“I wish we could move!” Sound familiar?
In case you missed it, we recently rang in a new year. I almost literally missed it. I would have clued in when I had to write the next daycare check and put 2013 on the date line. Anyhooo…. around this time every year – maybe because of a new year – I get a hankering for a new house.
OK. Maybe I want a new house several times a year. Maybe monthly. OK, you got me. Daily. Almost all the time I am trying to devise ways to make our house more functional, more picturesque, more lovely, more ‘us’ – all the while thinking “All of this could be solved if we could just get a bigger/better/fancier/roomier house, or get on one of those HGTV shows where they knock out all your walls and give you a total fantabulous princess house dream makeover.”
But one of my new year’s resolutions is to love more. That includes my house. I want to spend less time daydreaming of a new house, and more time loving and honoring this house we have. Love it unconditionally. Love my house like my spouse. Sadly there are no self-help books for how to love your house like your spouse (though there may be a market for such a book? Let me know if you’d buy such a book and I’ll get started right away!).
So here’s my 5-point self-help love-thy-own-house approach. Dear house, I promise to:
- Be thankful and grateful for you, dear house. Times are tough and all news indicates that the housing market is still in flux, and there are more and more people renting, getting evicted or foreclosed upon. I will be thankful for the blessing of a house.
- Remember all the good times in you, dear house. We may have started our marriage in a different place, and our kids may have been born while we lived in our first house, but but we have had wonderful memories in this house too! My son learned to crawl and walk in this house. We lost our first family pet in this house. This house is part of our history.
- Honor the things we love about you, dear house, those things that drew us to you in the first place! I love the back yard. I love the way the light comes in the kitchen and playroom mid-day. I love that we have room for guests. I love the deck. Thinking about what attracted us to you in the first place, dear house, makes me fall in love with you all over again.
- I will learn to accept the things we can’t change, or will eventually have to change. The tile grout is cracking really bad. The driveway is too steep. The a/c units are old. These are OK for now and are not reasons to move or dislike you, dear house. We all have our quirks.
- Don’t allow Pinterest or magazines to give me a house inferiority complex. Yes those fancy-pants houses may be beautiful, with their hardwood floors and open floor plans, and en-suite bathrooms and walk-in closets {drool…} but those houses are not our speed. Dear house, you are our speed. You may not be magazine worthy, dear house, but you’re beautiful and I love you.
How do you love and honor your living space, and avoid the grass-is-greener syndrome?
About Mary Beth Cox
