Guess what I got for my birthday--

A camera!!

Total surprise. I love my husband.

Co-authoring Atmosphere

I want to write about so many things.

I want to write about how I just assembled, and used, my very own vacuum for the first time, in my very own home. I know it's a small thing, but it represents a lot. It means I have a place of my own now. A home where the only other person maintaining it is on the same page as me, and cares about the house as much as I do. I love feeling responsible! Is that weird?? I love feeling like something probably, or even definitely, won't get done unless I do it. I love tying up little loose ends. I love doing the laundry and tidying up our room and doing the dishes and making this little nook of ours feel like OUR space. I like being entitled to mess something up, and then being responsible to put it back together. I'm putting my very small mark on the world, and I feel great.

I really, really enjoy being the principle author of "atmosphere" in our home. Well... I'm more of a co-author right now. Travis is home about as much as I am, for now. But in years to come, when he is schooling and then working more, the lot will fall primarily to me to keep our home a place we'll want to be in.

There's more I need to write about it. But once again, I'm waxing philosophical about something that involves zero philosophy: vacuuming. Bottom line: I like keeping house when it's MY OWN house.

Real post coming up later. I just thought I'd post this now before it becomes outdated and I decide to delete it. Yeah. That's happened many times before.