Home is Where the Heart Is

Lately, I’ve been chafing over the size of my apartment. It’s too small, I would tell anyone who’d listen. My prayers revolved around getting a home of my own. A house, I just knew, would solve all of my problems! Right now, there are five of us living in a two-bedroom apartment. Sounds miserable, doesn’t it? I did a good job convincing myself that it was. We need more space, I wanted to scream. Nothing too big or fancy, I’d pray. Just two or three thousand square feet. My request was so humble, and so deserved, I knew God would answer my prayer and hand me a large cookie-cutter house in the suburbs for an amazingly low price.
Luckily for me, He had other plans. I don’t get any house right now, large or small, midtown or suburb. I get to stay in my apartment. When I first realized this, I was feeling quite blue. Dry martyrdom, that’s my lot in life. I pictured myself among the squalor, eyes raised to heaven in suffering submission, as bodies fought to get past each other just to get a drink of water or use the bathroom. Welcome to my hovel. My misery was trickling down to my kids. Since I was miserable in this small, small space, then they must be too. They too were convinced that a house would solve their problems. It’s true that Mom sets the tone of the home!
About the time I realized how stinky my attitude on life in general had become, I understood that that attitude was spilling over into my perception of my home. Yes, there are five of us sharing a two-bedroom apartment, but did I mention that it was an 1100 square-foot apartment? It hasn’t shrunk since we happily moved in, oohing and awing over the size of it. Seriously, many of the houses in our price range were smaller than this apartment. My three kids may share a room, but not only is there room for their beds and dressers, we also fit in three toy boxes and two bookshelves. Not to mention all the cleared space they have in the room for playing. I decided to go through each room, noting its size and merits, reminding myself why this really is a great apartment.
The conclusion I came to was… I had too much stuff! A little purging and rearranging will open our large spaces up even more. What better place to start blooming where I am planted than in my home? My children start school next week and I’ll have to dedicate most of my time to teaching them, so this week (and the past few since I’ve had this revelation) is purging and spring cleaning week. I will make this apartment a happy, comfy home again!