# Monday Motivation #65, Creator Spotlight | Christie Purifoy

An episode of [The Art of Home: A Podcast for Homemakers](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1557993655), 3 Aug 2026, 41 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1587457/episodes/19582537-monday-motivation-65-creator-spotlight-christie-purifoy.mp3

Send me a text about this episode! I have a NEW type of episode format to introduce to you today! It's called a Creator Spotlight episode and I will occasionally add one to the traditional Monday Motivation lineup. In these interviews, I will highlight authors, YouTubers, bloggers and content creators who offer resources that will benefit the homemaking community. In today's Creator Spotlight I am chatting an author whose writing I have enjoyed for many years. Homemaker, placemaker, and beauty seeker, Christie Purifoy has authored several books on home and homemaking and her new book, A House to Call Home: Creating Places That will Comfort and Care for Us, explores many of the same themes we discuss here on The Art of Home Podcast. In This Episode: • what it looks like to practice the “art of home” or placemaking, as Christie calls it over time • How beauty has shaped Christie's calling to be a placemaker • How homes, much like gardens, are alive, continually going through seasons of growth, chaos, death, and renewal and how that rhythm can strengthen our hope in God’s faithfulness • Creating a haven in a rental or less-than-ideal space • A small practical step you can take today to make your place a House to Call Home SHOW NOTES 🎁 Giveaway Closed...WIN A FREE COPY OF CHRISTIE'S BOOK!Leave a podcast review, screenshot it, and send to contact@theartofhomepodcast.com. Giveaway ends 8/9/26. Winner will be contacted by email and announced on 8/13/26 episode. CONNECT WITH CHRISTIE Website | christiepurifoy.com Substack | christiepurifoy.substack.com Instagram | @christiepurifoy Get recipes, make friends & support The Art of Home! Leave your tip of $5 or more by October 31, 2026!! https://www.theartofhomepodcast.com/recipe Support the show HOMEMAKING RESOURCES • Homemaker's Journal, AoH Seasonal Magazine • Private Facebook Group, Homemaker Forum • JR Miller's Homemaking Study Guide SUPPORT & CONNECT • Review | Love The Podcast • Contact | Text/Voicemail-use the link at top of description | Website | Email • Follow | Follow The Podcast • Support | theartofhomepodcast.com/support DISCLOSURE • **Buy | as an Amazon affiliate, AoH receives a small commission at no extra cost to you when you use our links to purchase items we recommend • AI Content | Portions of this episode’s copy and/or show notes may have been drafted with the assistance of AI and then reviewed and edited by a human, Allison Weeks.

## Transcript

[1:12] Allison: Happy Monday, homemakers! Welcome to Monday Motivation, brought to you by the Art of Home Podcast, where we are exploring how homemakers cultivate a place to belong.
[1:22] Allison: I'm your host, Alison Weeks.
[1:24] Allison: I'm a wife, a mom, a granny, and I've been practicing the Art of Home for over 30 years.
[1:30] Allison: Thank you so much for joining me for a little Monday motivation today.
[1:34] Allison: Every Monday, you can meet me here for homemaking tips, ideas, and encouragement in this short form episode.
[1:43] Allison: If you like what you hear today, be sure to check out our long form episodes that come out every Wednesday where we feature stories of homemakers just like you and deep dives into topics related to homemaking.
[1:58] Allison: Today I have a new kind of interview for you.
[2:01] Allison: I'm calling this new format a creator spotlight.
[2:04] Allison: In each creator spotlight, I will be highlighting an author, YouTuber, podcaster, or other content creator whose work benefits the homemaking community.
[2:14] Allison: Today's guest, Christy Purifoy, is a creator whose writing I've enjoyed for many years.
[2:20] Allison: Christy has authored several books on home and homemaking.
[2:25] Allison: And her new book, A House to Call Home, explores many of the same themes we discuss here on The Art of Home all the time.
[2:33] Allison: In this episode, we are talking about what it looks like to practice the art of home as placemaking over time.
[2:41] Allison: Christy shares how beauty has shaped her calling, why real homes, like real gardens, move through seasons of growth, chaos, death, and renewal, and how that rhythm can strengthen our hope in God's faithfulness.
[2:57] Allison: Christy also has some encouragement for the homemaker who is trying to create a haven in a rental or a less than ideal space.
[3:06] Allison: Plus, one small practical step you can take today to make your place a house to call home.
[3:15] Allison: Welcome to the Art of Home.
[3:17] Allison: I am here today chatting with Christy Purifoy.
[3:21] Allison: Did I say your name right?
[3:22] Allison: Christy Purefoy.
[3:23] SPEAKER_01: Yes, well done.
[3:23] SPEAKER_01: Okay, good.
[3:24] Allison: She's a writer and a gardener who loves to create welcoming places where plants and people can thrive.
[3:31] Allison: She has authored several books, including the two that introduced me to her work back in the 20 teens, Roots in Sky and Placemaker.
[3:38] Allison: Since then, she has written several more.
[3:40] Allison: Most recently, the book that we're going to talk about today, A House to Call Home, creating places that will comfort and care for us.
[3:48] Allison: Along with her husband and children, Christy is the keeper of Maplehurst, a beautiful Victorian farmhouse in southeastern Pennsylvania.
[3:56] Allison: And we're going to talk a good deal about this special home today.
[3:59] Allison: So, Christy, welcome to the Art of Home.
[4:01] Allison: Thank you so much for being here.
[4:03] SPEAKER_01: Oh, you're so welcome.
[4:04] SPEAKER_01: It's a real privilege.
[4:06] SPEAKER_01: I'm looking forward to this conversation.
[4:07] SPEAKER_01: I mean, you had me at Art of Home.
[4:11] SPEAKER_01: I love that.
