name plaques

What’s in a name?

Names are kind of a big deal to me.

As a young girl, I loved seeing the name plaques my parents hung on the walls of our home.  Each plaque featured our first names in calligraphy, with its meaning and a related verse of scripture beneath.

I appreciated knowing I was named after my mother’s dearest childhood friend, and that “Susie” meant “beautiful one”.  I committed to live up to my namesake and embody the characteristics that my name depicted.  

It didn’t hurt my teenage ego to know that my name meant “beautiful”, that’s for sure.

We selected each of our children’s names carefully, owing to my personal experience of feeling tied to my name.  Once I found out my firstborn was a girl, I spent her last five months in utero calling her by name in the hopes that my husband would agree with my selection.  

He didn’t know what hit him.  By the time I was pregnant with our third daughter, he knew the drill. So he put his foot down, saying, “I get to name this one”.  Thankfully, I agreed with him.

We didn’t find out the gender with our fourth.  So although we had a name picked out for each gender (Adam and Eve, interestingly enough), we failed to put the time into choosing a middle name.  

Consequently, we left the hospital giving her a biblical name (as we’d done with the others) and all was well.  Until we figured out that if we’d given her my mother’s name as her middle name, her initials would spell out her first name.  Eve Valerie Egbert.

Not willing to pass up such cleverness, we forked our the cash and went to court for an official name change. 

That’s how important names are to me.

All of our kids names are rich with meaning. Each child shares a name with either a parent or grandparent.  We gave them names of our favorite Bible heroes as well.  Hopefully, the stories between these characters in scripture and family members will inspire each of them as their knowledge of them grows.

To enrich my kids’ understanding of their names, I designed a few plaques of my own.  Not like the handwritten calligraphy ones of my childhood.  Graphic design, in true 21st century style.

Today I framed and put them on display.  

Instead of a bare wall on the landing, now we have a reason to pause and reflect on the meaning behind each of our names.  I caught each of my kids doing just that after they arrived home from school today.

I hope the trend continues.

Decorating the home to reflect what you value.

We’ve lived in our house for almost thirteen years.  When our family first moved in, we’d only been out of college for 2 years and had two children, 2 and under.  So naturally, our possessions were insufficient to fill the space we had purchased.  Not that I minded.

I took my sweet time decorating the space.  My innate frugality and my husband’s love of white space lent itself to being deliberate about what went up on the walls.

By the end of our first year, we might have thrown up a cherished wedding photo, our most recent family picture, a framed copy of The Family: A Proclamation to the World and a sketch of the San Diego temple my aunt and uncle had gifted us for our wedding.

The space was left wanting, as one would imagine a 2500 square foot home with only four pictures on the wall.

Time marched on.  Over the years, we’ve added ample decor-from practical solutions like wall shelves to house the kids’ artwork and  prized trophies, to sentimental ones like a shadow box housing all the sand dollars we collected on a family trip to the Oregon Coast.

My favorite(and really only) type of wall-adornments are customized.  They have to carry meaning for me. Though outfitting my entire home all at once (and inexpensively) by shopping at a discount store tempts me, I’d rather stare at bare walls than ones laden with generic housewares, no matter how classy.

So, in my quest to make my home reflect who we are, I’ve slowly but surely racked up a few items of note.

  1.  PEOPLE.   Most recent family photo on the fireplace mantle and an assortment of oldies but goodies arranged on the wall by the stairs.

A clock that my grandpa(now deceased) crafted and gave us for our wedding seventeen years ago.

A print made by my mission president(a former art teacher) for each of the elders and sisters who served under him in Taiwan.  The scene captures a town(now city) that he served in as a young elder in the 1950’s.  He passed away this past year so this has particular significance to me now and I’m delighted to display it in my home.

2.  WORDS.  A word cloud of principles upon which successful families are built as found in The Family: A Proclamation to the World.

Repurposed tiles painted with a beloved teaching of Jesus Christ.

A chicken wire quote board that can be used interchangeably as a Christmas card photo holder during the holidays.

My personal favorite: a cozy corner housing enormous printed copies of The Living Christ and The Family: A Proclamation to the World.  Said corner has special meaning to me because the blue Barcalounger once belonged to my grandmother.  And it’s the most comfortable seat in the house.

3.  Places.  Places we’ve been, places that have special meaning…

For example, as a cornerstone of our home, a vintage picture of the San Diego Temple, where Tim and I were married.

Or a painting of my childhood hometown of Hong Kong.

As we prepare to add on to our house, additional ideas rest on the back-burner until I find the perfect spot.

One of them is a bulletin board map, which Tim and I are DIY-ing.  I searched high and low for a map to match our space and decor, cut a particle board and cork board to size, and glued the map on.  Last step: build a custom frame.  Should be a snap.

Another is a gallery wall of name art.  In my parents’ home, each child’s name along with its meaning and a corresponding scripture from the Bible is framed and housed on a wall along with his/her senior picture.  I remember feeling a sense of pride in my name and a desire to live up to the scripture that accompanied it.

I hope that my kids feel the same way once we slap these suckers up on the wall.

How does your home reflect what you value?  In what way do you decorate to create that type of home?