Quote Board

Some months ago I happened upon a pile of stuff on the roadside with a 'free' sign. Oh the possibilities! I convinced my husband to take a vaguely stained shirt (he has yet to wear it), and I scored a black shelf with hooks at the bottom and espresso artwork in the middle (wow, worst description ever).

Anyway, that shelf eventually became my quote board. I covered up the coffee pictures with a square of cork (that's the extent of my craftiness these days), and put the shelf up by the front door, so we can't help but see it on our way out. 

Hanging quotes on the board and switching them up periodically is a simple way to guarantee a dose of daily (or weekly, or monthly) insight. It's also become another avenue of communication with my husband. 

For reasons too complicated and boring to go into, we're about to embark on our tenth move in four and a half years. Seriously. We're staying in the same town, but switching apartments. The nomadic lifestyle has a few perks (we travel light), but it's also wearying. Especially now that we have a wee babe. Anyhow, it seemed like a good time to remind myself and my husband that:

I went to college in my hometown, but spent the summers between semesters working various jobs in different states, and suffered nearly debilitating homesickness each time I moved somewhere new. Then came the summer that my husband (then boyfriend) and I spent working in Texas. We got engaged in late August, and I returned home two weeks before him. The strange thing was, my home didn't feel like home. That's when I realized that he had become my home. It felt liberating to think that I could go anywhere with him and feel at home (is that how people who live in motor homes feel?)

In conclusion...quote boards are great. Because quotes are great. Words are powerful. Ideas are compelling. Even if your 'board' is a designated corner of your fridge, you can feed your brain while you feel your stomach.

I still remember the sayings my mom hung up around the house I grew up in ("Don't sacrifice what you want most for what you want in the moment"). They stay with me. One day (with any luck) Em will learn to read and I can brainwash her with all my favorite quotes. She won't even know I'm sneaking in a teaching moment every time she leaves the house to enter the big, wide world.