About 8 years ago, we found ourselves outgrowing our house. We had four little children and a little Cape Cod with a big family room. I had prayed for that little house "with small white beds up the stairs" but the time had come for a change. The three boys were in one room with two bunk beds, a single bed, and one dresser. And they were getting bigger. And their clothes and their stuff were getting bigger too. We needed another room. We hired an architect. He showed us plans with everything we had asked for. We sent them out to contractors. But no one quite knew where to put the heating ducts. What? No heat in the new room? So we found another house. A perfect house with four bedrooms and lots of old amenities. Linoleum walls in the bathroom. A light with a red swirly plastic cover over the fireplace. Metal cabinets in the kitchen, circa 1950. We moved in. We gradually made changes. The first thing to go was the red light over the fireplace, plastic and al
balancing life, work, and family