[4:12] SPEAKER_01: That phrase just captures it entirely.
[4:14] SPEAKER_01: So really looking forward to our conversation.
[4:17] Allison: Oh, thank you so much.
[4:18] Allison: Yeah, we are kindred spirits, you and I, when it comes to home.
[4:21] Allison: We actually have some weird intersection commonalities too.
[4:25] Allison: Um, Texas, Florida, and Chicago.
[4:28] Allison: Oh my goodness.
[4:29] Allison: Yeah.
[4:30] Allison: So I grew up in Florida.
[4:32] Allison: I currently live in Texas.
[4:33] Allison: This is my third time here in Texas.
[4:35] Allison: My husband is in gas and oil.
[4:36] Allison: So we've Okay.
[4:37] Allison: Yeah.
[4:38] Allison: But um, we lived outside of Chicago for six years, and my two youngest children were born in Joliet.
[4:44] Allison: So you know many of the places that I love.
[4:47] Allison: So that's fantastic.
[4:49] Allison: Oh my gosh.
[4:49] Allison: Yeah.
[4:50] Allison: Okay.
[4:50] Allison: So usually um on The Art of Home, I feature everyday homemakers and we talk about their whole story of their beginning to where they are today and all of the fun stuff in the middle.
[5:01] Allison: I would love to ask you just a couple of those questions before we dive in and talk about your book.
[5:06] Allison: Is that okay?
[5:07] Allison: Oh, absolutely.
[5:08] Allison: Okay, cool.
[5:09] Allison: So when did you first become a homemaker?
[5:12] Allison: And what skills, if any, did you bring to the job?
[5:16] SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm already laughing because uh the answer is I was very young and I had no skills.
[5:24] SPEAKER_01: None.
[5:26] SPEAKER_01: So I actually I so I I left my home of origin for a college dorm, and I left the college dorm three-quarters of the way through college to marry my husband, my high school sweetheart.
[5:38] SPEAKER_01: So we moved into an apartment together my last year of college.
[5:41] SPEAKER_01: I was only 19, which now is the mother of older children, two of whom are older than that.
[5:48] SPEAKER_01: Um, I just can't believe I was such a baby, but I was 19, we'd known each other for years, and um, we got married, we moved into our first little apartment together.
[5:58] SPEAKER_01: Um, I had never cooked, I'd never cleaned my own place, he hadn't either.
[6:04] SPEAKER_01: We were children learning together.
[6:06] SPEAKER_01: And I guess I share that to give people maybe hope for themselves or for their young adult children.
[6:14] SPEAKER_01: They think, oh my goodness, have I failed to pass on skills to them?
[6:17] SPEAKER_01: Well, I had wonderful homemaking parents, my mother and my father.
[6:21] SPEAKER_01: And so I had seen it done well.
[6:23] SPEAKER_01: I just hadn't put it into practice myself.
[6:25] SPEAKER_01: So I knew next to nothing.
[6:27] SPEAKER_01: But what I did know was that home mattered because I had been given a good home and I loved the idea of home.
[6:34] SPEAKER_01: And so I guess, yeah, looking back, I realized if you love something, if you've been taught to care about something or value something, then you can learn the skills.
[6:44] SPEAKER_01: So I was very young and knew nothing.
[6:47] Allison: Yet another thing we have in common.
[6:50] Allison: I married my high school sweetheart when we were in college.
[6:53] Allison: We were 19 and 18.
[6:55] Allison: Oh my goodness.
[6:56] Allison: Yeah.
[6:56] Allison: And also I had great homemaking parents.
[6:59] Allison: My mom is a fantastic homemaker, but I just like wasn't interested in learning all that much about it.
[7:05] SPEAKER_01: I think there's such a difference when it's, you know, your childhood home, you receive it, and I receive it.
[7:11] SPEAKER_01: Um, but I didn't have that ownership that I think would that propelled me into, you know, wanting to make it my own and kind of become the storyteller, become the artist.
[7:20] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[7:21] SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think about that with my own kids when I despair over their messy rooms with the fact that they hardly know how to feed themselves.
[7:28] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[7:29] SPEAKER_01: I know that it it can really change once they're in their own space.
[7:33] SPEAKER_01: So that was true for me.
[7:34] Allison: Yeah, yeah.
[7:35] Allison: Okay, so what would you say is one of your greatest homemaking strengths?
[7:40] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this one's also pretty easy for me.
[7:42] SPEAKER_01: I I um I mean, I'm middle-aged now, so I know myself pretty well, and I know that my strength as a homemaker um is my love for beauty.
[7:53] SPEAKER_01: I am fed by beauty, I notice beauty, I care about beauty, I uh must live with beauty.
[8:00] SPEAKER_01: It's like food and water for me.
[8:02] SPEAKER_01: So that um that means that I'm just I'm driven, I'm compelled to uh cultivate beauty around me.
[8:11] SPEAKER_01: Um in that sense, I'm a visionary.
[8:13] SPEAKER_01: I can see things, I can imagine, um, I can see what's missing and maybe how to make it better.
[8:19] SPEAKER_01: Uh, did you ask about weaknesses?
[8:21] SPEAKER_01: Because I feel like that goes next.
[8:23] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's next.
[8:24] SPEAKER_01: So you can go there if you're ready.
[8:26] SPEAKER_01: I feel like the flip side of that for me is that because I'm such a big picture person, I am not detail oriented, my follow-through is not great.
[8:36] SPEAKER_01: So, what that looks like in my home is that at any given time, if you come in, you will probably see a bouquet of fresh homegrown flowers, but you will see mess, you will see unfinished projects, you know, I'm not, you will not see houseplants that are well cared for, you know, things that really require care and attention to detail.
[8:57] SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, there's that real attention.
