how i have learned to love living small

the facts:

our bungalow is 1400 square feet

1.5 bathroom

2 bedrooms, with a sleeping loft that we carved out for the oldest girl

a teeny tiny pantry

no closets, i mean none.

{ our 1911 bungalow}

we bought this house with the intention of fixing it up and selling it.  we have been here for 8 years, made two more babies which gives us a total of three girls.  i just read that the average home in america is 2400 square feet, and the average home in europe is 1300 square feet, and then i began to get confused.  

why do we live in such a little house?  we live in tacoma, so why the 1400 square feet?  why haven't we sold her, we are almost finished fixing her up.  we have breathed new life into every room, we have stretched her out as far as we can.  we have lifted every ceiling, uncovered every nook, and cranny.  to put simply.  we have tried to make more room.

{ a snuggle in the shared bedroom }

  for what?  stuff.  yes, stuff.  for all the shoes, the shirts, the dresses, the toys, the goodies we find here and there.  the things that make our lives feel valued, that we are doing good.  see... here's proof, we just bought another dresser, {because we don't have a closet!} to hold all of the new stuff we just had to have, that's success, that means that we are doing something right. 

yes?  well, no.  and i will tell you why, linnea.  because this "stuff" can't go with you.  it doesn't matter how pretty, useful, and one of a kind it is.  at the end of this life, it will become one empire of dirt that johnny cash has put to words so well.  it doesn't give me life, it doesn't give me hope.  it just fills my 1400 square feet walls.

{ this swedish hutch hold all: fabric, art supplies, messages, lines, and my ❤ }

  

it's been a long lesson for me.  i can tell you that i am still not passing the class.  it's about my heart, about constantly shifting my attitude.  about being thankful, and knowing my riches are not of this world.  my treasures are not in these walls, they are  up above.  it gets down right hard to think that way, it's not of my human character.  it's gets exhausting to have to tell my self this truth over and over again.  but once i say it aloud: "my treasure is not on this earth" !!  i can go on with the day with ease, with the absence of the feeling to collect stuff.  for if i have stuff filling up my heart there really isn't room for the things that do matter.  for compassion to creep in.  and for the house?  we are staying.  because by this choice, it makes us make another choice, which is to live life simply and abudantly, and to go into this world, and love another, just as my jesus christ has commanded me to do.  and that's why our 1400 square foot bungalow is still changing my heart. 

  

{ the dining table is also the art table, sewing station,  and a bench! }