Mama’s Heart Meets Organizer Brain – Mother of the Bride Part 2

 

I quite enjoyed my status as Mother of the Bride.  When we went to Ben’s home town of Smiths Falls for family shower festivities, Murray and I were presented with our status pins.

I was proud to wear mine on the day of the shower and again the next day for family brunch.  An accessory like this does have a limited life, so I was eager to wear it again the morning of the wedding during hair and make-up time.

As I’m writing this blog it is June 26 and I can officially say that I’ve lost my status as Mother of the Bride.  I’m just back to ‘ordinary Donna’.    I’ll always be Hayley’s mom, but the wedding is over.  The honeymooners are home and learning to navigate everyday life together.  They are settling into their new apartment.  I liked being Mother of the Bride.  It was a fun season of life as we anticipated and prepared for Hayley & Ben’s wedding.  The piece of advice that I can give, and it has been said by many families…….slow down and enjoy the journey.  It is all over so quickly.  Be sure to take time to have fun and make special memories along the way!

Now that Hayley has moved out and things are settling back into routine I’ve started thinking about what I’m going to do with the extra bits of space that are now available at our house.  I think in some ways I’m using this as a pleasant distraction for my organizer brain so that my mama’s heart isn’t feeling the loss quite so much.

The first big chunk of space that is now available to me is Hayley’s empty bedroom.  It will be used as a guest room, where an airbed can easily create a comfortable spot to sleep when needed.  For day to day living though, I’ve decided to turn it into an office space.

 

Some days I’ll work here and somedays Deanna will.  I was easily able to create a desk space when I repurposed an IKEA flip top kitchen table that we had taken out of our kitchen a year or so ago.  I had Murray install it at the correct height for me to roll up to and use with my office chair and lap top.  I didn’t change the wall decor from when it had been Hayley’s bedroom.  It is pretty enough for now, and can always be a fun re-decorating project down the road.  I brought my printer up here as well.  It used to be in the laundry room when I was making best use of every inch of our space.

I have a folding chair and foot stool for when I need another option besides my office chair.

The folding chair and the fold down table will be easy to tuck away when I need to use the space as a guest room.

I lined up some magazine files on the dresser to separate materials for on-going projects.  This helps to avoid piles and to give everything a home.

 

I kept a couple of bits from when this space was Hayley’s room,  just because they make me smile.

We have very limited closet space in our upstairs, so once Hayley’s clothes were moved out it allowed Murray and I to spread out our clothes a bit and we happily took over her closet.  I do use under the bed bins as well in our bedroom just so the closets aren’t as full.

In the combo office/guest room, I store two air beds in the closet (a single and a king).  I have labelled bins in my crawl space that have a full set of bedding for each.  They are all easy to access and set-up at a moment’s notice.

There are a few other pockets of space that have been created now that Hayley has moved out.   A prime example is in the storage cupboard in the livingroom.

Hayley had a lot of shoes stored in here,  and now that they are all gone, I can’t believe all the space I have.  This cupboard has always been very multi-purpose for me because it is my only storage on the main floor outside of the kitchen.  It has a bit of office, napkins & placements, and kitchen overflow.  I think it probably makes sense that I fill in some of the empty spaces with a few things from my kitchen overflow area in the basement.

I’ll save that for another day, because thinking through that will put me in my happy place…..Mama’s heart (that is missing her Hayley) will meet my Organizer Brain, and a smile will come to my face.  Time moves forward.  Yes, Hayley doesn’t live here anymore, but we raised her to live her own life and that is what she is doing.  Murray and I will happily live out the next season of our life too, and enjoy the journey.