Discovering the “Why” of Home-Making

Life has been very full, as of late — which is why I can’t stay on top of my hopes for a weekly post — which is also why you should sign up for my e-mail list so you can be alerted to when I post over here! I only ever send them to alert that I’ve written a new post, so please sign up for that and I’ll feel much better about my lack of consistency!

By the way, I do post almost every day over on Instagram and Facebook. Even though they banned this blog on those spaces, I’m willing to forgive them (so very Catholic of me! 😉 )and keep sharing the everyday beauty of faith and family and home over there — so you can always stay in touch over there as well.

This brings us to the end of the housekeeping portion of the post and back to the reasons for today’s post. Hooray!

Ironically, this post does have something to do with housekeeping — not so much about the “what” to buy or paint colors that work — but much more about understanding the “why” of home-making and decorating.

A really great resource for understanding the “why” is most definitely the beautiful books written by Carrie Gress and Noelle Mering, Theology of Home I and II. A great way to dive a little deeper into the “why” of making your home.

So often in life, if we don’t take time to understand the “why” we’re going to get a lot wrong about our homes and the choices we make in them. So, before you jump onto Pinterest, always begin by asking yourself the “why?” of your home and the hopes that you have for it.

Your “why” will likely be different than mine, but I think a few common themes will likely appear in most of our lists.

I think most would agree that they want their house to be a welcoming place where people feel seen, loved and cherished.

I also think most of us want beautiful spaces that are organized and where we can breathe freely, rather than being overwhelmed by clutter and so many “problem” areas that you have no place to rest your eye without feeling stressed or overwhelmed.

Finally, I think we want spaces where our family can thrive and carry out our work and our mission with peace, purpose and happiness.

To feel “at home” in our own homes is a very beautiful feeling, indeed, and I think so much of what Pinterest and HGTV and style gurus are tapping into is that desire to feel that sense of “home”.

For a man or woman of faith, even though we know that we aren’t home yet, we still want to feel at home in our spaces. In some way, we want our homes to become that safe haven that will protect us and our kids from the storms of life and help us to get to our final destination, which is Heaven.

To aim to make a beautiful, welcoming, home that helps us to reach Heaven is a beautiful investment, in my opinion — but it’s not the most important investment of our lives — so perspective is essential!

Prayer does that for me, probably more than anything else, and it also helps me to keep my eyes on the gifts all around me — especially the people — and it helps to grow a little detached from the messes and the the things that need fixing and just appreciate all that we’ve been given.

It also is a great help in avoiding the pitfalls of Pinterest or Houzz, or HGTV or any other place we might go and begin to feel a great lack of satisfaction with spaces we once felt were “cozy” — and our list of projects begins to grows and grow, until we realize we haven’t the time or the budget for even half of what we hoped we could do.

So where do you draw the line? Where is the line between inspiration and misery when it comes to home-making and home improvements?

I honestly think much of that depends upon your own temperament. Personally, I’ve always used places like Pinterest to help me narrow down paint colors and source materials for other DIY projects that I often have going on in my house.

But I don’t ever just “browse” those spaces. I go for a specific purpose and hopefully after a few hours I have all the research, material lists and color charts that I need to get going on a home project. John and I do most of our “home improvement” projects and for me, I actually love the hands on approach to painting, sanding, and organizing my spaces.

If you can’t peruse those spaces without feeling incredible discontent, then I would most definitely say avoid those spaces at all cost. You have to know yourself and where your weaknesses life.

For me, those little projects often get me through long winter months or give structure to my summer days. I really love them and I love that they make my home a place that John and my kids enjoy being in. Besides, there is a real sense of satisfaction when you envision a change, get your hands dirty and make it happen!

Oh the satisfaction of taking that painters tape off and enjoying your newly painted walls and knowing it won’t be undone in a days time — very different from cleaning a room for the upteenth time and knowing it will quickly be undone! (Shout out to Mr. Clean Magic Eraser for keeping those walls clean long after the paint job is finished!)

Making lists of projects that you hope to do over the year is a great way to use your own creativity and budget to make your spaces feel more like a home – but we can’t lose sight of the more important work of loving the people around us, raising our kids well, and using our gifts to spread God’s kingdom.

Sometimes, I think the problem lies with us being so close to our lives that we fail to see the lasting value of our simple everyday “work”.

Sometimes I think we don’t understand the profound influence a conversation around the dinner table might have on the life of your child — and that the meal you made (that will quickly disappear) was a very important part of allowing for that conversation to happen.

Sometimes I think we don’t see our homes the way our kids see our homes. Sometimes that outdated furniture becomes the “castles” our kids build and spend hours enjoying. Often it is the space we read books and have movie nights and pray before we go to bed.

Maybe we can’t see how our life as a Christian family sanctifies the spaces we inhabit, but go to Assisi or any other place that the Saints lived and I think you’ll begin to see how their presence centuries earlier made those spaces they dwelled a little “thin space” where Heaven meets Earth.

When I walk into a Catholic Church, I feel God’s presence, and did you know that a family welcoming Christ into their hearts and homes can also impact their homes by making them spaces that God loves to dwell, too.

Yes, He’s in our hearts, but also in some mysterious way, He’s present in our Homes, too. Sometimes we fail to see that God is with us, where 2 or more are gathered, and therefore our Homes are sacred spaces that can transform the world around us.

I know that sounds too lofty to be true, but pray about it and I think you might begin to say how it is absolutely true and even those imperfections of our own homes can remind us that we aren’t in Heaven yet.

Sometimes that wall art left by your child is the perfect reminder that “perfection” on this side of Heaven just simply isn’t attainable, so we ought to invest our time in the people around us and aiming for Heaven.

Sometimes we can’t see the beauty of our simple lives — sometimes the repetition and familiarity with it stops us from seeing what others might see in those lives of ours.

To promise to love someone “till death do you part” and to welcome children and do your dang best to raise them to love God and the people around them — sometimes we are just too close to see just how beautiful that is and what a truly valuable contribution our little families are to the world!

So, I guess I would say make this Lent coming up a time to slow down and let God show you just how extraordinary your ordinary life is — how beautiful, how precious and how irreplaceable you and your family is in God’s greater plan of salvation.

Because it’s absolutely true! So go out and live your beautifully ordinary, extraordinary lives!