Loving your husband/children- in your house

For Christmas, my sister gave me a book called "Smart Organizing" by Sandra Felton. I love it! It is putting me back to the "first things first" basics, and encouraging me to think smarter about my housekeeping goals.

Over the holidays, we've done a few smaller projects to make our house more usable by a large family, and what i realized is, that i was guilty again of making assumptions. I assumed a big family needed big spaces, but we cut our living room in half with a loveseat and it's so much more cozy. We attached the tv above the mantelpiece and it doesn't look like an altar :) and freed up living space.

I'm trying to plan a little nook for the new baby, and seeing these new areas work so much better for us has been inspiring. I mean, i know it's not a huge deal, but in letting go of my assumptions, communicating with my husband and working together using all our resources (including Wy's muscles), we made our home a little more beautiful and comfortable this month.

This January, we are implementing a few new things. Wyatt likes to have a lot of notice for coming events, so i have a dry erase board that i'll use to summarize things he needs to know all day. Lulu wants to be a pastry chef, so we've started working through his new "Cake Boss" recipe book. Haven has room for her new artist easel now that we've moved the computer desk...I don't want to focus so hard on how things "should" be, that i overlook what is, and i'm going to embrace and work to bring comfort and beauty.

No, i'm not just talking about my dubious interior decorating skills, i'm also thinking relationships.

I am ready to bless my family, to get back in the trenches and to find ways to "see" them. I hope that my family will feel the blessing!