One small way to become a placemaker

The peace of that porch… told me home can have a purpose; it can be so much more than the place where you lay your head between Little League games and swim meets and parent-teacher meetings.  -Christie Purifoy

This spring will mark 10 years since the start of our house-owning journey.

In May 2009, after being married for 4 years and renting a house from friends, my husband and I were ready to find something to call our own. We spent weeks looking at house after house, making notes about what we liked and didn’t like about each one. I remember looking at six houses in a single day the weekend of our anniversary.

We put in an offer on one that someone else beat us to, and we went back a for second viewing on another that ended up not feeling right after all. Finally we saw a house online that I knew I had to see in person. In the late June sunshine, I fell in love with a yellow kitchen.

It was a short sale, meaning it took almost 3 months for the bank to agree to our offer. In late September, we closed and moved our things in. I mostly supervised… we had learned three weeks earlier that the second bedroom would not become an office after all, but a nursery.

Over the next 10 years we brought three babies home to this house. We finally finished the basement, adding bedrooms and a bathroom. We’ve played games and music inside and soccer and frisbee outside. I attempted to grow vegetables, but the sandy, acidic soil wouldn’t even produce zucchini. I stuck to flowers instead.

Yet I’ve written about my struggle with being content here over the last year or so. As our girls get older, they get bigger — and their stuff gets bigger too. It’s difficult to host a meal or Bible study with more than one family at a time. We live 35 minutes from school, but only 5 minutes from church.

Moving would require a lot of work… plus this house is paid off.

In Christie Purifoy’s new book, Placemaker, she writes:

What is placemaking? It is deliberately sending your roots deep into a place, like a tree. It means allowing yourself to be nourished by a place even as you shape it for the better… We can and should be placemakers whether we intend to stay or know we’ll be moving on in six months.

In the last two months, thanks to this book, I’ve looked around this place with fresh eyes. I still see the things that are “wrong” with it — I’ve made a list of the projects that could be fixed — but I’m also attempting to tweak some small things to bring me a little more joy.

One small thing I realized in the midst of the snow and ice and cold of February was that I only have one plant in the entire house.

It’s by no means a small plant. It commands attention in the corner of the room. It started as a cutting from my mother-in-law’s giant jade plant, before she passed away, and before my husband and I were even married.

But it’s still only one plant. And I wanted more.

I put out a call on Facebook, asking if any friends had houseplants they were willing to split and share with me, before I went and bought something from the store.

A week later, I came home with this beautiful peace plant (and my friend said it was only a third of her original plant! wow!).

And you know what? Every time I see that plant I smile. My house has more LIFE again. Are there still holes in the wall, a leaky toilet, and a garage door that only works half of the time? YES.

But I took one small step forward in my placemaking journey, and it only cost me a $2 pot from a thrift store.

I don’t know if we’ll be in this house for another 6 months or 10 years. But while we work through the questions of to-move-or-not-to-move, I will continue to make this place. My family, and this house, deserve it.

(Big project #1 on my list? A fresh coat of bright yellow paint in the kitchen!)

Placemaker is the story of one woman’s journey in cultivating comfort, beauty, and peace in each place she’s lived. It’s a story of trees, of opening our eyes and noticing things, and of kitchens and gardens and family.

{this giveaway is now closed, but I’d love for you to still sign up to receive my monthly newsletter, and get the freebie that comes with it!}

This book has meant so much to me that I want to give away a copy to one of you. And not just this book, but a cutting from my very own jade plant. AND a beautiful copy of a book that I loved as a kid and am currently re-reading!

To be entered to win, all I ask is that you sign up here to receive my free monthly email newsletter, and then leave a comment on this post. As a bonus, when you sign up for my newsletter you’ll receive a list of my favorite books about simplicity and rest (Placemaker is one of them!).

Only U.S. residents are able to win (sorry international friends, my jade plant wouldn’t make it to you very easily!), but anyone can sign up for my newsletter. 🙂

This giveaway will run until next Monday night, March 18, 2019. Which, guess what? That’s my birthday! I’m going to celebrate by giving something to one of you. ❤️

{this giveaway is now closed, but I’d love for you to still sign up to receive my monthly newsletter, and get the freebie that comes with it! thanks for celebrating my birthday with me!}

 

 

As part of the launch team for Placemaker, I received a free copy of the book for review. All opinions are my own, and I purchased my own copy to give away. Links to the book in this post are Bookshop.org affiliate links; purchases you make after clicking through will both support local bookstores and give me a small commission, without changing the cost to you. Thanks for supporting my writing and shopping local!