The Good 'Ol Days...

As I look around my home...
I see the never-ending baskets and hamper full of laundry that is always being worked on...
I see the endless piles of mail that sit on my kitchen counter...
I see the dust bunnies on my tables that refuse to go away...
I see the spots that magically appear (more and more) on my carpet each day...
I see my stove-top that needs to (yet again) be scrubbed...
And more...
I walk into other people's spotless and seemingly perfect homes...where everything has a place (sigh)...
Sure, mine looks good when we have guests.
But why can't I keep up with it during the week?
(Well maybe it's the 55 hour workweek and a family to tend to.)
I'm always thinking...
We need new carpet.
We need new tile.
It would be nice to upgrade out kitchen.
But then...
I think back to the days when we were first married...
And life was so simple.
We lived in an old house apartment.
It was tiny.
It was really ugly...teeheehee!
Wood panel in the living room, orange carpet, cracked linoleum in the bathroom, and hilariously ugly kitchen cabinets.
But...
WE WERE IN LOVE!
It didn't matter.
We were happy in our little cozy ugly apartment, LOL!
Then...
We upgraded!
To the 1950s apartment building around the corner!
We hit the big time! LOL!
A nice little two bedroom apartment.
Clean.
Well maintained.
Very nice looking for it's age.
And we were happy.
Then we took the job at the bed & breakfast.
We has our little residence in the inn.
It was lovely...but it was temporay...somewhere we could never raise a family in.
Then...
We relocated with our jobs.
We got an apartment built in the late 80s/early 90s.
It was lovely!
Then there were THREE!
Along came baby!
So we bought a mobil home.
We needed the space.
It was great...all that space.
But a monster to unload when...
WE BOUGHT OUR FIRST HOUSE!
Wow...
A real house.
We had it made.
But then...
School districts.
We had to start thinking about where our little one would go to school.
So...
We moved again.
Got our CURRENT home where we are still living.
It's a lovely home.
But I am always thinking (and stressing) about what else needs to be done to it.
How it's always needing things done to update, repair, and "make it better".
Some days I look back to our "ugly little apartment" days.
Life was so simple then.
I was so happy.
I never cared about what I had or didn't have.
I'm still happy.
But I find myself stressing so much of the times.
Always trying to perfect my home.
Why do we do that?
The Bible tells us "in EVERYTHING give thanks".
We are to give thanks.
Not constantly be stressing on how to make things better or want more.
Lord, help us all to be happy and thankful for what we have.
Help us to keep our priorities straight.
God and family first.