Changes

The end of May and early June have brought a tonload (like that word?) of changes to the Dreher household.

Adam and I have been talking for awhile about downsizing our life. Our house, while modest compared to many, has more room that we really need. We own more stuff than we need. The large "stuffs" are unneccessary.

Thinking this way is hard. While a lot of the things in our life aren't needed, I still like them. I loved my Jeep. I love our house. I loved our 50" TV.

But, it's all vanity.

Adam's really forced me to "get over" what I think I need, as well as worrying about what other people think or expect. I'm not cured of it, but I feel that we've taken some steps towards getting there.

We're not quite ready to let go of the house, so we started a bit smaller. The first thing to go was the Jeep. My beloved green Jeep. If you would've asked me what my dream car was, well, I was already driving it. I didn't want anything else. But alas, an SUV is impractical when you only have one kid and do quite a bit of driving...gas prices were killing us.

So one Saturday while I was at a wedding, Adam went car shopping. He traded in my Jeep-baby for this:

A 2000 Honda Civic. It's older than my Jeep, has more miles, isn't as cute. BUT it sure is easier on our budget. No car payment, great gas mileage. And that's what really matters. Right? :)

Well, Adam gets me, and he understood that it's a process for me to be okay with a less-nice car. So he decided to trade me, he gave me the car that he's been driving for the past couple years. It's newer, nicer, and has less miles. The problem was...I didn't drive stick shift. We'd had this car for several years and I'd never driven it. Not once. So a couple weekends ago, he taught me the ways of the stick shift. And now here's my car:

Another change...Sutton has gotten his big boy carseat. I think he likes it. He rode in it all the way to Tenkiller and back and did pretty well. I think he'll like it even better when he can ride forward facing.

Oh, some pictures of Sutton? How did those get in here? :)

He was trying to show me something, and his hand got in the way. :)

We have been working on our backyard since last fall. You may remember that we planted all new grass. Well Adam and his dad made some pathways with mulch and it's finally finished back there. All we have left to do is a brick area for our chiminea. If you need ideas on cheap landscaping, lemme know. :)

Here you can see the pathways a bit better. And our pile of bricks on the left. And a cute baby. See him?

Adam cleaned out our garage and transformed it into a workout/stroller hub.

And back to our down-sizing idea. We sold our PS3 (game system used to watch DVDs and stream Netflix) a few weeks ago, but just got rid of our TV this weekend. Sigh. It's hard to be without a TV. But it was a decision we made to improve the quality of our life, and to better spend our time with Sutton and being active. We rearranged our basement last night since it had been arranged around our TV. Our family room is now 1/3 RC plane storage/workshop, 1/3 conversation/game sitting area, and...

...1/3 play area. It's all clean right now so it doesn't look too fun, but there are all kinds of goodies in that toy box. :)

Another semi-recent change: Sutton pulls up on anything and everything now. He climbs all over everything and even up the stairs. It's ridiculous. My life is different.

But he's so cute and so fun. I love this little man!

And we can't forget another big change...Sadie. We're going through a bit of a rough patch...she's become extremely clingy with me. It's frustrating. I can't take a shower, put Sutton to bed, or even get into the refrigerator without her standing next to me, touching me, or staring at me. I know there are much worse things she could be doing, but it's just hard to have to keep track of a needy 1 year old while having a 70 lb dog there every time I turn around. We still love her though...I just hope this is only a phase.

We're also changing how we eat and I'm starting to exercise more. We want to be healthy, happy parents and set a good example for Sutton of what's really important in life. We're sure not perfect but these changes feel good, and I hope we're doing what Jesus would want us to do!