[9:00] SPEAKER_01: That's a struggle for me.
[9:01] SPEAKER_01: So I don't like cleaning.
[9:03] SPEAKER_01: I'm, you know, I'm content to have things a bit disorganized and messy.
[9:07] SPEAKER_01: At the same time, I'm filling, you know, I'm filling my home with with beautiful objects and flowers.
[9:13] SPEAKER_01: So strength and weakness, and uh, you know, I'm I I'm learning to grow.
[9:19] SPEAKER_01: Even, you know, we we go on growing, right?
[9:21] SPEAKER_01: I'm still growing as a homemaker.
[9:22] SPEAKER_01: So it's that attention to detail that is is an area of growth for me.
[9:26] Allison: Yeah.
[9:27] Allison: Well, it's good that you know know yourself.
[9:29] Allison: Know thyself, right?
[9:31] Allison: That's very good.
[9:31] Allison: Okay, tell me about someone who has helped influence and shape the homemaker that you are today.
[9:37] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this question's interesting for me, and and I can answer it pretty readily too.
[9:43] SPEAKER_01: Because I've written so much about home.
[9:45] SPEAKER_01: I think if I hadn't written these books, I might have said, my mom, which is a natural answer.
[9:50] SPEAKER_01: She um was more at home, you know, than my father.
[9:54] SPEAKER_01: Um, my memories of home are really wrapped up in her.
[9:57] SPEAKER_01: We tend to think of homemakers as women.
[10:00] SPEAKER_01: But I have learned through writing my books, every time I sit down and write about home, I find myself writing about my father.
[10:07] SPEAKER_01: So actually, I I want to say that probably the most influential homemaker in my life, and that isn't to say he didn't have a job outside of the home.
[10:17] SPEAKER_01: He did.
[10:17] SPEAKER_01: He was a minister, a missionary.
[10:20] SPEAKER_01: But he was also a homemaker, a home lover.
[10:23] SPEAKER_01: He was a gardener.
[10:24] SPEAKER_01: He was the one who would pick out wallpaper for our house, who valued it.
[10:28] SPEAKER_01: I remember um him cleaning before people came over.
[10:32] SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think actually I'm probably most like my father.
[10:37] SPEAKER_01: He was also um artistic.
[10:39] SPEAKER_01: He had painted, you know, in his youth.
[10:42] SPEAKER_01: I think we're a lot alike.
[10:43] SPEAKER_01: And so when I sit down to write about home, I just my stories keep going back to my dad.
[10:48] SPEAKER_01: Um the just what I saw him do and what I know uh just was passed down, you know, genetically and just through the environment.
[10:57] SPEAKER_01: I know it comes from my dad.
[10:59] SPEAKER_01: So I I really think I make home the way I do today because of my father.
[11:04] Allison: Yeah, I love that answer.
[11:05] Allison: And it's pretty uncommon, but I think if everybody thought about it, how both of their parents have uh impacted their homemaking, they would probably come up with something similar.
[11:16] Allison: So you mentioned he was an artist.
[11:17] Allison: So um let's talk about the art of home because you're definitely an artist.
[11:21] Allison: How do you see homemaking as an art and where do you find beauty in it?
[11:25] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
[11:26] SPEAKER_01: It's funny.
[11:27] SPEAKER_01: I um in kind of preparing for a conversation and thinking about homemaking as an art, I remembered that when I was young, you know, adults are always asking children, what do you want to be when you grow up?
[11:40] SPEAKER_01: And whenever I was asked that question as a kid, my answer was always artist.
[11:46] SPEAKER_01: I wanted to be an artist.
[11:48] SPEAKER_01: And um, I thought, of course, that meant painting or drawing.
[11:51] SPEAKER_01: Um I did try those things.
[11:53] SPEAKER_01: I didn't really have enough talent to go very far in that.
[11:58] SPEAKER_01: But I actually think that my dream did come true.
[12:00] SPEAKER_01: I I didn't expect it to look the way it does, but I do feel like I've grown into um becoming an artist through caring for my home, through writing, through gardening.
[12:13] SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, this is absolutely about art for me.
[12:16] SPEAKER_01: I I think also, I think the natural way to think about the art of homemaking is maybe through the visual arts, um, especially the culture we live in.
[12:26] SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking about social media and Instagram and home decor magazines and television and all of that.
[12:31] SPEAKER_01: It's a very visual space.
[12:34] SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm a visual person who's inspired by um art and color and all of that.
[12:40] SPEAKER_01: But actually, when I really think about my own homemaking and how um how it is an art form, I I actually think it's more like music.
[12:51] SPEAKER_01: I think it's about not just creating a pretty picture.
[12:54] SPEAKER_01: I think it is about kind of the rhythm of our daily lives, the rhythm of a season, the rhythm of the year, which becomes the rhythm of like, you know, a whole life.
[13:04] SPEAKER_01: Um it's something that happens over time.
[13:08] SPEAKER_01: It's about just being and living.
[13:11] SPEAKER_01: So for me, I actually think maybe the better artistic metaphor is music or thinking of ourselves as composers or those who are listening.
[13:20] SPEAKER_01: Um, and actually, I'm not even sure I really I I guess I've written about that in a few places, but um, I feel like that's even just something that became clearer for me as I was thinking about our conversation.
[13:31] SPEAKER_01: So it's not just about creating that perfect image.
[13:36] SPEAKER_01: Um, it is about something that happens over time.
[13:38] SPEAKER_01: Gardening actually is really this way.
[13:41] SPEAKER_01: I think that is something I've learned as a gardener.
[13:43] SPEAKER_01: Um, when I started gardening, I thought, oh, I want to create a pretty garden, right?
[13:48] SPEAKER_01: You look at it, it's pretty.
[13:49] SPEAKER_01: But gardens just don't stay the same.
