Sunday, May 1, 2011

Will it matter in a month?

We decided to get our hardwood floors refinished last week. I timed it to where my boys would be out of school being that I couldn’t use the kitchen for a week. I didn’t want to worry about making breakfast and packing lunches while they had school.

The daily routine

Our daily routine was breakfast out, an activity such as the Museum of Nature and Science, lunch out, yet another activity and finally came home late in the afternoon. Day one was fun and then having to be out of the house all day started to get on everyone’s nerves. After reprimanding my oldest son for some annoying thing he was doing, he answers, “Mom, give me a break. I’m only eight years old and I haven’t eaten a meal in my house for three days.” There really wasn’t much I could say to him after that. We were all ready to be back in our routine and in our comfort space.

We had to be out of the house one night so we ended up at the Westin in downtown Denver. It was fabulous. We had the greatest weather so the kids swam and I sat on a lounge chair reading my magazine. My friend sent us milk, cookies, cracker jacks and Voss water to our room. The boys thought it was better than Christmas. It was awesome.

Being out of the house was getting to me

Even after a fabulous hotel stay, I couldn’t wait to get back to the house the following morning. My husband had been out of town so I hadn’t seen him in a couple of days. I just wanted some normalcy again.

By Friday afternoon, the hardwood floor project was done. Then came the surprise of not being able to move the furniture back into that space for another week. I realized that I like things to be organized and Feng Shui happy. I couldn’t really take the couches being on top of each other much longer.

Really, in the big scheme of life, does it matter?

I had to stop myself from going any further with the internal chaos I was feeling. I decided to ask myself, “Will this matter in a year?” or “Will it matter next month?” The answer is no. This was a phase that was so temporary that there was no need to make it worse than it had to be. Everything comes to an end no matter how tiring it is. I just think being able to keep that perspective in mind while it’s going on is huge.

The entire process was four days of being out of the house and ten days of having furniture not in its place. Think about it, 14 days of my life and now that the furniture has been moved back to my perfect floors, I can look back and say it was worth it. I will keep this in mind for future experiences.

Your thoughts … I’d love to hear them

You may leave a comment below, email me to mary@marysalfi.com or find me on Facebook marysalfi.com

Writing this in my beautifully redone family room!
Mary

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