Here's to maintaining some self-respect and sanity while tending to the growth and maturation of young minds, including your own young mind. Here's to recognizing that it isn't necessary to know how everything is going to turn out in advance, and that often Life has much better in store than one can imagine. Here's to hope and happiness even when Life gets complicated, especially then... That's when it's needed it most.

...afterall, the car may only seat seven but room for friends is unlimited...

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Styling a Personal Resort

This is our Anniversary Weekend. On August 5th we have been married 14 years. We left our children with my parents for a couple of nights and have been footloose and fancy free. It has been so much fun, not that I haven't thought of the kids, just that I've been very relaxed and happy just to be with D. A friend said that the funniest part about being alone is a house which is normally filled with children is that you can put something down, and the next day it will still be there. On the flip side, you can clean up a mess and the next day it will still be clean. It's been Niiiiiiiiice. We are much more settled than we were last year. On August 5th, 2006 we put an offer on a home, and put our first home on the market. It was time to move, and so we jumped into the crazy limbo that is selling and purchasing real estate. The fact that we are actually now living in the home that we put that first offer on is a testament to correctness of the whole plan. Between that moment, however, and the time we actually sold the house and signed our purchase papers for the new home, NOTHING went as planned. It was amazing, and even miraculous according to our real estate agent, that we were able to get the first home we wanted given the circumstances. Little miracles have followed us around during the last year, which is good, because skimming the surface and counting those little miracles, it's easy to ignore the torturous moments brought to us by the last 12 months or so. Although I'm not convinced that there won't be more difficulties ahead, I'm happy to be where I am. I'm very happy to be where I am.
Back to the weekend's activities. We decided that instead of going to somewhere else, and staying in a beautiful room that we'd have to leave behind, we would turn our bedroom into the place we wanted it to be. We spent the weekend right here at home. We went to lunch on Friday at the best Japanese restaurant in town and had some delicious sushi. The Maui roll was a fabulous sweet finishing touch, and all of it was "better than chocolate". What was a treat! We had to park a little way from the establishment, and were worried that a downpour would catch up with us, but it was blue skies all afternoon. From the restaurant we went straight to IKEA, and loaded up our carts with goodies. It was after 7 p.m. by the time we got home. We spent the rest of the evening putting the room together. The next afternoon, don't laugh, we went back to IKEA - this time for bunk beds. We had to move a piece of furniture into the kids' room to make our bedroom plan work. Saturday night, we finished up all the rearranging and added all of the finishing touches. When I woke up on Sunday morning, I really felt like I was in another world. It was just so beautiful. Everything translated perfectly from thoughts to reality, which is an experience I don't take for granted. It doesn't happen very easily in life, at least not in mine. There were quite a few really perfect moments over the weekend. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and probably the least of it has to do with furnishings. Most of our work has to do with the people living here in this home. That's the way that it should be. I just try not to get overwhelmed, and do my best to remember that people are what matters the most.

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