Because Sometimes You Need a Mattress in the Living Room…

When Josh and I were first married, we lived in Dothan, Alabama. His job at the time took him there and it is a time we will always treasure.

All of those “firsts” coming up with our way of doing things as a married couple.

When he received a job offer that brought us back to West Monroe, we packed up all of our stuff in our 1 bedroom apartment and were planning on leaving in the morning.

We were all packed up that night and Josh says, “Why don’t we just leave tonight?” What he didn’t know was that I was really wanting our last night in the apartment to be really special.

Cue the waterworks. Josh could have gotten frustrated and thought I was too crazy and sentimental, but no. What did he do? We packed up everything except our mattress and set up our mattress in the living room.

This is us in front of our first home. Our first 1 bedroom apartment in Dothan, Al 2006 North 8th Street

We were at our little house in West Monroe (that used to be one of Josh’s rent houses) and we sold it. I loved our little house and am usually pretty easy to please. I had grown attached to this house too (surprise, surprise). It was our first home. We lived there for about 5 years.

We renovated it and made it our own. So, what did we do our last night there?

Packed up everything and put a mattress in the living room.

So, as you can see, this is becoming a pattern in the Taylor’s lives. Even this year’s Christmas (we knew it was probably our last Christmas in our house), I came home on Christmas Eve to find the mattress in the Living Room. That meant the world to me.

You can’t really tell, but this is us on Christmas morning. Opening up our presents on our mattress in the Living Room.

It has become a generally unspoken thing in our relationship that when we make a transition to somewhere new or are struggling in some way, we move the mattress in the Living Room.

Well, if you didn’t know, we recently sold our house (a blog coming with more information on that). As we were moving things out of the house, Josh and his brother and dad were moving mattresses, and I just gave Josh a look that clearly said, “Well, aren’t we going to save the mattress for our last night?”

Yes, I am sentimental over crazy things, but yes, that is what we did.

Here is a picture of Bella loving the mattress on our last night in our home.

This post is not really about moving your mattress into your living room.

What this simple and special tradition has taught me is that sometimes we need to go out of our comfort zone to make something special. It didn’t involve any big gift. It didn’t involved any big conversation.

Just the simple act of making something just a little bit more special.

What “mattresses” can you move to your living room? What is something special you can do for your spouse, kids, parents, friends to let them know you care?

Maybe it’s a fort in a room, or a picnic outside, or tea party….whatever it is, I am reminded that it truly is the little things.

Hoping to carry this mattress tradition down to our kids. No, it doesn’t necessarily matter for eternity, but these little gestures and moments created can bring about a connectedness that doesn’t come from the traditional work, eat, TV, bed.

Encouraging you to pull out your “mattress” and make memories!

Aly