Today I stayed home from work. It was amazing. I didn’t sleep much Sunday night, and I powered through Monday, but when Lily said it would help her for me to take today off so we could run errands together returning things in Salt Lake, it sounded like a great idea to me.
I love spending time with Lily. Honestly, she is my life and my home, and I’m never happier than when I’m just palling around with her. That’s what today was.
We both worked out in the morning and then I dropped Mary off at school, came back for Lily and then we all went to drop Lydia off and headed to Salt Lake. We returned things at Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. Lily has been so amazing to put in pretty much all of the work for the basement finishing decisions. I feel so grateful she finds that fun, it works out well 🙂
I took Lydia and Ammon to Harmons for groceries while Lily did returns at Restoration Hardware. Lily asked how it worked when I told her that neither of them were in the cart for a fair part of the time, and come to think of it, I’m not quite sure how that worked…..but we all made it out and nothing was damaged to my knowledge 🙂
Then we all went to have a lunch date with Lily’s friend Sarah. We all had a lot of fun talking about Rodin, Homeschooling, National Parks, and more. I really enjoy Sarah. She is so fun, eclectic, smart and a very kind, compassionate soul. Thank you Lily for having such wonderful friends :).
After that, we headed home, and dropped off some cookies for Moroni’s family since his son Ethan was opening his mission call, his Nephew (who works on our house with him) had a birthday, and we are just generally grateful for Moroni’s wonderful work and his family’s friendship. He sent us the nicest note afterwards.
Then before we had dinner at home, Lily and I discussed the Chicago condo. That condo has meant so much to me, because it reminds me of meeting Lily, and Hyde Park which was a very special time in my life. Buying it was also a very spiritual experience. The thought of selling it makes me sad, like a piece of me will die. Also, even worse was realizing as we talked that we might lose a lot of money in selling it. I probably paid too much (maybe way too much) for it, and now we might lose tens of thousands (maybe multiple tens of thousands) of dollars selling it. That doesn’t help my faith much given how led I felt to buying a condo at that time, but I also know that God’s involvement in our lives does not always mean we will make money. Sometimes there are purposes we are not aware of, even if it is just to have the experience or learn the lesson, or make a memory.
I was really sad and very off-balance after our conversation. I’m so sentimental and nostalgic, and the thought of selling, and for a loss (uggh!), was more than I was emotionally prepared to handle in the moment and I shut down.
Then I went to the bedroom for five minutes, did deep breathing, and prayed, and mentally visualized myself being together and cheerful for dinner and the rest of the evening (which included game night with the Kahler’s).
I feel so blessed God gave me the strength to rally that evening. We had another fondu dinner (which I loved!) and then we listened to music and I had a dance party with the kids. Towards the end, I started telling Alexa to play songs from the CD I made for Lily when we were dating in Hyde Park. Shaggy’s “Angel”, “Copperline” by James Taylor, “Speechless” by Lady Gaga, “Smile” by Uncle Cracker. Lily came over and we made out on the couch for a bit. It somehow helped me let go of selling the condo. Lily and I both agree I need to find that whole playlist. It will be a great way to take us both back to the Hyde Park days now that we are selling the condo. We also found out our tenant may buy it from us. That could be super convenient!
we played Endeavor with the Kahlers. This is a repeat from last week since we had so much fun the first time, and spent 45 minutes or so just learning the rules. Now that we had the rules down, we wanted to play again before we forgot them. We had an awesome time!!!