Happy Valentine’s Day to My Home

I’m in love with my home.

Yes, I have an actual Valentine, and I have four children who are my loves but my home also holds my heart.

It’s my hope that everyone could find a true love like this:

• We love spending time together. There’s no place else I’d rather be than inside my home’s four walls with the ones I love.

• My home holds everyone and everything I love under one roof. {disclaimer: my parents don’t live here but I love them just as much}

• I’ve made mistakes with my home; too many to count. I’ve painted the wrong color, I’ve chosen the wrong chair, I’ve hosted the wrong parties. But still my house forgives and lets me continue to pull and tug at her windows and floors.

• We’ve seen our share of therapy and made it through the tough times: plumbers for clogged toilets, roofers for loose shingles, glass repairmen, heating & air specialists, and sink hole fixers {to name but a few}.

• We’ve shared all four seasons together…summer running through the sprinklers with the kids, carving pumpkins on the counter in the fall, hanging stockings on the mantel at Christmas and coloring eggs at the first sign of spring.

• I may try to change my home from time to time {I know what’s best, right?}, but she loves me anyway despite my constant nagging and second-guessing.

• Sometimes we watch some racy stuff together after the kids go to bed. Mostly HGTV shows like Fixer Upper and Beachfront Bargain Hunt.  There’s no jealousy involved; we’re just gathering ideas to try out on our own.

• My home doesn’t seem to mind if we are hard on her. A height chart drawn right on the door casing? Done. Spray paint on the front of the house? No problem. That’s unconditional love right there.

• There have been a few (thankfully not many) sad days at our house…mostly just fighting between siblings {sister runs around pinching brothers because she hates loves them so much}. Oh and the long nights of strep throat or tummy aches, how could I forget? Those things only make us closer.

{imagine my surprise when I walked outside and saw this. scrub and scrub as they might, it has never quite come off. c’est la vie…} {…and yes, they’re scrubbing in bike helmets; that’s a whole ‘nother story}

• My home brings out the best in me. The best colors, patterns and fun sides all wrapped into one.

• We’ve had fun together, from dinners with friends to birthday celebrations to sleepovers to the usual nights of homework & Disney Channel.

• My home keeps us safe and warm and shielded from the daily grind of the universe. She’s got arms long enough to wave lovingly goodbye in the mornings, welcome us back in the afternoons & hold us tight all night long.

• I plan on growing old right along with my home. We’ll just have to overlook each other’s wrinkles/cracks in drywall and gray hair/faded paint.

• We’ve created a family and memories together that will last a lifetime. And we’ve got the scrapbooks & photo albums to prove it.

Thanks, home, for being you! I wouldn’t trade my {valentine} for anything. Your home can be your Valentine too.  All that’s required is love inside. And remember: don’t ever, ever go to bed mad! Even if we have to be separated someday, we will carry her with us wherever we go.

{after all, home is where the heart is}