Week 120: Moving, Week 1
Our new house and lessons from a pot of succulents…
Each Sunday, my wife and I cook and eat a meal together — intentionally. Every Friday, I’ll be sharing our experience here in this space. I want to see the growth that will come in our marriage because of this. I hope you enjoy our story. You can find last week’s post here.
Last week, I casually mentioned that Sarah and I bought a house recently. Now, let me un-casually mention it.
SARAH AND I BOUGHT A HOUSE!
It’s been a whirlwind couple weeks. From going through the home-buying process to getting started on home improvement projects and that pesky little task of actually moving, there’s been a lot on the to-do list. And to-do lists are kind of like recipes, are they not?
You start with this large lump of ingredients. If you follow the steps, you’ll end up at a desired result. The beginning can be daunting when you consider all that needs to be done. But with each small victory, you begin to feel a little better.
This recipe contained lots of small victories. A perfect example was Sunday, June 17. It was Father’s Day, and had the profound joy of seeing my family all in one place.
Succulents
This Sunday was HOT.
And it just so happened that this was the day we’d be getting started on the landscaping outside our new house. We still had about two weeks until we moved out of our apartment, but we were trying to get a head start on projects around the house.
My Mom, Kim — who is a master gardener — came up to help us get set up with the right plants and soil for our landscaping. My Dad, David, came over earlier in the day to help with other various projects. Even though it was Father’s Day, he was happy to help out with work around the house. Lest you think we are ungrateful children, we took everyone out for lunch at Olive Garden to celebrate. It was a beautiful day of family time.
Sarah and Mom picked out some succulents for our entryway. I wasn’t all that familiar with them. I found out that they are plants that like little tastes of water after longer dry seasons. Their name is derived from the Latin word sucus, meaning juice, or sap. They hold the water within themselves to weather the dry seasons.
I felt pretty dry this Sunday. The to-do list and the weight of all that stood before us was draining my stores. Add in the heat and I was physically and emotionally fatigued. But the family time we shared this Sunday acted like water in a dry spell. I think I took a page from the succulents that day.
I think I could do the same most days.
When the projects were complete, we had walls and ceilings primed and ready to paint on the inside, new potted plants in our entryway and new soil in the side garden. I was beginning to feel more like a homeowner already, but little did I know what else was in store…
