April is one of those months where you know that you can begin again. If you made a New Year’s resolution, the coming of Spring ignites you to get it done. The weather makes you feel like you can conquer the world, minus the sniffles you get from allergies. The longer days say to you “get it, girl.” And you do. You rock April. You tackle those challenges like nobody’s business.
This month, I decided to focus on one thing: to treat my current home like our dream home. The deal with our current living is that it’s tiny. Well, tiny for our family of 5, plus a kitty. We live in a 1200 square foot, 2 bedroom apartment. We have a full balcony, a half balcony, and 2 bathrooms. We live in an area in the complex that’s next to a building that houses very large, and very loud, work vehicles. We’re also in an area with not much light. The trees are everywhere back here, and we’re on the side of the building that natural light forgot. I’ve been cursing our home for years now.
Here’s the real issue: I haven’t been appreciating what we have. Why is this an issue? Because we have the means to finally move into our own home, but for some reason, we haven’t been able to find that dream home. The reason? Me. My attitude towards our place is deplorable. This is our home. It keeps us warm, cool, dry, and safe. It deserves respect, no matter how small, or dark it may be. For April, I vow to start fresh with my home.
Each day, I’ll be doing something to honor our space, and appreciate the good parts of our home. So far, we’ve been doing well by having my parents over for Easter dinner, letting go of items that we can sell or give away to make more room in our space, and by enjoying the beauty we see when we do get a little bit of sunlight each day.
I’m excited to see how this new outlook on home life will change the way our family interacts in our home. I also feel as if this will make me a much happier mom. The more I appreciate my blessing, the more blessings I’ll attain, right? I sure hope so.
I’m teaming up with fellow Happy Mamas for the 2015 Happy Mama Movement. Be sure to visit the Happy Mama Movement Facebook Page for more inspiration to start fresh this month.
You and I sound like we are in the same boat. My husband and I live in a teeny tiny 650 square foot one bedrooms apartment. Although, it’s just the two of us we feel like we have seriously outgrown it. All we do is constantly complain about it. Like you, we plan on moving towards the end of the year. However, this month I decided that rather than acting like we’ve already got one foot out the door that we should continue to treat it like our home. We’ve been making a very conscious effort to be tidy and to continue decorating the way we used to. That means continue making my DIY projects and hanging up paintings. It’s made world of difference in our attitudes.