Thursday, October 2, 2008

"Love grows best in little houses..."

The title of this blog is from a line in one of my favorite country songs by Doug Stone. I grew up in a very little house (I think around 900 square feet). Yesterday as my mom and I were coming back from the mall, I wanted to stop by and see it. It is sooo interesting to experience what I see now as an adult as compared to back then. The streets seem sooo much more narrow, the houses sooo much more close together, and our actual house seems tiny! But I think back to when I was a kid, and I never felt like we lived in a small house. I thought we had a HUGE block for me to ride my bike and skate on and that our neighbor's yards were enormous.

It really goes to show that kids (for the most part) could care less about the size of their homes. My backyard was plenty big for me to play in. I will say that I think it helped that the friends my family had were all in similar income brackets, so I wasn't exposed very much to huge homes. But the fact remains, it truly doesn't matter the size of your home growing up. All that matters are the memories created there...and I have hundreds of awesome memories here.

Here is a picture of our house. When we lived in it, it was green (then later painted grey). Gonna be honest and say that I might have been a little embarrassed as a kid to bring a friend home to this color. :)

6 comments:

Bethany said...

I have that same quote written out on our chalkboard over our table (I love that song too!). Your post is very timely... I am disclinpling myself to remain content raising our family in a tiny house. I love, love our home- it is so cute and charming - but it is SMALL and started to feel cramped with two kids. But, with the economy the way it is I don't think we are going anywhere for a while. It forces me to be selecitve about the "stuff" we bring into our home, and I am thankful for that! And I am thankful for a roof over our heads,a great neighborhood, and a nice big backyard that I consider an "extension" of our home.

I just read that you are pregnant!!! YAY!!! Congratulations - what wonderful news!

Jessica said...

I totally agree. I grew up in a small house too.... a small house with BIG amounts of love :) What matters is the family inside of the house, not the size of it.

I have to remind myself (as I find myself wanting a bigger house at times) that Bigger house= bigger bills, more cleaning, and more money spent on more things to fill it.

Anonymous said...

Oh I wish you had a pic of how it used to look too. I'm sure Mom has some around. It's much cuter. =)

In some ways I think there are some benefits to a small house OVER a large one (aside from $) - I do think it brings a family together more - instead of them kind of spreading out all over a large rambling home and not seeing each other for chunks of time. I love small homes. =)

Donna Stark said...

Ah, yes...
Love grows best in little houses
With fewer walls to separate.
When you live so close together
You can't help but communicate.
Oh, and, if we'd had more room between us...
Think of all we'd miss.
Love grows best in houses just like this.

Sing it, Doug!!!!!

Donna Stark said...

Do you remember any of the things you and Susan talked about in your beds at night when you shared a room? Seems like I've heard you say before. ("fewer walls to separate"--HA!)

Anonymous said...

I don't remember- but I think Kelly said we had singing contests which is absolutely frightening considering my singing skills.

I also remember that conversation where Kelly asked me to call her "Christmas" as a nickname instead of "Kelly" because she loved the holiday so much.

Big fan of siblings sharing a room. I think it was great!!!!