The neighbors must think we are crazy or the story of a red couch

They are probably right.

Seven years ago God provided us with a gift–the perfect couch, the couch I had longed for price we could afford–even though it was not a suitable couch for our family at the time–a red jacquard camel back Harrod’s of London couch.  It was beautiful, and seven years of children being home all day, playing on it, jumping on it, leaping from it, and generally mistreating it–well those sevn years have not been kind to it.

It is still a beautiful couch mind you, it is just that the seat is looking rather forlorn, with stains and holes where the buttons have come undone, it has served us well but the time has come to get something more serviceable.  A household where everyone is home all day, all the time needs a couch that will hold up under duress. Plus I would like to be able to train my kids to treat a new couch with kindness instead of trying to break years of bad habits.

And so, yesterday, after beginning an impromptu yard sale the day before, Rachel and I prayerfully decided to move the couch to the front yard, hoping that someone else would fall in love with it.  This was a big leap of faith because the two burly men who originally moved the couch in took most of a day to figure out how to make it fit.  We prayed and thought and finally and suddenly I remembered exactly how to do it, an “Ah!” moment.  It went out easily at that point though we have no intention of moving it back in.  We would prefer to earn enough money from it to get a cheap replacement–something designed for a dorm room that I won’t feel guilty about kids playing on and which we can easily move around our awkward living room and easily replace, though at this point I am tempted to put it on freecycle and pray for a good home for it.

In the meantime our living room furniture sits on our front lawn, waiting and hoping, and our living room sits empty of seating.  It is a nice feeling not to have to move around furniture to walk through and it will be interesting to see what God has in mind–because if the two of us, an arthritic woman and a 10 year old, can move it outside without help (my husband’s back was out and my dad showed up exactly as we got it outside and just in tinme to help put the door back on) then God MUST have a plan for it.  And we are enjoying the empty space in our living room.