Dissatisfaction

I read a lot of blogs in my free time. I escpecially love blogs written by crafty Moms. I enjoy reading about their day to day life as a Mom and also about the neat things they come up with in order to occupy their children or decorate their home. I also enjoy reading blogs about home decor.....not overly fussy home decor but just real living home decor. So, what has my blog reading given me lately?

Well, it's given me a huge sense of dissatisfaction...on many levels! I find myself dissatisfied with my house. There is no reason to be dissatisfied with my house! It's a wonderful house! It's large and fits our family fairly well, although another bedroom would be nice. I know how lucky I am to have my house. There are so many people out there that either don't have a house at all or they are crammed into a house that doesn't fit their needs. It's just that I find myself looking at all these houses in blogland and I start looking around my house and feeling dissatisfied. I look at my living room and it just seems so small. I look at my kitchen and I wish I had nicer countertops. I look at my master bedroom and I think about how I would like it to look more designer-like. I look at my basement/schoolroom/playroom and I wish that I had seperate dedicated rooms for each activity. I look at my kids' rooms and I wish I had more of them and that they were decorated like the bedrooms in catalogs.

I am so foolish. What I should see when looking at my living room is that, while on the small side, it's cozy and is the perfect size to have my kids curl up on the couch with me to hear a story. I should look at my kitchen and see all the happy memories! I love to bake and cook and my kids have spent countless hours doing those things with me in our kitchen with the crummy countertops! I should look at my master bedroom and remember the countless number of times I have rocked a baby to sleep in that very room. Who cares if the rocking chair and the bedding don't match? My sweet babies didn't. I should look at my basement/schoolroom/playroom and think about how nice it is that we even have any extra space for those things. I know lots of Moms who are homeschooling at their kitchen table and tripping over school materials all day long. I am so fortunate that I don't have to do that. I have a spot to store all of that stuff that is out of the way. I have been interrupted countless times, while doing school, by a baby tugging on my pant's leg. That is such a sweet thing. I should look at my three oldest girls crammed into one room and think about how that physical closeness has led to their close relationships. They are one another's best friends. They spend countless hours playing together, which may not have come to pass if they each had their own perfectly decorated room to go off to.

So, I am going to try to stop comparing my house to the houses I see in magazines and in blogland. I am going to try to appreciate the wonderful house that I have. I may paint some rooms, reorganize some items, move some furniture or make other little changes but I will try to love what I have and be grateful for it.

What else am I dissatisfied with? Well, that's another blog post that I will try to get to tomorrow. For now, I am going to go rock my baby to sleep and curl up on the living room couch with my son.