[13:52] SPEAKER_01: They're changing so quickly and so constantly.
[13:56] SPEAKER_01: So I pretty quickly realized that to garden well, to garden as an art form, is to work with time and to compose something that sort of folds in time.
[14:07] SPEAKER_01: And I think homemaking is that way.
[14:09] SPEAKER_01: It's not about, oh, I've renovated my kitchen and now it looks so good.
[14:13] SPEAKER_01: It's about how do I live in that kitchen?
[14:16] SPEAKER_01: Like what rhythms am I am I keeping and how does the space help me do that?
[14:21] SPEAKER_01: And it's a much more dynamic kind of art, I think, which is uh so much fun.
[14:26] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's alive.
[14:27] Allison: It's a living, it's a living, breathing thing.
[14:30] Allison: And you are speaking art of home language right now.
[14:33] Allison: We talk, we have pillars of homemaking and rhythms and routine is one of those pillars of homemaking.
[14:39] Allison: And something I say constantly on the show is reminding homemakers they have to, it's simper gumby, always flexible, always flexible because it's always shifting and changing.
[14:48] Allison: And it's funny that you brought up the garden.
[14:51] Allison: We're gonna dive into the book here, but I have a question about this, so I think it's appropriate to say it right now.
[14:56] Allison: Um, because I wanted to talk about beauty and death or chaos for a minute.
[15:01] Allison: And the chapter, This is the day, you write about how you love to be immersed in beauty, but as all homemakers know, for every beautiful moment that we create, there is chaos just crouching at the door.
[15:11] Allison: Those moments don't last.
[15:12] Allison: And this is where you talk about gardening and how gardening taught you this lesson.
[15:17] Allison: You say, I was trying to grow beauty that would resist decay, but that is neither a possible nor a worthy goal.
[15:25] Allison: Death and decay feed the seeds of new life.
[15:28] Allison: So, how do we make beauty in our homes by entering into that cycle, like you say, rather than fighting it?
[15:35] Allison: Because in a world with social media picture perfect Instagram stills, like we want to create it and have it stay that way.
[15:41] Allison: Or we find a system that works and we want it to stay that system and everybody follow that system until the end of time.
[15:48] Allison: But that's not practical.
[15:49] Allison: So, what do we do?
[15:50] Allison: How do we how do we enter into it thinking about death and you know, seeds and all of that?
[15:56] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because things that are really alive are growing, which means they're changing.
[16:00] SPEAKER_01: Uh we just can't escape that.
[16:02] SPEAKER_01: So if something is still and staying the same, it it maybe isn't only dead, it like never lived.
[16:08] SPEAKER_01: It's like or something.
[16:10] SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, I think you know, this is this was probably my biggest struggle when I first came home to this farmhouse in Pennsylvania.
[16:18] SPEAKER_01: When I first had such scope, you know, for homemaking kind of on a bigger scale.
[16:23] SPEAKER_01: And I I had was a new mom of four children and you know, pretty overwhelmed and tired.
[16:29] SPEAKER_01: Um, I so much craved the beautiful home that I could see in my mind.
[16:35] SPEAKER_01: And I was just constantly frustrated by the falling short, the the projects we hadn't yet got to, the things that were breaking, um, the messes the kids are making, right?
[16:45] SPEAKER_01: It's just endless, endless, endless.
[16:48] SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, my first attempts at gardening, you know, there's gonna be a lot of failure, there's gonna be a lot of death.
[16:54] SPEAKER_01: And um, I really struggled with that.
[16:57] SPEAKER_01: And I won't say I ever quite figured it out, but time, just time, living these seasons, um, coming in and out of winter and spring and all the seasons in every sense, in my garden and just in in life, as my children have grown and and and gone on into more independent lives, um, what that has sort of built in me is this sure knowledge that, oh yeah, I can let, I can let a moment of chaos or a low a moment of death be because I know it's not the end.
[17:28] SPEAKER_01: We're just moving through it.
[17:30] SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I can be filled with hope about okay, what is next?
[17:34] SPEAKER_01: Or I can be, I can have new wisdom, like what do I need to let go of?
[17:38] SPEAKER_01: What do I need to, you know, grieve, acknowledge, and then move on.
[17:43] SPEAKER_01: But you live those seasons enough that you you really know kind of deep in your bones, oh, spring always comes back.
[17:51] SPEAKER_01: Uh, this dead garden soil, it will be filled with flowers again.
[17:55] SPEAKER_01: Um, okay, the rose bushes died, but okay, what will I plant now?
[17:59] SPEAKER_01: I I just find my emotional equilibrium through it all is just much steadier.
[18:05] SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm more hopeful, which is ironic.
[18:08] SPEAKER_01: I've seen more death, I've seen more loss, I've seen more mess, and somehow at the end of it, I'm more hopeful.
[18:14] SPEAKER_01: And I just think that's the gift time gives of just seeing um, you know, the faithfulness of God, the goodness of God in season and out, and just living it.
[18:23] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[18:23] SPEAKER_01: I'm not the same young homemaker mom who was just grieving every disaster and every, you know, every unfinished thing and every broken thing.
[18:35] SPEAKER_01: Um, I can just really take that in my stride now in a way that I didn't used to be able to do.
[18:41] SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, so it's just like that's that's just one of those gifts.
[18:44] SPEAKER_01: There, there are things that we don't like about aging, but that's something I do like about aging.
[18:48] SPEAKER_01: It's just that kind of resilience that that gets cultivated in us.
[18:52] Allison: Yes, it's it's gaining more of the wisdom of heaven.
[18:56] Allison: And we talk about that at the very end of the book.
