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About Me My name is Sarah. I am a full-time momma to our crew of five and I LOVE it! Now out of my twenties, I have also narrowed down a few more things that I absolutely love. Blogging is one of them although I am learning balance in the midst of it: Why I'm Not A Full-Time Blogger. My heart is to show you that turning your house into a home takes time and a budget. An Inviting Home: Parenting.Adoption.Organization.Decor Here are some of my passions... Parenting. Somehow in making sense of how to go from 2 kids to 5 kids, in just minutes, with only three years experience at this whole parenting thing, our organization & parenting skills went up a whole notch. How do you parent a second grader when you haven't even sent a child to kindergarten? We now have how much laundry to do? We go through how many boxes of cereal a week? You want to put every single piece of artwork that you ever made on my fridge x5? Just some thoughts that have bounced through my mind since we transitioned. Adoption. The truth is, it is on God's heart and He put it on our hearts many years ago. We always wondered about the timing. Then with one toddler at home, and being seven months pregnant with our second, it was clear that there were three other precious kids that might someday need a forever family. We just celebrated TWO YEARS together! I shared a candid recap on how our first year as a family of seven went. Then some thoughts after two years...The Untold Story Of Open Adoption. Organization. Having a place for everything (or at least working on finding a place for everything) and having household systems that work well for us is what keeps all of this going. (Staying sane until I am 40 is also on the top of my priority list!) Decor. I love decor. My style is Modern Texture. It is inviting with pops of color, functional & inexpensive pieces and a little vintage charm. It has warmth, depth and texture. My style isn't formal, cold or antique. I don't think that you can go wrong with any style if you are discovering what makes your house feel like a home and what brings you joy. I love to decorate with things that have meaning to our family. You can view our home tour here (it is always a work in progress and some of the pictures already need to be updated!) A few extra notes that are worth adding... As far as parenting goes, I am no expert! Make sure that goes on the record books. (You did record that right?) The truth is, my husband and I have a blast parenting and are definitely on the same page. We believe that parenting should have purpose and vision just like a job would outside of the home. We may not have grown our family the traditional way, one by one, but that is what allowed us to process how to be the best parents that “we” can be with the shortest amount of time to practice. We have literally had to quickly adapt solutions that may or may not have worked for our family. We have values that are intertwined in our parenting as well as our home decor for the kids to see on a daily basis. We have routines (a key that has helped our specific kids thrive) and we still like to switch it up a bit (throw the routine out the window!) to keep life exciting and not be totally predictable. A month after welcoming our three oldest kids into our home we moved into a bigger space. We had just purchased our first house two years prior to that, but now having bedrooms that could fit all of the beds AND dressers, for seven people, was way more important. My husband is a big help when it comes to offering his opinions about the functionality and overall look of our home. He is great when it comes to ideas on positioning furniture, working with tools and he definitely has a knack for what looks aesthetically pleasing as well. You might even find him straightening the couch pillows more often than me...but hey, we do have five little tornadoes roaming the grounds. Through all of our transitions, I came to a place of asking myself, "what are some things that I enjoy?" I narrowed it down to parenting, adoption, organization & decor. I also realized that I needed a way to stay sane through it all…and for me, blogging is the perfect way. What are some ways that I keep calm through it all?…one prayer, one hug, one label, one beautiful couch pillow at a time. We want our children to feel truly loved and for friends, new and old, to feel welcomed. We want our space to be functional while still being warm and cozy, we are always doing our best to create an inviting home.