Loving your Home

Before this summer, I was ready to sell our house and get a bigger one, one with more room. After all, Ava, the baby is in our used-to-be office, which makes quite a cute bedroom once we get a door. I thought we could not raise 4 kids in a three bedroom house, especially when they get older and are wanting their own space. I worried that there was not enough room for all of our stuff.

But over this summer, while I wasn't working, I have really worked hard here at home, decluttering and getting rid of unecessary things that are really just taking up space. I don't know about you but when I look around and see clutter, it literally sucks energy and joy right out of me. What I have been trying to do is streamline our household. To make sure that everything has a designated place. To try to get things to run more smoothly. There is now room for all of our "stuff"--quite comfortably actually. I tried to use this motto when I was making my way through the house: If you don't love it or use it, get it out--a tip from Flylady (more on her later-love her)

I have also acquired a few new decorative items. Thanks to my sister-in-law who gave me a beautiful antique console table, which may just be my favorite piece of furniture in the whole house--and it was Free!

Now that I have gotten rid of things that I don't love and added a few things I do--I am loving my home. I don't feel like I need some new, big, fancy house to be happy and organized-A sinful outlook I often had in the past. I love the home we have been blessed with. And this goes a long way in trying to create a peaceful, loving environment for your family to come home to. Now I don't really want to move-this is the home where our children are growing up, our first home. It's so much more than just a house. And it's no longer a burden, it's a blessing.

Reading this, it would seem that the change in the way I see my home is purely materialistic...getting rid of things, adding things. But that is not the whole truth. I have spent time in prayer about this very issue. Because to be honest, by the end of the school year last year, this house seemed like it was falling apart. I seemed like I was falling apart.

I am determined not to let that happen again. But I needed a different attitude. Not just a change in mental attitude but a change in my heart. I needed to realize that all the chores, duties, and necessary tasks that I do around here are blessings to my family. At times, I still remind myself of this. But it helps to think of tasks as blessings rather than chores. Everytime I clean the toilet, my family will be blessed by that. Everytime Cecil doesn't have to rummage through the dryer or baskets of unfolded clothes to find what he needs, he is blessed by that. Now, they may not see it that way, the kids certainly won't. And that's okay. Although, Alyssa did tell me the other day, "Mom, I appreciate all of your hard work". That was nice to hear, not so much for the fact that I was thanked and appreciated, but because one day, she will be a wife and mom running a household and she is learning and observing at a young age that it often takes hard work. And that, too, is part of my job.