Dinner Out and Rearranging

Last night Corey and I were able to meet Bella's mom! We met for dinner at Gourmandise and had a really delightful time visiting. Lisa is lovely! 

We already think the world of Bella, she is awesome, and after meeting her mother, if Bella is anything like her mom, Ethan is really in for a wonderful life with her. We talked and talked about Ethan and Bella, and of our own experiences with life and marriage. Lisa mentioned how back when she got married (early 90s) she had a trousseau - a display of the table setting she was going to use in her home, and it was all set out with a placemat, a candle, the goblet and silverware - I thought that was a fun idea but I guess it died out in the 90s cause I'd never heard the word trousseau. I guess our culture has moved away from that, but I LOVE the idea of that - or something like a Hope Chest! BFF Nicole and I were talking about it today, I think that is something I'd like to get for my girls, to help them when they are in their teenage years, to think beyond the boys they have crushes on now, and to think more into the future of the wives and mothers that they want to become! Like, wouldn't that be fun? To make stuff that you're going to use to furnish your future home? Or to make/buy some baby clothes for your future children to wear? I guess that might go against modern feminist ideas that push women working more than women being at home, but I'm for ancient feminism! Women belong in the home! (Not necessarily the kitchen, haha... I don't love cooking). Anyway, there's a little rant. So, Bella is the youngest child in her family and the last to get married. And Ethan is our first! So with all of our inexperience, we're glad to have Lisa in charge of this with Bella, with all the experience Lisa's had with wedding planning. We took a selfie after dinner and as we ordered some desserts to go.

So one of Lisa's tips, for example, is instead of having a lunch after the temple sealing, do a dinner the night before! Cause they've had two weddings where everyone was late to the after temple lunch, one was caused by rain, which caused delayed photos, etc. It's just less stressful to have them separate, and that sounds good to us. We took some passion fruit cakes, an almond cookie, and a chocolate hazlenut mousse thing home to share with the kids. Sending their thanks to Lisa via a pic (Lisa treated us to the dinner and desserts) ~

The kids all got a little slice and thought it was so good! We got an almond horn, a hazelnut mousse, and a passionfruit mouse cake. The passionfruit one was our favorite! SO good - lightly sweet, creamy, and tart. They all wanted more, and I said for their birthdays we could get them one of those desserts. I wouldn't mind, someday, to take the birthday kid out for one of these decadent desserts instead of feeding them all the cheap not very good stuff from the local grocery store. Anyway, so that was really fun, and I'm thrilled excited to have an extra date night. This was our second extra date night in January! (Joseph's bday was the first extra dinner out).

Today at home I did more shuffling around. I moved Katharine's kitchen in the basement upstairs into the future girls room. So it's going to be: Abi, Natalie and Katharine in the largest room (former boys room/yellow room) and Abi is excited to have a larger closet and we're also going to bring all toys upstairs, so hopefully that will help us get rid of stuff no one uses. I was washing sheets all day and moving a few mattresses (Abi wanted to keep hers) and I moved the big Ikea 16 square shelf thing from Lily and Sophi's former room (purple room, was LSN in there) and that shelf is now in ANK's room to hold toys. The boys are moving into the purple room, so I moved their train table and legos in there and all the clothes, and washed all the sheets and stuff. And Sophi and Lily are in the small room where Abi and sometimes Katharine used to be. I think it will be good! Lots of work and sorting still to do. As I moved some of Abi's clothes over, Katharine found this shirt that Mel was wearing at the Dance party, and she picked it up and said "Mel! Mel?" looking around for her oldest sister. 

It was cute. I've been reading The Minimalist Home which I got from the library and heaven help me I am really trying my best to not order it on Amazon, cause I have too many books that I haven't read already, so I'm trying to just read and finish it (even though I really want to write notes in it!) before it's due back at the library. I decided I can keep a book notebook and write my thoughts and take aways in that! So, from my notes, here are a few of my favorite parts so far (through page 14): 

Minimalism isn't about removing the things that you love. It's about removing the things that distract you from the things you love. - Minimalism: the intentional promotion of things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from them. Not about living with less, it's about living meaningfully. - Optimizing: reducing the number of your possessions until you get to the best possible level for you and your family. - A thoughtful and deliberate reduction of your possessions load - A minimized home is a better place to come home to without all the clutter it's more relaxing and less stressful. Fewer things competing for your attention. Able to focus on people and activities. - A minimized home is a better place to go out from, less time and energy cleaning and organizing = more time for dreaming and planning the future. - Significance over stuff, contribute over consuming

And two quotes that Amazon said were most highlighted by Kindle readers: 1) For something to be necessary and help you fulfill your purpose and potential, it needs to be so useful, lovely, or meaningful that you must keep it. 2) So when we ask, Do I need this? we’re actually asking, Does this help me achieve my purpose or hinder me in that pursuit?

I'm hoping that having these thoughts and asking these questions will really help me as I sort through things. We have a lot - and Wesley packed his stuff that was important to him, but still left two huge bins of clothes and I don't know what else, so yay I get to go through that. Lots to do, good stuff.