Better Is Good

I sing the chorus to this song all the time when Nib needs a new diaper. Good old Sheryl Crow.

But, really....who doesn't like a good positive change now and then. I know we like to talk a lot about being change adverse, but I'm the queen of self improvement and isn't that what that whole topic is all about? Change. Also know as: growth, the new, surprise, advancement, learning, skill acquisition and improvement.

Today an encouraging list. Not how to improvement myself or things I'd like to learn or ways to more deeply experience life...today, successes.

Self improvement is good and growth is fabulous stuff, but sometimes in the striving to get better we spend a little too much energy on what there is to fix and forget to remember the road we've come down. Here's to celebrating strengths, remembering the power of purposeful shaping and enjoying growing up! Heavens its good stuff!

Do join in, I wanna see your own list in the comments!

Ten Ways I've Changed For The Better In The Last 5 Years


1. My hair is the longest its ever been....I made it my goal to grow it to my hips and I made it this past year! Hooray!


2. I have learned how to point out to A in arguments, I feel threatened by the way you just said that last thing, instead of always emotionally escaping and refusing to talk anymore. So much more progressive!


3. I have learned to appreciate my body. I used to have a little list of the things I didn't like about my physical form and I can honestly say that now I have learned to either like or cleverly deal with all the little things I used to pick at. Its good to feel visually acceptable. 


4. I am a much calmer mommy to Dee and Nib than I was when Ru first came along...good thing Ru's still here to benefit too! *wink* I love feeling more in control emtionally.


5. I know how to make a good beef roast. Boy was that hard! Took me years!


6. I am a painter! I've spent my entire adult life as an artist explaining to people that I sure would love to paint, but I have a fear of working in color and am not sure how to go beyond form and shadow. Yeah. And then a friend told me to come to her art fellowship and my life has not been the same since.

7. I am far more organized. My terror of schedules and systems has melted away and I have begun to imagine and orchestrate creative organization that nurtures flexibility and allows for fun. Life is far more sane and my husband likes me more.

8. I eat better than I ever have in my adult life. I have three square meals a day, most of it from scratch, I source locally, eat seasonally and have way more produce, whole grains, legumes and grass fed beef in my diet than I would ever have imagined. And eating is very, very fun! I'm not on a drudgery laden brown rice and tofu schedule at all. I own tons of cookbooks, we eat out, I make wonderful meals and I like food more than ever. Boy does it feel good.

9. I have a great community. I have friends, I have kind neighbors, I know people I can call for references, help hauling a sofa, childcare or a good cry. I am chums with my sisters, enjoying getting to know my brother, in frequent communication with my parents and have an involved connective church where I contribute regularly and am missed if I don't show up. Relationally, life is very rich for me these days.

10.  I am almost fearless about mistake or embarassment. There was a time, a few years ago when I would have died a little inside if my fly had been down or I'd fallen on my face in front of people I admired...now I have an easy laugh, understand that failure is part of the game and have no qualms about showing my hand in front of other people. We all need to feel like the other guy is human sometimes. And honestly, we all leave our fly down occasionally. Where's the shame in that?

What's on your list?

What We Want In A House

So, now that I've finished my collages, you get to see my notebook that I'll be taking out on Sunday to our first house appointments. We're going to be seeing houses with four different realtors before coming home to collapse and watch The Super Bowl. Several of you wanted to know more about my house hunting process and my criteria.

First, lest I sound like a blooming know-it-all....I have indeed purchased a house before. We owned a house for a year that we thought we were going to be in for five or so when we first moved to Connecticut. Job shifts forced us to sell and from then on we were back in apartments.

