best year yet : shelves

This is kind of a silly thing.  A few months ago, we finished a few projects around the house that made me really happy.

We put shelves up in the laundry room and in the loft.

Yay!!

Maybe someday I'll finish painting the walls in the loft.

best year yet : a house and a home

This past May, I set a personal record.  We past the four year mark of living in our home.  This is the longest I've ever lived at one address.  

I love this house.  

It has new floors downstairs.  We have an amazing view out of our bedroom window.  Our children have their own rooms and each has a walk-in closet.  Our master suite is enormous.  Matthew has his own office.  This house fits our family and we are settling into it better all the time.

I also love this home.  

Growing up, I had insatiable wanderlust.  As an army brat, all I knew was traveling to new places, meeting more people, and moving boxes.  It became a mark of pride, and a passion.  I still love learning about different cultures and languages.  I majored in humanities and my list of places I wanted to go see just got longer and longer.  I am so enamored with learning all I could about different histories and cultural expressions.  I still indulge myself by bragging about all the different places that I've been. I have a pinterest board dedicated to displaying the many places to which I have traveled.  It has 88 pins!  Aren't I cool?!?  

Maybe it's because I'm 30, (old and tired), or maybe it's because I'm a mother but, being here and staying here is my new thrilling adventure.  This little corner of the world and the people who live in it have replaced my wanderlust with staylust.  I cannot wait to raise my children here.  The relationships we have with our friends and family here mean so very much to me.  What an adventure it will be to stay in one house for years and years and years.  I can't wait.

henry's job chart

You know, I'm trying to be all domestic these days.  So, I worked on finishing up Henry's chore chart this week.  

I wanted the chores to make sense, be logical, and help teach a bigger picture about the different responsibilities that we all have throughout our lives, so that it didn't feel like an arbitrary list of stuff that we wanted him to do.  So, there are 4 categories of 'responsibilities':

Taking Care of My Home

Taking Care of My Things

Taking Care of Each Other

Taking Care of Myself

He does one from each (color-coded) category every day and earns a quarter if he finishes them all.  There are six chores under each category, so we can rest on Sundays.

Henry's favorite 'chores' to do are those that fall under 'Taking Care of Each Other'.  These ones consist of things like "Tell Daddy 'I Love You' ".  His kind heart never ceases to amaze me.

The chart took me kind of a long time to make.  I wanted to be able to make up my own stuff for everything, which is why I didn't just buy or copy one.  I sewed the back panel to have a big 'done' pocket at the bottom.  I sewed every little piece of velcro onto the fabric panel.  I laminated every single card.  

It took a long time but he actually does his chores, so I guess it was worth it?  

because he sticks out his lips when he's concentrating

And I think it's so cute.

on coming home

Well, here it is, a brand new year, and I am not one for setting goals.  It always just feels like too much pressure to me.  I'm not good under pressure.  It really stresses me out.  

I find myself much more motivated when the grand vision is more of a general one.

I know some who, instead of specific resolutions, select a theme for a new year.  I love that idea and I think I'm going to try that for 2013.  And it's going to be "Coming Home".  

We've owned and lived in our house for almost 4 years now.  Because I've always worked full-time, I felt like I never really got the chance to get to know this house, to just be in it for long stretches of time.  I am in it the least of anyone in my family, and so I've always felt a little bit like it wasn't as much mine as it was theirs.  It's not about possessiveness  just about the fact that I never felt 'moved in'.  Instead of being able to focus on the things that my heart really wanted to, like making chore charts, coat closet organization and laundry, I've been focusing on my job, on keeping it and doing well at it so that I could provide this home for us in the first place.  That's just the way our lives have worked out.  I am grateful for all the blessings we have been given as a family.

This year, I will get to spend much more time at home.  I only work 3 days a week now (I'm on reduced hours for medical reasons having to do with this pregnancy).  I'll take 3 months off when the baby comes.  And then I will go back to work only part-time (probably only 3 days a week again).

I am so looking forward to this gift of more time at home.  I see a lot of things that I can do to improve our home life as a family.  

Including:

Being more organized.

Staying up on the housekeeping.

Better meal planning.

Better budgeting.

This is where my vision for the year comes into play.  I am so thrilled to be able to be home more and I want to work hard at using my time wisely so that I can be the mother and wife that my Father in Heaven wants me to be.  The vision is peace and happiness in the home with me doing all I can to help that along.

And so in the spirit of this new focus for the year, (and since I never have done this before) I'd like to take you on a little virtual tour of our home.

Come on in!

The entry.

Matt's office/cave is just to the left when you walk in.  Don't go in there.  I cannot guarantee what you will find.

The living room.

The kitchen.

Dining Room.

And now up the stairs!

Playroom/Loft.

Kids' Bathroom.

Baby Girl's Room.

Henry's Room.

 Master

We also have a laundry room, master bath, etc, but they're better left undocumented, I think.

Anyway, I'm glad you could drop by for a little visit!  Come by any time!  Chances are better than they used to be that I'll be here!