The Ultimate Room Makeover?

 

Last week all 3 of our kids were gone for a whopping four days.

 

Four.

 

days.

 

Ninety-six bless-ed hours to be exact.

 

(Don't get me wrong ~ I adore my kids but in the summertime ninety-six hours of quiet are pure unmediated bliss.) 

 

Before they left Sunday though, I started worrying over what I would do all by my lonesome self without a soul in sight. 

 

I contemplated shopping, then quickly decided it was clearly the perfect time to re-decorate our dining room. (Which, for the life of me I cannot seem to get right since moving to Ohio), so I devised a plan before they even left.

 

I headed to Home Goods (two kids in tow), found 6 matching dining room chairs (it was like the Home Goods gods were shining down on me . . . ), brought them home, plopped them down in their new space and started picking out colors on my Pinterest board.

 

(Remember our dining room furniture has been handed down, so we've never spent any money in the space and I proclaimed few days with no kids the perfect excuse to remedy that.)

 

And then?

 

I stopped.

I took those chairs back to Home Goods (here's the dining room right where we started. I know it's bad. I know the rug's too small. I know the light fixture isn't awesome. I know the grey's kind of pitiful. Yup, I get it. Bleck.)

 

But my brain finally began. 

 

I began thinking about what a new room overhaul would mean for those glorious ninety six hours.

 

That my husband would likely have to change that light fixture.

 

(Bless. him.) 

 

That I would have a lot of added shopping on my to-do list.

 

And that for the good part of the very few days my kids were gone, I'd be drowning in paint, stressed over getting it done, and anxious about one more pretty unnecessary mess. 

 

While not soaking up summer even a bit. 

 

eek.

So I made a decided mental shift.

 

My husband and I have just gone through a pretty chaotic 18 months to say the least. (Read more HERE and HERE.)

We're just 3 weeks out from his dad passing away.

 

And in the midst of that eighteen months, we've continued to raise 3 kids (might I mention again, including two teenagers), held down two fairly massively busy jobs, and really truly, still feel even after almost twenty-one years of marriage still feel like we're just figuring this mess out. 😉

Do you know what I realized?

 

That right now today I don't need a Pinterested dining room.

 

With matching chairs, the *right* chandelier, and perfect pale-grey-navy-ish walls (if that is even a thing?)

 

That right now today our hodge-podge mess of a dining room really didn't matter, but savoring those ninety six hours (even with oodles of work in between) was worth it today. 

 

I determined that right now today I didn't need to make 38 decisions on fabrics, table decor and buffet lamps, but instead could frugally enjoy some fun just hours together, and good gravy, we sure did.

So instead?

 

We went out to dinner.

 

And walked to the grocery store.

 

(For the record – our Kroger is a mere three miles from our house, but since I've so missed walking to the grocery store James promised we could try. We survived and realized it really IS walkable, just a bit of a jaunt and probably too far to bring home milk ~ eek!) 😉

 

And we met up after work to hike in a part of Ohio we'd never seen before.

 

As we were walking Thursday night, James and I both agreed that we enjoyed our little “stay-cation” more than we'd ever imagined, and other than one “nicer” meal out, we barely spent a penny.

 

I love that.

 

So today.

 

If you feel like you need to be all Pin-ter-est-ey-fied.

 

And you've spent hours poring over your Instagram feed feeling clearly you're the only girl in town with a little mis-matched stuff,

maybe just decide to clean up your space and enjoy what you have right where you have it right now today. 

 

We really don't need to have it all . . . and we definitely don't need it all right now today.