anyway, THIS week. THIS FREAKIN' WEEK. you know how people say things like, "i can't wait for this week to be over," or "i'm living for the weekend," or "2 more days until friday?" well, those little cliches were never more true for me than they were this week. this week was just an intense culmination of way too much work, home renovations, lack of sleep and not enough downtime. basically a veritable recipe for disaster. as i sit here reflecting on the events of the past seven days, sipping a warm mug of coffee and marveling at the fact that jack is still sleeping at 8:45 a.m. (thanks, i assume, at least in part to a rousing good time at the park with dad yesterday afternoon), i have resigned myself to the fact that this was not the first week of this sort i have experienced this year, nor will it be the last. to quote kurt vonnegut out of context, so it goes.
as i was driving back to the office after a 4 hour settlement conference yesterday afternoon, i was listening to some grim statistics on talk radio. 1 in 5 americans live in poverty. 1 in 6 americans are unemployed or underemployed. i am not one of those people. this was just the sort of newscast i needed yesterday. i needed a fresh perspective. because this week was really just prosperity overload. and i needed to be reminded of that. i have so many things going on right now in my life... marriage, raising my son, working in a fast-paced career, and fulfilling self-imposed pinterest challenges (ha!) and during the weeks when it all seems to be too much, it is important to remind myself that i chose this. the stress that sometimes accompanies these activities is just the intersection of all the choices i am privileged to make. i should be nothing, if not grateful, for the endless opportunities i have.
so yeah, back to this week. it was a week of highs and lows, or more accurately, a week of extreme highs and extreme lows, namely seeing the avett brothers in concert, for the high and
dealing with a flooded basement catastrophe for the low, low, low. the condensed version of that story is that as part of the basement renovations, my husband had to cut the pipes near the old utility sink. he cut the correct one, but the vibrations from the saw snapped some welding on another pipe loose and disaster ensued. it is now cleaned up and fixed, but not before a few choice words were uttered to my husband over the phone while he was at his weekly gun club meeting. (my apologies to the rest of his gun club members whom, i'm quite certain, overheard every word.)
jack began galloping his little horses around the floor this week saying, "neigh neigh." it is pretty adorable, i must say. he also does the same thing with a little deer figurine that his grandpa gave him. i have not corrected the error in his play at this point. he's also big into driving trucks, cars or other assorted toys around and yelling "weeeeeee!" most recently - the power saw that grandma fueger bought him to go with his workbench.
my sister jessica is home from college and my youngest brother clayton was on spring break for the last half of this week, so we also got to spend some extra time with them. jack very much enjoyed his captive audience despite his less-than-enthused look during picture time.
we welcomed home a new addition to the crew around here this week. another fabulous find courtesy of the rescue mission thrift store. i saw this piece a few months ago when i was there, and i have regretted not buying it ever since. yesterday, on my way back to my office after court, i decided to pop in, hoping it was still there. and it was. $20 later, my friend greg and i were driving it to my house. john's first reaction was "TAKE IT BACK. TAKE IT BACK NOW. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?!" but he's come around and admitted (under duress last night) that he knows i will make it into something great.
here she is, in all her glory. ignore that crappy light getting in the way of it. that's going to come off the wall. i need to paint her in a creamy white, i'm thinking.
here's a remarkably similar version from pottery barn:
as i told john, $20 vs. $899... what's there to complain about? when painting weather starts up again, i'm planning to paint the inside of the shelves a different color or maybe add some wallpaper to the back. for now, it provides much needed additional book storage up in the hallway. (it also provided thirty minutes of playtime for jack as he delighted in hiding in the lower cabinets and giggling hysterically).
here's a few inspiration pics for the bookshelf redo... whenever it happens...
first image from here; second image from here.
i think my next project is going to be the hallway. i need to switch out the cheapo light sconces, get rid of the one that's too close to the bookshelf, add a roman shade or a curtain for the window, maybe some pictures on the walls... who knows... for now i'm just enjoying my latest rescue mission victory over john!
so anyway, this week full of ups and downs is now over. i hope yours was full of many highs and, if nothing else, i hope you each can put the lows in perspective. after all, there's always next week. have a great weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment