A table for 6 please.

The most challenging space issue about living in 800 sq. feet with 6 people has been the absence of a table that we can all fit around.

Until now. It’s finally here.

Some good things have to be waited for extra long, just so you really can savour how good they are.

I’ve scavenged our back alley dumpster for years. It’s the drop spot for apartment dwellers, and every few months some sort of good quality table is usually left behind.

But it was always the same story. We’d try to gather 6 stools around our table, and the sound of the scraping stool legs would almost make you lose your appetite.

“There has to be a better way!” You probably heard me crying out that phrase rather loudly into the night.

And then came the epiphany.

What if we had a long table with two benches. Then nobody could or would fight about which stool went where. A bench would just exist to be quietly pulled out, sat upon by multiple people like a ski lift, and then gently placed back after each use.

The only problem was that a typical table with benches is statistically too wide. Sigh.

But what if there was something designed precisely for apartments and my exact predicament? A girl can dream, can’t she?

And then I found it.

Right there on Craigslist, just across town, and why yes, they would cut us a deal, and yes they did make it themselves and they had designed it to be a practical apartment sized space saving device. Be still my heart.

We had never had a new table before.

“I feel like we’re having a picnic every time we eat!”

“Yeah mom, that’s because it’s basically a picnic table.”

“Yeah! And basically awesome!”

The benches nest underneath the table like it’s a mother eagle squeezing her eaglets. It runs 5 feet along our back wall and the boys can still run past it, and not into it, with ease.

And everybody has a seat.

Table manners noticeably improved with the very first meal. There were no longer little bodies wandering around the kitchen during mealtime. My oldest even asked if he could please pray for us before we dug into our home baked frozen pizza, which served as our christening feast.

Today I sat on one side and the big boys sat across from me, and we worked on their paragraph writing with our elbows flying around however we wanted them to. My third son wandered up and picked a free spot on the bench and I slipped him a book to read, and he had his own space.

We’re becoming quite good at creating space inside a place where space is hard to find.

My youngest was playing on the bench this morning with his cooking set. It was the perfect height for his pretend coffee and toast preparation, and my soul soared.

 

I’ve been waiting for this. Last week I didn’t even know it could exist. And it arrived and changed our lives so drastically and yet so simply within the span of a few days. God slips me gifts like that every now and again and I know deep in my heart that they’re straight from Him. The timing, the location, and the fit are just all too perfect.

I can only imagine the meals that will be had, the games that will be played, the school that will be learned, and the conversations that will occur… at this table. Our table for 6.