We have been in our house for going on 8 years now. I have cried many, many times over this house of mine. I have snarled through gritted teeth how much I hate our house. Our house is old-it was built in the late 50’s. When we bought it, we kind of knew what we were getting into. The house belonged to my grandmother and so I knew that she didn’t have central heating and air installed. I knew that the wallpaper and everything was very outdated. I also knew that each and every room would need work. We immediately poured over $20,000 into it before moving it.

That didn’t even scratch the surface.

Here we are almost eight years later and I still have a seven page long project list.

I know…I know…that’s crazy.

We don’t have a lot of the knowledge to just do most of these projects, and honestly we don’t have the money either.

All of that to say this…

my kids hear my complaints and they see my frustration.

They are praying for a new house – like, every single night praying. I’m not going to tell them to stop! However, I am working on my attitude. I have friends that live in homes much nicer than mine and they also complain and have to-do lists.

I think everyone does and that just comes with owning a home.

I am working really hard on being intentional with my words and reactions.

The power of life and death is indeed in your tongue.

I don’t want my kids to grow up ungrateful. I want them to hold on to memories and laughs and dinnertime conversations and movie nights. Those are the things that I want them to think of when they are older and think back to their ‘childhood home’. I don’t want their first thought to be ‘my mom hated it”….

I am learning that little things can make a huge impact. We recently bought a couple of new rugs and I received a few new throw pillows for christmas. We also rearranged the furniture a little. Instant improvement! I have been making a point to talk up those changes.

Guess what? they feed off of me. They talk about the rugs and the pillows too. (or at least Allie does) ( I don’t  think Gary really cares…. his idea of a nice house is stairs….no stairs=automatic shack in his opinion) (just being honest here)