[18:59] Allison: And um, this is what made me think about this question about beauty and death, because you you say how you know everything in the kingdom of God is upside down from what we experience here and and these concepts of we leave our homes to find them, we wander and come home, we choose simple, a simple and free way of life, but the price we pay for it will be all that we are.
[19:21] Allison: So this building of this place that you're doing, these buildings of our homes, this homemaking thing that we do, it's going to cost us everything.
[19:31] Allison: Um, uh but it will give us everything in return.
[19:35] Allison: And that is the economy of the kingdom of God.
[19:38] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[19:39] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it you know, it does not, and this was a hard lesson for me too.
[19:43] SPEAKER_01: It does not fit neatly in our homemaker budgeting spreadsheet.
[19:47] SPEAKER_01: And that's not to say we shouldn't have those things.
[19:50] SPEAKER_01: I have those things, use those tools, you know, they served me well to a certain point.
[19:55] SPEAKER_01: But at some point you kind of move beyond and have and have to live in a more open-handed way.
[20:02] SPEAKER_01: And um, there's peace there, you know, to be less afraid of death, less afraid of loss because you've seen what can come next, because you've seen, you know, resurrection in different forms, you know, over, you know, over time.
[20:17] SPEAKER_01: Um and yeah, it's just it's a good place to be.
[20:22] Allison: Um it's very freeing for the homemaker.
[20:24] Allison: I I think it's just it's super liberating because you can so easily fall into a trap of really self-pity and nobody appreciates what I do, and everything I do keeps getting undone and all of that.
[20:39] Allison: Yeah, yeah, it's very liberating.
[20:41] Allison: So let's shift over to I want to talk about sort of one of the things that you bring up at the very beginning of the book, this idea of comfort, the way we think about comfort.
[20:51] Allison: So we often think of that word comfort, what we think of, like you said, comfort food, my comfort zone.
[20:57] Allison: But you pull out the ancient meaning of the word and tell us that it actually means strength.
[21:04] Allison: So, how can homemakers shift their mindset from thinking of comfort as just a luxury to something seeing it as a way that she can actually strengthen her family, but not hide from the world?
[21:17] SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
[21:17] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, how we use this word has really shifted over the over the centuries.
[21:22] SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, now we we say things like comfort food and comfort reads.
[21:26] SPEAKER_01: And what we mean by that usually is something easy, something that asks nothing of us.
[21:33] SPEAKER_01: Um, and so we know that those sorts of things are a little dangerous.
[21:37] SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, we might indulge now and again, but we know a life made up of comfort in that sense is not ultimately, you know, what we're what we're here for.
[21:47] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[21:48] SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, if you go back, you know, comfort was was used um, you know, in in old English scriptures, you know, as a word for the Holy Spirit.
[21:56] SPEAKER_01: And it it is this sense of like with strength, like coming alongside um to to give strength, uh, to show up with strength and to be strengthened.
[22:06] SPEAKER_01: And um, going back to that older vision, I think puts us back in touch with some really needed wisdom, which is um maybe also rooted in our maker and our God and who in um his character towards us um as someone who really comforts and cares for us.
[22:28] SPEAKER_01: And um I I think if we're mothers, you know, maybe we more naturally have this attitude towards our children, but it may not be a natural one for us to have towards ourselves.
[22:43] SPEAKER_01: Um, and so all of those things are are things that this house has really taught me.
[22:47] SPEAKER_01: I I came to Maplehurst with this idea that I would I was given and would create a spacious place.
[22:54] SPEAKER_01: So for me, that meant um a place where other people could come and sort of be strengthened for life, be restored, find rest, um renewal, you know, a retreat for them.
[23:06] SPEAKER_01: But what like the surprising lesson has been that oh, those are actually things.
[23:11] SPEAKER_01: I need as well.
[23:12] SPEAKER_01: And those are things, those are gifts God delights to give me.
[23:15] SPEAKER_01: And it is possible to partner in our own well-being.
[23:20] SPEAKER_01: So when I care for this home, which isn't always easy, which you know requires effort and intention, that actually in seasons or even just moments when I need it, this place can care for me.
[23:35] SPEAKER_01: And that care ultimately isn't um isn't like ease for ease, ease's sake, but it is just the necessary um kind of uh putting back together.
[23:49] SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, um uh you know, it might be actual healing, it might be um, you know, renewed inspiration creatively.
[23:57] SPEAKER_01: It might look like all kinds of things.
[24:00] SPEAKER_01: Um, but once we've been sort of put back together in that way, we can get back out there loving other people, serving other people, um, caring for our places.
[24:09] SPEAKER_01: So it's it is actually one of those necessary rhythms.
[24:12] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[24:12] SPEAKER_01: The same way that, you know, a good night's sleep is is uh an important rhythm.
[24:17] SPEAKER_01: Um, but it does require that shift.
[24:19] SPEAKER_01: I uh, you know, I struggled for years, uh, you know, making decisions about this home.
[24:23] SPEAKER_01: Well, is this decision selfish?
[24:25] SPEAKER_01: Is this just for me?
[24:26] SPEAKER_01: Is this just for my pleasure or my enjoyment?
[24:29] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[24:29] SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I've always prioritized um caring for this home so that it could care for others, you know, guest spaces and and spaces for hospitality.
[24:40] SPEAKER_01: Um, but what I've learned is that a a whole home home, you know, if we've got the complete thing, there will be spaces for us and places for our own rest and our own retreat.
[24:51] SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's not one or the other, it's just um all of those things together.
[24:56] SPEAKER_01: Um and uh and and comfort, I think is the best word I found for it.
[25:00] SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, if it's a season of grief, what God longs to comfort us.
[25:07] SPEAKER_01: And um, and our homes can be a way that we receive that comfort.
[25:11] SPEAKER_01: And uh this home has certainly been that for me.
[25:14] Allison: So tell me a little about Maplehurst.
