Day six

I’m going to forewarn you all now, I’m doing this challenge longer than seven days. 

In case you hadn’t noticed the pattern, I’m going hour by hour, starting when my typical day starts, and I will stop when my typical day ends. 

Today, we’re at noon.

My dining room appears to be quite the clusterfuck, does it not?

Ha. Probably because I got it in my head this morning that I hated everything and needed to make some adjustments. This happens a couple times a year. I need change occasionally, and so if life doesn’t bring it to me I change something in my home. 

This time last year, I had begun packing to move here with grandma. We had come to the conclusion to move in together for several reasons. First, she has always helped me with my kids a lot. Secondly, we already spent a lot of time together, and lastly we could both save money this way. We were getting discouraged because we both had things we were looking for in a home, but every place we looked at lacked something. My biggest thing was I wanted the boys to have their own rooms. But everything that was four bedrooms in the school district was above our price range. I also wanted a dishwasher, and a decent kitchen. 

We found this place out of sheer luck coming back from dinner one night. Not only did it have the four bedrooms and the dishwasher, it had a full, dry basement and a two and a half car garage and a fenced in yard. Annnnd it was in our price range. 

I have lived in four houses in my entire life, all of them less than a year. My mom favored duplexes, and I lived in four of those with her. My dad had a thing for trailers, so there were three of those. One house with my mom, one house with my dad, a house with my ex, a house with Chases dad. Three apartments since I’ve been in Toledo, and three in Adrian when I was a young adult. I’ve moved a lot in my life, and I am not a fan. A lot of the moving was due to my dysfunctional childhood. And the moves I’ve listed do not include the numerous stays with friends or friends of my parents. A while ago I mentally counted how many times I’ve moved in my life, and I was in the twenties. I’ve been much more stable as an adult, but I’ve never been able to afford an actual house with a yard. 

So today, I’m grateful for being in a house. I don’t have to share washing facilities with inconsiderate people, I can park my car out of the weather. I can let my dog out without a leash and don’t have to worry about my kids being outside without me. I planted flowers and vegetables this last spring, and am looking forward to Christmas decorating later this week. We were here at Christmas time last year, but we had only been here ten days and decorating was not on our list of things to do. We’re going to have a real tree this year and not a plastic fake one. I don’t have to listen to anyone but my clumsy Matthew B. above me, or smell other people’s dinners or other odors when I walk inside. And while living with another adult woman is not always great, we help each other out quite a bit. 

As for my cluttered kitchen table at noon today, everything has been put back in order, and I’m quite happy with the results. I got the boys hair cut, and I made an amazing dinner of bacon wrapped pork loin (would you like some pig with your pig? Why yes, thank you!) And scalloped potatoes and green beans. Grandma and I planned Thanksgiving dinner this morning and I’ll be picking up our grocery order tomorrow after crazy conferences. I have one during my lunch break and then like five after work. It’s going to be insane. But with her being here I can shuffle the kids between schools and home and not have to drag both of them to their respective conferences. 

I much prefer tearing apart my dining room and kitchen and rearranging everything to moving. I’m not just grateful for being in a house as opposed to an apartment, but also for a roof over our heads and the option of choosing where I want to live instead of living where I have to. I’m very happy with the life I’m building.