It’s Halloween! When I planned out my content for the past few weeks, I penciled in “Halloween post” for today. I figured I’d post pictures of our Halloween decor or details on our costumes, but as I began writing, I quickly realized that this post was going to be very different.

On Saturday morning, I sat down on the couch after cleaning up from Friday’s Halloween party. I could have written about how exciting it was to host our first get-together in our new house or about the fun we had with friends. However, after finishing the dishes and cleaning the spots of who-knows-what from the floors, I sat down and realized something profound.

This house is ready.

First of all, let me clarify what I mean by “ready.” In this case, ready does not mean perfectly decorated or organized. It doesn’t mean that everything has a definite place to go and all of the gold light fixtures have been replaced. Instead, it means that my dining room and foyer aren’t full of boxes. From where I was sitting, I couldn’t see a single piece of cardboard and that’s amazing! In this story, “ready” means we have shower curtains hanging in both bathrooms. Even if I don’t like them, there are curtains hanging. Today, “ready” means that even though closets may be stuffed a little full with things I still need to address, there aren’t piles of stuff sitting here and there on tables and countertops.

One of my October goals was to host a Halloween party. Of course, I wanted to have this party to be able to spend time with friends and to dress up because it’s my favorite. However, the main reason for my decision to host this party was to give myself a deadline for getting this house unpacked. Even though I was knocking things out one box at a time, I still felt like the boxes would never end. I’d never get around to putting away those paint cans, and we’d never get the floors clean enough to put those rugs down. I knew that if I agreed to invite 30-40 people to our new home, I’d really make some magic happen. And we did. The week before a party would usually be spent hanging holiday decor and planning a menu. Ours were spent reattaching light fixtures, moving in furniture, and trips up and down the attic ladder.

I’m certainly thrilled that everyone came in fabulous costumes and we spent the night laughing with friends. However, now that everyone has gone home and the remnants of a party are cleaned up, I’m so incredibly thankful to have made it this far in the process of setting up our home.

I’ve written a couple of posts that I’ve yet to share about how my goal is to get to a point where we’re not always working on and cleaning this house. Today, it feels like I’m there. I still have lists of updates to do, and I haven’t even made a small dent in the decorating, but now that the boxes are done, I feel like I can spend my time working on the fun things like searching for new furniture and pretty things. I’m thrilled that I can sit down on a Saturday and not feel guilty for resting. I’m excited that I can tackle one packed closet at a time until they’re finished, but there’s no immediate rush to get it done. I feel relieved for the chance to do fun things with my free time instead of feeling pressured to work on this house nonstop. If you’ve moved recently, you can probably relate to how I feel. And if you’ve accomplished something major lately, you can likely relate to how I feel in this very moment, which is amazing!

I mentioned last week that this blog is where I tell my story. I really thought that today’s post would show snapshots from last week’s party or links to some of the Pinterest projects I attempted. Instead, this Halloween party gave me so much more than material for a crafty blog post…it gave me peace of mind. I’m walking away from this experience feeling so incredibly accomplished and relaxed. I will still make this home beautiful over time, and I will empty those closets. However, I will take a deep breath before doing so, and I’ll sit back and enjoy how far we’ve come. Today, I’m thankful for progress and for motivation. I’m thankful for good friends who can look past works in progress, and a husband that’ll work nonstop to help me knock out my massive pre-party to-do list. I’m also thankful for the ability to host gatherings of this sort for my friends.

I hope you have the happiest of Halloweens. Be safe and make lots of memories!