Month: September 2018

I have had several questions about our home and I just wanted to share where we are at in our journey.  In 2017 we focused on paying off debt and selling our house while purging our possessions along the way.    Although we have gotten rid of a lot already, we are still in the purging process.  Whenever we have free time we go through boxes and see if there is anything we will need and donate the rest. We had our 10×30 trailer built in August.  My husband is working on the design of our house and we are close to finishing that part of it.  He has build a few scaled models of it so that we can picture how the layout will work.  We hope to finalize the design this month and then start compiling the materials over the next few months and start building.  Our goal is to have our home finished by the first of the year. God has been our help and guide all along this journey and I will continue to share how he has led and provided in my upcoming blogs.

Stay-at-home Mom

Another important aspect of our lives that we felt would benefit by going tiny is our time with family.  The most obvious result of having a smaller living space is less time cleaning which leads to more free time.  What would you do with a little extra time?  Most tiny homes take a maximum of 30 min to clean the entire house. With more financial freedom and the downsizing of space, it allows me to stay at home with my son full time with much less strain on our budget.  I know many of you who have children, choose to work, but for me I knew I needed to stay home with my son.  I could not send my child somewhere and let someone else raise him for 8+ hours of the day.  I feel that God gave him to me and He will equip me with the skills I need to raise and teach him right.  With that being said, we live in a two income society, where the cost of living sometimes doesn’t allow a mother/wife to stay home. I do understand that and I know God knows and takes care of those in that situation just the same.  I knew that if God led me to stay home with my son, that he would provide a way and He has.  Sometimes we don’t know how He does it but He always provides.  In this time of the modern feminist movement, it is considered old fashioned to say that a woman’s place is at home taking care of her family.  It wasn’t God who led people to live above their means and continuously desire more and more resulting in an imbalance of income and spending. That imbalance reduces the time the average Mother/Wife gets to spend with her family.  I would rather give up the so called comforts of this world and gain more priceless time with my family. I would like to encourage you to search the scriptures for how a woman is intended to live. I will leave you the verses that I came across while preparing this blog:

“3-The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4-That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5-To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”   (Titus 2:3-5 KJV)

While we have had many family and friends supporting us on this decision, many others have looked at us with skepticism and doubt. To some it is too extreme and impossible to be happy in a tiny house. The most often ask questions have to do with our son and how we will raise a family in a tiny space. There are many reasons that led up to the decision to go tiny. I will try to elaborate on a few in the next few blogs. The first reason I will start to explain is financial. In a country where bigger is always better, going tiny is rarely understood. Americans want more. Bigger houses, bigger food, more things, bigger events,… We never seem to be satisfied. There is always room for improvement when it comes to our possessions and our homes. To say we are living above our means is an understatement. My husband and I started out in a very small studio apartment and worked our way up each time until we ended up “owning” our own home. So many of us think, if we only had more space we would be happier… More space equals more money whether it be rent or mortgage. We are all raised that debt is a normal part of life. That everyone has it and that there is no way around it. Society tells us we should “own” our own home and have the nicest cars and go on the nicest trips we can’t afford. Do you really own something that you haven’t paid for yet? Do you own something that someone else has given you the money to pay for? Do you own it or the lender? We were convicted about being subject to the lender by the verse in Proverbs 22:7. “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” I don’t want to be servant to anyone but Christ. We started by paying off all credit cards, our car and finally selling our house. Being debt free is an amazing feeling. Knowing that you owe no man and that they aren’t controlling your financial decisions anymore is priceless. It doesn’t mean there aren’t still struggles, but there is freedom from financial bondage. We are praying to stay debt free through this process.There is a way to live within your means. Our journey would not happen without God’s help. We are amazed each day at how he provides even when we are doubtful.

“The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” (Proverbs 22:7)