Order Balance Being Well

Fitting a family of 6 in 900 square feet? Well, it's about 1200 square feet when I factor in our older children staying in bedrooms two stories above ours. This was our challenge for the next year. I love this basement. It holds such a fond place in my heart. Forever, it will feel like a new beginnings. When we moved to PA from North Carolina, this is where we got settled. There are so many beautiful memories of our kids, being kids, not the almost teens they are now. Growing up, I lived in small places out of necessity; I never appreciated that fact. As an adult, I chose bigger until I learned bigger is not always better. Our townhome taught me to enjoy having just enough space.   It is less to clean, easier to keep up, cheaper to fix everything, less monthly costs, and more time and money for our family and the things we love. A year in the basement with only the necessities was welcome and exciting. In preparing to sell the townhouse, we went through each room, packing awa...

Our three older children are only a little over a year apart, so they wanted to share a bedroom (even when space allowed them not to). Then we got to the age where it was clear our son needed his own room. The need coincidentally coincided with a time when we did not have a room. That's when we bought our townhouse. The girls still shared a room. A few years in, when we asked what each child would like to make the house more enjoyable for them, our oldest daughter said her own room. We were unable to accommodate this request. However, when I asked why, she said she wanted a place to have some time for herself. That was a request I could make work. We started with cleaning the girl's room. Clothes were first. We did this Marie Kondo style by pulling everything out and putting the items on our kitchen table so the girls could understand the volume of what they had. Until now, the girls shared clothes as they were the same size and interested in the same style. My oldest daughter ...

After living in our townhome for almost 3 years, we discussed if we wanted something with more room, or to invest in our current home. We opted to invest. When it was time to work on the kids' rooms, we asked them to pick any one thing for their space. Our oldest son, 10 at the time, requested a desk. He said he would like a space to sit other than his bed, to draw, and to do homework. We looked together on Amazon. He wanted something minimal, but with an upper shelf. It was up to me to think through the coordination, such as size, and a way to hide cords.  We decided on the VIPEK Computer Desk 42 Inch Study Writing Desk PC Laptop Table for Home Office, School Student Desk with Hutch & Storage Shelves, Corner Table for Small Space Bedroom, Easy Assemble, Oak . This desk no longer is available, but if we had to pick now, we would do the Aquzee Computer Desk with Hutch & Bookshelf, Home Office Desk with Space Saving Design, Metal Legs Industrial Table with Upper Storage Shel...

  I am not a gardener. I love gardens. Greenery, drooping trees, beautiful flowers. Being among nature is one of my favorite things, but beauty in my own outdoor space is not something I can achieve. We had been in our town home a year before realizing how badly our front landscaping could use some work.  With all the help from my husband we made it beautiful. One bush got ripped completely out, the other got trimmed. We removed all the orange, sun faded mulch, laid landscaping fabric and buried garden edging. When that was completed, we planted the flowers my husband pick up at our local nursery (not sure the kind) and spread my choice of black mulch The following summer I moved our rocking chair to the porch. My daughter selected a parsley plant when we went to Walmart, so we got a little side table from Amazon ( found here ) to set it on. Just a nice little spot to enjoy some quiet time. I opted to spray paint out rocking chair white. Then lightly sandpaper spots to make it...

   Let’s talk about these dishes. Did we need new dishes? No. Do I love them? Yes. This was an investment in my happiness. Dishes are something we use and look at daily, why not adore them.  The Porcelain Ravenna Dinnerware Set by Project 62 was $60 at Target for a set of 4. We purchased some Target Essential plates and bowls, also in Black, for the children to use.    I picked up two sets of the Cambridge Byram 20-piece flatware from Walmart and picked up a silverware organizer from Amazon.

Have you ever had that moment where everything is totally fine, and then it's not. Scrolling across this little picture on Pinterest is what started it all. I loved the grey with the wood tones. Suddenly my beautiful beige walls were pretty much yellow, and so boring. Instantly I can't stand it, and I need something new. My living room furniture was already stained wood, a darker version, but I like dark. I knew a grey accent wall at the end of our long townhouse main floor was what I wanted to do. Our townhome was long and narrow, my hope was that the far accent wall would shorten the space and make it feel cozier. I used the editing app on my phone to "paint" the wall with a grey color. The paint tool set to 50% let me still see the wall through to help give me a better idea of how it would really look. This confirmed my choice. The entire house was the same color, and since I knew this was not our forever home, I didn't want to paint everything. This small wall...