We moved into our 1980’s home in Mississippi three months ago. Time has flown by! We’re excited for all that is to come in this house and what we have planned to do with it. We love making over spaces! This one will be even more fun because of how much work it needs. Stephen and I often say to each other how we already anticipate how difficult it’ll be to leave here. It’s going to require a lot of time and hard work so we know we’ll love it even more in the end.

In the few months since we’ve moved here, we’ve been quite busy with baby Ellie (it’s crazy to think she’s more a Mississippian now than a South Carolinian!), unpacking, and getting started on some projects. Ideally I would’ve loved to have all of the rooms painted and old lights changed out, etc. before putting up our Christmas decorations. But you know what? That’s just not realistic in this season! As much as I love a clean, bright and airy room, I don’t think those things are necessary in order to get into the Christmas spirit. Heck, it’s not even about the Christmas decorations! They do make us so happy though and even more excited to celebrate the birth of our Savior. With that in mind, I was determined to add touches of joy to our home (using what we already owned so we could save that money for projects) despite the to-dos that my DIY brain loves to highlight in each room.

We decorated in the spaces that aren’t construction zones (and even the ones that are) and you know what? WE LOVE IT! It makes us SO HAPPY! My biggest tip? Stop waiting until your “picture perfect” room comes to fruition to put your ideas into action. As easy as it can be to fall into this trap with social media nowadays, I encourage you to stop worrying about what other people are doing. Create your own definition of joyful spaces in your home for you and your family to celebrate what this season means. That’s all that matters! Let’s be grateful for all that we do have instead of what our brain likes to conjure up as a “need”.

I figure it will be really fun to see how this progresses over the 3-4 Christmas seasons we spend in this house so here it is – Christmas 2020 in the Mississippi home. Patches in the walls and all.

I painted the front door pink and found what I had on hand to give the front porch a festive touch. You can read all about the details of the door HERE.

We completed a makeover of our entryway and we love how it turned out! Here’s a sneak peek. I’ll be sharing all of the details for this room in the next few days!

I hope that if anything, this post inspires you to create joy in your home no matter its current state. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting inspired by the beautiful spaces shared on social media. I also love creating those spaces for you to be inspired by on here too! Don’t fall into a trap though. friends. Please remember that many of the images you see are created by humans that do that for a living! Myself included. Stephen and I love to making over our homes and I wholeheartedly believe in the power of creating a place that our family loves to be together. Something that I always have to remind myself though is this… This is not our eternal home. This is just a stepping stone. Thank you, Jesus!

Stay well, friends. Merry Christmas.