hey, this is where i live (the family room)

For all my "woe is me" posts and Facebook stati, it really has been going well for us in so many ways

We are settling in and learning to do life in a new place. And this is the new place...

A green house. I have long loved the color green. Not really for the outside of a house, but it's very Florida. And as I often need to remind myself...we live in Florida now. So I need to embrace it. I think the house will look much better when we get our big Nebraska "N" flag waving in front.

Inside we are slowly making our mark on the place. And by that, I do not mean the dogs puking on the tile and Lulu writing on the walls. But, that too. I mean we are trying to make this place represent the values of the people who live in it. These people...

When you walk in, the first thing you see is the above wall. My brother in law painted it a similar coral to what we had in our old house. It feels good to have something familiar. 

As you keep walking, you enter the main room of the house. I have struggled with decorating and arranging it. I don't even know what to call it yet. The living room? The great room? It's probably the family room because this is where our family gathers. On my parents' coral couch. Though it's not in great shape, this couch is a significant reminder of the connecting that happened in my parents' home. And paired with teal, I think it looks pretty great while also being sentimental...

Of course, it looks best of all paired with my sweet girl. 

Though we went with the old by painting the coral in our entry way,

we tried something new with teal in our family room. 

It's a happy color and I really dig it.

My great grandfather's secretary desk is where I pile up and misplace all my papers and 

where I currently sit writing this blog post.

The conversational seating group is made up of the fabulous looking, though terribly uncomfortable, 

seagrass chairs. The kids will choose the hard, cold tile floors over these chairs. 

But despite this fact, I heart them...

 (please note: the elephant has migrated into this room from the study)

The TV is an eyesore, but I think it will be better when we get our artwork on the wall...

Or when we just stick "little miss camera shy" in front of it

(she has shorts on, i promise. itty bitty shorts, but shorts nonetheless).

This reading nook has become a favored spot to spend time alone with God...

Though not as aesthetically pleasing as the seagrass chairs, it is much more pleasing

to my booty. By the way, is it "booty" or "bootie"? I could google it, but I would rather ask you.

The chest is another antique piece from my parents' home. 

It has been fun to have pieces that were virtually unused in their former life, like this chest and

the secretary desk, find new and meaningful functions in our home.

I know it's just stuff. But stuff, when applied correctly, can be part of a healing process.

This corner of the room has two very special items in it, 

in addition to the obvious one sitting on the chair. 

The painting we got in Ethiopia.

And the green lamp that I got from a garage sale. 

When we got rid of so many of our things to make room for the things from my parents' home,

I had to determine what things were truly special to me from my family of origin and

from my own little family.

And this green lamp, crazy as it may sound, came out at the top of the list of things Bill and I had...

Not only is it super cool, but it stood in the background of so many of our family moments

in Nebraska. It cast it's warm glow while I read to my kids, while Jack "scrawled" across the floor

and when Lulu took her first steps. It provided light for countless dance parties and family nights and fights and cuddles on the couch.

And people, I got it for $3!!!!!

If you don't know me well, you could thinking whilst looking at the above photo "my, what a wonderful housekeeper Missy must be since that that ledge is so nice and uncluttered". Think again. Here's all the stuff normally on that ledge, aka "dumping station" moved to the stairs for "fake the world out on your blog" time...

Also cleared off for picture time is the wall behind the couch where I often dump my purse and camera bag or bag from Bible study. And the serving counter where I often dump wadded up receipts and things made in Sunday school that I should probably throw away, right Kim?

But more important than how we decorate this place or how I clean it is how we live in it. The more we do of that, the more we start to feel that it's more than just walls around us. 

It is a home. Our home.