Playing House

When I was a little girl, I would look forward to the Sunday afternoons that I could spend at our pastor's house after church.  I delighted in the occasions that I would get to go home with Robberstads after church and be "returned" to my parents that evening at the Sunday night service.  The two youngest girls in the family of eight were close in age to me and served as beloved playmates for years.  When I was in third grade, one of the middle daughters married an Air Force pilot.  I remember during this time the themes of our "playing house" often took on a military flavor.  We would be moms at home with our children while our husbands were deployed.  Talk about life imitating art. . .

Philip standing at the counter enjoying his French Toast for breakfast one morning. . . dreaming of a kitchen table and chairs. . .

Fast forward 16 years. . .  Philip and I have been playing house this last week.  With a real life military theme:  no household belongings.  Up until Friday we had the clothes we had in our suitcases, an airmattress I had ordered, a blanket I had purchased, a borrowed small omlette pan, 1 knife (borrowed), a little cutting board (borrowed), a spatula (borrowed) and plastic flatware/china.  We got a huge upgrade Friday when the short shipment of household goods arrived (they send a small shipment via air while the rest of the stuff [hopefully] endures the journey in a ship across the ocean).  Hooray for pots and pans!!!!  We were dogsitting at M&J's this weekend, so tonight was the first night I was able to make a meal with real dishes in our new casa (chili. . . it received my husband's enthusiastic approval).  Up until this point the best I could do was french toast (made one piece at a time in the tiny pan).

Tonight I made a makeshift sofa so that we could actually be seated (as opposed to sliding off of the airmattress) while we watched a DVD (our entertainment center is a tookboxlike storage trunk full of Philip's uniform stuff).  I used our comforter and pillow for cushion and an empty tv box as back support. 

Ahh. . . transition.  It's just blissful living at the same address again. . .  thankfully, so far, reintegration pains haven't been too bad to weather (the first week always has potential to be really not fun after the first 36 hours. . .).  I had a really crappy day today but Philip did a great job of helping me weather the storm.  This evening we located the closest Starbucks in a really  nice little area.  I can tell there will be many hours spent there with my other half in the months and years that lay directly ahead of us. . .