The basement is carpeted.

The basement is carpeted.

The basement is carpeted.

I can't get over it. I keep chanting it to myself like a mad woman. I have been dreaming of this day for so long that it was starting to feel like a dream that would always be a dream. That was deep, wasn't it?

And now it's real. I thought when this day came I'd be busting my buttons to move in and restore my home to order and sanity - but when the moment came all I wanted to do was just look at it. That big empty finished room.

I've been debating with myself over my little "trial." 7 months ago is when we started this thing. 7 months of mess in my home.
The debate has been this: how could I possibly complain about the sores of getting a basement finished? "Wo is me! My house is about to double in size and it's so hard! I'm not even paying for it! My rent's not even going to go up since Caleb and his family did most of the work and our landlord loves us! If it's not finished this week I will absolutely lose it!" Yeah, that's basically what I sounded like.

I personally know people who have been jobless for months. Other close friends who have recently lost jobs, and have large families to provide for. Others who are faced with terminal illness. Some who have lost children to things other than death. How does my difficulty even begin to compare with theirs? It doesn't. And that's the point I've come to realize. The point is it doesn't. And it's not supposed to. Because this one was mine.

I am a homemaker. My career and challenge is to create a home out of a building. I don't take my responsibilities lightly! I continually fail, but I don't give up. A peaceful home exists in a delicate balance. One little tipsy and everyone's... well, not tipsy. But off kilter. And we have been 90% off kilter since the basement project began. Something about having to keep 4 and then 5 people clothed in clean clothing, fed, rested and spiritually in tune while also clambering over boxes and furniture that belongs somewhere else. I'm not going to go into the gory details of it all - there might be a protest that I change the name of my blog.

I guess the point that I'm trying to send out into the vast space of the www is that every single one of us is dealing with something. Some things seem huge and some seem small but really are huge. They're for us. My little experience of living in chaos has taught me things that I could not have learned from a book or from someone else's story. It was for me.

A house of order here we come.