Home, Home on the Range

Week Three. It’s amazing how puttering around the house manages to pass the day just as well as getting up early and going to work. It usually starts like this: pull myself out of bed around 9am, make coffee, start some laundry, unpack, organize and generally fondle my belongings, exercise, work on art projects, plan dinner and possibly run to the grocery store, read, tidy the kitchen and load the dishwasher, fold clothes and BAM it’s 6pm and Austin’s walking in the door. Sometimes I’ve managed to take a shower by then, but sometimes I’m still in my pajamas. It’s a good life. There was that one time with the fire ants, but still, it’s good.

I feel a satisfying balance between having time to myself and also time with my husband. I’m really excited when he’s on his way home from work – often he’ll hear the first words I’ve spoken all day, unless I’ve been mumbling to the cat. I love that not only can I do the things I want during the day but, because I have my afternoons free I can also help Austin take care of things that are just easier when you have two people. I was able to take his parachute waaaay out to the manufacturer’s location to have it repacked so he can jump again soon. And it felt wonderful to pick him up at work during a nasty, rainy and cold day when he otherwise would have had to ride his motorcycle home in just a jacket and pair of jeans.

Every day I’m more and more grounded and settled in my new Home. Mostly it’s because finally, after three years, I’m physically with my husband every day. All that time I had felt like I was split in two – like some astral projection of me was constantly 1,000 miles away with him. Also, all of my stuff has fit harmoniously to create a real blending of Mine and His into this new thing called Ours. And there are plans in the works for our house – we want to create a rock garden surrounded by fruit trees, and a vegetable garden to grow tomatoes and sugar snap peas upon which I will gorge myself straight from the vine. It’s been a whole new experience for me to envision projects for a home I own rather than the small changes I’ve made while living in rented apartments. There’s a much more personal and meaningful sense of the future, and of creating an environment based on our shared dreams.

We’ve filled these initial weeks with family dinners, picnics on the coast, a glorious sailing lesson, our first dinner guest, a local history tour, twilight walks around the lake, romantic toasts with delicious wine, massages and snuggly movie-watching. My husband is a tremendous pleasure to be with – funny, intelligent, loving to my aforementioned cat (who often doesn’t deserve it), understanding and compassionate, generous and thoughtful. He is a wonderful man to be married to, and a wonderful man to live with. Right now, I just feel very very blessed.