sharing our space

Lily is going to be a veterinarian when she grows up.  And she is going to live on a farm.

The plan, which our kids discuss nearly every day, is that she will live there with Quinn, who will be the tractor man and the fix-it man. And Lily will take care of all the animals on the farm. She will also have an office for small animals and when people come to bring their dogs and cats for their check-ups they will be able to spend the day at the farm and visit with all the farm animals.

As you can imagine, I think Lily’s farm sounds absolutely lovely and I want to do everything I can to support her dreams.

Except there is one problem.

For the past several weeks a model of the veterinarian farm has existed on our kitchen table (which, by the way, is located in the middle of our living room).

John and I try to go with the flow as best we can and it’s been kind of nice having cozy dinners huddled at one end of the table or eating picnic-style on the floor of the playroom, but lately the farm has been expanding daily, and having it reside on our table has created more than a few conflicts in our family.

The solution I came up with was setting up another table (a curb score from last summer) in our playroom that is just for the veterinarian farm. Lily was a little hesitant but when she came home from school and saw the new set up, she decided it just might work for her…

…which is good. Because having time and space to eat together really works for our family!

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{For more on the importance of family meals and some of our favorite meal blessings, you might enjoy this article I wrote in 2007 for RI Family Magazine.}