[25:17] Allison: You've lived there for over a decade now, correct?
[25:20] Allison: Yeah.
[25:21] Allison: And we've you've restored parts, you've built a whole garden, you've done lots to develop the property.
[25:28] Allison: So, how has the physical history, both your experience of the physical history of the house and what you know of the history of this old house, um, shaped your understanding of what a home should be?
[25:41] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, that really is one of the great gifts of an old house, but it isn't only the gift of an old house.
[25:48] SPEAKER_01: It's just the thing that I the lesson I guess I've found most accessible because I'm in an old house is that I I really can't even pretend that this place is mine.
[25:59] SPEAKER_01: Because I know so many families, so many names.
[26:02] SPEAKER_01: I know the stories of people who made their own lives here.
[26:05] SPEAKER_01: There's this, you know, whole list of names and families, and some of their stories I know.
[26:10] SPEAKER_01: And so I it's very clear that I am just one of those names in the in the list.
[26:17] SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm and that I am very much um the r the recipient of a legacy.
[26:23] SPEAKER_01: So that decisions previous owners, if we call them that, um previous uh caretakers, caretakers, placemakers, you know, I'm a recipient of the decisions they made for good and ill.
[26:36] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[26:36] SPEAKER_01: Um I am blessed by the good decisions and I struggle with, you know, with um, you know, some of the the poor decisions, which keeps me humble as I make decisions for kids.
[26:48] SPEAKER_01: So because I'm in an old home, that has just become much more obvious.
[26:52] SPEAKER_01: I think that's true for all of us.
[26:54] SPEAKER_01: But if say we built our house or we're in a little rental apartment, or you know, if the the structure looks very different, it just might be a little bit harder to recognize that truth.
[27:05] SPEAKER_01: Um, that our homemaking, our placemaking is is sort of sewing into a legacy.
[27:11] SPEAKER_01: It is about receiving, cultivating, and then passing on.
[27:16] SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I just every day I'm grateful for um the efforts, the work, the art of previous residents here.
[27:26] Allison: Yeah.
[27:26] SPEAKER_01: And thinking about you know, what I leave behind, what I pass on, and knowing that it's beyond just this house.
[27:33] SPEAKER_01: So it's it's about my children who will go out and create their own homes, guests who maybe have seen something here or experienced something here and are inspired to go create something on their own.
[27:44] SPEAKER_01: I also think about, you know, just the children who've wandered through here.
[27:47] SPEAKER_01: Maybe they were brought by their parents, or maybe they were a friend of a child, and maybe they saw something or some way of living, or or uh it was their first glimpse of a garden or how you know, certain meal we make or something.
[28:02] SPEAKER_01: And I know because of the memories I have of other people's homes growing up, yeah.
[28:06] SPEAKER_01: I just I think you just never know what little seeds, you know, are being carried off.
[28:12] SPEAKER_01: So maybe that's the best metaphor.
[28:14] SPEAKER_01: We're yes, we're making a place, caring for a home, but if that's alive and if that's a fruitful thing, there will be seeds developing and who knows where the wind will carry those seeds.
[28:26] SPEAKER_01: That's really exciting to me.
[28:27] SPEAKER_01: It's very hopeful.
[28:29] SPEAKER_01: Um think about all the maplehurst seeds out there.
[28:32] Allison: Yes.
[28:33] Allison: I love that.
[28:33] Allison: Well, what about the woman who is maybe living in a home that she doesn't feel like, you know, she's like you just referenced it?
[28:40] Allison: She's not in a in the in the long line of caretakers legacy.
[28:44] Allison: Uh, maybe she's in an apartment.
[28:46] Allison: A lot of our listeners are living in temporary pla you know, homes, if you will.
[28:51] Allison: It's not theirs, they don't own it.
[28:53] Allison: Um, it's not ideal.
[28:55] Allison: So, how can women like that create a haven in a space that they don't necessarily love or feel like they can claim ownership over?
[29:04] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think this is where the art idea really serves us and is and and really speaks to something true.
[29:10] SPEAKER_01: Because if if those who are working artists or who are really in tune with their creativity, because we're all creative, know that it is a limit or a challenge that really inspires creativity.
[29:22] SPEAKER_01: Um when you have sort of endless options or uh things are easy, it actually can be much harder to create good art.
[29:30] SPEAKER_01: Um and so the place that we don't love, which actually I want to say, as strange as it might sound, I mean, in many ways, Maplehurst was the dream come true.
[29:39] SPEAKER_01: It was the answer to my prayer, but I didn't fully recognize that right away.
[29:45] SPEAKER_01: I didn't see this place and think, oh yes, that's it.
[29:48] SPEAKER_01: There were things I wasn't sure about, things I didn't like.
[29:51] SPEAKER_01: There are still things that, you know, in a perfect world, I would change.
[29:55] SPEAKER_01: I would love if, you know, this were different or I had this and not that.
[29:59] SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, just even silly things.
[30:02] SPEAKER_01: Like I pictured a white clapboard farmhouse, you know, I didn't see a red brick house.
[30:08] SPEAKER_01: And so something like that was kind of a shift of seeing in this place something um worthy of my love.
[30:15] SPEAKER_01: But when you love a place, and by love I mean you kind of pour yourself into it, you care for it, you begin to see it differently.
[30:23] SPEAKER_01: Love grows.
[30:24] SPEAKER_01: I mean, we know that's true in other ways and and and in relationships, and um, and it's true for a relationship to a place as well.
[30:32] SPEAKER_01: So I've lived in many places, uh, many of them very inadequate places as we journeyed around in our our long marriage.
[30:43] SPEAKER_01: But when I look back at them, I see even in the really kind of awful ones, uh, I see through eyes of love.
