A Life Full of Chotchskies

It's month 3 into the foreverwinter and I'm starting to feel swallowed by the indoors. February and March are difficult months for me, historically filled with low moments and memories of loved ones lost. Cold, dark, snow covered winters make these months even harder. And lately I feel as though I'm drowning in my own home.

Drowning in laundry. Drowning in dust. Drowning in dishes especially. (Oh, you'll see.) My wonderful new bath towels cover the upstairs bathroom with a never ending layer of navy blue fuzz. I can't seem to keep up with the mess. I'm vacuuming twice as much as I used to. (Where does the dirt come from? I haven't seen much of the ground the last couple months!) Two people make so much more of a mess than one. Not that Stan doesn't pull his weight in work, he does. But when both of us are at work all day and then come home... who wants to do dishes? Not us. Sitting sounds better. We'll do dinner on the couch so we aren't distracted by the mountains of dirty pyrex lunch containers.

So the mess feels heavy and never-ending. And right now, I think perhaps my own eclectic style is working against me. My home is jampacked full of dust-gathering chotchskies.

I went around and took pictures of my decorative clutter. Looking at them all together like this has a multiplying effect. In real life, between each of these vignettes and collections there's feet of white apartment walls. Still, am I overdoing it?

Featuring: A bottle painted by the owner of my college watering hole and a panda drink.

Featuring: antique grinder and juicer wedding gifts and a yellow rose from...what?

Featuring: old Christmas candy no one wants and a duck succulent.

Featuring: Many candles. Well, this is functional at least.

Featuring: Coasters a-plenty and overflow books. 

Featuring: Slowly disappearing candy canes, a wedding terrarium, and a child's accordion, of course.

Featuring: Too many shades on a broken clock.

Featuring: A cabinet of chotchkies I don't have surfaces for. And 200 DVDS.

Featuring: My college i.d., tiny plastic cat eye glasses, wine corks, dream catcher.

And as I look at the pictures again, I know I'd be sad to part with the items making up the clutter. Each represents some moment in Sarah-history worth remembering. A friend's visit, a first date, a music show, a school fundraiser. Perhaps when the snow stops flying, I may do a quick prune. But I'm not ready to declutter totally yet.

The same things that I love about my home in the summer are driving me nuts in the winter. I know with an ounce of perspective and a few minutes of daylight, things will sort themselves out. Soon, there will be warmth and newness and flowers to plant beside our doormat. Come real soon, spring. I'm so ready for your yearly visit.

Until then, I guess I'll just try to do the dishes more regularly. Because there's nothing positive to say about this clutter.

Featuring: Yuck.

Freezing Hot Date (and a record haul)

Took half a floating holiday yesterday (sounds like it should be an anime movie) and went on a Dayton adventure with the hubby? The cold weather has kept us inside and sedentary all too often of late. We hit up a few Dayton delights to shake things up a bit. Sushi at Fusion, frozen yogurt at Bad Frog a stop in at Omega to peruse the cheapo bins and a nice, long (and warm!) walk through the Dayton Art Institute.

In true Frank form, we didn't document the date. I really want to start taking pictures of things we do in these early days of marriage. I'm sure I will appreciate them later if we do. I'd love to see more pictures from the beginning of my parents' marriage.

No pictures, then. But we came out rich from the record store. Darn place got rid of their listening station so I couldn't preview the records. But I'm super pumped about several of them. I mean, who doesn't need atleast ONE square dancing album? When I saw the "When Harry Met Sally" soundtrack I exclaimed, out loud: "This is the best day ever!" Thank you, record collectors, for not putting a high monetary value on the type of music I adore to collect.

New Year, New Life, New Practices

I quit taking piano lessons on three separate occasions as a child. The idea of being able to play the piano was always so attractive to me. I saw my sister's fingers glide over the keys and pour out "Moonlight Sonata" and "the Flight of Bumblebee" and I wanted to have the same magical effect. If my sister could do it so easily, so could I. When I sat down at the keyboard- my instructor at my side- I realized that my learning curve was steep. I'd have to play scales and learn the names of the keys even before I'd plink out 15 second songs and jangling chords. I knew but didn't understand that piano would take an enormous amount of practice. I had hoped to be a child prodigy, pouring out compositions on the first try. But I was the rule, not the exception. Piano wouldn't come to me easily- or even naturally. So I quit.

