This file includes poems, quotes and page ideas about homes and Moving or New Home. Also see Home Improvement, Home Song Titles, Household Items Song Titles and Family Ties.
Home is where friendships are formed and families are grown;
where joy is shared and true love is known;
where memories are made and seeds of life are sown.
This is the place . . . that people call HOME.
(Louis Untermeyer)
May nothing evil cross this door,
And may ill-fortune never pry
About these windows; may the roar
And rains go by.
Strengthened by faith, the rafters will
Withstand the battering of the storm.
This hearth, though all the world go chill
Will keep you warm.
Peace shall walk softly through these rooms,
Touching your lips with holy wine,
Til every casual corner blooms
Into a shrine.
Laughter shall drown the raucous shout
And, though the sheltering walls are thin,
May they be strong to keep hate out
And hold love in.
(Rea Williams)
Of all the work I've ever done
That which I liked best-
Was building homes for grateful souls
Where they might take their rest.
They give me a feeling of humble pride,
Those homes of brick and wood-
To know that they have sheltered love
Through all the years they've stood.
(each line is a double spread page in a sentiments album)
Kids of all sizes . . . with all their surprises
Holiday Moods . . . and great tasting foods
Being together . . . whatever the weather
Fitting and puttering . . . cleaning and cluttering
Losing and winning . . . but coming out grinning.
Planning and scheming . . . hoping and dreaming
playing like crazy . . . or just being lazy
Relating and clowning . . . and hanging around-ing
Special events and . . . warm sentiments
Marvelous creatures . . . with mischievous features
Fun time and Birthdays. . . and bring-on-the-mirth-days
Outrageous fashions . . . and personal passions
Talents and skills . . . and performances that thrills
Neighbors and friends . . . life's rich dividends
Smiles and laughter . . . and love ever after!
(author unknown)
Home is
where you can be silent
and still be heard . . .
When you can ask
and find out
who you are . . .
Where people laugh with you
about yourself . . .
Where sorrow is divided
and joy multiplied . . .
Where we share and love
and grow.
(author unknown)
Bless this house as we come and go
Bless this house as the children grow
Bless our families when they gather in
Bless this house with love and friends.
(author unknown)
There's No Place Like Home
My safety harbor from the storm.
My cozy haven safe and warm.
No matter where I choose to roam . . .
There's just no other place like home.
(Edwin Arlington Robinson)
They are all gone away,
The house is shut and still,
There is nothing more to say.
Through broken walls and gray
The winds blow bleak and shrill:
They are all gone away.
Nor is there one today
To speak them good or ill:
There is nothing more to say.
Why is it then we stray
Around the sunken sill?
They are all gone away.
And our poor fancy-play
For them is wasted skill:
There is nothing more to say.
There is ruin and decay
In the House on the Hill
They are all gone away,
There is nothing more to say.
(Helen Harrington)
Doors are a wonderful invention
second to the wheel! Open one
at certain times and you will let fresh air in,
a guest as sweet as Spring, which has been
walking among flowers or marshes. If a gush
of Winter comes, you can--in a rush--
close it quickly with a fervent bang!
You'll like doors--once you get the hang
of how they work! They have the terrific clout
to give two different worlds--In and Out--
to you, at will. The trick, now and again,
is knowing what to do with them--and when!
This poem is great for 'before' photos of the empty lot where you house is built.
(Melvin Tuttlefield)
there is dirt
under my house
deep down
way down
under there, somewhere
I saw it once
before the house was built
and the land was empty
except for the
wild brown grasses and weeds
and the bugs and the sticks
and the kids who would play
and the neighbor man
who'd chase them out
they'd run home dirty
from the dirt
that's under the house
(author unknown)
Bless this home, Lord
and all who are within,
whether it be the love of a family
or the closeness of friends
Watch over this home, Lord
come sunshine or rain,
with the sounds of laughter
to always remain.
For within these walls
is a love so dear
that grows in strength
from year to year.
