"You're going to blog about a LAMP?"

Yes. I am. And here it is.


Observation skills are not my strongsuit. I'm not quick to notice new things, I don't carefully watch my surroundings, I have never in my life won an Easter Egg Hunt, and my family has had a lifelong joke which lovingly states, "Tricia couldn't find a red scarf on white carpet."

Nice. I have always found it especially amusing. (I can at least smile about it now.)


I get easily accustomed to the things around me, and I just forget to really look at them. (This explains why Tyler was over a year old before I realized that the wall in his bedroom still boasted Tucker's name. Poor kid. His brother had long moved out of the nursery, but he didn't take his name with him. It's because I stopped noticing.)

I have become more intentional about such things, which led me to pay closer attention to the lamp on my bedside table: the one filled with seashells and topped with a mauve lampshade.


The whole table: utilitarian. It meets the need. And I stopped looking at it.

The lamp has been my faithful bedside companion since I was ten years old. That is some serious commitment. Perhaps it's time to get a new one, after twenty years with the beloved pink lampshade. Of course I didn't want to be premature in this transition, but I really felt strongly. It was time.


So today was my day. A discount on all of Hobby Lobby's home accents sealed the deal.

Look at this new beauty. Complete with a ribbon of chocolate brown satin. (Insert my clasped hands to my cheek and a sigh of admiration.)

As soon as I put the boys down for their naps, I rushed to begin my new Extreme Bedside Table Makeover. Here is the new look:


Simple. Classic. Doesn't it look like a grownup sleeps here?


She does. Her name is me. I cannot wait to wake up tomorrow, just to look at this new corner that is mine, free of anything that belongs to any boy, big or small.


And sometimes, when our home and its demands are crashing down around me, I have found the beauty and satisfaction of changing one small area in a really dramatic way.

And that's what happened today. I feel like a new woman.


With a new lamp.