Today is our last day with our table, chairs, sofa and loveseat. Tomorrow the new furniture arrives!! While I'm VERY excited to sit on furniture that doesn't sink down half a foot when you sit on it, have a faint dog odor (ok, let's be honest, it's not so faint) or doesn't have stains from I'd-rather-not-know-what, it's also a little sad.
Evan and I have had that table since we first moved in together in our apartment in Columbus in 2001. It has a nick in the middle of the table from the glass vase where Meg knocked it over while eating a flower. It has grooves from the legs of the couch-a moving injury from the move from the apartment to the new house. It has tons of tiny holes all along the edge from years and years of 3 little hands pounding with fork prongs. The covers on the chairs are dirty, despite repeated washing and soaking, from years of little people spilling and wiping hands and mouths. The couches were our big buy when we bought our first house. They were a set of 3, but the chaise has long been gone (ever since Meg decided it was WAY more convenient than using a litter box) but the couch and love seat have seen every Christmas morning, been spit up on by all 4 kids and the cat, have watched innumerable hours of children's programs, have held us while we read hundreds of books. These inanimate pieces, this stuff, holds more memories for me than many of my photo albums. It's going to be hard to carry it all down to the curb for trash night tonight. It saddens me to think of it as trash, when it's been part of our lives for so many years, but it's way past reusing. I'd like to donate it, but I'm not exaggerating when I'm saying it's really pretty bad. I know sending it to a dump isn't green, but I'm not really sure what else to do with it. So I'm going to take it to the curb (credit where credit is due--Evan will do most of the work on this job) and hope that the guy with the pick-up drives by. He takes most of the big stuff people put out and I'm hoping SOMEONE takes it all. I'm considering putting a "Free to a good home" sign on it.
My kids are still little. I still have a cat and a dog. I know these couches and this table will become part of our memories too, but it's still a little hard.
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| The table at Easter |
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| The reason we had to put the chairs down for 3 months |
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| The sofa on Christmas morning |
I've enjoyed many delicous meals around the table that were prepared with love by Melissa followed by countless games of euchre. Don't worry Melissa, we'll break in the new furniture in no time!
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