Finding Myself Again

I finalized my divorce in December 2020, and I moved into a new place in February 2021.

I was married for sixteen years.

In that time I became a step mom to two step sons, gave birth to five kids, and completely lost track of who I was.

The decision to leave my house was not an easy one. I loved my old house for so many reasons.

But for so many other reasons, I made the decision to leave. 

I miss my old house.

But I love my new house even more.

One of the things I realized I missed and completely stopped doing while I was married was decorating.

I really love interior decorating.

It’s something I stopped doing over the last sixteen years because we didn’t have any money and because the kids were so little and so close in age and I didn’t have the time or the desire to see them destroy nice things.

Then I just kind of forgot that part of me.

Anyway, I don’t have tons of time or money for decorating how.

But I have a little.

My house was built in the 1970’s, and much of the interior still reflects that.

There is some impressive original olive green tile in the bathroom upstairs, and my office is 100% pine paneling (which I used to hate but now I love it).

Anyway, there’s not much character in the windows.

This window at the top of the stairs really bothers me.

I threw a bunch of X-mas stuff on the ledge, and it looked terrible because the scale was all off.

It was too small and there was too much window space. 

I went to the Christmas Tree Shop and I bought a couple things.

I wanted to hang some stuff from the top of the window – I got a few of these ornaments at the dollar store:

I didn’t have string or thread, but I did have dental floss and clear push pins, so I used that to hang them from the top of the window.

They look great!

I got some prelit garland and a couple little trees, found a couple bigger Santas from what I had here, and now the window looks like this:

Now I love this window!

(I just gotta figure out how I’m gonna hide the cord)

Decorating my house for the holidays has brought me tremendous joy.

I’m not totally done yet, but when I am, I’ll give ya a tour.

For all my newly divorced or going-through-the-process mom (and dad) friends, I know this is hard.

Last year Thanksgiving was horrible for me. I cried through most of it.

But this year?

This year things are much better.

This year I’m finding myself again.

And for that, I am super thankful.