Bye, Bye Love

My couches are gone. It's bittersweet not because of them but of what they stood for to me.
I have this think about how my hosue looks, as I'm sure all housewives do. Did I just call myself that? Am I really? I think I'll save that for a future introspection.
So, Travis and I bought this groovy little 1918 bungalow in West Midtown about 4 years ago. Yes it was small and basically unliveable but we wouldn't want it any other way. Selah had just turned one and we were up to the challenge of turning this mess into our dream. Just half a mile from our church where I spent several hours a week planning events and such, it was perfect. Except for the fact that the previous owners hadn't seemed to clean it ONCE in the 8 years they lived there, smoking 2 packs a day, the floors were rotting and the bathtub was sinking into the crawlspace. We spent 2 weeks making it liveable and in we moved with plans to fix it up quickly.
Two months into our home we had our first 'marital issue'. Not bad to make it to our 3rd anniversary, but it was a big one. Ill tell you about it another time maybe. The point is that we had, well to be honest, AMAZING make-up sex. Yes, I did just say that. If shameless discussions of sex make you uncomfortable, you may not like my blog. It will come up since I presonally think it's one of the best things He gave us. Just a quick warning. So, God in his divine timing and amazing sense of humor supplied us with defective condoms and we immediately knew we would be pregnant and that it would be a boy named Jacob. We were and it was.
Along with #2 came Travis' loss of a job and many other things followed by a new job with him traveling and then our little Lucas. Busy, busy. So, here we are in a 2 bedroom little house with 3 kids and not much of anywhere for them to play. Now I get to my point...
We have a odd little front room when you walk in our front door. It was an open porch but Tweedledee and Tweedledum who did some construction on the house in the 80's (and also tried to burn it down for insurance money causing other issues we've had to deal with). So, Dee and Dumb slapped some panelling around the porch and some cheap linoleum tile over the porch floor and called it a room. The floor is slanted toward the outside of the house for rainwater to roll off still. Sheesh. I've called this my sitting room, although not much sitting is done there. Our house is quite seriously the ugliest on the block with cheap green vertical beach house siding and a green roof. An atrocious pitiful bit of a porch that looks like a captains lookout on a ship and stained peeling awnings that hang low knocking anyone taller than 5'4" on the head if they attempt to go out on said look out. I've been absolutely determined that the first think people see when they walk INTO the house is something that proves the exterior is lying about the Seibel's and that we actually do have taste and class. So the 'sitting room' held our gorgeous, vintage black couch set, a beautiful piano and a lovely coffee table. I didn't let the kids play there in case someone dropped by and got a glance in the door.
Well, we are homeschooling now and the kids are getting bigger and their things are pouring out of the little bedroom that holds bunk beds and crib. Something had to be done.
So, after several weeks of contemplating what is truly important to me, my children won. The only option for them to have a dedicated play space was for me to sacrifice my insistence on a pretty view through the front door. I posted my lovely vintage couches on Craigslist and they were gone within 2 hours. I was quite happy to get $325 for them, since we got them free and used them for 4 years. The kids spent the afternoon moving in trains and play kitchen. You'd think it was a holiday. It was so sweet to do together. And with the money I can buy shelves to organize and hopefully a table to do schooling in the new 'playroom'.
So now when you come to my front door the first thing you will see will be living and playing not sitting and pretty. And I'm happy with that. The kids are beside themselves. And shouldn't people see reality in my home? In the long run, this is who I am and my life is for my children.