Joanna Gaines

In our house, dinner is synonymous with family time. Recently, it has felt like the best chance for all of us to really connect - something that I find myself wanting more of as my kids are getting older.

Waco is such a resilient town... this city has seen its fair share of hardships, but it always bounces back better and stronger.

Chip is like that kid, like the five-year-old kid that's trying to make his mom breakfast, and there's milk everywhere.

Since Chip and I try to go on a date night once a week, we don't feel the need to keep holidays like Valentine's Day all to ourselves. We set the table fancy, we all get dressed up, and we serve a big, beautiful candlelight dinner. It's our kids' favorite, too.

If you give Chip a boundary, he's going to break that boundary. If you give him a rule, he's not going to follow it. And if you tell him, 'You can't go over this line,' he's going to put his toe over it.

I try my best to keep the house looking clean, but honestly, with four kids, you can find plenty of messes. I don't have a special technique other than I can't focus when the house is a wreck, so cleaning is therapeutic for me. That works in my favor sometimes.

If you haven't heard my story, my mom is full Korean, and my dad is Caucasian. Kids in kindergarten would make fun of me for being Asian, and when you're that age, you don't know really how to process that; the way you take that is, 'Who I am isn't good enough.'

I think when people have the freedom to tell their own story rather than trying to be specific to a certain design or style, there's more freedom, and it ends up feeling more like home. Those spaces we see in magazines and on the Internet are beautiful, but if there's not that story there, then it's going to lack that feeling of home.

I remember, when we first got married, the only money we had was what was in Chip's pocket. He always had a wad of cash, but we were broke. If I needed to go grocery shopping, it's whatever was in his pocket. That's how we paid the bills.

I was actually a communications major and had never done design.

A few years ago, I realized I was decorating and designing my house around what was beautiful rather than practical for my family. When I made that realization, everything kind of clicked for me. I started being intentional about designing spaces with my kids in mind rather than picture-perfect rooms.

Be intentional with your space. Don't be afraid to step on a limb and design your home the way you love it.