This morning's post is brought to you, first and foremost, by a lack of sleep. Traditionally I tend to get weepy when I have not had enough sleep, but today it would appear that I also get very chatty as well. Or delirious. Choose your adjective.
So today I was thinking about how lately I feel like SO VERY MUCH the grown-up. . .you know: having babies, washing clothes, worrying about the economy. . .and it hit me that one of the main "I Am Now An Adult" markers in my life is something so much more obscure.
First, some back story. I guess one of the larger reasons (the logical ones, anyway) that I am feeling like a grown-up is that my wedding anniversary is coming up next week =) It will be our second wedding anniversary, and also the anniversary of the day we met exactly three years ago.
It will also be the one-month anniversary of my son's birth.
It's a big day and I'm happy about it. . . .And I'm thinking of all that we've crammed into those three years. . .
We got married on the sidewalk on a street corner in downtown Birmingham. The exact same corner where we had met for the first time one year to the day earlier. We rented a loft downtown. And it will always be a kind of Golden Place in my mind, because I have NO bad memories of living there. . .kind of like those photographs from the 70's where everything just looked sunnier.
We took the kids to the park. We took the kids to the Art Walk.
We took the kids to the Star Wars exhibit.
We went to movies. We walked to bars. We saw LOTS of live music. We grilled out in the courtyard. . .
. . . we had friends over for dinner. We celebrated birthdays, and we smiled and laughed A LOT =)
We dressed like pirates.
We sang Personal Penguin.
=)
We found out we were having a baby!! We moved into a house (with a backyard and everything!!!). We gave thanks for friends and family, and we laughed. And then we laughed some more.
And I counted myself as one of The Blessed.
Because yes--I DO know exactly how lucky I am. . .
I know that every blessing that I hold close to my heart did not HAVE TO be. And I feel that an eternal and almost overpowering sense of gratitude is the very least that I can do to show my appreciation.
But oddly enough, all of these things: the house, the baby, the man of my dreams. . . are not what has actually made me feel like a grown-up.
Nope.
It's the kitchen chairs =)
This week Michael brought home four brand new kitchen chairs for our dining room table.
(From World Market--$25.00 each. . . QUITE the deal, and something that I make no apologies for being QUITE pleased about. =)
And as I was standing in the kitchen this morning admiring them, half-asleep after being up with the baby and wondering if it was too soon to make coffee, I realized that THIS is what makes me feel like an adult---kitchen chairs.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not COMPLETELY ghetto. I have, after all, had a kitchen TABLE for years =)
. . .just no chairs.
For some reason, no matter where I lived (which has been almost exclusively in one apartment or another over the years), it never really seemed like a priority to purchase chairs to go with the table. I entertained notions of eventually purchasing a bench of some sort. . . but those notions were hazy at best, and certainly nothing I ever actually acted upon.
True, in the loft we had kitchen "seating". . . there was a concrete slab of an island or a bar in the center of the kitchen, and we ate many meals there. But those were meals taken on bar stools, and never in a chair. . . .Certainly never in anything that had a back, and thus I feel justified in not classifying them as chairs.
And then, into my life suddenly-----CHAIRS!!!!!
FOUR OF THEM! . . .Two on the long side, one on each end, and that mythical and storied bench on the other long side. . .
(Completely changes the look of the kitchen.)
Now, you look over there at the kitchen table. . .nay, "nook"!! . . . and it looks like the kind of place where people might gather for meals. Where someone might actually sit down, relax, converse and maybe even eat.
Where we might actually have enough seating for people when we invite them over.
It is an honest-to-God, freaking BREAKFAST NOOK, and it is MINE!!! ALL MINE!!!! (*insert evil laugh here*)
Sincerely,
Danielle, The Adult
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