I'm not content enough...

      Content    –adjective

        1. To be satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else.

        2. peace of mind; mental or emotional satisfaction

        3. Impossible (just kidding)

     I find it very hard to be content for long, and I would like to blame society.  American consumerism, advertising and even the government continually remind us of our need to buy stuff. Granted most of that stuff we can justify needing; food, clothing, shelter, furnishings, gifts, and computers. I find myself getting very creative in order to justify the purchase. 
     Stuff; it can be wonderful and fun to buy, we get enjoyment from purchasing a "need", and often guilty for buying a want. Often a the justification comes in the form of a "deal to good to pass up".  One of my favorite sayings is,"I'm going broke, saving so much money." 
  I find when shopping online I am much less impulsive, even if it is a good deal.

Photo Credit

But is is not all the fault of our global economy, it is perhaps harder because we are constantly bombarded with advertising and retail genius. Discontentment has been around from the beginning of time (see Bible; Adam and Eve) through the ages and even the Bard himself was not immune, but perhaps a bit more savvy.

Nought's had, all's spent,
Where our desire is got without content.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) Lady Macbeth, in Macbeth, act 3, sc. 2, l. 4-5.

Oh Well

     You know the saying,"My house was clean last week, sorry you missed it."  Well at my house it's, "my house was clean 5 minutes ago, sorry you missed it." I sweep my floor at least 4 times per day, we spill some sort of liquid everyday, and I don't go one day with out doing some laundry. Most days I don't mind, my kids and I work together, my husband usually throws a load of laundry in, and it looks alright.
     My aim isn't perfection, I like things to be organized, clear walkways, clean bathroom, and beds made.  I have fingerprints on all my windows, mirrors and glass surfaces, I could easily vacuum everyday and still have crumbs and other stuff on the floors, I could spend most of my time picking up after children and my house would look better. Alas I like to do other things more.
  I have a small house so I am able to get my house picked up in 30-45 minutes every morning. This includes:  Kitchen-dishes, counters, table, and floor
Bedroom- Bed made, clothes put away
Living Room- Toys, books, clothes and papers picked up (kids help)
Bathroom- Tidy sink and clean toilet
Kids Bedrooms- Laundry, beds and toys picked up (the older ones do this themselves)
Start laundry, empty garbage cans and have some more coffee.

I have a list of other cleaning jobs that need to get done and I usually do 1 to 3 of those throughout the day. Sometimes I don't and we go to the library instead.

Love the One Your With

I don't want to feel discontent about not having "House Perfect" or not owning a house yet. Owning a house for the sake of owning one isn't a good enough reason for me to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. Do I want a home of my own? Yes, eventually. Are we going to buy a "starter home" because everyone tells us we should? No.

Over the past couple years many friends and family have strongly suggested that we buy a home, while most of the advice we have received is well meant, some of the reasons behind the advice doesn't really make sense or line up with our goals. Some of the memorable reasons are:
     "Prices are only going to go up" (then the real estate bust happened)
     "Interest rates are the lowest they're going to get" (they've gotten even lower)
     "You can write off the interest on you taxes" (we could also save that money toward a bigger down payment) 
     " You don't need to save for a down payment" ( How are all those 0% down interest only loans doing?)
     " Just get your foot in the door, build some equity" 
 And some of the worst reasons:
      "You don't have to like your first home... just by something... you don't always get what you want"


Some reasons we are waiting in this "buyers market" are:
     We want to live in a specific area.
     We want land (20 acres or more).
     We don't want to make a huge commitment to something we don't like.
     We live in a great place right now and do not pay rent (part of my husband's job package)

We are picky but not unrealistic, we know what we want and what we do not want. Eventually we will buy a place of our own, in the mean time I will love the one I'm with.
    

At Home and Loving It!!

Confession: Some days I invent things to do so I can get out of my house. I am doing this less and less because I am finding ways to enjoy being at home more. Most of the time I pack up the kids and we go to the library. I am fortunate to live in a city with a wonderful library. My library is my favorite place to go with my kids and by myself.
 I started changing my attitude about being home. I usually wanted to "get out" on difficult days, when things were not going the way I wanted. I have a problem with control and expectations. I liked to control things and often people (which by the way isn't possible) and I had expectations about how my day should go. I would often be frustrated and disappointed by 10:30 and need an excuse to break up the monotony and feelings of failure. The reason I kept doing this was it worked. Then something unexpected happened my family started growing, exponentially.
I had at the time three wonderful kids ages 4 1/2, 2, and 1 we were busy doing things and enjoying life. And then we thought we would like to try for one more when I got back from Europe. On a train heading to Versailles I got what I thought was motion sickness. Or more commonly know as morning sickness.
At 16 weeks I went to see my doctor, he did a little ultrasound in the office and there were two heads (he thought).Shock. I was not expecting I would have twins. They were born a month early but very healthy in December of 2009.

      So having 5 kids five and under offered me the opportunity to be a stay at home mom. I already was a full time mom but the phrase "stay at home mom" was loosely applied. Now venturing out was not an option without help. 
   But I didn't mind so much. We are busy at home and enjoy hanging out. We are homebodies. Some days I like to get out still and we still go to the library or the park but now I love being at home.

Home and Life

With all the money spent on buying, renting, remodeling, refinishing, decorating, redecorating, furnishing, painting, cleaning, maintaining, gadget-ing, appliance-ing, we spend very little time in our homes. Most work outside the home, and have many activities during the evenings and weekends. Most of our time is spent in our beds sleeping.
According to a study by the National Sleep Foundation, the average employed American works a 46-hour work week; 38% of the respondents in their study worked more than 50 hours per week. And people average around 7 to 8.5 hours of sleep.

Hours in a week    168

 Work                       46

 Sleep                       56

Left over                   66 hours
[FYI viewing television average is 30 hours a week]

That doesn't include commuting time, grocery shopping, or any extra activities (sports,gym, church, dates, entertainment).
Why do we spend so much money and effort in purchasing homes and making them look good and yet spend so little time on living life at home? How can staying home take so much effort? I want to enjoy being in my home and spend my time with my family. I don't want to be busy, I have books to read, kids to play with, laundry to wash and recipes to try.  

Tomorrow...How do we enjoy just being at home?