His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all.

J.R.R. TOlkien, The Hobbit, 64.

Some close friends of ours have this quote on a wall in their home. I love it. We experience their home in ways consistent with this quote. And I believe it’s an ideal for which they strive.

No home is perfect–but our vision for what we want our homes to be is important for shaping the environment, the shared culture, the whole experience of home.

Quite the list, isn’t it? Inspires me to continue to work–for it does take deliberate effort–to make our home delicious, restful, industrious, interesting, musical, a haven for clearheaded thinking.