All together now.

A few months ago, I decided I wanted a new couch.

I hate writing that sentence.  I don't like to talk about buying new stuff because I don't like feel I'm the type of person who buys a lot of stuff. Sure, I often have a hard time turning down buying a book/shirt/orange juice, but big purchases don't go down very often at our house.  I don't want to spend the money and I feel like what we have is doing just fine.

However, our furniture put the four people in our family in different places during our favorite family activities.  Sure, three of us could pile into the badly-scratched-but-very-comfortable recliner, but 4 of us couldn't.  Or I would find myself stretched out alone while my three boys cuddled on the couch.  There just wasn't any place for all of us to be in the same place without sitting on the floor.

So, in July, we bought some couches.  There are 5 of them, and they all go together in an infinite (okay, maybe not infinite, but many) number of ways.  The current set up puts an L-shaped couch in front of the TV with a smaller corner chair across the way. 

And tonight, all of us are sitting together.  Ben and Thomas are playing their DS's, I'm blogging, Shane is watching the game.  The cat is stretched out across Shane's lap, her right paw just barely brushing against the side of my knee.  My feet are right next to Ben's legs, and he is resting his elbows on my shins.  Thomas's back is leaning up against Shane's shoulder.  Finally, we can sit together.

I know that money doesn't buy happiness, and neither do possessions.  But man, who knew a few couches with some extra leg and elbow room could turn a family room into a little bit of heaven.