Making Memories Make a House a Home

When I started this blog, My original intention was to share decorating and design tips as well as promote my website store. My motto is that home should be a place of refuge,turning houses into homes and my tag line is Creating homes of distinction one room at a time. As I have shared before, home is so much more than decorating. With that in mind my blog has morphed
( is this a word?) into the sharing of other ways to make a house a home beyond the decorating aspect. I will always share decorating tips and ideas but every now and then I will share the personal side of making a house a home. Hence the reason for this post.
My Hubby and son-in-law left at the crack of dawn for a backpacking trip. This is something they have done every Sept for 4 years now. Many times there is a group of men that go, but this year it is just the two of them. I know they are looking forward to conquering the mountain and having some quality time together. A tradition that has been a wonderful bonding time for the two of them.
My part of the tradition involves his wife (our daughter Tiffany) She is a Dental Hygienist and has Thurs afternoon and Fridays off. She will be traveling home to hang out with her three sisters and I while the men are gone. We always have such a fun girl time together
We don't have to cook, we stay in jammies til noon and eat way too much junk and laugh a ton. Some years we tackle a project like scrap booking or painting a room but mostly we just hang out. It has been a tradition that we all look forward to and laugh and talk about all through the year.
We have tried very hard to create a home filled with faith, love, laughter and lots of memory making that draw us all together. I believe that times together like this will strengthen a family and give home that feeling of refuge and a place people want to come to. As my children all are young adults now it is becoming more important for me to be a big part of their lives. I want them to remember that our house is a home and a place they are loved and cherished, A place of love and memories and a place where they belong and want to spend time. I guess I am feeling a bit nostalgic this morning as I know that soon these times will be harder to put together because of scheduling issues as the girls go on with their lives. We will purpose to keep as many "together traditions" as we can knowing that sometimes life can get in the way. Now don't misunderstand what I am saying here, we did not create the "perfect" home, we are human after all, We have made our share of mistakes and wishes for "do overs" just like everyone else.
Our children are not perfect either and we have faced many challenges over the years. Our middle daughter Andrea is mildly mentally retarded and my youngest daughters are twins. There were many days when they were all little that I wondered "Lord what were you thinking?" In spite of the challenges though we continue to laugh and make memories together.
So you see there is so much more to turning your house into a home than decorating, and it doesn't have to involve money.

Here are just a few random pictures of my family that have happy memories attached to them.
Kara & Kaitlyn (the twins)

Kaitlyn w/Me


Kaitlyn w/ Dad

Tiffany and Ryan


Andrea & Kaitlyn


Kara, Me and Tiffany at our spa day (totally 'unmakeuped' )ugh!

Ryan and Tiffany in their first home