I can't tell you enough how many times i have heard these statements:
where you gonna fit another kid?
you still live in that small house?
where in the world are you gonna put another child?
How do you have room for 3 kids?
is Lincoln sleeping in the kitchen?
you guys need a bigger house.
i don't come to your house because it's too small
and on and on and on...
(i am not making these up.
i have literally heard them from all kinds of people teens & family and friends)
Noting* i have also heard lots of good things from people as well who are really encouraging and totally get it and don't care at all that i have a small house.
but this post is not for you well mannered sweet people
Lets cover the basis...and let me make my peace
yes. we have possibly outgrown our small little starter house that isn't much of a starter house anymore. We are kind of stuck here and so we make the best of it.
yes. we do need (and i use the word need lightly) a bigger house just so we can have these peoples over and not be crammed.
i would be more inclined to say yes, it would be nice to have more room to have friends and family over without being crammed. ya know, a place to have the teens come hang out. to open up our home for church stuff. that is of course a desire of mine...
but please know, for our family...we got all we need. We actually have more than we need. i constantly think of Francis Chan's radical example that he attempts to live crazy by significantly downsizing his own home and giving away his resources to the poor. he didn’t feel that he could justify owning a 2000 square-foot house when 1000-square feet was enough for his family. He wants to see Christians forgoing much of what we consider necessary, what we consider our due, in order to focus on treasures that are eternal. He wants us to get outside the realm of what is comfortable to us and focus instead on radical obedience. He says, “God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn’t come through.” Francis is the real deal. He has made personal choices that are so contrary to our normal lifestyle that it baffles most people says a review. So, pretty sure i couldn't do that right now in my situation...and pretty sure i would naturally only want to upsize...but it sure does serve as a great reminder to be happy with what we have and know what we need, not what we want. And a check as to the reasons i would someday love a bigger house. To serve others and use it for God, however he would want. To be able to have family actually spend the night. To have a place where my family can actually all sit at the table together (is that too much to ask??) and have a place for my boys to grow up and be happy. To not clutter it with stuff but with people and memories.
and so i agree....
I think our kitchen is sooo annoying that two people can't fit in there at the same time.
and our kitchen table only seats 4. but there is no room for a bigger table. sooo...having people for dinner is ..um ..awkward.
our driveway is pathetic and there is no parking on the street....so lucky for them - any guests have to park over in the lovely hospital parking lot and walk...which by the way is going to be gonezo come construction on a new building over there.
btw, i am dreading that 2 years of construction right in front of our house....
Now...all of that is no fun. but wait...
We somehow have had everything we needed as our family has grown larger. Making room is an endless job of rearranging and bringing in and taking out of pieces that will work better. not that i can't be satisfied ... which i sometimes wonder if i ever will be but it's more of the being creative and trying out things to effectively have places to keep all our stuff using the least amount of space. and it's just that. stuff. I have even heard that we shouldn't have enough stuff to have to get a storage unit...but that's coming from someone with a garage and a much larger house. So it's funny to me...that a family of five - with a very small house...not run out of room. Unless we want to keep our christmas stuff in our bedroom and our winter clothes in the bathroom, our deck furniture in the living room and the strollers & cribs & baby clothes bins in the kitchen. Our basement is utilized for living...not for storing.and i don't see at all that it is unnessecary stuff. Like...anyone one with kids know you can't get around without some of that baby gear, a pack n play, car seats & pass me down clothes. Or a place to store even suitcases. or pictures. or bikes, or kids memorabilia. or winter coats or games. or books...see. I have what most people have...just seems like more stuff because it's in a much smaller space. :) and so what most people have in a garage or even a bigger home or attic or basement or closet...i have in a storage unit. I still stick by that as being the best worth it decision we ever made.
(besides our children of course:)
wow. i am doing some major defensive rambling.
So lets not talk anymore about what we don't have!
Lets talk about why i really wanted to write a post on this....
what we do have!
