The Heir-Raising Home Tour

Do you ever visit those lovely blogs where they show you beautiful snapshots of their cozy homes that are just full of inspiring ideas? I do.

I sometimes look for the fingerprints on the wall (because I find it very difficult to have time to blog and clean house), but I never find them.

Instead, there are usually pictures of the kitchen cabinets that the author painted herself or the the beautiful centerpiece she made for 17 cents with items she found from Goodwill, or the gorgeous wood floors that she just happened to find buried under her current floors.

Sprinkled in between these photos are lovely quotes about the beauty of life and family, and soft classical music plays all the while in the background.

Inspiring. Which got me to thinking. Perhaps you would enjoy a tour of my beautiful home. Now, you need to know that Martha Stewart most certainly does not live here, but maybe you will enjoy the tour and find a little inspiration anyway.

So, welcome to my home.



(cue soft classical music)




Aaacck!! Don't go in that room!

Really, it doesn't always look like that and really, I am trying to train my kids to keep their rooms clean (but the truth is, it looks like this an awful lot more than it should).

This is the room where two boys who look nothing alike have become brothers.


Thick as thieves they are.

This is the room where they wrestle and sing pirate songs at the top of their lungs and whisper conspiracies against their sister. When it gets too quiet in there, I check in to find that they have stolen some yarn and set up a zip line from the top bunk to the dresser or some other activity that will most likely earn them another speedy trip to Urgent Care.



Late into the night, you can hear them talking to each other in their beds, and even though very few people can understand Joshua's words, Caleb says, "I have learned his language."


Now, I have to tell you that sometimes, really, my house is nice and clean and beautiful.

Like when the kids are in bed.

"Picking up your house while your kids are still growing
is like shoveling the walk while it's still snowing."
-Phyllis Diller

Moving right along... here you can see that I like to decorate with photos, mostly because I have such good-looking kids.



Notice, though, that my kids are babies in those pictures and Joshua isn't even in any of them. Bad mom. Every time I look at this I tell myself that I am so going to update those pictures. Tomorrow.

This is a (non-professional, non-inspiring) picture of the corner of my couch:


It's where I sit every morning to spend time with God and refocus on what life is all about before I get up to my elbows in diapers and laundry and bloody noses.

Lately, it's also where I look at this:



...and I think about how wonderful my husband was to climb waaay up there and do the difficult part of painting the really high stuff for me.

...and I wonder if I should wait until he is finished before I say that I might really not like that color at all.

And this is our kitchen table where so much of life happens.



We sit here many times during the day together and pray and laugh and argue. This is where my kids have learned to read and add and subtract and eat their vegetables and respect each other.

If you look closely, you might see little fork marks in the places our toddlers have sat and you will most certainly see crumbs and glitter and dried play-doh on the rug underneath.

But I like to think that kingdom things happen at this table.

And last but not least, this is where I spend a lot of time each day washing the same dishes over and over and over.



I hesitate to even show you my sink because it is scratched and stained and has a poor, plain little leaky faucet that so wants to be a beautiful bronze faucet.

But this is what I will tell you about my unappreciated little faucet: When I turn it on, I get safe, clean water. Right here in my house. I don't have to walk several miles to get it and worry about danger along the way. I don't have to watch my children getting sick from parasites or die from water-born diseases. And I don't even have to boil it before I brush my teeth.

From a global perspective, I think that makes me rich. Filthy rich.

Life is good in this house.