taking care of me from afar.

Christopher travels a lot.  And, by a lot, I mean a lot.

Sometimes I'm really good at being home alone for extended periods of time.

Other times it's the absolute worst.

Over this past year, with all of my health issues, it's been especially difficult for me to make the effort to cook for just myself (or even for both of us, ha!).    Thankfully, he's getting really good at making sure there's things for me to eat while he's away.

He's finally getting home this evening from a "short" (1 1/2 weeks) trip.  YAYYYYY! :D

Sunday evening.

A new settee + another year here.

 

We have a nice apartment.  

It's not a big space, but it's nice.  

Technically, it's a one bedroom.  But it has some great features.  We have an "extra room" that doesn't quite qualify as a bedroom since there's no door.   Others might use it as an office, though we use it as the piano studio.  We have our own entrance in the back of the house, which makes it feel less like an apartment and more like we're just entering our own house.  We also have full use of the driveway, which is quite a rarity in the city.  High ceilings.  Hardwood...

We have it so nice yet, even so, I've been anxious to move.  

I keep saying it every year when we renew our lease "Okay, we'll renew this year, but next year we are DEFINITELY moving!"

I've been anxious for more space.  More closet space.  A separate recording studio for Christopher.   An actual guest room.  A second story...... a house.........

But we can't afford to upgrade right now.  

So instead of moving, we've resolved to make our current place not only cozier but more functional.  

Step one, was replacing an armchair that had seen better days.  That's done and I just love the replacement we found--it's the plum settee.

Step two, is to better utilize the wall space in our bathroom & bedroom.  More shelving & organizers. And no more stacks or piles of mail on the desk.

Step three is the hardest.  To make peace with this small space again.  To learn to love it.  It would certainly be nice to have more space, but for now I'm going to concentrate on how being in a smaller space can bring our little family closer together.  I just want to make the best of what we have.  To make what-we-have work for us.

Having a bigger place will be nice someday, God willing.  But my hopes don't have to rest in it.  

I think I'm finally learning not to say "we're DEFINITELY moving next year!"

For now, we should consider ourselves fortunate.  We have a place that feels even more like a home than it did nearly 4 years ago when we first married our lives together.  Here's to another year.  

And however many more.  

broken and rebuilt.

Let us continually pray for open eyes and a loving heart.

our little family.

I'm so thankful for our little family.  We're not perfect and we're not always sure of ourselves, but we love each other the best we can.

And, Sneak.... well.... she's the princess of our little house.

Many good things on the horizon.

I've been so excited for new things & new goals recently.  At the same time, I never want to place too much hope in the future.  So I'm trying to remain logical & thankful in the midst of my current go-go-go/do-do-do attitude.

We're starting to get our apartment into shape.  Another year of living here means that things need to change.  I spent yesterday afternoon sorting through my sheet music cabinets.  Some to store away, some to sell.  That was about 3 years overdue.

The bedroom is the next thing to tackle, although Christopher got a head-start on that the other day when he decided-on-the-fly to install a hanging file organizer on the wall.  I think it might have been the first (or maybe second) thing that he's ever hung on our wall.  I've dominated the "hanging department" for a while now.  I loved that he just took over & did it.

The rest of the weekend was spent planning for my piano studio.  So many ideas running through my mind.  Lots to work on.  Lots to buy (a new piano bench!).  My list keeps getting longer.  One logical step at a time.

One thankful heart all the time.