Dear Daniel,

There’s a lake outside my window so I’ll have to go out the front door to co-op in the morning. Use earplugs.

- Gigi

How do I even begin to explain the context of this note? I was going to roll out the big plan for you when we had it all in place, but things are dragging on longer than expected and it’s just getting awkward not to share the whole picture.

In a nutshell: Daniel and I, along with my mom, “Gigi,” are in the process of buying a new home . . . together. There are A LOT of reasons we decided to do this:

• The nuclear family is a relatively new invention. For the most part, families have lived close enough to one another so that they could enjoy strong relationships and share workloads.
• Gigi and I have a passion for cooking nutritious homemade meals and growing organic vegetables. We want to raise chickens and goats, too. As the soon-to-be mother of two small children, this is more than I can handle on my own. However, I don’t want to wait until my kids are older because there is a lot for children of any age to learn while “helping” in the garden or collecting eggs: Lessons about perseverance, patience, and gratitude. Gigi is going to help me tackle what we hope to make a 2 acre suburban farm. After being single for over 25 years now, she is truly ecstatic about sharing in the chaotic, vibrant family life of our home. We are honored to have her.
• When my grandmother could no longer live by herself my mom refused to let her go to a nursing home. She moved into her very own “apartment” at our house. This began one of the richest periods of my life. There is nothing like three generations under one roof. I want my children to experience this firsthand.

We have grand hopes for our future. UNFORTUNATELY, the property we want to buy is not currently for sale. We’ve been looking for over a year now and haven’t found anything we liked half as much as “the one.” The owners have two lots next door to each other, one 2 acre lot with a house and a 1.5 acre lot that’s empty. They want to sell the empty lot before they sell their house. We’d LOVE to buy both but that’s not economically feasible. Here’s a photo of the land. Gigi doesn’t want us to post a photo of the house considering we may have already annoyed the owners a bit.

Anyway, Last summer my mom sold her house and moved into our 1380 sq ft house so that we’d have a larger down payment available when we finally found our place.

Did I mention that when she moved in she also brought all the inventory from her home-based business? She designs silk flowers for high-end homes. Now ALL her inventory lives with us, too.

Um, yeah. It’s a little cramped here. Which takes us back to the note I found on the couch. Gigi is using one of our three bedrooms as an office and sleeps in the other bedroom. We would LOVE to move Katie to a toddler bed in our room, but there is NOWHERE to put it, except maybe the closet. Daniel swears he will not let Katie sleep in the closet, so she sleeps with me in our queen-sized bed. She is a total bed hog, and Daniel is a loud snorer, so he has abandoned the bed for the couch.

I know what you must be thinking. My husband sleeps on the couch.

Bad wife.

But, just so you know, I am not pregnant by accident. Daniel SLEEPS on the couch. There are ways and means for any determined couple in a 1380 sq ft house shared with the MIL . . . ways and means, I tell you.

Plus, he breathes better when his head is slightly elevated. See? Not so bad. Also, it’s temporary. We are in the process of putting this house up for sale and moving to a larger home that Gigi own’s while we strategize our next move (it’s currently being rented).

So, moving this story along: Each Tuesday morning my mom leaves at 3am to drive for our organic produce co-op. By volunteering to help deliver the food we get a lot of extra for free ; – ) The problem is that when she leaves she always wakes Daniel up. Being the creative problem-solver that she is, my SIXTY-FIVE year-old mother decided to start CRAWLING out her bedroom window on co-op days.

Granted, she is in better health than most thirty year-olds I know, but that is just crazy. It works, though, and Daniel can’t talk her out of it. At least, he couldn’t until nine inches Texas snow melted outside Gigi’s window, forcing her to actually use the door.