Friday, December 17, 2010

The Center of My Home

Nostalgia


The other night, I took my computer and desk out of the living room. Amy (15) helped me put it into a small, cold room at the back of our house. There is only a limited signal for internet access. There is no heat in there. It is a room off my bedroom and contains my bureau, bookcases and storage items. It is a lovely little room, but it is cold, and difficult to access. This is where I will do my early morning writing. This is where I will check e-mails late at night. This is where the children and I will sit together to do a computer-based school lesson once a day. Then we will leave this cold, lonely room.

The center of my home is no longer a computer. Instead, it is old, antique chairs in the living room. We can sit and visit and talk and read. I can hand-sew while talking on the phone or listening to the children tell me their hopes and dreams.

We have no couch or television in our living room. It is a small room which holds our dining room table and wood stove. It is a cozy room, opened up to the kitchen. It is like an old fashioned parlor. This is the first impression, or vision, we all get when we walk into this place. I want the center of my home to be cozy chairs and a warm stove. I want it to be a place of fellowship, devotion and personal attention.

You can see my Bible on a hutch table near the stove. You can see my special chair near the window. You can see all our favorite selections of literature covering the bookcase shelves. But Most of all, you realize that family life is the center of my home.

Blessings
Mrs. White

Won't you come with me for a visit - At Mother's House?

The Age-Old Question - Should Mother Work Outside the Home in 1981?

Are we making our children do too much? - A Cheerful and Willing Housekeeper.


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6 comments:

Lisa Grace said...

I truly love this; we are moving in this direction, but are not there yet. Someday, I hope, and sooner than later. What a precious gift you are giving your family.

Debbie said...

Great post! Lots of symbolism can drawn from this.

Anonymous said...

We have done this as well in our home. For us, it is a small guest room off of the living room. One has to pass through the dining room, through the laundry room - and to a separate door. It has been decorate with a beautiful red rug from Turkey, a huge picture of the beach, we took the bed out and put in a long table. The internet access is limited out there, but it does keep our focus on our studies and each other.

Illinois Lori said...

Hello Mrs. White! You are so good at painting word-pictures for us!

My sons and I volunteered for years at an 1890's living history farm. The Victorian home is so lovely, with it's cozy wood-stove in the kitchen, a living room (where actual living was done!), and then the formal parlour, very tiny room but always kept clean for guests or special events. As an interpreter, we all dressed in period costumes, and then just "lived life" in that house. As the boys got older, they wanted to do more, so I had to leave the cozy wood stove and my baking duties in order to chop the wood that kept that stove cooking! My oldest, upon turning 14, was able to leave my side and work as his own man there, and chose to join the agriculture demonstrators, who raise the farm's sheep, cattle, chickens, and plow and plant the fields with giant Percheron draft horses, all 1890's style. That son, now just about 19, is working his way to becoming an organic sheep farmer. (We live in suburban Chicago, so raising a farmer out here is like a rural farm family raising a nuclear physicist...you have no idea how hard we've had to work at finding opportunities, LOL!)

Anyway, all that is just to say that your blog and your posts and your "style" of writing just seems to put me back in that old kitchen at the wood stove...and I love it there. So, thank you SO very much for sharing your life and your thoughts! I feel such a kindred spirit here, though my "real" life is so very different.

God bless you,
Lori (aka IllinoisLori)

Anonymous said...

Mrs. White,

I enjoyed reading this post. There are some good valuable lessons to be learned here.

Blessings,

-Lady Rose

Joyce Ackley said...

Sounds like that little room off your bedroom may be a dressing room. My sister once lived in a charming old Victorian that had a little area like that. You entered it first, from the hallway, then walked into the bedroom. The dressing room had two closets and was fairly spacious.

I admire you for changing things up and hope this works out for you and the kids. Me? I'm soft! I'd have to do my writing in a comfortable area!