Our retreat

Several months ago I was at my talented friend Kelly's house admiring a new space she created in her bedroom with two chairs, a table, a shelf, and some beautiful decorations. It was a sitting area for her and her husband to escape to after a long day.

We were talking about the struggles we both had at night shutting down and relaxing in the living spaces of our home. Many times as Jake and I would be reading or watching TV on the couch in our family room, I'd start to notice things that needed to be done.

Crumbs on the floor. Fingerprints on the window. Bills in the box. A sock under the chair. It made it hard for me to be done with the chores of the day and relax.

After seeing her lovely space, I wanted to create something similar in our bedroom. Thankfully, Kelly offered to help and give me some direction. Both Jake and I already had comfortable rocking/reclining chairs and a huge bedroom, so with some tweaking and moving of our other furniture we got to work.

We are in love with the finished product.

This sitting area is our favorite spot. Once we get the kids to bed and load the dishes, we often retreat to our chairs and spend the evening reading, talking, and just relaxing. Doing this has helped us go to bed earlier and given us time to have some heartfelt conversations.

We had the basics in our room, the furniture, white bedding, rug, lamps, curtains, and pale blue walls, but made a few tweaks to update them. Kelly suggested the addition of mustard yellow as an accent color and it is the perfect pop to our blue walls. Jake raised the drapes to the ceiling and that made a huge difference in creating a finished look. I found this awesome sunburst mirror and with a few pillows and lampshades the wall was complete.

The wall opposite our bed is our bathroom and new gallery wall. A kind friend made us vinyl lettering that says "Why not us?" and hangs on the bathroom mirror. 




We filled the framed with pictures of places that are meaningful to us. Magnolia flowers from our trip to the South. Ocean waves from a California beach. The cityscape of London along the Themes. A cactus in the Saguaro desert. Snow covered Mount Timpanogos that buttresses our growing up town in Utah. Waimea falls from our vacation to Hawaii. And the underside of "the Bean" statue in Millennium Park in Chicago. These pictures remind us of trips we've loved and time we've spent together in wonderful places.

In our bathroom we have a little corner dedicated to Spain. Jacob served his LDS mission there from 1998-2000 and we were able to go back together and visit in 2011.  We walked the streets where he served, visited the Madrid temple, and spent a night in Cuenca, a city he loves. We bought this tile and the vases on our trip, and added these pictures to help us remember that time.

Jake has a little corner of his own to one side of our bedroom closet. He hung the Father's Day pictures our girls made him at church, a framed picture of cougar stadium, has his guitar on a rack, has a table, chair and work area, and a few BYU mementos on his shelf.

My dresser is on the other side of our closet displaying my jewelry, a plant stand belonging to my great grandmother, and a framed picture of the Savior.  My sister gave it to us shortly after Jake's diagnosis and it is a comforting reminder that He alone knows what we are going through.

I am so grateful for the chance I had to work on our room for the last few months. It was a labor of love that brought me a lot of joy. I've always loved this talk by President Uchtdorf and wanted to end with a few thoughts he shared.

          "The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.

           Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty.

          Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty... Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter.

           Nearly a century and a half ago, President Brigham Young spoke to the Saints of his day. “There is a great work for the Saints to do,” he said. “Progress, and improve upon and make beautiful everything around you. Cultivate the earth, and cultivate your minds. Build cities, adorn your habitations, make gardens, orchards, and vineyards, and render the earth so pleasant that when you look upon your labors you may do so with pleasure, and that angels may delight to come and visit your beautiful locations. In the mean time continually seek to adorn your minds with all the graces of the Spirit of Christ.”