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Loving the Place We Call Home | Gratitude Week 29

After a weekend of fun in LA, we drove back home (in Josh’s car) only to realize we lost our keys in one of the dozens of places we visited in LA. It was pretty difficult to stay calm, and I may or may not have thrown a few things. After a long drive, all I wanted to do was wash up and crawl into our own bed. Unfortunately, due to my carelessness and due to one shaaaaaady locksmith, we weren’t able to get into our home Sunday night. Luckily, our keys were found and are currently being mailed back to us (Thanks Jess!! You are a lifesaver!).

Being locked out of our home for one night actually made me realize what a privilege it is to have a place I call home. There are many things, big and small, that I often take for granted because they are always simply there. It reminded me that these too were blessings that should be counted.

Our place isn’t perfect. And at the moment (and many other moments) it happens to be a mess. You can forget about spring cleaning here. It has not been happening. But this is our humble abode and I am grateful for it as is.

Our Humble and messy Abode. Gratitude practice for week 29.Pin
Our Messy House. Gratitude practice for week 29.Pin
Home is where the cats are.Pin
Our Messy House. Practicing gratitude for week 29.
Our Messy House. Practice gratitude for week 29.Pin
Urban garden in our messy house. Gratitude practice for week 29.Pin
Our patio in our humble abode. Gratitude practice for week 29.Pin

Even though I might be more of a nomad / wanderer, I’ve realized it’s always good to have a home base where you can reset.

7 Reasons Why We Love our Home // Gratitude Practice for Week 29:
  1. Comfort. Everything is familiar and arranged in a certain way for our convenience.
  2. Our bed has a pillowtop and is the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept on.
  3. Our cats. Have you ever heard the quote “Home is where the cats are”? That’s how we feel!
  4. Desktops. It’s so much easier working on a desktop than on my laptop.
  5. Washer / Dryer in unit. I didn’t realize this until we moved to LA, but depending on the city that you live in, it can be rare to have your own washer dryer in your place. You are constantly collecting quarters so you can wash your clothes.
  6. Our kitchen. I know I complain about how little storage and cabinet space we have, but at the end of the day we make it work. It stores all the snacks and food and kitchen gadgets we could ever need or want.
  7. Heater & AC. Having a working heater and AC is a luxury if I really think about it. I’ve been to so many countries where this is not the norm.

Gratitude quote of the week by Sarah Ban Breathnach:
Gratitude quote of the week is "Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need." sarah ban breathnach quotesPin

How do you define “home”? Is it a person, place, or thing? Can you think of a few reasons why you love your home? Also, we can’t use our car until the keys are mailed back to us, so what do you like to do when you are stuck at home? Let me know in the comments below.

This is week 29 of gratitude practice on my blog. You can see all my other gratitude posts by clicking on the banner:
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This Post Has 12 Comments

  1. I love this post! And the idea of intentionally having gratitude posts! I love how white and bright your house is, I get the feeling we won’t be in our place much longer so I don’t want to take the time to paint but if I thought we’d be here for awhile I’d totally go crazy with some nice white paint.

    Oh, and why is there a crock pot in your living room? :)

    1. esther julee

      Thank you! :) We’re actually living in an apartment right now and are only committed to living here for 15 months. Usually they have more off-white colors, but I guess we got lucky with this one. Where are you moving?

      Haha I just never put things back in the right place.. and it’s just been part of our living room for a while. This post actually reminded me to put it back. :)

  2. Erika

    Your house is artistically messy — and by messy, not even at all! It’s more like, “lovingly used.” Not all “messes” are created equally, but the kind in these pictures is the kind I like!

    I’m a naturally messy person! I’m working on it and I’m way better than I used to be, but I still have the ability to sort of “tornado” my whole apartment within a 15 minute span and think, “Whoa, how did that happen?”

    If I tried to keep it spotless all the time, I’d be cleaning all day. But I am trying to create better habits to manage it.

    ANYWAY! I loved this post and I am loving the vibe I’m getting from you now that you’re in Vegas. Oh man, I wanna go back!!!! Do you really like it a lot????? I mean, your posts would imply that but I thought I’d ask directly!

    1. esther julee

      Haha I do have some more photos I could share. It just didn’t look “pretty” for the blog. Same here. It drives Jacob crazy, but I actually am perfectly comfortable in my own mess.

      I do like Vegas a lot. Now that we’re living here, I don’t mind visiting LA as much either. I’m just glad that the people are generally much friendlier, and I don’t feel like I have to be constantly guarded.

      1. Erika

        Yeah, I feel like some cities are cities that are great to visit but maybe not live… and having all the cool stuff about LA be accessible but not immersed in all the other bits all the time sounds like a win-win!

        1. esther julee

          agreed! we’re just going to temporarily live in LA in july because that’s when people say it’s unbearable here, but other than that we love this place.

  3. Amy

    hey you’re all about keeping it real!!! :)
    my house is messy 99% of the time, so i LOVE that you shared it!

    1. esther julee

      Is it weird that I feel uncomfortable in a house that’s 100% spotless? I figure most people have messy homes, but we just never get to see them when they have us over! :P

  4. I would have totally lost my shit if I got home after a long trip and could not get in. I’m very grateful for our house and the space it gives us. I like that we have a yard to let our dog out in and a front and back porch to enjoy now that the weather is warming up. Our crockpot is in the spare bedroom (along with the ice cream maker) so not too odd to have the crockpot in the living room :)

    1. esther julee

      I seriously tried my best to stay calm this time around, but I think that made it worse for me, because that’s not really how I roll… haha yeah we used the crockpot one day.. and it just never made it back to the kitchen. OOPS! Your house sounds very lovely! :)

  5. carly

    I love how you shared this post! It’s so easy to lose contentment with what you have, but it makes the biggest difference when you change your thinking and can look past some of the little imperfections and focus on the things you do like in the spaces! I love your little art corner and how cozy everything looks!

    1. esther julee

      Thank you & I agree! I’m glad that these bad situations can help me reflect on the things that I do have. And thank you! I hope to put my art corner to use more often.

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