This weekend the five of us remodeled a room.
When my husband and I worked on our first house, we were prepping to get married and move in. We had no kids and apartment leases that gave us a blank canvas to work with. The second time we moved and redid parts of a home, I was 8 months pregnant with twins and my oldest was not yet two – so my husband did it all. Ever since, he has worked on one part of this house after another. The list is long and progress is slow – but we change a thing or two each year.
This weekend, we spent 18 hours redoing our front room and entry hall. We removed the floors the previous week, so we set out Saturday to work on the walls, ceilings, crown molding, and doorways. And finally laying new floor. We mostly finished last night – just baseboards and light fixtures left.
This time it wasn’t just me and him or him by himself though… we worked as a family. Ok, sometimes the boys slowed the work waaay down and sometimes they wrestled on the unfinished floor… but they were eager to hand daddy floorboards as he progressed across the room. They were especially passionate about wanting to laying a board or two “all by myself” (don’t worry, their work was checked!). They filtered in and out but I think they felt a part of the project.
I might have even heard them say we “needed” them for this.
For two straight days we concentrated on something other than a pandemic or the crazy state of our world (or my Netflix queue) and worked on something that had a clear beginning and a clear ending. And for me, this is exactly what I needed.
This morning as I sit on my couch and look at the light beginning to shine on the work we did, I’m so exhausted and a tad bit sore. But I also feel renewed. Oh God let that feeling last as I jump into the last Monday of July and the real world starts knocking once again.
My prayer this morning is simple – May we each find renewal this week in our own way. May we take the time to refresh ourselves and our spaces so we have enough energy to be kind, enough room to be hopeful, and enough passion to work for change.
