Just one of those days.

Feeling like it's just one of those tired and crabby kind of days. Everything is kind of irritating me. We have been doing a ton of projects around the house and it's sending us to the poor house. We got new living room carpet, countertops, sink, faucet and back splash. Paul has been touching up paint and sanding stuff and he replaced lani's crown molding in her bedroom. All this has freshened up the house, but it all costs MONEY. Not the best time to be doing this, but we are wanting to get some things done so we can possibly list our house in the future. This is a huge deal. We have loved our house since the day we moved it. Our neighborhood is amazing and we have a ton of space here. We have very few complaints. But over the years, our perspective has slowly changed.
I remember rounding the corner to our house after 9 days on a missions trip to Guatemala, and thinking to myself "Ugh. Look at that house. It's so big and what the heck are we doing putting all this money into it?!?" Our eyes were "hurting" upon our return. We had gotten a glimpse of a people who had nothing,and suddenly what we had seemed a bit ridiculous.
Then a few months ago I read the book "Serve God, Save the Planet", and my wheels really started turning. We had gone through Financial Peace University and sat down and examined our budget in great detail. We had too much money going towards our house. We are living on one income and sacrifices need to be made. But when we looked at our budget, it looked like we were making sacrifices in the wrong areas. Our house had become our priority. I don't know when or how it happened, but it did. And it has been making me sick.
I think back to our first house and how simple it was. And practical. And just fine. It worked just fine. Nothing fancy, not a lot of space, but it was fine. But the way things work is to upgrade over the years. Bigger, better, nicer. So that's what we have done. But in the last couple of years Paul and I have decided it is not what we want to do anymore. Shelter. We need shelter. And not excess. We want to place a stronger emphasis on our family and not our house. And that's not easy with our limited income. So we are going to downsize. Which sounds crazy as our family is GROWING, but I think that's what we are hoping to do.
So we are looking for a new house. Less house, more land to do things like garden. Smaller house payment, smaller impact on the environment. Lots of different stuff. It's going to be a bit of a lifestyle change...not that we live in a luxury home right now, but it is large and not a bit energy efficient!
We are waiting to hear about a house we are VERY interested in, and hope that something comes of it. But if not, we'll keep looking.
All that to say that today I am a bit overwhelmed. Lots of projects, money, time, stress going on around here. Lots of changes. But I feel like this is all going to be for the better. Not easy, but better. Not the most comfortable, but better. Time will tell.