"The Old Magic Room"

At the end of June we moved from our 'temporary relocation apartment' into a house. Since the move I have had a few friends request pictures of our new home. To which I've silently thought "Pictures? Of what? We've nearly got everything unpacked and organized, but that doesn't mean that anything has stayed put!" A chaos of children's toys, and mounds of clean but unfolded laundry are continually procreating at a rate that would make any red blooded sexoholic insanely jealous. The book that I once found motivational "Clear your clutter with Feng Shui", now seems comically preposterous. Forget Feng Shui, we would need a combination of Mary Poppins, with magic wands, on Aderol to even approximate a photo op. Yet somehow, mid week, the stars, pre-school, laundry & naps aligned and I was able to get one small corner of my house presentable. I figured at least once a week I should showcase the throws, pillows, duvets, & linens that decorate my bed. After 20 minutes of stretching, pulling, tucking, smoothing, fluffing, folding, and propping, this is what you get. A terribly focused picture taken with my phone camera, complete with distorted colors & a nonexistent view of the room. "And here we are at the old magic room. We put a lot of miles on that mattress, huh?" (quote from one of my self nominated classic movies "Overboard" with Goldie Hawn & Kurt Russell.)

It wasn't preserved long. 45 minutes later I came in just as it was undergoing a transformation into a lions cave, where the 'rocks' (aka throw pillows) had been strewn around the bed and a boy had covered himself with the fluffy brown throw blanket as a coat of fur. At least the integrity of the linens themselves were sustained until this morning when both of our children decided that our Saturday would begin with 3 loads of laundry. Zayne had made a stop at the cookie jar in route from his bedroom. He had only taken a few bites and left the remaining portion on the kitchen table but somehow he still managed to smear chocolate all over the sheets & duvet cover. At this point, I'm sleepily making my way to get a beckoning Pender from his crib. I lift him out and immediately shuffle back to my bed, and lay him down next to a jabbering Zayne, & a dazed John in order to go grab a diaper. Just as I release him from my embrace I realize that we were too late. I look at my arm, and this time it's not chocolate. Nothing is sacred, or unscathed. The one corner of my world that had been arranged harmoniously had been desecrated in a matter of minutes. The only consolation while spot cleaning and applying Spray & Wash was that the sheets bore some vague remnants of love stains... At least we got to take the clean sheets for a ride before the kids got to them ;-)