The first night we lived in this house, I stayed up until about four in the morning trying to arrange the living room furniture. Sister was staying with us to help with the move, and we slid sofas and chairs across the floor until we were delirious. When we finally found a configuration that worked, I looked at her and said, “DONE.” Then I vowed that I would never move the living room furniture again.

And I’ll have you know that I kept that vow until around ten o’clock yesterday morning when I became fixated on the fact that THE FURNITURE, THE FURNITURE HAS BEEN IN THE SAME PLACE FOR A YEAR AND A HALF, HOW IN THE WORLD DID I LET THIS HAPPEN?

No kidding: I was OVERCOME with the urge to rearrange the living room. It hit me out of nowhere, much like all the times I’ve been driving down the road, minding my own business, and suddenly felt an inexplicable gravitational pull that left me no choice but to turn into the nearest Popeye’s and order a bucket of fried chicken.

Oh, you could look at it as a compulsion, but I prefer to think of it as a calling.

So, given my sudden, all-consuming desire to spend my day caught up in a swirl of home decor-related OCD, I started moving the furniture. And really, the rearranging conditions were optimal: since we weren’t going to church until six, I had plenty of time, and since D and the little man were outside, I had plenty of solitude.

The solitude is especially important for me since moving furniture requires intensive periods of introspection and no small degree of prayer. I am a woman obsessed when I’m trying to rearrange a room, and once I start the process I cannot stop until everything is JUST LIKE I LIKE IT, and if that means I keep the whole family awake because I’m trying to walk an armoire across a room, then that is just too bad because THERE IS NO SLEEPING UNTIL THE ROOM IS FINISHED, AND BESIDES, SLEEPING IS FOR QUITTERS.

I am a joy and a delight, aren’t I?

Well.

Here’s what everything looked like when I started…

…except that it wasn’t dark outside because that picture is one from a couple of months ago. However, I guess that if it had been dark when I started rearranging furniture at ten in the morning, then there probably would have been more pressing issues than where I was going to put my coffee table.

(Off the top of my head, there are several possible scenarios that would render it dark at ten in the morning, and I will list them for you at this juncture, only please keep in mind that this list is not exhaustive, and I’m sure that if we put our heads together, we could come up with many, many other possibilities, because that is what the internet is for:

1. The sun has stopped working.

2. The Rapture has occurred and tribulation is about to begin, at which point I should probably wonder WHY AM I STILL IN MY LIVING ROOM, ALONE, BECAUSE I TOTALLY THOUGHT I WOULD MAKE THE CUT.

OH, I KID.

2a. Sidenote that is completely unrelated to furniture placement but relevant to that second option just the same: when I was going through a particularly strong season of rebellion in my early 20’s, I had a recurring dream that Jesus came back to earth – specifically, he descended from heaven in a cloud of glory in the pasture behind my parents’ house – and he was walking around and inviting people to go back to heaven with him.

And I said, “Hey, Jesus, remember me?” and he did but he didn’t ask me to go back to heaven with him, and then he kept walking, at which point I got in my car and chased after him, NOT THAT MY DREAM WAS SYMBOLIC OR ANYTHING.

3. Global warming.

4. I don’t really know what number three has to do with it being dark at ten in the morning, but people blame global warming for everything else, so I figured I’d jump on board the party train, thank you.)

(And SCENE.)

So about an hour after I started my elaborate redecorating process, the room looked like this:

Clearly I was making fantastic progress.

About two hours later the boys came inside for lunch, and D was uncharacteristically interested in why I had decided to rearrange furniture. So he sat down on a step in the living room and was all, “Do you like it?” and “What made you do this today?” and “I think it looks really good.”

And I think I did a bit of a double take because these comments were coming from the same man who would be utterly delighted if our TV were housed in some sort of black laminate cabinet with smoky glass doors.

And if said smoky glass doors could be opened and closed via remote control.

