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Yesterday evening we went to Crate & Barrel and bought a great set of wine racks to hold our leftover wedding wine. It’ll be nice to get those mounted on the wall and get the wine off our kitchen floor. Then we drove to Ikea and ate dinner at their restaurant – Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes and lingionberries. It reminded us of being at Al Johnson’s (“Goats on the Roof”) in Door County. We purchased an area rug for our living room, an entrance rug for the kitchen door, a lazy Susan, splatter screen, potato masher, 2 table lamps, 2 wall mount kitchen rails, utensil hooks, herb pots, two cork trivet sets, and 6 “damaged” (read: super on-sale) bright yellow doors that we are going to use as lumber to build basement shelves out of. The shopping trip was a complete success. To top it off the price of our last two meals at the Ikea restaurant (one from this evening and the other from our trip a few weeks ago) were completely deducted from our checkout totals. What a great policy! We essentially ate for free both times or we got a great discount. Either way, it worked well for us!

But you know what I realized on the drive home? None of it matters. We don’t need any of it. Sure, we wanted it and had been looking forward to getting it with our wedding gift money. Yes, it will all look great and be useful in our home. And I am very very grateful to have everything we have. But it isn’t what makes us happy. In fact, it made me feel a little guilty. Is having so much stuff, new stuff, wants kind of stuff, when others literally have nothing, is that really fair or even okay? I don’t really think so. I think it feels like so much right now because we are getting a lot of new things lately since we’ve moved into our new house. I’m sure almost all newlyweds or new home renters/owners go through this as well, but it makes me feel bad. I need to step up the volunteering and giving efforts. For all we’ve been given, there’s a lot we can give back to others with our time, our talents and our treasures.

We unloaded the truck and kindled our first fire in our backyard fire pit. Ted built it up with twigs and brown paper bags and kept it going. I took pictures and brought out the marshmallows and roaster sticks. And for the next hour and a half we just sat in front of it, chatted, we enjoyed each other’s company by the light of warm glowing fire. It was cozy and quiet and personal. And I was much happier with a marshmallow, the heat from the fire, and my husband home and by my side than I was with any lusted-after wine rack.

I thought about how lucky I am, how lucky we both are to have each other and to have our families. I thought how I couldn’t wait to see my mom and dad over Thanksgiving, and how wonderful, loving and helpful our families and friends are – and how much I know we both miss spending time with them. Be thankful for who you have – spend time with who you have – treasure the people and experiences over the material things, always. Then we let the fire die out until it was only burning coals. This marbling effect of smoldering embers is Ted’s favorite part of the fire. After our showers we settled on the sofa for a little while before bed. Ted pulled up the a truly wonderful video on his computer. I think everyone can use a little inspiration. I’d like to share it with you all. Have a lovely rest of your day.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciYk-UwqFKA]