This to attempt to explain the person that I have been throughout most of my life. My first response to a challenge is often to question whether I am cut out of the necessary cloth. I quit when things get hard. Because, if I were meant to do it it'd be easier for me, right? 

Granted, I have learned many things through practice. I write these sentences (most of them complete and cohesive- I hope) with 25 years of practice under my belt. 6 years were spent in intensive programs for the express purpose of learning how to better transport thought to page. My ability to write didn't sprout up in me overnight. Still, I began to focus on my writing back in 5th grade when I realized I had an aptitude for it. This is how I work, and how I imagine many other people function as well. We invest our personal energy in those things in which we already exhibit potential.

That is why my current journey is so different from most others in my past. You see, I don't think marriage is coming super naturally to me.

Let me clarify a few points before anyone misunderstands: 

1. I am so happy I am married to Stan. 
2. I do not regret getting married.
3. I'm not going to quit this marriage like I quit piano.

No one let me go into this marriage thing blind. I was well aware of the fact that marriage is a practice. Going in, I knew I would wake up each morning and not automatically know how to "play all the right notes" in married life. But I thought I'd at least have more natural aptitude for it. 

I know, I know - you're all sitting there going, "But Sarah's gotta be a great wife! She's so sweet and optimistic and crafty. And she can cook!" (I flatter myself with your flattery of me.) Sure, some of my blog-related skills are coming in handy in marriage. The mister enjoys my cooking. Our home has been exponentially cuter this Christmas season with a two-person audience to enjoy the decorations. And I think, in general we're both really good at loving each other and caring for each other. But as newlyweds, there are a million things every day that happen that just miss the mark. You know, some "bad chords", if we continue with the metaphor. 

Going in to this marriage, I knew that one of my biggest challenges would be my patience. Poor mister, he gets the brunt of my impatience, daily. I did my best to start working on this challenge even before the marriage began. I have spent time, energy and prayer working on creating an attitude of patience towards my husband. Though I know there's plenty of work yet to be done, I do think my skill set has grown, my aptitude improved. (He might tell you differently...)

But here's where I'll get real: It's not HIM I need to be patient with.

Just like when I was trying to learn the piano (or any number of other quickly quit things throughout my days), I am expecting myself to immediately master the very hard task of being a wife. There is an article I stumbled into on the internet the other day that said that many newlyweds make the mistake of thinking that they can "microwave" their marriage. Of course, a marriage needs to be "slow roasted" and not nuked. I read that, and new I was treating our marriage - and my new role as wife - a little too much like a Hot Pocket.

Sure, the mister needs me to be patient with him. But I really need to practice patience with myself. I am going to make so many mistakes. And I can't be so frustrated with myself when I make them. The skills that are necessary to become a great wife and 1/2 of a great marriage won't come overnight. I am not a marriage prodigy. But I'll learn to be a better wife through years of practice, years of plinky songs, and jangly chords. Practice means a willingness to be okay with doing things imperfectly as you work towards something better. The little perfectionist in me needs to let go and enjoy the unpredictability of our perfectly imperfect marriage. 

So that, if anything, is my New Year plan. 1. Be patient with myself, the work God is doing in me, and in my marriage. And 2. to intentionally enjoy the mess on the way to success.

a messier moment from our beautiful wedding day

Also- I plan to blog more. More wedding pictures are forthcoming.

Fingerpainting for a wedding

Literally. Finger painting. 

Today, after church I spent a little time doing some crafty wedding prep. I think this will be the next new nail trend. (Any one got some good tips for getting paint off hands?)

I've been collecting cheap glassware at thrift stores for this project. These cute little tea cups were less than $.50 each. I plan to have some mints or something else munchy in them at the tables.

look how pretty the details are! Like a kaleidoscope!

