Changes

Don't you just love those horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE moments that turn into fun blessings? I had one of those last night.

It all started when Luke got into a cleaning/reorganizing mood. I'll let you know how often this happnes: in the 16 months that we have been married, last night was the first time. He turned into a little bit of a monster, though, telling me how disgusting our house was and how frustrated he was at both of our laziness.

Let me just tell you, this did not go over well with me. I took it as a direct attack on my wife-skills, and probably cried harder than I ever have. In my life. Yeah, it was that bad. I guess that my passion in life is homemaking, and it felt like he was basically telling me that I was a failure.

Well, the truth is, I have been failing lately. I've been busy. I've been lazy. I've been letting one thing after another slide until our house was actually disgusting. I hate to admit that, but it's true. Staying on a strict cleaning schedule is not my forte. After spending seven hours with 300+ elementary schoolers, all I want to do is crash. So that's what I've been doing, and I've been letting my house crash, too.

Instead of going to a movie like we had planned last night, Luke and I spent the evening cleaning and organizing. And basically not talking because I was still mad :-P In the end though, I'm glad he had his little outburst. It made me realize that we both need to do more to take care of the house!

Later that night I was reading some chapters out of our Bible study books. One chapter was about getting rid of lazy thoughts because they lead to a lazy lifestyle. Another was about taking care of the things God has entrusted us with, because if we take care of those, he can trust us with more (parable of the talents). That hit me, too. I really needed a wake up call.

Well after I was done sulking, the real blessing for me came out of the situation. I have never really loved our house, and liked our old apartment a lot more. I guess Luke got a little fed up with things at the house last night too, and made some decisions that really surprised me and made me realize that he is so unselfish.

We were cleaning the office together when he blurted out that he thinks we should get rid of the Ohio State room. This shocked me, because I thought it was his pride and joy. It fills the entire third floor of our house, is painted scarlet and gray, and has lots of Ohio State memorabilia adorning the walls. It is no secret that I have always pretty much loathed that room. I have secretly wanted to turn it into our living room or even our bedroom for awhile, but I've kept my opinion to myself. So hearing Luke say that was really a surprise. He wants to turn the Ohio State room into a nice, big living room. Here's the room now:

I think we could do something really nice with this stairway and landing area.
And here's the rest of the room...it's pretty big! I hope we finish before Christmas, because I would love to put a nice, big Christmas tree in front of those three windows (Well, you can only see one in this picture, but there really are three windows). By the way, don't you love how there are two completely different types of carpet in there? TACKY!
We would probably be looking at putting new carpet in, repainting, rearranging lots of furniture, and taking down all the Ohio State stuff.

But what would happen to our living room? As you can see by the ironing board that has been set up in there for about 3 months, we don't do a whole lot of anything in there. Except ironing, that is.
Instead of a living room, this room will be a dining room. So that means we no longer have to eat in the hallway!! And I can hang my new mini chandelier in the new dining room! And I'll eventually have to buy a dining room table, but I'm excited about that! I seriously think it will really motivate me to not only cook more, but also to eat at the table more, and have people over for dinner. Not to mention, we can probably get rid of or sell some furniture and maybe even our old TV.

And while we're making all these changes, we might as well go the full nine yards. Luke says he wants to make the office our bedroom, since it is apparently a little bit bigger. So this will be our bedroomAnd this will be our office. And in case you were wondering where all of Luke's Ohio state stuff will go, it will find it's new home here. In the old bedroom/new office.
Oh, and our hallway/dining room? That will turn into solely a hallway :-)
Like I said, no more eating in the hallway! I might look for a little table or some sort of pretty hutch or something to go there. I've been trying to find a place for my Willow Tree Nativity set, so maybe that will be it! I would love to be done with this by Christmas. But since money is a factor, it probably won't be.

Anyway, I'm really excited. I've secretly been longing for something like this, but have felt too selfish to actually voice my opinion. And now Luke has changed his mind all on his own. I really feel like in the past year we have both changed so much. If that happens every year, I understand why people say that you are a totally different person in your 20s than in your 30s or 40s or 50s. And so on.

I will be sure to keep you posted on all of our house changes!