This home . . . Your Blessing
(Lynne Fields)
My Title page has the prayer "This Home" (see above).
Then I used pictures of the empty lot with the poem "Under my house" (see above). I had a dump truck die-cut
'emptying' the words of the poem.
Pictures of the progress on the house follow with each step. I used a few words to describe the progress, like (foundation poured, framing, windows, etc.) because it was obvious what was happening. Then I described our feelings about some of the things that happened. I used die-cuts, stickers and paper to give it color.
I used die-cuts--saw, hammer, flower, etc.--and LOTS of stickers. I used ShortCuts for matting and decoration and the book went together VERY quickly.
Congratulations on your new home! How exciting it is to get all moved in and to start in fixing things up to fit your own style. Decorating and moving that couch from here to there, or maybe it would look good over there! I just want to encourage you that although right now it may be a lot of work, someday you will look back on it with fond memories of your first few weeks in your home. I want to encourage you to preserve those memories with pictures. Pictures are a great way to document those special times in your lives that can so quickly fade from your memories. Here are just a few tips I would like to pass on to best capture some of those memories.
Remember the styles will all change someday and you may change things in the house. It is fun to look back at how things were.
With pictures you won't have to say, "Do you remember back when we had the old carpet? What color was it?" All you will have to do is pull out those photos and have a great time of reminiscing, laughing and reviving those memories.
Use the blue landscape house die-cut with the navy gingham paper behind it, then make a mini white envelope with a stamp and the new address on it.
Moving page - Use the ABC stickers to write "Moving On" at the top of the page - start at the left and go about 2/3 of the way across the page. Make the box out of tan paper so it looks like a cardboard box. For more realism you can cut it slightly irregularly. Put some toys (or household object) stickers in the box and some beside the box if desired. But a label out of a different color paper. Write "To CITY" (using the name of where you are moving to). Draw a string to make it look like the tag is hanging from the box. Brenda W.
Start with a Sentiments album, title page is a 2" square of paper in cement or cinnamon to represent a moving box, and label, like a moving box, with the friend's last name and TO (new town). Write, "We will miss you in (current town)," and then put stickers in and around the "box". Since we are young mothers, we use toy stickers.
The next section is sort of an Around Town bunch. You and/or your friends run around and take photos of places you all hung out. Our list includes the moving friend's current house and her vehicle, the library, McDonalds, local pool, ball diamond, soccer field, Wal-Mart (no mall here), children's schools, husband's and wife's place of employment, etc. These are mounted VERY simply, maybe a triangle or two, and have a running commentary like, This will always be YOUR house to us...Your favorite drive-through...You sure know how the benches feel here...etc.
Then the next set of pages consists of photos from your friends of themselves and their children, and duplicates of any they have of themselves with the family that's moving. Each friend then writes on the page with his or her photos. I should mention that each friend who wants to participate gives $3 toward the effort with the understanding that this is THE going-away gift from us all.
Putting it together can be an individual or group effort. It goes really quickly. I've gotten thank-you notes saying things like, "We have looked at this album more than I ever thought we would," and "Now I have a place for my other photos of you all and the town." (Mgp)
Note: If there are a lot of people involved or a lot of photos you might want to use a Reflections album.
Make a sentiments album with a photo of you and/or your friend on each page along with a quote from the Friendship Pages file. Also see the Retirement file for ideas about going away type albums.
(from "The Muppets Take Manhattan")
Saying goodbye, going away
Seems like goodbye's such a hard thing to say
Touching our hands, wondering why
It's time for saying goodbye.
Saying goodbye, why is it sad?
Makes us remember the good times we've had
Much more to say, foolish to try
It's time for saying goodbye.
Don't want to leave, but we both know
Sometimes its better to go
Somehow I know, we'll meet again
Not sure quite where and I don't know just when
You're in my heart, so until then
It's time for saying goodbye.
Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends. (Richard Bach)