[30:53] SPEAKER_01: I look back at pictures of some of our first apartments and they look lovely to me.
[30:58] SPEAKER_01: I think we made them lovely with our living and our loving.
[31:01] SPEAKER_01: And um so I guess, yeah, it's like two things.
[31:04] SPEAKER_01: I want to say embrace the challenge of it because some good art will come of it.
[31:10] SPEAKER_01: And also let time do its work.
[31:12] SPEAKER_01: You know, you your feelings for a place can change.
[31:16] SPEAKER_01: And lastly, maybe there really is no, maybe the dream come true just isn't what we think it will be.
[31:25] SPEAKER_01: That's been true for me.
[31:26] SPEAKER_01: So Maplehurst is my dream come true, but it's just taken time to reveal itself.
[31:31] SPEAKER_01: That wasn't always apparent to me, and even now isn't always apparent to me.
[31:36] SPEAKER_01: It's almost like something I have to take on faith.
[31:39] SPEAKER_01: Um, because every every place has cracks running through it of some kind or another.
[31:44] SPEAKER_01: So I think accepting that can help us accept sort of where we are.
[31:48] SPEAKER_01: Um yeah.
[31:50] Allison: It reminds me of brings me back to the gardening metaphors, you know, thinking about fruitfulness.
[31:55] Allison: Uh we say on the show a lot of times that, and I think you talk about this in the book about efficiency.
[32:01] Allison: Efficiency is fine, but it's not really our ultimate goal.
[32:04] Allison: Fruitfulness is our goal as homemakers.
[32:06] Allison: Yeah, and fruitfulness takes time and it takes faith.
[32:10] Allison: Like we have a fruit, you know, I have a fig tree, a huge fig tree in my backyard, and I can't make that tree produce figs, you know.
[32:19] Allison: I can tend the tree, we can trim it when it needs trimming, and we can give it fertilizer and plenty of water and all the things it needs.
[32:26] Allison: We cultivate a good environment for that fruit to grow, but yeah, I have to wait on the fruit and and it has to do its thing.
[32:36] Allison: Absolutely.
[32:37] SPEAKER_01: And I think uh, you know, now I want to talk about roots, you know, we'll just go with the metaphor.
[32:42] SPEAKER_01: It's like uh I think I think one thing maybe that could be encouraging is especially if you know you won't be in a place for long.
[32:49] Allison: Yeah.
[32:49] SPEAKER_01: I really I've written about this because I really believe this to be true.
[32:52] SPEAKER_01: It has very much been my experience that if you learn how to live in a rooted way, a sort of deeply invested way in your place, if you when you move physically to a new home, a new place, you bring those deep roots with you.
[33:07] SPEAKER_01: You've learned ways of living that will serve you well, that will allow you to, you know, live in that way in the new place.
[33:14] SPEAKER_01: So even when we have to be transplanted, we kind of bring those good root systems with us.
[33:19] SPEAKER_01: So living that way in a temporary home.
[33:22] SPEAKER_01: I I mean, I'm thinking of an apartment my husband and I lived in in East Texas.
[33:26] SPEAKER_01: I think we lived there for three months.
[33:28] SPEAKER_01: Um, and everything in that apartment, this was so odd, was made of plastic.
[33:32] SPEAKER_01: It was the oddest little apartment, plastic cupboards and plastic books and green astroturf on the patio.
[33:39] SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
[33:40] SPEAKER_01: Um, but the living we did there in three months was deep and good, despite the plastic apartment, or maybe because of it, I don't know.
[33:49] SPEAKER_01: Um, and and so I know we were formed in ways there that are still bearing fruit.
[33:55] SPEAKER_01: So um it matters, even if you're moving in two months, it matters.
[34:01] Allison: Yes.
[34:02] Allison: Thank you for saying that, because I think that is a very common thing that we face.
[34:05] Allison: We don't, it's like um something my husband and I are talking a lot about at 53, um, where you could be tempted to just kind of rest on your laurels or check out and say, okay, we've done everything, you know, now what?
[34:21] Allison: Or we're just gonna fade into the distance.
[34:23] Allison: No, we're gonna, it's I'm gonna quote the Shoshank Redemption.
[34:26] Allison: It's get busy living or get busy dying, you know.
[34:29] Allison: It matters how we live.
[34:31] Allison: And um, whether we stay here in this place that we're at for two months or for 20 more years, it's we need to put those roots down.
[34:38] Allison: So I love that analogy of the roots and and the way that you connected all that.
[34:42] Allison: So that's really a good point.
[34:44] Allison: Um, I have one more question.
[34:47] Allison: Actually, I have several, but I'm gonna just pick one because we're running out of time.
[34:51] Allison: But for the woman who wants to start practicing um placemaking today, let's give her a practical takeaway.
[35:01] Allison: What's like something small and intentional that she can do right now in her living room, her kitchen, her bedroom?
[35:08] Allison: Just pick a favorite.
[35:09] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, great question.
[35:11] SPEAKER_01: I I think I would say, and I don't think it's just because of my own proclivities, but I would say um introduce a bit of nature.
[35:21] SPEAKER_01: Um, I just think the natural world, like that's the source of our our kind of sustenance and our ideas about beauty.
[35:28] SPEAKER_01: And um, and so maybe it's looks like a garden and you bring in flowers, but it doesn't have to.
[35:35] SPEAKER_01: It could be like going to the park.
[35:37] SPEAKER_01: I, you know, I used to live in the city, like going to the park and clipping some greenery off a shrub or a tree, or falling, getting a fallen branch that looks interesting, or a seashell at the beach.
[35:45] SPEAKER_01: But but in each room, in each space, bring in a little bit of the natural world and ideally something that reflects the season.
[35:53] SPEAKER_01: So it's just that sense of like bridging inside and outside, of rooting our place in the natural world and in the rhythms of the natural world.
