It's always been the plan to buy a new couch. Every so often over the years, I would window shop for couches but they seemed so far out of reach. Or else too plain for the price. Or too fussy and fancy. Too white. Too impractical for kids that still draw on furniture or spill their drinks on the couch even though they're not supposed to be eating on it.
This time of year, it's hard to pay the bills with birthdays and Christmas. So you can't imagine how surprised I was when Dennis said he wanted us to get a new couch! So we started looking online for some good deals, and even though there was nice couches out there with reduced prices (especially on Black Friday and Cyber Monday), they just weren't reduced enough for our price range.
And then I happened to be looking on Craigslist one day when I came across a couch for only $200 that was not only in excellent condition, but also exactly the style I was looking for! I excitedly emailed the seller and she told me (almost as I excited as I was) that the couch was still for sale. Not only that, but it was only 10 minutes away from Dennis's work! I'm telling you, I felt like this couch was from the hand of God Himself!
Does God really care about things like couches and styles and all those things we tend to get hung up on? I think He does, because He knows it's important to us. And though He doesn't want us to depend on material goods, I believe that every so often, He treats us with something that He knows that we want, just like parents like to do for their own kids. And He knows that I've been wanting a new couch for a long, long, time! (Twelve years, in fact!)
Let me explain our old couch to you. Don't let these pictures fool you. It's not quite as nice as it looks.
Our old couch was sort of a hand-off from our old house. The last owner didn't want the couch so he left it for us. My mom was ecstatic (she just thought we were the luckiest people in the world), but I looked at that old brown couch with trepidation. It was smelly, covered in dog hair, and full of stains. I didn't want to sit on it. But it did come in handy, I will admit, and it was perfect for our big family. (Though we were only a family of three at the time.) It got a lot of use, and over the years, it became even smellier, covered in new dog hair, and gathered even more stains (flipped those couch cushions over many times!)
Though our new couch is much smaller, it makes our living room bigger and a little nicer looking. Yes, it is used, but it looks brand new and we've received many compliments over it! I can now proudly tell guests to please sit down, without cringing or being worried about what smells will emit with the "poof" that tends to come when you sit down. Yes, I love our new/used couch.
But as smelly and used as our old couch may have been, ironically, none of us wanted to get rid of it. Max especially, who was very attached to the old couch, worked really hard to keep it. So we pushed and pulled it out the door, down the hill (it was easier than trying to take it down the stairs) and through the basement.
It's funny how you learn to appreciate that little things. As much as I love our new couch, I can't get rid of the old one. It may not be suitable for company anymore, but it's always good enough for us.
It's given us too many memories to be thrown aside. Birthdays, holidays, movie nights, or just a place to lay down when we're sick.
I'm not the sentimental type when it comes to things--believe me, I'm not. I moved out of our old house without looking back, I can pack up baby stuff without shedding a tear. But there are some things you just can't get rid of.
So you just have to find a new place for it.
Anyway, here is to new memories with new couches and old couches that gave us our old memories. Funny how you just can't seem to get rid of some stuff.
They just seem to grow on you.
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