When I open up my laptop to add to this blog there are so many things I can write about. I look forward to sharing on here the things in our home that I’m most proud of, as none of it has come easily. We have changed every inch of this house and I’m constantly thinking of the next thing to tweak. I can’t help my obsession with interior design, with rearranging the kitchen drawers to make the storage space that little bit better or looking at where we might extend or adapt the space.

We’ve come to the point now where we’ve become a little bit in love with our house, something I never thought I’d say. I’m proud of the fact that we’ve worked extremely hard on it. We’ve painted and sanded late into the night and spent every last penny we have, to the point that even doing the grocery shopping made me nervous. Now, I like every room and even the front almost looks pretty! (just waiting for the tiles on our storm porch & then I’ll write about it).

However, with it being mothering Sunday my thoughts have turned to the other people who have contributed to our life as it is now. We bought our first house with a great deal of financial help from my in-laws, and invaluable advice from them with regards to the renovations. I’ve always been a person who knows what I want things to look like, but structural alterations were something I knew nothing about. My father in law was so confident about where to move walls that I trusted everything he suggested, and rightly so because it all worked out so well. We all got on so well that my now husband and I lived with his parents while renovating that house…and again once we’d had our first child…and the next…and then just a bit longer while we renovated the next one. For this unquestioning generosity I will be forever thankful.

A moment that will stay with me forever when we moved into that first house was when I was talking about a piece of furniture I wanted to buy. My Dad told me that ‘sometimes you just have to make do’. I thought I already knew that. I thought that the fact we were missing a wardrobe and that the builders hadn’t caulked the skirting boards meant we were managing to live in a less than perfect situation thank-you-very-much. Looking back on it, that 25 year old me didn’t realise how lucky she was, and his words have resonated with me ever since.

Sadly, neither my Dad nor my Father in law are alive now for me to tell them how grateful I am for their wise words, but thankfully the mums are, and I’d like to tell them thanks. Thanks for your help. Thanks for your advice and support. Thanks for the flowers you bought to brighten up the new house. Thanks for the childcare, and the cleaning, and the money you lent us when things were tight. We couldn’t have done any of it without you, and we will be eternally grateful.