Home Thoughts of 2000

Yesterday was difficult for me.  It rained all day.  Gray days are hard, but usually I can do enough sewing and reading to keep cheerful.  Anyway, eventually I started getting out my quilting books to thumb through, and then I got out my "Home Binder" and looked through it.  And I found a letter that I wrote to Country Home Magazine in 2000 and never sent.  It is very out of date now, but I remember everything, just as I wrote it down.  So I typed it out, without any updating or editing, and thought I would share it with you today.
 {FYI:  We have 7 children, one son was on a mission.}

Here it is:

NH May 2000 letter never sent

Country Home Magazine

1716 Locust St., Des Moines, IA

Over and over again I read in your magazine these words,

“We love having people over.”

“We entertain out here a great deal.”

“People can chat from one space to another.”

“This house really works for parties.”

So, tell me the truth—what does a house with a family living in it work and look like?

I’ve been looking for ideas on how to store 500 videotapes, 3 sets of encyclopedias, all the Sci-Fi books and the 8 dishpans full of children’s picture books.

Am I the working wife with one child?  No.  Do I have two children at boarding schools and summer camps?  No.  Does my husband like parties – going or giving?  No.

What I have is a party all the time every afternoon.

In your magazine…

where do 4 kids do their homework?  Yes, I have provided quiet space in their bedrooms but they ask questions and start playing and can’t find the information so they end up at the kitchen table surrounded by encyclopedias and Mom’s stern eye.

Where do the kids hang their art work?  Store bicycles, jump ropes, hula hoops, roller skates, basketballs?  How do I corral the Barbie accessories?  The wires and nuts and bolts?  The Legos?  The Construx?  Markers and papers? 

Where do they practice the piano and clarinet and store the music?

Where do we put the two pairs of shoes (sometimes 3 pair) per person as we go in and out of the house?  That’s 7 people x 3 = 21 pairs and Coats – where do I keep 2 coats per person?  Tract homes have these bitty front door closets that will hold about 4 coats – and that’s for guests.

Where do you keep the cold cereal?  The school lunch paraphernalia?  The backpacks for school?

Where are the shelves for games?  For blankets, gift wrap and extra gifts? 

Does each child have 3 laundry hampers – whites, darks, coloreds?  Then when the laundry area has no floor space for clothes sorting the Mom goes to each separate hamper and pulls out whites the first time, darks the second, etc.?

What if the Mom is home all day and has a lot of fabric and rubber stamps and boxes of photos?  Where would you put all that so she can work with each one without having to lug it up from the basement?

And with two kids in college, where will they sleep at Christmas and the summertime?  And when the married daughter comes home for a visit?

Where is the woodworking bench so the boys can cut out guns and such?

Where is the cleaning supply closet?  There’s no maid hired to clean this house.

We are currently a family of 7 for the summer.  At holidays we’re a family of 8, of 10 if our married daughter comes back.  Day to day we are a family of 6 – Mom, Dad, two boys, then 2 girls.  The boys want separate rooms, the girls will room together.  The 2 college kids are a boy and a girl. 

My husband makes good money – around $100,000 each year.  We’re buying a tract house to be built this summer/fall.  But I look at the house plan over and over and it seems like there isn’t enough space in it – at 2,600 square feet there ought to be!

It’s a party at our house every afternoon – lots of people, coats, bikes, homework, snacks, dinner – how does it all fit in?  Forget those rooms with nice stuff to look at – I’ve got kids to look at.  They’d get to roughhousing around and the collectible objects would tumble over.  I don’t do centerpieces – no space – nor pretty tabletop arrangements – books end up on all available surfaces.

I’ve stopped doing new crafts and I’m trying to finish old ones.  The file drawers are full – and the canceled checks are increasing.  Where’s the home office?  Not just a basket for bills, but the fat income tax returns and home filing system.

Notice I haven’t mentioned where do I stack the camping equipment (the boys are Scouts) and the Halloween costume box, or the –is it 6 boxes now – of Christmas decorations.

Are my girls through needing a play room area?  What do I do with the play kitchen?  The dress-ups?  The dollies and blankets?  The puppets, the…

Can you tell this stuff is coming out my ears?  I don’t need a museum to live in with my family.

I want a house with lots of closets and shelf space made of boards so things don’t fall through.