Not only do we even have a place for Lincoln to sleep...he's got his own room plus we even have a school room in this little itty bitty house. can u even believe it? We have plenty of room for laundry. We have a little room for jake's crappy (excuse my word use...there just isn't any other word to describe it bc i tried) tools and all his man junk. We have a big fenced in backyard. A little stream and woods to play in. wildlife to watch. a deck to throw things from and tie toys around ropes to hang over the ledge. a place to grill. a hill to slipnslide in the summer or sled in the winter. tree's to climb. windows overlooking the deck overlooking the yard to watch them play from the very small kitchen.
(and really...this is not bragging...bc you would know that if you saw my house...but since this post is getting so long you may be forgetting...you can scroll back to the top and re-read what people have said to me and that is where the big Ol' emphasis on how spacious my house is comes from. well my kids rooms are.
(just not my living room, kitchen, and bathroom)
plus i feel the need to point out the positive.
anyways...where was I? oh yea...
and the boys have a BIG ol' room to theirselves and even their own bathroom. Complete with a toilet and a shower! now it's the farthest thing from the pottery barn pictures flashing through your head i know...(think more like toilet on a platform) but it's perfect for them.
Jace does say he wants to be King.
and they both have huge closests. (see not bragging...defending:)
to show we all have what we need and more.
(for now anyways....)
and for the past 5 years, 3 kids later.
and until Lincoln needs to sit at the kitchen table with us for dinner...then we will see
and i don't even know if i want to give up their room or our big yard.
I think i would probably lose private backyard space for a bigger house and that kinda makes me sad.
soooo
Yes i would love more space so we could stop this nonsense of moving things around everyday trying to make the most of our small spaces. (my husband emphatically backs up this statement)
yes i would love more space so it wasn't so cluttery and messy all the time. Like..if you leave one thing out in our living room...that takes up most of our living room.
Yes you can see the whole house by turning 360 degrees when you walk in the front door. I mean...a tour consists of standing there saying...here is our kitchen and pointing. Our living room which you are standing in and five steps in any direction you will soon be out of. Our bathroom and bedrooms {pointing} "right there and the final statement...."well thats it." oh and the basement that you can't go down unless you are a kid. :)
we don't have a sidewalk to ride their bike on or a front yard in a quiet peaceful neighborhood but we have been able to run...literally run...across the street in case of an emergency..
and with 3 boys - that's good for my heart.
plus...we get to see fire trucks and police cars zoom by our house at any given moment. Sometimes that moment happens to be right after i got a baby to sleep....thank you sirens.
but our backyard...peaceful and lovely. private and fun.
it's like the same thing as what we use to call mullets.
a "business in the front and party in the back"
i strongly dislike the front of my house...but love the back.
all the good things stick to my mind
coming from someplace much smaller..it's hard to complain.
Our kitchen is actually bigger and has wayyy more counterspace than the small little apt we came from. I remember the feeling of so badly wanting more counter space. and now i have it so why am i complaining. And i really really could. I feel like the Israelites...they get what they had asked for and prayed for and then it's so shortly forgotten and it's not good enough anymore. I remember the many frustrations of sharing one washer and dryer with a whole apt. complex and venting how i can't wait to have our own someday and wash clothes whenever i want! and how badly we wanted a place to call our own. To paint the walls and have a pet. And now we don't have to smell what everyone made for dinner and our oven, though it's old and ugly.... actually fits a digorno pizza in it.
I can even work on a tan in my own backyard without a college professor walking by.
alllll this to get to the following pictures. wow.
i must have been holding that in for sometime now. lol.
i guess i just want to shout out how grateful we are for what we have and i don't care if you think my house is small. and how thankful i am for my friends who don't care.
like pretty much all my friends here.
they still come over and don't complain!
Like...i thought we are to be content with whatever God gives us?
so...for those critics who have made any of the previous statements at the top we are managing quite well in the "well where are ya gonna put those kids" house.
SEE...
in their big huge room that is perfect for them and all their "stuff"
which has been rearranged this weekend for optimal space.
i really don't know what these people are talking about!
and there is plenty of room for Lincoln too!
just no room for you...sorry
:)
This is a very strange photo i know. never lacking in the "weird story" department though. unfortunately i wish i was once in a while. 
