For the Record

"I was grumbling out loud about shoveling our driveway," says my husband a couple of weeks ago after coming in from the cold, "when I realized how great it is that we have a driveway." (after condo living for the length of our marriage, we are first time driveway owners) "So I'm not going to grumble about having to shovel, I'm going to be glad we get to."

Because he's that kind of guy. 

I've since been in charge of shoveling and also in charge of adopting his attitude. 

By a series of miracles, after many years of living in a cramped space (800 sq ft to be exact) with us and two kids, we find ourselves in Michigan with my husband’s dream job and my house I never thought to dream of because it was so far from what I imagined was possible from my view at 800 sq ft.

So now that we are here, much more sq ft later, I desperately want to savor the “this is amaazing” view. Because I know soon enough I will forget what it felt like to see my entire house from the love seat (because an actual couch was too long to fit in our living room.) And what was once new will seem annoyingly out of date. 

Without choosing my vantage point, driveways will easily become be an annoying shoveling necessity rather than a gift for boys to ride bikes up and down and extra space will be come a drag to clean.

So I am putting a stake in the ground and choosing otherwise.

For the record, I am choosing to not complain about any of the inconveniences that come with our upgrade. I’m not going to complain about having to walk up and down flights of stairs to do laundry. I am not going to groan when our bathroom leaks again.  I'm going to count my blessing as I rake leaves in my yard because I have a yard. 

Since we have been married we haven’t had cable (I know, I know - ridiculous, anormal us). So I always found it ironic when people would groan about the cable being out and needing the cable guy. Which sounded eerily familiar to my recent groan about the repair man re-returning to fix our gorgeous new bathroom.

Pity you for having cable. Pity me for my nice new bathroom.

So, should you happen to hear a squeak of a whine or a full blown moan over the difficulties of living in a gorgeous, old, fixer-upper house, please, call me on it. I mean it.