Boxes everywhere we look

Furniture and box after box of our household goods were delivered today!

The moving company packed up our stuff in Vermont on July 23rd. 22 days later everything was delivered to our house in Arizona. We spent two nights in a hotel in Vermont, 8 days in hotels on the road on the motorcycle, one last night in a hotel in Prescott, AZ and then the last 10 days in our house with only a mattress and a stability ball chair. Today our open, minimalist house is packed high with boxes that seem to multiply like the rabbits that run around our yard. As fast as I empty out one box of dishes and glasses, another appears full of pots and pans.

In just a few hours we've gone from eating cereal out of paper bowls and using a plastic spoon while sitting on the floor to enjoying a grilled steak, baked potato, and fresh fruit sitting outside on the deck in real chairs, at an actual table, using dishes and silverware that need to be washed. Instead of rotating one pair of shorts and a pair of running shorts, I have piles of clothing in my closet. Every cupboard and drawer in the kitchen is full, my office desk is set up and books are on the shelves, and we now have full-size bottles of shampoo and toothpaste instead of the travel size.

Three weeks with basically no furniture and only two changes of clothing brings a refreshing perspective:  do we really need a bunch of stuff? I was thrilled that my grandmother's fragile and much glued-together china tea cups arrived unharmed. We set up photos of family on the shelves in the living room, and as I unpacked my boxes of letters, cards and drawings from the boys that I've collected over the years, I paused to read one or two.

Our empty house felt like home because we were living in it together. Now our house overflowing with boxes feels even more like home because of the famliar and cherished items that surround us.

Tomorrow is our 32nd wedding anniversary. We started married life in a small, furnished apartment in Augsburg, Germany and we're entering our 33rd year of marriage in sunny and friendly Prescott, AZ. May the adventures keep coming!