The Family Room

We have a room in our house we call the family room.  It's where we spend most of our time, we watch TV, get lost in our computers, listen to music, do a lot of reading - and generally do our living. Did I mention we eat dinner in there too?  We also have been know to snooze in that room, we each have our favorite spots for this; me on the leather couch with my fleece blanket in colors of rust, blue and tan.  Hal in his recliner with his fleece blanket with ducks on it. Our family has grown up, left and now have their own families, no longer filling the room with their precious presence.  Even the grands have their own places.

The Family Room has a sliding door to the deck and back yard.  In the summer the yard is filled with flowers, birds on the bird feeder and wind chimes making melody.  In the winter every thing is covered in snow.  It doesn't matter the season, we always look out that big glass door, just to check that every thing is copacetic, and it always is.

In the winter the fire will be burning in the fireplace.  In the summer the air conditioner will be blowing cold air through the vents.  It has brought us comfort and shelter for many years.  Not much changes in this room.

Today I was giving the comfy old  room a cleaning.  Hal's recliner is next to the fireplace.  His "area" is a mess. I'm just telling it like it is.  He calls it his command center, which is another way of saying, don't touch my stuff. Someone once told me to buy a basket so he can keep his stuff together.  He has 2 baskets and nothing is together.  He's a note writer, a how to video watcher, a reader, etc., and every thing he needs to address that has to be within arms reach.

I no longer tell him to thin out his collection.  His many things represent him.  Why do we try to eliminate things that bring us joy for the sake of looking spiffy? It's not dirty....it's just his "collection".

Want to know the best part?  One day our kids will have to clean out that collection.  I hope they pause and see us in those things that made our life, that was so routine, yet so dear to us together in our family room.

And then they will need to rent a dumpster.