[36:02] SPEAKER_01: Um, when my children were young at their preschool in Chicago, they always had these sort of nature tables that were seasonally shifted, where there's little beautiful bits and pieces of whatever that season was, were just there on this little window ledge or this little display table.
[36:17] SPEAKER_01: And um, I think we should all do something like that, some little beautiful reminder of um, you know, kind of where we are and what's happening out there.
[36:26] SPEAKER_01: And um, so yeah, that I think that's the thing I would say is is some sort of natural element.
[36:32] SPEAKER_01: So I yeah, gonna maybe be controversial here and say, you know what?
[36:37] SPEAKER_01: I know the fake flowers seem great and they might have their place.
[36:44] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[36:44] SPEAKER_01: Um, but there may be something just spiritually sustaining that we're missing out.
[36:49] SPEAKER_01: And so maybe just the knobbly bit of wood from outside would actually serve us better than those pretty fake flowers in in order to kind of root us to to something real outside of our homes.
[37:00] SPEAKER_01: So bring the natural world indoors, I think I would say.
[37:03] Allison: Oh, you are speaking my language.
[37:05] Allison: I'm a big fan of nature walks, nature tables as a Charlotte Mason homeschooler.
[37:10] Allison: Yes, yes.
[37:10] Allison: Um, that's one of my favorite things.
[37:12] Allison: And it not only connects you, like it connects you in two ways.
[37:15] Allison: I think it it connects you to the physical place where you are living because it forces you to pay attention.
[37:21] SPEAKER_01: Pay attention, yeah.
[37:22] Allison: To what's happening in the environment right outside your door.
[37:25] Allison: How do the leaves look this time of year?
[37:28] Allison: How does the air smell this time of year?
[37:30] Allison: You know, all of those things.
[37:32] Allison: And and I believe it, this has been my practice anyway, my experience, it grows your appreciation for the place that you live in, even if it's not the most beautiful place.
[37:40] Allison: Um, and then of course it connects you to our creator because the heavens declare the glory of God and just getting out in his creation um and then bringing a little bit of that into your home will instantly um make you more aware of his goodness and and his creativity and let that then impact the way that you keep your home.
[38:00] Allison: So absolutely.
[38:03] Allison: Well, Chrissy, I'm just so excited uh to get this book into the Art of Home listeners' hands because I really feel like it it was made for them.
[38:12] Allison: Um there's just so much parallel to what we talk about all the time here on the show.
[38:17] Allison: So, what where's the best place for listeners to connect with you, first of all?
[38:21] Allison: Because you do still actively write, I think over on Substack, and then get a copy of um A House to Call Home.
[38:26] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
[38:27] SPEAKER_01: I have all kinds of book links on my website, and that's pretty easy to find, Christypurifoy.com.
[38:32] SPEAKER_01: And I do send out a regular uh newsletter on Substack.
[38:37] SPEAKER_01: I love to write about home garden and the church there.
[38:40] SPEAKER_01: And you can find me on Instagram if you want to see Maplehurst.
[38:42] SPEAKER_01: I'm still sharing um there at Christy Purifoy.
[38:46] SPEAKER_01: Um so probably those three places are are the best bet.
[38:49] SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I hope um this was the most deeply personal book I think I've ever created.
[38:55] SPEAKER_01: Um, it's yeah, so it's it's just been so so sweet to share it with people.
[39:00] Allison: It is full of beautiful photos.
[39:01] Allison: Did you take those photos?
[39:03] SPEAKER_01: I did.
[39:03] SPEAKER_01: Oh, they're gorgeous.
[39:04] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's been a wonderful new creative practice I've learned.
[39:07] SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, with these recent books, and I'm grateful for it.
[39:10] SPEAKER_01: Another way of seeing and paying attention.
[39:12] SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I've really loved it.
[39:14] Allison: Awesome.
[39:15] Allison: Well, it is a beautiful book.
[39:16] Allison: So, listeners, go get yourself a copy.
[39:18] Allison: Thank you so much for being here, Christy, and for sharing all about your love of home and placemaking.
[39:23] Allison: I really appreciate you taking the time.
[39:24] SPEAKER_01: Oh, you're so welcome.
[39:25] SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
[39:27] Allison: Thank you for listening to this special Creator Spotlight Monday Motivation featuring Christy Purifoy.
[39:34] Allison: I want to thank Christy again for sharing her love of home with us today and for writing such beautiful books to encourage and inspire homemakers.
[39:42] Allison: If you haven't had the pleasure of reading Christy's work, I hope you are checking your library for copies of her books right now.
[39:50] Allison: I can personally recommend Roots and Sky and Placemaker, as well as this new treasure, A House to Call Home, creating places that will comfort and care for us.
[40:01] Allison: One of you will be blessed with a gorgeous hardcover copy of A House to Call Home, which was gifted along with my copy to The Art of Home by Christy's publisher, Harvest House.
[40:12] Allison: I'm doing a giveaway for this copy, and here's how to enter.
[40:16] Allison: First, leave a review of the Art of Home on your listening app, but before you submit the review, take a screenshot and save that to your camera roll.
[40:26] Allison: Then send your screenshot to contact at theartofome podcast.com to be entered to win.
[40:33] Allison: Make sure that you give me your name and your email address.
[40:37] Allison: Giveaway closes at midnight on Sunday, August the 9th, and I will announce the winner on that Wednesday's episode, August the 12th.
[40:45] Allison: US residents only, please.
[40:48] Allison: One entry per person only.
[40:51] Allison: That's all for this Monday motivation.
[40:53] Allison: I will be back on Wednesday with a brand new homemaker portrait.
[40:56] Allison: Until then, keep practicing your art of making a home.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.