Home

As my incredible hands on father of a husband had brought the boys home from breakfast this morning, the conversation turned to the future and he said, "I can't wait to see what you boys will be like in 20 years." To which W, the free spirit, proclaims "I will still be living here!" For those of you not sure of your math, that would make him 25 and living at home....I don't think so!!!!

That got me thinking about the future. Home. One of the earliest newlywed, pre-child fights my husband and I had was about me referring to my parents house as home. Apparently I did it quite frequently...after church, "do you wanna go home with my parents for lunch?" What was a simple concept in my mind--my childhood home, safe place, memory maker---was not really home anymore. Home was the small cabin on the Harpeth river where we honeymooned for a year. 

Now as I am older, and not any wiser. I realize that Home really is where your heart is and my heart is in this messy, house that myself and 4 boys (including a 100lb lab) live in. And when I say live, I don't mean that we reside here....no we LIVE here. Home is where you let your hair down and goodness knows we let our hair down a lot in the land of O.  No it is not ever as clean as I would like it to be, yes we need new floors desperately, yes it needs work, but NO it probably won't ever be on the tour of homes...why because I want my kids to feel comfortable in this house and we spend a lot of time as a family in this house. I refuse to spend tons of time doing things working on the house that separate us from our children more than they already are. You see we are both working parents. Time at home with our boys is precious time, time we savor, long for and thoroughly enjoy. So when "the free spirit" is 25 and living back at home with us, he can paint the front porch, put new floors in, and whatever else needs to be done at that time. Because, as the last line of a poem from my mom's house read when I was growing up,

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow

For children grow up, we've learned to our sorrow
So quiet down cobwebs and dust go to sleep
I'm playing with my children and children don't keep

Psalm 27:3 Sons are a Heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him

So rather than polishing silver, I will polish the rewards the Lord has given me. I will embrace them, spend time with them, punish them, play with them, but most importantly I will LOVE them for they are a most precious gift from the Lord and they are what makes this House a HOME.