Gratitude Day #17 - 2018 - My home

Gratitude Day #17

Today I am grateful for my beautiful home.

I am also grateful for my house; for they are not the same thing.

From the time I was born, I have had a good home to live in. My parents made sure of that. They were absolutely not fancy houses. At one point in my life I lived in a log cabin that is still standing. It did have running water, but no indoor toilet. Lots of good memories come from my time growing up there. It was in that log cabin that I first learned of my musical talent. I'll write a post about that in a few days.

The house I spent the majority of my childhood in was also not very fancy. It was smaller, but there was just my parents and me. So, we didn't need much space.

After a few years, my dad decided he wanted to make that home bigger, so we added a big addition to it that included a great room, a fireplace (the first one he had ever built), and a walk-in closet. It was the first place where we had wall-to-wall carpeting, and I can remember my mom laying down on it and rolling from one end to the other. It was beautiful.

Then, as a married woman, Mr. Kerry brought me into his place - a condominium in the suburbs of Washington DC. His father had advised his children to get into home ownership as soon as possible to build equity. It was exciting in the weeks leading up to our wedding as I moved things from my parents' apartment into his. My first time living there was on our wedding day, and it felt wonderful!

Now, we have lived in our home for 34 years. This is the house we moved to when Peter was five years old, and Erik was just born. (Friends from church moved our belongings while I was in the hospital with him.)

It has sixteen rooms, and sits on 1 1/2 acres. And, it is the most beautiful home in America. If it burned down and all I had was a tent, I would still have a home -- because of the people and feelings within it.

As I mentioned, we have brought babies here, and grandbabies. We have worked, we have played, we have cleaned, we have mowed, Kerry and the kids have climbed trees, and he showed them the heavens. We don't have much light pollution out here in the country, and the nights can be quite dark, and the stars and the moon quite vivid.

We have gathered as we said goodbye to one of those children, too.

Our house sits on a hill, and overlooks a ski resort. Hence, we always have a white Christmas. They began making snow this past week, so the hills are already sparkling white.

My home has been a good home, where we would gather our family around us to shut the world out. Each Monday evening is set aside in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for being with your family, for teaching them, for loving them. Through the world, there are no meetings held. The buildings are closed -- including the Family History Library.

During those evenings, we continually reinforced our love for our children. We didn't answer the phone (unless I could see on caller ID that it was my dad), if someone were to knock at the door, we would have invited them right on in. We taught them to pray. We tried to teach them to love each other. We taught them from the scriptures...and, they taught us. We ate! And, we nestled in away from the things of the world to just be with each other.

Our house has a few scars in it. So does our home. But, in the end there is nothing that can't be fixed.

I am grateful to Mr. Kerry for the years he worked hard to keep a home for his family. There was never any question that this is something he would do. Perhaps this is why I lovingly tease him when he watches the "Wizard of Oz", where Dorothy continually emphasized..."There's no place like home. There's no place like home". Kerry has it memorized.

So, the two of us ramble around in this big house...and, we just love it. Someday we'll leave it. But, until then, there's no place like it.

Anywhere.

Treasuring Our Homes and Our Families

I have an article that recently resurfaced at a local establishment.  A friend of ours saw it, and took a picture of it.

I had no idea that it had been hanging there since Aug 2009!  

A number of people asked if I still had the original so they could get a better look at it.  So, here it is:

Treasuring Our Homes and Our Families

Peggy L. Lauritzen

I love my home and my family.

The world I grew up in doesn’t seem to exist anymore.  My father went to work and my mother stayed home.  Both were productive and were devoted to providing a place that I could feel safe in.  The black and white television shows didn’t need to be monitored by my parents, for they were safe.  Ward and June Cleaver took the time to teach their boys good morals, Lucy was still learning lessons from Ricky for not thinking things through, and Barney Fyffe was frantically trying to uphold the law while Sheriff Andy Taylor was calmly teaching the community and his boy, Opie how to get along with each other.

It’s difficult to find those elements today, both on television and in our own lives.   But, it can be done if we make our homes and our families our number one priority.

We have a solemn responsibility to love and care for our families.  The relationship we enter into as husband and wife is second only to the relationship we have with our God.  It requires nourishment.  It requires patience.  It requires putting that person above every other person on earth.  Second to that is the relationship we have with our children.  When each of our family members enters into their home, it should be a sanctuary and a refuge against everything else.

Growing up in Mansfield has proven to be a blessing.  As a youth, I moved to the bigger city of Akron, and eventually the suburbs of Washington, DC, where I met my husband.  They were exciting places to live and offered many artistic and cultural opportunities that enriched our lives.  But when our family started to come, we both knew we didn’t want to live in a large city.

We came back to my hometown.

It certainly had its challenges.  Early on, we decided that we would take the advice of wise ecclesiastical leaders and do whatever we could to keep mom at home.  As we grew into a family of six, it took great effort and working together to keep everyone fed and clothed on a single income.  There were even times I longed to go back to work to get some rest!

But, we did it.  We took advantage of every single opportunity that we could think of that would enrich our lives.  Farmer’s markets and pick-your-own fruits and vegetables helped us make ends meet when our attempts at a garden were not always successful.  Opportunities for stretching our imagination and learning existed in library programs and used book sales.  Watching fireworks and taking part in parades contributed to our patriotism.

On those rare days when all six of us were home together, we would drive short distances to see how people who seemed to come from a different era of time live their lives.  We breakfasted by a covered bridge and roasted day-old donuts on a campfire in the backyard while looking up and making shapes out of the clouds.  At night, we would marvel at the constellations that can be seen only when it is completely dark – something that one misses living in the city.

Now, those children are gone – mostly off to bigger cities.  But, they love reminiscing about home when we talk.  In many ways, they have tried to recreate those same simple times of their youth.

It’s just the two of us now.  We are best friends, for we nourished our relationship even while raising our four children.  We live in a different day than when we raised our children, and certainly different from the times we were raised in.  News comes to us daily of terrorism threats, violent weather, violence between people, and the degrading of moral values.  But, living in a tranquil area helps me to be able to handle bad news no matter where or who it comes from.   A wise man once said “the world sees peace as being without conflict or pain.  But, we can have peace amidst the conflict.” 

Our homes can be that place where we have peace.  As we practice love, faith, prayer, forgiveness, respect, compassion, service, and wholesome lives, we will find that we can have that haven of peace that others will look to and long to have.  Exercise those attributes with own selves first.  The feelings of being stressed and frantic will always be in front of us – but knowing we have peace in our homes can readily provide the sanctity we need.

Is this a Pollyanna dream?  Perhaps.  Can it be done?  It can.  We have the tools and the resources all around us.  If we have the desire, there are many ways to make these things happen.

Consider it.

Mansfield News Journal, about August 2009