The Couch

We got a new couch last week! It was time. It had been time for years. Our former couch was ten years old and so dead. The springs in the cushions were all sprung and wonky from years of performing double duty as a trampoline. It was a budget Costco couch floor model, so it had already seen plenty of wear before we even bought it back when Rose was a baby. There were only one and a half semi-comfortable seats on the entire couch, and they were always hotly contested before family movie nights. Everyone else just had to sit on the floor, sit on the old Ikea chair, or sit on the pointy springs till their gluteus muscles either rebelled or fell asleep. 

But furniture is such a boring expensive purchase and it seemed pointless to get something we cared about when we still have unpredictable energetic kids. And even low quality furniture is expensive these days. And buying low quality furniture seemed pointless, because then it would break and we'd be stuck with another awful couch again. And our rental house color scheme is tan and brown, while the main home furnishings currently seem to be the cool colors of white and gray. And we never intended to buy any furniture specifically for a rental house (although we are 90% sure that we will be in this house for a long time). And, and, and... But, but, but... We hemmed and hawed about getting a new couch off and on all year until in mid-November we decided to take a leap of faith and order a modular sectional kit from a website called Home Reserve, which I discovered in an online ad. (Who am I?)

First they sent us a trial section of the couch so we could see if we liked it enough to get the whole couch. We did, so a week later (and three weeks earlier than expected), the other eight boxes full of couch parts were delivered. The night before the delivery, [with difficulty] Jeff and I hauled our old couch across our lawn, up the driveway, and plunked it down by the road with a Free/Gratis sign. It was gone within 20 hours. I will not miss that couch at all! Two days before our new couch was delivered, I spent long hours draped on the uncomfy couch recovering from my Covid booster shot. It felt like a fitting farewell to the old couch--made me extra glad to get rid of it!

Our new couch had seven sections and two ottomans. It was a beast to assemble! Jeff was recovering from his Covid booster the day the couch was delivered, so Jay and I tackled the first round of assembly. We worked all afternoon on it until our hands were splintered from the plywood and our forearms were sore from twisting the manual screwdriver. We finished three sections. Whew! Jay and I got kind of loopy by the end of our ordeal. It was fun having a kid old enough to help! Jay read all of the instructions and got all of the pieces in the right places and I helped with the screw driver and holding things in place. We made a great team! The next day, Jeff was feeling better and he finished the job. I came home from a Relief Society Christmas brunch and service activity to a fully assembled new couch! 

It took a few days for us to get used to our new life of luxury: 

1. We all have a comfortable seat on the couch, no matter where we sit.
2. Nobody fights over the "comfy seat" anymore.
3. The cushions are firm! No sagging or tilting at all. 

I have decreed a strict no-jumping, standing, or bouncing on the couch rule. The consequences are dire for all couch-compromising actions, and involve lots of chores and zero screen time. So far so good! It helps that the firm cushions don't feel bouncy, so the temptation to bounce is removed. 

After dinner on Tuesday night, all five of us retired to the new couch. Jay and Rose were both reading books. Jeff was reading on his phone. I was working on drawing my weekly sketch for my family art club, and Amber started reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas aloud to me while I drew. Everyone was in their own space, in the same room together. We were all on the couch at the same time, in equal comfort, enjoying our own activities, in the family room together. It was a brief half hour wherein I realized the joy of having a quality gathering place. Before, when the chair and "the good spot" on the old couch were taken, either a fight would break out over one of those comfy seats, or everyone else would retreat to their bedrooms where they could be comfortable. Calm non-contentious family together time is an unexpected benefit of our new couch!

Rose took this picture of me sinking into the "comfy seat" on our old couch, on the day that I was feeling rotten after my Covid booster shot.

As I laid on our uncomfy old couch feeling post-booster-shot misery, I decided to label all of my aches and pains. I sent this picture to my mom, and it made me feel better.

My "solution" picture.

Goodbye, old couch. (It was a long walk with a heavy load--that's our house glowing in the background.)

The sun setting on our old couch: an apropos photo-of-farewell.

Rewind just a little to the set-up of the trial section. Jeff and Rose did most of it.

This trial section became the most sought-after seat in the room.

