Some Personal Background

Where have I been? What happened? Well, let’s start with “the flood”…

The Flood

I posted this personal update on Monday, February 25 – literally the day after “it” happened. Little did I know what I was in for at that point! I thought it was going to be a fleeting blip on the radar screen. Boy was I wrong!

What is “it”, you ask? It is the flood. And I’m not talking about a weather-related event. Rather, this flood was caused by a builder’s defect in our newly constructed home.

On Sunday, February 24, at approximately 8:30 am, as I was getting ready for church, a valve behind the wall in my master shower failed, giving way to water flow of epic proportions. Within minutes, it was literally raining in my house. From the third floor (where the master bath was located) to the second floor to the first floor and the garage.

Thankfully, Elle’s room was on the fourth floor –  away from any danger. And she was still in her crib slowly and peacefully waking up when all this happened.

I, on the other hand, was frantically trying to save my beloved art collection (Ashley Longshore and Hunt Slonem pieces to be exact). I was fumbling around, carrying these large scale pieces up two flights of stairs to the fourth floor where it was dry – all the while water was pouring onto me at every turn. I’m sure the scene would have looked funny from the outside, if it weren’t so tragic.

For the next few weeks, my life was completely put on pause as I acted as project manager.. The water restoration pros had 54 (yes, you read that right) fans and dehumidifiers running in my house around the clock for 10+ days straight – and they were still unable to adequately dry out the house. Side note: would anyone like to donate to a go fund me account for my electric bill that month? Kidding. Kind of. Ha.

Fast forward to now… We are not back in that house, nor will we ever go back to that house. We are currently temporarily in an apartment while we catch our breath and assess our longterm options at a later date.

The Symbolism

I’ll spare you all the gory details, but suffice it to say, my world changed in the blink of an eye. And the water  damage to the house was just the beginning.

You see – over the last six months, literally everything in my life has changed.

I lost my home.

I lost my (home) office.

I lost some stuff.

I lost my staff. (Some moved, some graduated, and some other changes were made.)

I lost my nanny.

I lost a lot of money.

I lost a lot of security.

The nature of my business shifted and changed and grew.

Oh – and did I mention I’m still going through legal crap on the personal front?

Add to that caring for and protecting and nurturing and loving and rearing a two year old, and I’ve certainly had my hands full.

But you know what I gained through it all?

A fresh perspective.

And guess what?

We don’t need as much room as we think. (Trust me – I’ve gone from 6600 to 4000 to ~1400 square feet in the last year or so. Ha!)

We don’t need as much stuff as we think we need.

We sometimes need to shake things up and freshen things up.

We sometimes need change to be forced upon us , because we are too scared / comfortable / set in our ways or whatever to make those changes on our own.

Those are just a few of the profound lessons I’ve learned in 2019.

Now, friends – keep in mind… Adversity isn’t new to me. In fact, I thought I had already gone through hell. I thought my hard season was largely behind me.

I mean – let’s be honest… what could be harder than being unceremoniously kicked out of your home of six+ years with an eleven month old baby? What could be harder than being discarded and replaced within days? What could be harder than being a single mom essentially on my own for all intents and purposes?

I tell you – I am no stranger to adversity!

So, just when I was recovering from all that, just when I was finding my footing again, just when I was starting to make our new house a home… it all fell apart.

And truth be told – this stretch of time has in many ways been arguably tougher than last summer. Thank goodness for church, therapy, acupuncture, and modern medicine. 🙂

I alluded to a Bible verse earlier that talks about that which can be shaken will be shaken so that which cannot be shaken will remain. Along that same line of thought, this water event in my house came to be very symbolic for me. This is what I mean by that…

I have to trust and believe that there is a greater plan. And that God is literally and figuratively washing away all the old to make room for the beautiful newness he has in store. He’s getting rid of the old stuff that no longer serves me to make room for the wonderful new stuff that’s coming!

Word of the Month and Color of the Month

So, with all that in mind… It’s time to once again reveal a word of the month and color of the month!

Our word of the month is fresh.

Our color of the month is green.

Now, would you believe it if I told you these were picked way back in February? That’s right — at the end of January / beginning of February, we picked out “fresh” as our word,  thinking it would be apropos for the start of spring. And we picked out green as our color, thinking it would be appropriate for St. Patrick’s day, the spring season, and everything being in bloom. We had all of our topics picked out, our green items and images gathered for  our mood board,  and so on and so forth.

But life is funny, isn’t it?

At first, I thought maybe I’d just scrap “fresh” and green altogether. However, I then realized that the concept of a fresh start and a fresh perspective and a rebirth and blooming and growth are even more relevant to me personally now!

So, I hope you’ll  join me with excitement as we explore the concept of “fresh” and the color of green for the next six weeks. We will explore what it means to make a fresh start, what it means to look at things with a fresh perspective, how we can start afresh each and every day. And yes of course we will also talk about how to wear any and all shades of green!

In Closing

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking around.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being there for me.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading all of this.

And thank you from the bottom of my heart for moving forward with me! I’M BACK! You may sense a fresh perspective in me, and you’d be right. Major life changes like this have a way of changing you. I do hope you like what you see.

PS – Be sure to browse our color of the month shop where green abounds!