my house

Someone recently got Andy and me thinking that maybe we should consider having a bigger house with more amenities. His argument was "you can afford better, why would you stay there?" Now, if you are reading this and you know me at all you probably know that this is something that I have struggled with for a long time, but for at least a year now I have really been finding myself feeling perfectly content and thankful for my house. Well maybe not "perfectly", things do still break and there are some things that I would like to be different, but I am satisfied knowing that these things will get done eventually. It is easier to be satisfied with the imperfections of this house because I expect to live here for a LONG time and so we have plenty of time to do the things we want.

Anyway, I have said all of this to get to this point. I am sitting here watching the Food Network while my boys are sleeping and I suddenly realized that I have my own place. This is my home. All of the problems that I worry over every day turned into something wonderful, because they are my problems and no one elses. I can fix them when I want or not fix them if I don't feel like it.

I am one of six kids and my parents home is smaller than mine, containing only one toilet. We lived there all our lives and we are all fine. We shared bedrooms and fought for the bathroom, but we all survived. The storage place was behind the walls of the attic bedrooms. In this old house we have two toilets (that right there is a HUGE deal)! We have a basement (1/2 finished and 1/2 storage). Plus we have an entire attic we can use for storage. The house feels smaller to us because we only have 2 bedrooms (used to be 3 but we wanted a bigger master for ourselves). So, here are our big dreams... We have an extra room on the side of our house that is our "shed" right now, but we are hoping to get a real shed this spring and then finish that room in the next few years. On top of that room we are considering having another bedroom built ($$$). Don't know if or when that will happen, but maybe in the next 5 years or so (these really are BIG dreams!) Lastly, I am hoping for my dream bathroom to be built over top of our kitchen (maybe after we retire we could afford that kind of project). We'll see...

Here's the thing, it doesn't really matter to me if these huge projects get done on any particular timeline or maybe at all. I am just so thankful that I have a warm and happy home. I have a home where I can live, laugh, cry, relax and enjoy my family and friends. I think people feel welcomed here (at least I hope they do). I just want my house to be a place where the people I love and care about feel safe and comfortable. All that other "fancy" stuff doesn't really matter at all.