Our Little House

Our house is too small! It's so small that I can vaccuum the living room, master bedroom, and baby's room without relocating the vaccuum's plug. We have one bathroom, no garage, no basement, no dishwasher, and no linen closet. Matt's feet actually hang off the edge of our bed because he is much too tall for a queen size bed but our bedroom isn't big enough for a king. This year we had to section off a portion of our living room to create a nursery for our baby girl. We do have a small upstairs room, but it is not well insulated so we use it as an attic to store the clothes that don't fit in our closet, the food that doesn't fit in the kitchen, and a hodge-podge of other things that don't fit anywhere. When we visit our friends' homes, I often find myself feeling envious of their guest bedrooms, office spaces, and walk-in closets. It just doesn't seem fair.

When I catch myself getting carried away with these thoughts, I feel ashamed. There are so many people in the world without a place to call home - people who would give anything for even a fraction of what I have. What I need to do in those moments is remember to take a step back, count my many blessings, and remember to be thankful for all that I have, not demanding of all that I want. So here are just a few of the things for which I am so grateful: I'm thankful that I can clean my whole house in a very short time, which leaves me more time to do other things I enjoy. I'm thankful that we have such a small living space and that we so often have to be in the same room, which allows us to spend more time together as a family. I'm thankful that we have too much food to fit in the kitchen and too many clothes to fit in one closet. I'm thankful that we didn't let our lack of extra space stop us from expanding our family. Most of all, I'm thankful that we never gave in to the temptations that surrounded us to buy a bigger house (which would have satisfied our desire for nicer things, but would have shattered our dream of being able to raise our children with a parent at home). I'm thankful for our tiny house and all that it has provided for us.

We are young and our marriage is still new, and I hope that as we continue to build a life together we will remember how much we learned and shared and grew closer in our little house. I hope that we raise children who can embrace a simple lifestyle. And I hope that our house is always too small.