So Abe and I have a really easy, high-affirmation, low-conflict relationship 99% of the time. This is mostly due to Abe’s incredible ability to be patient, kind, and level-headed when I am grumpy, hormonal, and irritable, but honestly, most of the time it is just so easy to love and affirm Abe. He is the easiest person to get along with. This is mushy (sorry, posterity), but the honest truth: Usually just the thought of Abe makes my heart melt. It is pretty hard to get mad at him, and it is basically impossible to stay mad at him.
However, I am really edgy trying to get ready for Clarissa and trying to figure out if we are moving to Dallas. I have basically broken my body and am in the worst pain yet from getting the rooms ready, but I still depend on Abe to make the trips carrying heavy stuff out of the house and to various destinations in the house. We are getting our house ready to show to a friend-of-a-friend this week who wants to move into our neighborhood, and we are trying to figure out what to list our house for. Plus, Abe’s job continues to be crazy demanding and full of unknowns. There’s a lot going on.
Anyway, last night our relationship was not in the 99% easy-breezy-happy-happy-happy zone. It was in the I-am-REALLY-frustrated-right-now-and-you-make-an-easy-target zone. (At least for me.) Abe’s zone was this: I-am-REALLY-tired-and-doing-my-best-and-you-are-being-extremely-unreasonable zone.
So we spent the the last couple hours of the evening in our zones. Abe, the reasonable one, tried to break through by stopping me in the kitchen and exclaiming, “This is nuts! We are crazy about each other!! Can we just sit and talk about this and stop being upset now??” I am so lucky, right??? But I was also soooooo mad that I just said, “Nope, we don’t have time.” ….???????
Yesterday afternoon I read a wonderful church talk about overcoming the world, and how the battles involved are personal. I actually thought about that talk while trying to calm down and be a better person last night, but sometimes it feels so much easier just to be angry and upset, even if the feelings make no logical sense.
Anyway, we made up this morning and are back to our normal zones, thank goodness. My heart melts at the thought of my wonderful husband, and all is right with the world.
Also, Ammon’s new room looks like this:
I am pretty pleased. I remember what it meant to me growing up to be in beautiful, clean, organized, aesthetically interesting spaces. It actually meant a lot. In Ammon’s baby blessing, he was blessed to have an eye for beauty. His middle name is Alexander (like Abe’s), and Alexander is the name of Abe’s wonderful grandfather who was a BYU professor of art. He was a very charismatic artist and was offered the chance to become dean of his department but turned it down because he did not like politics and also prized his time with his family.
Anyway, the point is, he was a great artist, and we hope Ammon takes after him. Ammon delighted me by immediately examining his quilt and pointing excitedly at all of the embroidered details and saying, “WOOK! DISS!!” (“Look! This!!”)
That room cost me a LOT of physical pain, and I am so thrilled Ammon loves it.
I am in the process of doing the same to Clarissa’s room, and I worked on the girls’ room yesterday and this morning. I wish I knew if we were moving or not because then I could finish their craft corner. As it is, it’s a little cluttered right now, so I just took a picture of their beds. Ever since bed rest, I gave up nighttime potty training because I can not physically change Mary’s sheets 4-5 times a week. So we switched out their covers to the original covers I chose two years ago (that are completely incompatible with potty training).
Mary had forgotten these covers and was as excited about them as Ammon was about his. She kept jumping up and down and exclaiming, “This is AMAZING!!!” after Abe put them on her bed.
