Foodless Friday: Contentement

Today's post is kind of long... however I have tried to add a few pictures to break it up! 

It has not been a secret on this blog that my husband and I had a rough couple of years after he finished his Masters coursework and was working on his thesis. I mean we ended up living in my parent's basement for 2 years! We both only had part time jobs and even though we applied for numerous jobs we were never hired... It can be very wearing on a person/relationship/etc. However, at the beginning of last year I wrote in my personal journal that by the end of the year I wish we would have a full time job, our own place (preferably a house) and I may not have written it but I was getting baby hungry, so I couldn't wait to have insurance again so we could consider having a baby. I also wished that my sister would get better because there would be no way my mom could handle things without us there if she was still going in the the ER as much as she had been. 

 My parents, brother and sister (this was taken just before she got sick for so long)

A year ago I was hopeful that the thesis would be done (my husband had sent a draft to his advisor and was burning the midnight oil to get it completed on time.) I figured once his thesis was done we would be better able to find a job (I don't know why, but that's the mentality I had.) It is amazing how things fell into place. Last May, my little sister stopped having troubles with her breathing and even came off oxygen! She had to use it occasionally but that was better than using it constantly. 

 My son watching airplanes before we boarded on our way home.

 My husband finished his thesis and we made a week long trip back to Wisconsin (the first part of June) so he could defend it and make any corrections his committee wanted him to. The day before we left he got a call for a job interview, we said we'd call back when we got back into town (I figured it wasn't going to happen as we'd be gone a week!) He ended up turning his thesis in the last possible day without having to pay tuition again (June 11th to be exact). If we wouldn't have had some issues at the copy shop the night before we probably could have turned it in the day before... 

 Giving a copy to his advisor

We got back and he called about the job and they interviewed him. He ended up getting the job and started at the end of June. It was convenient because the job was a 40 minute drive each way from my parents so we were able to stay there for a few months while we found a place to live (and save up some money to actually buy a house - we went through a program that allowed us not to pay a down-payment or it never would have happened).

 Our house

Which brings me to the main point I wanted to write about today... a year ago I wanted some very specific things in my life, and right now I pretty much have them all. (The only thing is that I wish I had a baby right now instead of being pregnant, but at least we have been blessed to have a healthy pregnancy - so far!) Now that I have the major things I wanted at this point last year - you think I'd be perfectly content, right? Partly, yes - I am grateful that we have everything we do and it's not like I'm not happy... However, now I  have more stuff to wish for (luckily smaller)... like actually having enough furniture in our house - we have some, but it still looks pretty sparse! (We pretty much have what we had in our 2-bedroom grad housing (except a twin bed for my son and an actual kitchen table.) I want some additional extras for the baby that we didn't get with my son (we ended up using a high chair at my parents -that my sister had left there for when they visited with their children- so that's a definite must!) The hard part is wanting it all right now and not being patient to save up the money to buy it. I have found that when I start getting greedy (ie wanting it all now) that if I remember I have pretty much everything I wanted a year ago that it helps me curb my desire to spend money we don't have yet and be content with what we do have.

Do you have any tricks that help you stay content?