Anniversary Present

I gave Matt his anniversary present early this year.  Matt has been a wonderful husband for (almost) nineteen years.  What they say about loving your spouse more and more as the years pass is really true.  My love for Matt is deeper than it ever has been.   This year has been a difficult one for me and Matt has been by my side for every bit of it.

So I wanted to give him something really special for our anniversary.  I've desired to administer a good decluttering/organization session to Matt's home office for a very long time, I just never got around to it.  Quite frankly, every time I thought about it, I got overwhelmed and decided to put it off awhile longer. The room is a "catch all" place in our home.  We've stored extra dining room chairs and the kids' strollers in it.  Whenever I didn't know where to put a piece of paper or a tool I found lying around the house, I'd ask the kids to put the item on Matt's desk.  As a result of the lack of work space, Matt often took his computer downstairs to get his work done.

Knowing that Matt's upcoming year would need to include more time for his Bible study as well as more work-from-home days, I knew his current office situation was unacceptable.  So Grace and I bit the bullet and got the job done about a week and a half ago.  We spent most of a day purging items into garbage or Goodwill piles and organizing kept items.  I went through a box that had been put in the closet when we moved here four years ago.  I filed papers that hadn't been filed in that amount of time.  Below is an "in process" picture.  I forgot to take a "before" photo, but believe me when I say, it wasn't that much better.

Matt has always wanted a manly leather chair.  Problem was, we never had a place or the funds for such a luxury.  I knew I wanted to put a nice chair in his office, so I started scouting out Craigslist a few days before the cleaning project.  I found quite a few uglier-than-all-get out recliners, but nothing that fit what I had in mind.  I was about ready to settle for an older cloth covered Lazy Boy that was missing a button, when I ran across a dark brown leather Lazy Boy.  The chair had been posted forty minutes before I saw it.  I contacted the seller right away and we set up a meeting for noon the next day.

So at lunchtime, we took a break from our cleaning project.  Grace and Paul figured out how to remove the back bench seat from the van and the three of us headed over to see the chair.  Honestly, I wasn't even sure the chair would work until I got there.  Upon closer investigation, I found that it was indeed real, not faux, leather.  We measured it and it would fit in the desired space in Matt's office.  Still, I played it cool (I am learning the art of negotiation after all of these years).  I pointed out a couple of cosmetic flaws (ones I knew I could take care of with leather cleaner) and asked the man if he would take $10 less than the asking price.  I was tickled when he said "yes."  We loaded up the chair and headed home.  Yes, God did provide the perfect chair for my hubby.

Grace then went to Walmart and bought some leather cleaner while I stayed behind to keep slogging through all of the paper piles.  Let me just say, it is awesome to have another driver in the family.  As the time neared for Matt to come home from work, it was all hands on deck to get the job done.  The little kids helped collect trash and move some items to new homes in other rooms.  Elizabeth set to work with the leather cleaner.  We finished just in time to get dinner on the table before Daddy got home.

 

The kids brought Matt into his office through the outside door.  The first thing he saw was the recliner.  I think he was surprised.  I know he was pleased.  His office is now a nice quiet haven in which he can work.  Part of the gift is to continue to keep his office clean, which we have accomplished so far (it's only been a little over a week).  Really, it's just going to require lots of diligence on my part.  But Matt is every bit worth it.  Here's to another nineteen years!