Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Screened Porches

One of the major draws our house had when we were looking to buy it was the fact that it had a screened porch.  That might sound silly to some, but for someone who grew up with a house that had one, they probably understand what I mean when I say that. 

Growing up, we practically lived on that porch.  My dad built it.  He did an awesome job.  Of course, Daddy does everything awesome.  Because don't forget, he is practically perfect.  But anyway. . .he built it and then we used the heck out of that porch.  We had that lovely 1970's era redwood furniture that had the big puffy cushions with the vinyl fronts.  They had orange and yellow flowers all over them.  They were ugly (at the time, I suppose they were totally "in"), but they were sooooo comfy!  We would sleep out there lots of summer nights.  I think that was my favorite part.  We'd get our sleeping bags and pillows and go out and sleep on the lounge chairs and it was heavenly.  I can remember waking up and feeling the dampness on my pillowcase from the moisture in the air (or maybe it was my drool.  Sigh.)  Then some mornings, my mom would have gone to Dunkin' Donuts for eclairs and we would skip swim team and eat donuts on the porch. 

When tanning was still in, I can remember climbing out of my parent's bedroom window to lay out on the roof of the porch.  And of course, my suntan lotion was baby oil.  Oh dear me, I know skin cancer will come after me one day.  I shudder to think how awful I was to myself in doing that.  However, at the time, it was an awesome place to lay out and try to get a tan before prom. 

We literally ate, lived and slept on the porch all summer long.  I just loved that porch. 

Now we have a porch of our own.  When we bought the house, the porch was smaller.  You walked out from the porch  onto a deck and then walked down to a lower deck.  When we got ready to re-roof the house, someone had the grand idea to extend the roof out and by doing that, the porch increased by almost half.  We have enough room to put in lounge seating as well as a table and chairs so we can eat without bugs bothering us (a major benefit, in my opinion).  It's a fabulous porch.

Sometimes now, when Joshua is in school (such as this morning), I will make myself a cup of coffee and go out and just sit on one of the chairs and enjoy the peace and quiet.  I sip at my coffee to make it last longer and maybe take a book out there and read it.  Many days when it is nice enough, Joshua and I will eat our lunch out there.  And when it is nice, I think we eat dinner as a family on our porch more often than we eat inside the house.  I hope we don't bother our neighbors too much.  They often walk out for a few minutes while we are eating and of course, Joshua will yell over to them.  Every.  Time.  He's so cute.

So I suppose the reason I am writing this is because I enjoy reminiscing about those memories.  But I also hope that Joshua is gathering his own set of memories on his porch.  I hope he enjoys those days as much as I do.  One day it was raining pretty hard, but it felt nice outside, so we took his garage and a bunch of cars and played cars on the porch while it rained all around us.  I don't think I'll ever forget that day.  I hope he doesn't either.  I hope he thinks back to his porch and remembers how nice it was.  Just like I do.

I have so much to do today.  Jamey and I are going to the Boar's Head Inn in Charlottesville for a night tonight (oh boy!).  I need to shower, pack and leave my mom instructions for Joshua and Quincy.  And I also need to clean up a little bit.  But even with all that stuff to do, where do you think  I am heading as soon as I click the "publish post" button?  You guessed it.  So if you drop by in the next hour or so, don't bother ringing the doorbell.  Come on around back and join me on the porch instead. 

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