Human House

If you think about it, people are kind of like houses.  When looking for a house, there are things that are more important than how it looks on the outside.  

Say you go looking for a house to buy, and you find one that appears to be absolutely gorgeous.  It has lush green grass in the front yard, it has mature trees, the house is freshly painted in the exact right color, everything looks nice and new and clean.  You think, Ah, now this is my kind of house!  

Then you go inside.  

You notice that there are holes in the wall.  The paint is peeling.  The floors have nasty carpet from some long ago era, and it smells like some animals have been using it for something other than just walking on.  Aside from cosmetics, you then find that the furnace is busted and needs a replacement, the water heater is shot, and the electrical wiring is outdated and hazardous.  If that wasn't enough, the foundation is crumbling, and water leaks into the basement.

At this point you have to decided if you're willing to pay the price to have all that fixed.  And here is where houses and humans deviate.  What if it weren't possible to have all that fixed?  What if you had to take the house as is or not at all?

That's how it is with people.  That's how it is with you.  You can look nice on the outside, but, as it has been said many times, it's the inside that counts.  

So, if you're looking for a friend or a spouse or someone you can trust, you have to look past the outside.  Some  of those people may have patchy grass, so to speak, or a sagging porch or peeling paint.  But that's only the outside.  When you go inside you find a place that's clean and dry and warm, a place you can rest and be safe.  Those are the people you want to choose, because if you choose someone who is only nice on the outside and think you can change the inside to be more to your liking, you'll be disappointed.  Only God can change people's insides.  The rest of us have to take each other as is.

My husband is the perfect example of this.  He is a little rough around the edges.  He looks a bit scruffy sometimes, and he says and does some things that are, well, for lack of a better word, weird.  But that is only the outer facade.  Inside, he is far more than he appears to be.  I compare him to a treasure chest.  The chest might look like an ordinary wooden box.  But when you open it up, when you look deep inside, you will be amazed at the treasure you find.  I have been.  I still am.  A lot of people are like that.

You know the funny thing too, is that some people can only be fixed up inside after you accept them just as they are.  Sometimes that's exactly what they need.

Spring Improvements

Spring has put me in the mood for improvements.  Last year by this time we had pretty much burnt ourselves out on improvements because we moved at the beginning of January and then proceeded to paint almost every room in our house, put down those vinyl tiles in two different places, and have a baby.  All of that by the end of March! 

Now that it has been awhile, and the days are getting sunnier and warmer, and the trees are becoming leafy, the grass green and flowers blooming, I'm ready to go again.  Obviously, we can't do everything, and that is sort of the snag. 

A guy named Dan, who looked a lot like a younger Mel Gibson, came and talked to us about replacing some of our old windows with new double-paned ones, and also about re-doing our bathroom (which needs all the help it can get seeing as there are people who have bigger closets than our bathroom downstairs, and the sink is practically falling apart).  Those would be very expensive projects, and will probably have to wait. 

We've also been talking about trying to clean up our basement and make a spare bedroom out of it.  That would be a ton of work.  Our basement is not very pretty.  Oh sure, it's a fine laundry room, but I don't think anybody would want to sleep down there, at least not right now.

Then there's the kitchen which has a tiny fridge that I hate.  The problem is, there is really only one good place to put a fridge, and the fridge has to be narrow enough to fit there.  Still, I am convinced that there has to be a better fridge than the one we have right now which came with the house. 

Probably the most feasible plan for us right now is to improve our front yard.  Aaron has already planted grass in the front section, and it's coming up nicely.  It used to be a nasty patch of mud and mulch, so just having grass there makes things look a lot better.  We're thinking about planting some flowering trees out there too, eventually.  We also looked at planting some flowers in front of our porch.  Our porch is kind of sad, so the flowers will help it look more cheery and friendly.  I am not much of a gardener, but fortunately since Aaron used to work in landscaping, I think he will make up for my lack. 

Tonight we went to Lowe's and checked out the prices for the trees and flowers and all of that, and I think we will go back later this week and get what we need.  That will be our first improvement, and possibly our last for this year depending on how things go.  We can always make plans, but some things just take time (and money).