The only rock I know that stays steady

I went from having no social life to suddenly being quite the social butterfly. Tomorrow night I'm having a friend from work over for supper. She'd wanted to go out, but I dunno...I feel like people get to know me best when they see me at home. Who I am is seen in ever corner of my house. I suppose that's why I hate modern/"minimalist" homes. I feel like you should come into a home and know a lot about that person.

Just a few things you'd learn about me from walking into my home: I like cows (duh) and windchimes (double duh). I love my family and I have pictures everywhere of my son and my hubby and me and of my extended family and even my friends' kids. I'm a sentimental person who keeps handwritten letters (like from Cari) and handmade gifts (like the hat and booty Chrissi sent me) on display. I also display books that are especially meaningful to me, like The Little Prince, Your Personal Penguin and Laura Bush's autobiography. I favor old pictures of prairie-style homes or kids playing. I don't care about famous artwork as long as I can display 100 of Nathan's pictures from school wherever I have room. I like aprons and country music and I bake often enough that my Kitchen Aid stands out prominently on my countertop and I keep a cd player with George Strait or Brooks and Dunn in it in my kitchen. I collect comics that are funny and pertain to my life and display those all over my fridge along with pictures, postcards, notes, two shopping lists (you'd also learn I shop at Sam's) and letters for Nathan to practice his spelling. You'll learn that I sign all my notes to my kid and husband with a gigantic WUBS and a heart and a smiley face. I love the smell of lavender and apples and I favor mint and chamomile teas. You'll learn I love to read and sew and that I love Laura Bush, mysteries and that I use bobbypins to keep my hair off my face (and then forget to put them away so they're always on the tables).

Those are just a few things you'd learn from coming into the downstairs portion of my home, where the livin gets done (except the bedroom of course). What do you think your home tells people about you?

"Home is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserve; it is life's undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room."
--Harriet Beecher Stowe