Gotta have the right tools. Lowes had a nicer color selection than my friendly neighbor Menards. I love the darker teal valspar. Just perfect.

The candle stands are part of another project...

I love the way the glass details show when only the inside of the cups is painted. 

Wedding planning has been a unique experience. I never expected that I would ever claim the title "Bridezilla" but some days, I really feel like a horrible monster. Sure, I only have three months to put this whole shebang together, but I don't think it needs to make me crazy. I must do a better job of being nice. I do need my-boyfriend-turned fiancee to hang around long enough to become my husband, after all.

The Next Parts of My Life

Hello all! It has been the longest time since I made a moment to fill the blog world in on my goings on. Here's the deal. My life has exploded. It has been both good and challenging, hard and wonderful. But it has been one of those times in life when there seems to be a lack of time. Every moment is filled with things and feelings, and every spare moment slips by quickly unnoticed. 

So, I am tired. I am the kind of tired that goes to the bone. And what sounds really nice right now is a snow day. But it's August, and there's no inclement weather approaching to secure a day of forced inside coziness.

Here's what's been up with me:

June 13 - Said goodbye to my first car- "Timber"the best Saturn SL2, ever.
Highlight: my "new" (also made in 1996) car, "Mixy" is a station wagon. 

June 16 - I went to LA on a mission trip with high schoolers for a week.
Highlights: Runyan Canyon Hike, seeing Ron Jeremy with a bunch of church kids, amazing weather.

July 14 - A week-long "vacation" away from home with Stan

Highlight: a hot walk on Put-in-Bay island that IS funny now as I look back (Stan was right), Erie seaglass, watching the kids wrestling with Stan.

July 27 - Stan PROPOSES. I say YES! (duh)
Highlights: wading through ankle deep mud puddles to get to the spot where he did it, him- in general.

August 11 - We decide to get married this fall.
Highlights: Cool weather, fall leaves... and we get this done and over with. 

[insert photo of a frazzled, probably-crying, actually quite happy, bride to be.]

August 13 - Nephew # 4 born. Samuel Ezra.
Highlights: squishy little nose, that new baby smell, the way his brothers and sisters adore him.

August 24 - Completed renovation of two student ministry rooms in the church where I work.
"Highlight": a horrible trip to ikea with a buying team of 5 - it felt like I had 3 husbands.

And then there were the other things. Things like A) job hunting for the Mr. B) trying to figure out how two people will fit into this itty bitty apartment full of my overflowing chotchkies C) wedding planning D) work work work & E) a tiny bit of socializing F) Not much creating.

Next Up in Life?

November 3 - Get hitched.

Details: Check out our wedding website.  (still under construction)

Tons and tons of wedding planning. I've been feeling an awful lot like I have two full time jobs lately. I go to work and do work and then come home and do work. I've designed our invites and save the dates myself. I'm shopping for decor for the space. Things are coming along, but good god, it's so much more complicated than I ever thought it could be. Thank goodness I have a fantastic prize waiting on me at the finish line of this race.

Hopefully, I'll get some process pictures up here sometime. We're having the wedding in a barn in West Chester, Ohio. It will be family and close friends from all parts of our lives. Think a little rustic and vintage. Yellow, red and tiffany teal. Records and games and fun oh my. With hot cider ladled into paper cups. Here goes!

My Grandpa's Vintage Abode - A Tour de 70's

I keep meaning to give ya'll the certain satisfaction of a mini tour of my grandpa's home in Dover, OH. he moved in here 11 years ago when he married the house's owner, my step gramma, Dottie. The 70's decor is as pristine as it was upon installation. I always marvel at the patterns and color schemes. So last time I visited, I took some sneaky pictures of some of my favorite highlights of the home.

Just a quick pictorial update. I'm using the blogger app. I really don't know how to format on here, so I apologize if the page looks wonky.

Don't you just love those bright colors? the green and pink rooms are both bathrooms. I love the simplicity of being able to tell people directions in a color coded fashion. There is no question where to put my luggage when Dottie tells me I'll be sleeping in the purple room.