A is an apartment kind of guy. He doesn't collect tools, he doesn't fuss over his lawn, he doesn't like to shovel snow, he's not into cleaning gutters and he kind of likes not knowing how the leaves all disappear off the lawn in the fall. He likes automatic systems, reserved parking spaces and calling up the landlord and ordering in his home repairs. I hate landlords, and apartments and reserved parking spaces. I want chickens, a clothesline, a private backyard where the boys can play football, a pantry to stack my shining canned goods in August, and a sense of ownership. I want to know that if we hate the flooring...we can rip it out and that nobody cares what color I paint the bathroom. A and I have our differences. But, as your family grows it becomes clearer and clearer that home ownership has its strong points for lots of kinds of people. And so A came around...(like he always said he would) and now we're planning out our strategy for picking a nest.

The common factors that are driving both of us towards our own place now?

1.) More space. Room for storage, toys, instruments, beds, extra babies...etc.
2.) A quiet study space where A can work from home undisturbed. Its really hard when he's at home for the day but the computer is in the living room.
3.) A nice lawn to romp on. A is excited about boy sports, I'm dreaming of picnics and outdoors watercolor painting.
4.) The ability to do what we want to our own home in the way of improvements. You can't order the landlord to put in nicer bathroom fixtures or more insulation just because you'd like it.
5.) Room for our books. We would like a room that we can just wall-to-wall with bookcases or at least more rooms where bookcases will fit. We have a lot of books.
6.) Some little space where we can tuck our guests when they come to visit. We want visitors!
7.) A more spacious kitchen. We both like to cook and eat and we want room to store our tools, food and cookbooks and then space for rolling out pie crusts, making Christmas cookies together, and cutting out homemade ravioli.

So, that's the stuff we have in common. There's lots more from my point-of-view but that gives you the gist of what we both agree on that has us hunting.

Here's a peek at my notebook:

And here's our list of Wants, Bonuses and Avoids to give you a peek into how we're weighing houses. Most of these criteria are mine (I am after all the homebody in the family so, I care a lot about these things.) and I have to say, I'm way pickier about houses than A is. *wince* I try not to let it bother me too much and I don't think it truly means that I'm a whiny, demanding, greedy home-buyer...I just want to buy carefully, and I care a lot about what makes a home.


Wants:

    * At least one acre of land (although truth be told I'm willing to consider .5 an acre and up if the rest of the house looks really appealing)
    * Sun and shade (in the yard...this is for gardening)
    * Three bedrooms (although four or more is what I'm really shooting for)
    * Private master bath
    * At least two full baths
    * Bathrooms on each level
    * Open kitchen floor plan
    * Ample counter space
    * Pantry/larder storage area
    * Safe distance from the road
    * Good commuting possibilities (direct connection to the metro within an hour of the city)
    * History and character
    * Master on the same level as kids rooms
    * Room for a clothes line
    * Space for: sewing, sleeping, eating, music, office, outdoors equipment, storage, lots of books, plants, homeschooling, boys and girls, private spaces, parental romance
    * Air conditioning
    * Nice Interior Light

Bonuses:

    * Fireplace
    * Room for a chest freezer
    * Root cellar type storage
    * Water on the property (streams, rivers or lakes...not plumbing)
    * Hardwood floors
    * Nearby grocery store (small is fine…even a convenience store)
    * Other young families in the neighborhood
    * Greenhouse
    * Big southern exposure windows
    * Great insulation
    * New appliances
    * Gas stove
    * Clothes Line (already in place)
    * Nice plantings (read historic plantings)
    * Central Air
    * Granite Counter-tops
    * Big porch
    * Slow traffic on the road out front

 Things We Don't Want:

    * Mold or musty smells
    * Structural damage
    * Leaks
    * Swimming pool
    * Ranch or raised ranch architecture
    * Central Vacuums

 And then just for a little extra information....here are some of the little tidbits about a house that would likely attract us.

 We like:

    * Stone
    * Tudor architecture
    * Sidewalks for walking
    * Wood Siding
    * Pretty "designed" water features
    * Expansive lawns w/ a little woods
    * Longer driveways
    * Pre-existing gardens
    * Cottages, Colonials, Cape Cods, and Saltboxes