I finally finished everything around three o’clock, and do you know what? I think I actually like the end result.

I don’t think for one second that the room will stay like this forever, but it’s a nice change. And best of all, it’s a change that forced me to vacuum underneath the living room rug, where, by the way, I discovered roughly sixty-four cashews, some yellow grass from an Easter basket, and a very small Donald Duck action figure.

All of which I plan to lovingly display in a curio cabinet next to the front door.

I think they’ll add a real touch of decorative klass, don’t you?

HEY! MORE QUESTIONS!

Amy asks: Are you planning on homeschooling? Because we need more people who drink cokes from Sonic to homeschool. Seriously.

Oh, Amy, I would love to represent the Sonic-Coke-drinking contingent in the homeschooling community. But as it stands, I don’t think I’m going to be a homeschooling mama. I’ve always been open to it – and I still am – but we’re pretty sure we know what direction we’re going in with the school stuff.

If it’s any consolation, I think the route we’re going will include people who have a healthy appreciation for the Cokes from Sonic. So we feel understandably good about that.

Amy asks: do you plan on having more children? i am perfectly content with my one…it wasn’t easy to get this one here, much less another. just wondering your thoughts?

I have said ever since Alex was born that if he is the only child we ever have, we are blessed beyond measure. And I still feel that way. There are times when I think that I would love to have another baby, but I just don’t know that another baby is what God has in store for us. I have total and complete peace about that. My prayer has always been that Alex will have friends who are like family to him – whether he has a brother or sister or not.

So, to sum up: if another young’un gets added to the mix at some point, I’d be tickled to death. But if Alex is our only, I’m tickled with that, too. Because the bottom line is that I love our little family. I love being Alex’s mama – and absolutely adore sharing life with him. He’s the best.

Lauren asks: I wonder how you have the time to ‘run’ such a successful blog.  You know: all of the 5 million comments, questions, finding time to blog, moderating, updating the blog list, etc.

I am starting an info website and having oh so much trouble trying to fit it in.

There have definitely been times when the blog has been a serious time-management challenge. It can still get a little crazy, but in a way it’s easier now than it was two years ago – because now I have the security of a pretty steady audience. That’s HUGE – because I don’t really think too much about stats and my SiteMeter and whether or not people will show up again if I skip out of blogland for a few days. 

That’s a luxury I do NOT take forgranted, by the way.

I do read all my comments, along with all my emails. And responding to those emails is absolutely, positively my biggest challenge time-wise. I want to answer every single one of them, and I still struggle with the realization that I can’t.

Well, I mean, I could – but then my family probably wouldn’t have any groceries or clean clothes or playdates or, you know, fun. So when it’s all said and done, dedicating lots of energy to email just isn’t the best use of my time…but I have to remind myself of that every single day.

And my last fit-it-all-in secret? I stay up way too late at night. But it’s quiet then, and it’s when I really love to write. So that works out pretty well.

seaside asks: What does your sister do in Nashville that she gets to meet and go to all those fabulous events?

Well, it probably isn’t a surprise that she works in the music industry. And among other things, she coordinates special events for the place where she works – things like awards dinners and artist parties and whathaveyou.

As an added bonus, she can usually round up some sah-weet concert tickets for the family, but I try not to take advantage of that unless Faith Hill and Tim McGraw are involved. I’m sure you can understand why I get a little eager under any Faith and Tim circumstances.

Sister actually has a cool shindig coming up this next week (it’s Gospel Music Association week in Nashville), and if all goes as planned, I’ll be there for a little LIVE-BLOGGIN’. Hopefully I’ll have some cool pictures and stories for y’all.

And also: hopefully I won’t make a fool of myself and embarrass my sister.

Edited to add: I just found out that The Preacher’s Wife announced today that she’s doing a spring tour – so I think we should all jump in at her place. Click here for more info. :-)

Is anyone interested in some sort of bloggy spring home tour / garden tour / potted plants on your patio tour?

Maybe?