Front Porch Hangs

This weekend, in an effort to be outside more so that PJ could get some rest, the kids and I spent a few hours outside on the front porch.

The other night, PJ woke up around 1 am and started violently throwing up and didn’t stop for the rest of the night. It was absolutely awful and I felt so bad for him. He thankfully didn’t throw up at all Saturday, but was so weak and bed-ridden from feeling nauseous that he didn’t feel well enough to eat anything or get off the couch much.

Here’s the good news, though: he’s feeling about 80% better today. Still, I know he feels like absolute crap. Remember when I got the stomach flu last year? Worst week of my entire life. It still gives me nightmares, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, let alone my husband.

All that to say, I tried to keep the kids out of the house as much as possible this weekend so he could get all the rest as he needed. We went to the park, ran errands at the post office and the pharmacy, and hung out on our front porch. That last one was my favorite activity of the weekend, and here’s why.

You see, growing up in this house, everyone always hung out on the front porch, no matter the weather and no matter the season. It was a conversation hub where everyone just migrated to, day and night. After dinners, we would spend hours out there on the swing just talking and letting our stomachs rest. My mom would smoke her cigarettes on the porch first thing in the morning but also as the sun was going down. At Halloween, the front porch became the center of the universe as we passed out candy to trick or treaters and welcomed people into our house for homemade chili.

For reason unbeknownst to me, we don’t spend as much time on the front porch as we did when I was little. The time we spend outside is mostly on our back porch, which is quite large and right off our living room, so I guess it’s a matter of convenience. In a weird way, it was like discovering (rediscovering?) a part of our house that we hadn’t really paid attention to before and falling in love with it.

It of course helped that the weather was most delicious this weekend, with cooler temps and a wonderful breeze keeping us alert throughout the day. The kids ate orange juice popsicles for the second day in a row, laughed and swung on the porch swing, and built little houses out of rocks and leaves, all while I reminisced on all the times we spent on the porch growing up. It was bliss, and allowed my guy to get some rest.