Make a Bed You Care About

Rob is off to Africa, so my hands are full lately. I herded the boys into the house after church ; trying to escape the sweltering heat. I ran around fixing lunches, singing songs; trying to get in bites for myself here and there. It's past their normal naptime but that usually happens on Sundays. I chase them up the stairs to their room while I wrangle them into new diapers and into their beds, and we finally read a story or two and then lights out!

After that chapter of chaos I made my way outside to tend to my plants that are suffering during this heatwave. Different solutions and other to dos run through my head as I change into lounge clothes and plop into my bed and you know what? I am satisfied.

I was overwhelmed with content comfort as I sunk against my fluffy pillows and linen duvet. A wave of gratitude came over me as I said a prayer of thanks to God for giving me this lovely home and those two crazy boys.

What I couldn't get out of my head and felt the urge to share is that this is not just for me, but you can have this too. It is not a feeling I get every day but if someone were to have told me 10 years ago, "Kenz you are going to be a stay at home mom and spend the majority of your time in your house and you are going to love it" I would have called them insane. I'm an extravert, I love adventure but it's true; I spend the majority of my time in my home and I am really loving it lately. I could write chapters about my journey to this point but I wanted to share some quick tips that I hope help you dear reader.

1) Pray about it.

I really had to go to God and lay out all my fear, disappointment, and discontentment at His feet. An you know what? He took it. He took it with gladness and replaced all of it with joy, peace, and creativity. It was a simple ask, I just kept praying that He would give me a heart that loves and enjoys my home and my family.

2) Bring new life.

This is where God gave me a desire of my heart I didn't even know I wanted. By being in the same area for most of my day I get to be creative with my home. I get to make it a home! I get to be creative with how things are organized, laid out, decorated. I get to bring in plants and flowers and take up hobbies to teach my kiddos. I didn't realize that because of the blessing of time in my home I could bring new life to flow through it.

3) Home Care

Learn to look at you home as something to care for, not a burden to bear. I again had to pray over and over again that God would help my heart and change my perspective on this, because it was hard at first. It was hard feeling like I was doing the some task over and over and over, because I was. But who doesn't? If I were in an office I would sit in the same chair, I would see the same people, I would analyze the same topic, and solve similar problems. So it's ok if I tackle the same tasks everyday, turns out I just get more efficient as time goes on! I started giving myself a window everyday to tackle what I label as home care. Having that perspective; that I am taking care of my home and showing it gratitude, has helped keep bitterness and resentment at bay.

4) It Takes Time

Be patient, Rob and I have been married 5 years and have lived in 6 different homes and we are still trying to build a home. Not the physical kind, even though eventually we want a home we will stay in long term. I mean we are still gathering furniture pieces we love, we are learning new and more efficient rhythms to care for our home, we are learning more about our preferences in what we want in our home! If you don't like something take note. Make a list of stuff you want to work towards. My point is, is that you can make a bed you care about. You can make a home you look forward to coming back to. You can grow those flowers you love on your front porch, you can take the time to figure out what fabric you love best for your bed, you can curate your own personal library. The point is to live intentionally in your home.

Be intentional with what you choose to bring inside your home, be intentional with how you pray for your home, be intentional with how you live in your home!

We are intentional with the things we care about so let's start at here.

As always reach out if you need anything, I'm here for you.

- Your Friend Kenz