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hvparent.com n Hudson Valley Parent 33 Evan Hershkowitz, DDS, MPH 1001 Route 376 • Wappingers Falls, NY 12590 www.sevenseaspd.com We'll make your child's dental visit playful, fun, & stress-free! • Specialize in infants through adolescents and children with special needs • General anesthesia available in our fully-equipped suites • State-of-the-art facility offering the latest technology Ahoy, Matey! Come Sail the Seven Seas with a Smile! there if she needs anything. Believe it or not, she still has enough space to practice her dance moves on the carpet before she hops into bed for the night. How do you find privacy? The topic of privacy seems to keep coming up in my conversations with friends and family: Where do you go to be alone? The truth is, nowhere. I can try the bathroom, but any parent knows no toddler is going to let that happen! I recently started reading Sarah Susanka's book "The Not So Big Life." One element of small house design Susanka emphasizes is that privacy does not always require a separate, physical space. I'm finding that to be far more true than I realized. I get my privacy when I wake up first and enjoy the quiet sunshine streaming through the windows while I cook breakfast. My husband gets privacy when I yawn at 8 p.m. and choose an early bedtime. Right now, our daughter has the only designated personal space: a reading nook with her books, a table and a rocking chair. When her baby brother starts sharing this space, she'll also need her privacy. I remem- ber as a child the joy of getting to read in bed before lights out. Maybe that will be her private "space," too. For Flynn, all the stuff that comes with having a 3-year-old has present- ed a challenge to their downsizing process. "Our daughter brings a whole new element to a simple lifestyle," she says. "I've heard it said, and I agree, that pre-schoolers are little hoarders. She will want to keep pieces of cut yarn, broken toys, a dead plant — all the stuff I'm trying to clear out! But part of the plan is that she can keep the things she wants; they just have to fit in her bedroom." Thanks to our small house, our dreams morphed into a size that genuinely fit our lives. My husband opened Tamarack Mountain Guiding, Inc. in January, and we have plans to renovate a 10' x 11' post and beam structure into an amazing tiny house to rent out to weekend guests. Same dream, different dimensions! For now, my kids are young, so living in a small space works for us. We're happy making our life fit inside these four walls. We know that, as our kids grow up and start playing in the school band, they'll probably need more space. And so will we! We'll cross that bridge — and find that house — when we come to it. Beth Mackey is a blogger who also works as a consultant in data man- agement and runs Tamarack Moun- tain Guiding, a climbing guide service in the Adirondack Park. Find her at livingsmartlivingsmall.blogspot.com.