Mama's Thursday Night Out

Since around February of this year, Sam has been literally sending me out of the house to have some time to myself on Thursday nights. I'm a fresher Mama afterward, much more prepared to love on my family and home the way I want to. Alone time is a funny thing - it can go the entitlement route where it's all about me, me, me (which I do not want), or it can really be a way to love my family (which I do want). It helps so much that Sam really encourages this time. He knows it's good for all of us, too :)

Tonight I had a little less time out than other Thursday nights, but it was still restful in its own way - and cold! Brrr. Have I mentioned my feelings about winter, yet? By the way, I just had our little point and shoot with me. I know my photos are never great, but tonight you'll need to be especially patient with my less than stellar photo journalism. Thanks. First off, I ran over to Target...

I'm such a paranoid nerd about germs this year. Wipe down my entire cart with disinfecting wipes? Why thank you, Target management, I think I will!



I was there to pick up a few supplies for our church's holiday shindig, Thanksmas, and also to nab a few more curtain rods. What do you know! They were on sale :)



I know I promised photos of the curtains, but it doesn't do a whole lot of good to have them washed and dried if you don't have the hardware, yet. I took the only 4 rods they had left in that style. Still need one more. And I need to iron a total of 10 more panels. Fun. But I was able to get those four curtain rods for less than $60! Yay.

After Target, I headed down the road to my usual Thursday night stompin' grounds - Barnes and Noble. I pretty much beeline right to the interior design section.



Although the holiday editions of several magazines caught my eye, tonight I had an itching to look at some architecture. If you haven't figured it out by now, friends, let me tell you a little secret... I'm a nerd. A big one. I'm always happy if I'm learning something new :)

So, I sat down with two books, a piece of Pumpkin Cheesecake and a decaf peppermint latte and got down to studying. A reader asked last week if I really feel like I learn from taking notes. Totally. Not so much at the time, but I feel like it helps me remember what I've seen and reactions that I've had to what I've seen. Over time, my notes are beginning to come together into a cohesive style and a plan. I've been adding to my notebook for about 10 months now and also saving a lot of images on my computer. Tonight's agenda, though, was architecture. Namely, woodwork.

Look! A Black Door in a book about period houses! So very affirming :)

Sometimes I write down bulleted notes. Other times I draw little pictures of photos that inspired me in some way. Some of the things I jot down are actual ideas that we could implement some day. Others are pipe dreams that will probably never make it off of the paper and into our home. But, in my little notebook, experimenting with ideas is easy, non-committal, and free :)

It's a lot of fun to think about all of the changes we're going to be making to this house. In a way, though, it's intimidating, too. That's especially the case if I feel like I have to make decisions without much confidence in my choices. By the time this whole thing is said and done, we will have spent thousands of dollars. A lot of money. I want to do what I can to form educated ideas of what I want so that our money is put to good use. And not only money - but work, too! We're pouring a lot into this house, and I want it to last for a good, long while. I've probably studied 15-20 large books this way over the last 10 months, and plenty of home magazines, too, in an effort to make good decisions with our home. I'm not suggesting that everyone do the same. Not everyone needs to! It's not all work for me either, though - I think it's fun to read and think about this stuff! :) I'm a student in my heart of hearts.

Told you... a nerd.

I usually close Barnes and Noble down. I did tonight, too. Then, I ran over to the grocery store to get some ingredients for my Thanksmas dishes and headed home. A quick blog post and that's it! Mama's Study Night is over until next week :)