Interior Therapy

The kids had 17 days off for Spring Break here this year.  Without going into too much detail, times are tough right now - more than tough.  We weren't going to be taking any extravagant vacations or even driving down the coast for fun without selling my soul to the oil company.  So we needed a distraction. 
 
A few months ago when I was lamenting to Bethany about this small house with no space for 3 rambunctious kids, she had an out of the box idea.  She said why not move them all into the same bedroom and turn the other bedroom into a playroom?  I liked the idea, but couldn't figure out logistics at first.  I needed to make sure I could get all 3 beds and all 3 kids clothes into one room, otherwise it wouldn't be doable.  What finally clinched it for me was when Elie asked to sleep with her brothers again (she does every night, but we only let her on the weekends).  When I said no, she said "Why do I have to be the only one in the family that sleeps by myself?"  That's true - it struck me - why do I expect the youngest member of the family to do that when no one else has to?  So I decided to figure it out. 
 
This is what we (I) spent spring break doing.  Turning the classic Winnie the Pooh nursery into a playroom, and turning the boys' pirate bedroom into a neutral bedroom for 3.....
 
....with absolutely no budget.  After being depressed at first about that, I decided to turn it into a personal challenge to see if I really could re-do two rooms for nothing but time.  It worked!  Every time I figured out a way to repurpose something I got excited instead of wishing I could buy something new.  All in all, I spent $38 on primer to cover those pirate red walls and used 10 year old paint I had left over from when I did the nursery.  That was the only cost I had for the new bedroom.  I turned bedspreads upside down to a neutral navy and cut up our old king size bed ruffle to make 2 new ones to fit the boys' twin beds.  The only expense for the playroom was the cork board that circles the room - and I got lucky on that because I had an amazon gift certificate that covered it. 
 
Most of my time was spent sifting through ten years of three children's accumulation and figuring out what to donate and what to save.  There was so much to get rid of, I thought for sure I'd have to have a garage sale.  But the last time I did that I vowed I would never do it again, so instead I decided to donate.  I've been able to help the hospital where the kids were born, the local police department, the March of Dimes, Goodwill, our school, a few friends, and even saved a few things to try to sell on ebay or at the resale shop.  That is a wonderful feeling, and I'll take it over a garage sale anytime!
 
 Even though I'm so excited at how it turned out, it was pretty emotional for me dismantling the cool pirate bedroom and especially the nursery.  I was doing fine until Ronny took the first screw out of the crib and I burst into tears!  My babies are growing up - something that becomes more apparent to me everyday.