#Microblog Mondays: The very heart of the home

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

I’m currently read a book right now called Secrets of the Lighthouse by Santa Montefiore (thanks, Mom!) (My mom and I share books). Ellen, the main character is describing her aunt Peg’s home and comparing it to hers back in London. I came across these sentences that made me pause: “Ellen sat back in her chair and let the room absorb her. Peg’s kitchen was the very heart of the home, and Ellen soaked up the love appreciatively. “

Maybe it was overthinking on my part, because I was trying to come up with something for today’s Microblog post, but it made me reflect on my own home. Where is the heart of my own home?

Every room in this house hold love and memories. The downstairs family room is where all the great TV shows are watched, where Chris and I hang out in the evenings. My spare room down that hall holds the Elvis collection my grandma passed on to me. The laundry room is where I washed the tiny baby clothes last fall, and cried because I actually had baby clothes to wash. Our kitchen is where I practice the fine art of cooking. Olivia’s room: well, that used to be storage and now it’s filled with baby books, a crib, diapers. Our bedroom is the place I opened the package Chris bought and found out we were having a baby girl.

So there is heart in all these rooms. But where would it show the most?

I remember last year, when Chris and I were drinking our coffee together on a Saturday morning and I rubbed my hand across my belly. “In just a few months, we’ll be drinking coffee together and there will be a baby here, probably sleeping across one of our chests.”

Our living room. It’s where our family gathers when they come over to visit. It’s where birthday and Christmas presents are opened and weekend coffee is drunk. It’s where Chris and I talk. We’re downstairs a lot, but we aren’t talking much. Upstairs, the TV up on the wall is rarely on when we are all home together, so it’s a place we gather to Be. To interact with each other. To play with Olivia.

It used to be clean. It’s not so much anymore. But Saturday morning, Chris and I always manage to shove aside the laundry or baby toys and sit across from each other on the couches with our coffee and talk. Sometimes we are interrupted by screeches from the baby or when she wants to electrocute herself with the lamp cord, but many times, she is down for a nap and we sit facing each other and we talk. About our marriage, about our jobs, about the things going on in our world.

If you had to think, where is the heart of your own home?

You can find more of this week’s #MicroblogMondays posts by clicking here.

16 Comments

  1. September 19, 2016 / 2:30 pm

    Our kitchen/dining room. Where we eat and prepare food.
    Good topic

  2. September 19, 2016 / 3:17 pm

    I think in our household it's definitely the living room. It's where we pretty much do life – hanging out, playing with our daughter, talking, bills, you name it.

  3. September 19, 2016 / 4:44 pm

    This was such a close second for me too. And I suppose… the kitchen is the place the coffee is made. 🙂

  4. September 19, 2016 / 4:46 pm

    "Do life." Yes. That about sums it up. I love it!

  5. September 20, 2016 / 1:20 pm

    You know, I would have answered (before this post) the kitchen. But I think our bedroom is the heart of the house. We hang out in there a lot — all four of us. And I think it's where we have deep conversations and silliness and comfort.

  6. September 20, 2016 / 8:17 pm

    Thanks for the comment Mel! And I love this. It makes my heart happy. 🙂

  7. September 21, 2016 / 11:54 am

    Right now it's our whole place, but that's due to where we are in life. I think with time it will migrate back to the kitchen. But first we need to trust the Beats around all kitchen objects.

  8. September 21, 2016 / 5:42 pm

    Hmmmm, I would say either the living room/dining/kitchen area (it's not really divided up) and also downstairs with the TV/play area. We really live all over the house! bedrooms tend to be more for sleeping though.

  9. September 21, 2016 / 8:24 pm

    I love this post…so much heart in your home! So many beautiful things here. I feel like the kitchen for us, cliched as it is, because we redid it fairly recently and it allows us to actually cook together without literally stabbing one another. We make a lot of good food and have a lot of good laughs and drink a lot of good wine in that kitchen. I hope that one day our unoccupied nursery will be another heart in the home though, and we'll add bottles of formula to the bottles of wine. 🙂

  10. September 22, 2016 / 12:49 pm

    I could say my bathroom because I never seem to be alone in it. I would have to say my bedroom. Somehow if my husband or I am in it, all five of us end up there. It's almost like the house is tilted in that direction. It's very nice when we're all cuddled up but challenging when you're trying to watch a baseball game and someone keeps walking past the TV between pitches.

  11. September 22, 2016 / 9:20 pm

    Ha! This made me giggle.

  12. September 22, 2016 / 9:42 pm

    I love the idea of living all over the house. 🙂

  13. September 22, 2016 / 9:44 pm

    I know it may sound cliched but really, a lot goes on in the kitchen. I love your comment. See, if I drank wine in my kitchen, then yeah, of course I'd say that room. We drink wine in the living room. Ha! And yes! I hope the same for you as well, Jess!

  14. September 22, 2016 / 9:50 pm

    Is this a glimpse into my future because so many of you talk about the entire family hanging out in the bedroom 🙂

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