More Space Please

Umm.. could I get a bigger house please? Do you see how this poor dog sleeps? On a tiny little ottoman (which is usually covered with a blanket to hide it's spots) with her head resting on a bookshelf. Yes, a wooden shelf is my dog's pillow.

I try very hard to be appreciative of our house and not complain about it's size, especially in front of the kids. We are here by choice, yes, we could buy a bigger house but it would be in a worse school district further away from families and work so we are here. If we lived in Manhattan, our place would be considered huge. It is a roof over our head that we can afford, it is warm and loving (most of the time) and it is ours. No small things.

However, at some point, I would love to host holiday gatherings, have friends over for dinners, have more than one guest at a time come stay with us, maybe even my sister and her whole family if we are getting crazy here. I would like space for the kids to spread out and play and a room for them to go crazy in that's not our living room. It breaks my heart a little bit when we are over at someone's house that is bigger (read: normal sized) and Miss E excitedly runs around exclaiming about how much space there it. In short, just under 1000 square feet for 4 people, and pets is a bit small and at some point, I would really really really really like a bigger house. For the time being though, this has been a valuable exercise in patience, making do and being appreciative of what we have.