My home

I spend a lot of time in this place called home. We had it built, in a subdivision, about a year after we got married. It was brand spanking new when we moved in. Two young professionals. No children. Two cats. It was a dream come true. Now, five years later, one more cat later, five kids later, less one income later, I wonder what happened to the dream house. Oh I still have one. Its in my head and it has more rooms then I know what to do with. LOL. But what about this house. I read and read and read about decluttering and organization. Why cant I make it stick??
My baby is getting old enough that too much time spent in his playpen is a travesty. I have worked to make our new playroom toddler friendly so he can go play with the "big" kids as he so wants to do. Dont get me wrong here, he will still spend time in his playpen entertaining himself, because thats something important I want all of my kids to learn.
My boys room was like a dungeon. At 16 months and 4 it really is more my job to make sure its picked up. I finally went in there and just gutted it. All the toys, clothes, other stuff. Its nice in there now. I have the baby and Adrian help me pick up the few things on the floor every morning when we first wake up.
The girls room was just down righ messy. They had clothes and toys and paper (because they like to write and draw) all over the place. We got all the clutter out, moved the toys to the playroom and threw away papers that were balled up and old. Im going to get them a pretty box to keep their papers in so they wont be all over the room.
Each room also has a shoe rack now. I had one out in the great room and was tired of shoes falling off. Even keeping shoes at a minimum with five kids you have too many shoes for one shoe rack. Its so much nicer.
I need to get new mattresses for the girls beds. I want to paint the boys and the girls rooms. I have stuff to decorate the girls rooms. I want to get stuff to decorate the boys rooms. I need to do some rearranging in both rooms.
This week Im rearranging and decluttering the great room. We just put up a video/dvd shelf to hold our movies. I need to make some changes to make this room flow more smoothly. To make this room more effecient and family friendly. Thats what Im working on this week.
Next week I move into the master bed/bath/closet.
The next week the kitchen. Then the dining room. Then my house will be organized and decluttered. After that is done I will begin making each of the rooms more cozy and Christ honoring. I want each room of our home to reflect our Christian faith. I want to fill our walls with Bible verses and inspiration.
I love being home. I love being able to make my home into our dwelling. I like adding our personality to the house. Its been a fufilling adventure, learning what works around here and what does not. Its not over. Im sure there will be many changes to this house in the next few years. We are trying desperatly to get to a place where we can sell it in about 2 years. Until then though, this is my home and I am the keeper of it.