Hi there!

So every once in  a while K and I get on a new home craze. We spend practically a whole night scouring real estate sights for new homes, and chatting about what we want in a new home. I’m also a serial “future home inspiration” pinner, and have lost entire afternoons to the world of pinning white kitchens and grey living rooms with punches of color.

With so much inspiration at our finger tips it’s easy to miss what is right in front of us with our own home, which then turns into we need this or need that. At one point we said we had to have a bigger house before we start a family.

But the truth is we don’t. We have everything we need in the most perfect “starter home” that has turned into a blessed “keep going” home in the past 5+ years. If we do decide to start a family in this home, then our 2nd and current guest bedroom will have to also become a nursery, but I am ok with that now.

I asked myself and am asking you, what can we do to be proactive about becoming content with what we have?

Look at your home with fresh perspective: 

What I mean by this is step back and look at your home. From where I am sitting (our dining/my office) I see our living room. There are new paintings I’ve finished (I love art, but don’t have the budget to buy what I want, so I create my own!) a newly styled fireplace that I love (all it took was big canvas of K and I, another painting, some candles, and an art print) our sweet Daisy May napping on the couch, and some nice decor pieces that I have collected over the past several years. When we step back and look and what’s around us, there’s love everywhere. Love is good.

Rearrange:

I used to love rearranging furniture in the house I grew up in, it always felt like a whole new room. However, the way our home is laid out, there are not many options in terms of major furniture placement. But we have added and taken away other smaller pieces so we still get the same effect. You can do the same!

Plan a few small projects: 

I recently retiled our fireplace with dreamy glass tiles in greys and whites, and it made a huge impact on our living room. This project was so easy, and seriously took just a couple of hours.

I also decided to repaint our living room to those light and airy grey walls that makes all those pinterest pictures look so appealing.

Here’s a little secret I have learned: All those pretty houses and pictures you see on pinterest, did you know you can bring some of those ideas into your current home? You don’t have to have a whole new house to get the backplash you want, or the wall color. You can make it happen in your own space! Who would have thought right?! 🙂

Deep clean, or hire someone to do it for you: 

Don’t we all feel better when our home is clean, like really clean?! It’s almost like it’s easier to take a deep breath, and certainly easier to truly relax and be present with your family. So if you don’t enjoy cleaning, hire someone to do it for you. A really good, deep, baseboard and chandelier dusting kind of clean. I promise you’ll feel you really do have a new home again!

Pray for contentment: 

This is an ongoing lesson and prayer. One I am more open to learning that I have been in the past. Between working with Love Lunchsack Minitries and going through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, God is changing my heart and growing me in true contentment. I am realizing more and more that we truly have everything we need. Love, shelter, food, and clothing. For this I am grateful.

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have clothing and food, we will be content with that.”                          1 Timothy 6: 6-8

Until next time,

xoxo, Tamara