the (living) rooms

In this home, our living has happened in almost every room except the living room.  Above all, our dinning room is the place where we have put in the most time.

Our most recent configuration of the dinning room (excluding the arranging we just did yesterday in order to paint the walls back to frightful off-white) was a bit different than is pictured here, but this was our dinning room all the same.  And here I still sit, at the table with my computer and favorite coffee mug.  This is the place where so much of our home life has happened.

This is the place where I get work done (the kind of work I get paid for, the farmers market stuff).  This is the place where I communicate with the outside world via internet.  This is the place where Grady and I sit before and after meals and talk, sometimes while he plays the guitar or piano.  It's the place where we sit and sing together.  It's where we sort mail and write checks.  This is where we connect to each other and God before we go out into the world and it is where we come back to at the end of the day.

 

In our dinning room I also have my little corner.  My chair is up next to the windows, where I hope to catch the afternoon sun, and right next to the radiator, where I hope to glean some warmth (which is always less than I'd like).  Sometimes I work in this corner, but mostly I sit and read or knit or enjoy a cup of tea or some combination of all of these.  I keep a little stool with a stack of books just next to me on one side and my basket of needles and yarn on the other.  My two favorite plants live in the corner with me: thyme and rosemary.  This is the place where I remember to breathe.

Our bedroom is our second living room.  Since we didn't like the feel of our real living room, we decided to watch movies, sit and talk, and sometimes even eat dinner in here.  It's the only room in our house that is small and has a door (aside from the bathroom of course!).  This is a very important feature when it's 102 degrees in your apartment and you have one small air conditioner ... or when it's 60 degrees in your apartment and you have one small space heater.  We painted the most mellow color in this room, a light yellow, which makes it feel sunny even when it's not.  For a sun lover such as myself, this is a welcoming place.

When I think of our first home, I'm sure our bright orange dinning room will appear first in my mind's eye (and perhaps my future self will laugh at my bold color choice).  This is the place where we settled into our life together.