistic, I know...but it can happen, right??? 

{I'm voting for a job that involves sitting on my computer at the local coffee shop}

Speaking of coffee....you know I'm bored when it's 9:00am and I'm taking pictures of my morning cup of joe.  But, there's a reason for this one...I found a new coffee this week.  It jumped into my cart at Darrenkamps, and, I'm really enjoying it...maybe because it's roasted by a local company...maybe because it's nice and strong - just the way I like it.

You can find it here

Here's what their website had to say about the Lancaster County Coffee Roasters:

"Based in downtown Lancaster, Lancaster County Coffee Roasters is a coffee boutique offering up freshly roasted hand crafted small batch coffee on a daily basis"

COFFEE BOUTIQUE!??!! 

I'm so there when I get out of here.

Speaking of getting out of here....

Looks like I have something to do today, after all...or I'll be going NOwhere. 

(GULP...I don't like to be told "I'm going nowhere" - in any sense of the phrase.)

"And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us, confirming the work that we do.

Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!"

Psalm 90:17