If you’ve been reading along for a while you know that Bill and I play a lot of an old game we call Furniture Yahtzee. I sketch. He moans. I’m solving problems. (At least in so far as possible in the moment.) He’s being supportive. On a relative scale, Cribbage has it’s advantages!
Here’s the thing. Bill and I live with three enormous dogs in an early 1960’s brick ranch with more than half of the house in the basement. The dogs and I aren’t so good at stairs. We also run at least three businesses out of this house, raw feed the dogs, and boil bones in a huge cauldron, often.
This was, apparently, not what the builder, in Leave it to Beaver time, was imagining.
Historically, our adventures have included moving the bookcases over here and the sewing table over there. Or moving the bed from this wall to that, depending on what Feng shui book I’d been reading at the time.
This weekend, we’re swapping the small third bedroom in the front of the house, which has most recently been our family room/my study with our comparatively large bedroom in the back. That means enough room for a queen sized bed and a couple of night tables (plus three dogs on a rug) in the front and an actually functional library in the back with room for writing, making art demo videos, lots of books, and massive rubber mats for the three enormous dogs.
We’ve done much of the work ahead of time. Well, enough of it to actually be able to move the furniture. The paintings are all off the walls so they don’t get bashed which is no biggie as most of them need to be re-hung anyway but it looks surprisingly bland in here right now.
Blessedly, we have strong friends coming to help!
Luther’s going to be a bit weirded out but will actually have more open space as soon as he gets used to it. We’ll put a lead on and do a tour just as soon as the big pieces are moved.
This is nothing if not a massive Intentional Creativity project!
What are we trying to accomplish?
What do we have to work with?
And do we care, anymore, what it’s “supposed to” look like?
No.
We care that a side effect of this game will be more room for our kids to visit. And a bit less stress. And, perhaps, even enough space to catch up with my Giddyup class!!!
I need one more rolling chair for painting, possibly one more shop class bookcase from my friends at Kudzu, and, I suspect, a couple more big rubber mats. I am nobly waiting to actually measure before I start shopping!
Oh, and did I mention that we need to be able to deal with soup and a Codex paint buddy by, you know, Monday???
Honestly, it’s exhausting.
And also oddly empowering.
Making what we need, mostly out of what we have.
For now, though, pulling sheets off the bed, crossing my fingers that the dog food is thawed, and being as ready as possible for our helpful friends to show up.
All the while, remembering my dear cousin, Chris, and all the family and friends gathering in Florida this afternoon to hug each other and tell the old stories.
If she were still with us today, she’d tell us to make the most of what we have while we can and live the lives we feel called to.
(Chris was good at Furniture Yahtzee, too!)
Oh, today I ordered a canvas to paint “our” farm. I’m hoping it will help tell the stories my girls and all the generations of grands and great grands and on and on need to hear. It’s the life I feel called to.
ps… the photo is the Observer from a 13-moon painting called Codex. (Give it a minute!) It is, essentially, me seeing me. What do you see when you see you?
Thank you for a bit more info on the painting, and a look into your life. I have always been a big furniture re-arranger, even while pregnant. I love creating change not for change sake, but for the sake of a better feel of a space, and, usually, an area more suited to the living I’m doing just then. Right now I need to find another room to rent in a home, and the one I found is not going to be big enough for the work I’m trying to do with color, shapes and focusing on allowing for my creative/spiritual development. It feels strange to want/need more space, but it’s a true thing I need to pay attention to, so that’s what I’m trying to do. But, my dream is to one day have a home I can unpack into and settle myself into for the next few decades of living…an impossible dream, it seems, but it’s mine and I’m not afraid to say it. Thank you for sharing.
I hear you, Kelli! I try to think of “unlikely” dreams as teachers. They help me find my way even if it’s not exactly where I thought I wanted to go. I’ve got, probably, another month or two on getting everything where I need it to be, now. No idea what comes next but appreciating the progress! Stick with you!!!