When the rest of the couch was delivered, I opened our door wide and had the UPS guys set the boxes down inside our front room to save us a tiny sliver of the work. Each box came with parts to build one section. They were all carefully cut plywood puzzle pieces with screws, dense foam cushions, and zip-on washable upholstery covers. This couch was about $5,000 cheaper than the comparable name brand Love Sac "Sactional" that was our original Google couch search. We claimed that discount in sweat, slivers, and screws during the assembly of this couch!

Jay is a very methodical worker, and he was a great help with this daunting project. We listened to Christmas music while we worked, and it felt like we were assembling some massive Christmas gift on Christmas Eve.

Our front room was a bit of a mess. It felt big without the old couch in it until we started opening new couch boxes!

Jay and I started taking turns screwing in the screws near the end, to give our forearms a rest.

Jeff emerged from his booster shot haze to quickly assemble the two ottomans.

All of that work, and all Jay and I accomplished was to put together less than half of the couch! Three sections out of the seven (the fourth section in this picture was the trial one that Jeff had assembled previously).

The spread at our Relief Society brunch. Everyone brought a pair of cozy socks, wrapped up, for a gift exchange. We ate breakfast foods, sang Christmas songs (both religious and secular, which was fun), assembled stockings for our local foster kids, homeless, and nursing home, and had a hilarious sock gift exchange wherein we could steal socks from each other. One silly side note: am I the only one who thinks that decorating an orange church gymnasium is pointless? The glowing orange basketball court floor kills any kind of color scheme, decor style, or holiday vibe you throw at it.

The finished couch! So much space!

It's not exactly pretty or anything, but it sure beats Ole Spikey Springs. There were dozens of colors and fabrics to choose from, but we settled on a bland mid-range brown so it wouldn't match the beige walls or the darker brown carpet. If the mood strikes someday, we could get new covers and change the color of the couch for a third of the cost.

Fuzzy family selfie from our cozy couch time.

Amber, reading the Grinch.

On Wednesday after school, the kids had eye doctor appointments. We all crammed into the exam room together and had a bit of a wait why our eye doctor finished up with another patient.

We had three people on two chairs. Jay was enthused.

Amber worked on reading the Grinch all week, putting a bookmark in every night after she read a few pages to me. Finally, on Thursday night, she finished reading the last page! She really worked for it; I made her sound out most of the words she didn't know, minus the made-up Dr. Seuss-ish words and a few that aren't sound-out-able. It was an exercise in patience and perseverance for both of us. This is her (our) triumph picture.

On Tuesday I went on a run and afterwards my hamstring (and a little more research) convinced me to fully commit to resting until my hammy is fully healed. So I have been going on not-too-brisk walks in the brisk air. Brisk walking makes my hammy hurt, so I have had to slow down my walking pace which is hard to do when it's cold outside! This pumpkin about half a mile from our house has been floating in the drained canal leftovers for weeks and one morning I noticed that it had ice locked in on all sides. Every minuscule entertainment counts when I have to walk. My current mantra is "walking is better than nothing!" I actually like walking in general; I just prefer running for my "official" daily exercise.

This week US Olympic marathon trials winner Aliphine Tuliamuk posted on Instagram about her current injury recovery (a stress fracture in her hip). She hasn't been able to run in four months! She said that she's not just recovering, she's building for the future, and she's always had big breakthroughs in the past when coming off of injuries. Then she invited anyone to leave a comment if they are going through anything hard too. So I commented with brief solidarity "I tweaked my hamstring two months ago and it's taking forever to get better! Injuries are so hard-- hang in there!"

The next day, Aliphine sent me a private message!!! She wrote: "Hamstrings do take longer, but eventually they become manageable, heal soon!" That kind individual encouraging message from an Olympian lifted my spirits so much and helped me put my hammy into perspective.

On Friday after school, Jay went on an overnight trip with the deacons quorum from church. Thirteen twelve year olds all converged on a member's cabin-slash-vacation home near Cle Elum, WA, about 90 minutes away from Sunnyside. This is not a picture of the cabin--they hiked out to this Fish Shed along the Cle Elum River. 

The boys with their fearless leaders. BLESS those leaders. A voluntary overnight with thirteen deacons is no small thing. The boys loved it! I am always blown away at the geological variety in our state. The group enjoyed over a foot of fresh wet snowfall while they were there. They hiked in the snow, had several epic snowball battles, played games inside the cabin, 

We got Jay his first suit this week! Cue the mom-sobs.

Feeling festive before church.