I dropped Annah off at school at 7:10 this morning to catch the bus to auditions. She is guaranteed to make the orchestra, since she is the only student from RJHS to audition. But, she really wants to make the choir. I just hope she has fun today!
Dawn sent me some pictures of Caeden and Reece playing Kinect this morning. I know he is having a great time, as he's been asking for a sleepover with Reece for weeks. I'm so grateful to Dawn for having Caeden so I can work on his room. I'm painting and redecorating for his birthday, and it should be a complete surprise to him!
After we finished Sylvia's leaf project, I got right to work in the room this morning. I had started by cleaning Caeden's room last week. Sadly, it took me a few days to wade through all his junk and sort things into categories: trash, recycle, donate, sell. His room has been so neglected. It was last painted and decorated when Sylvia was born 10 1/2 years ago! The walls were not only scribbled on, but so dingy and dirty. There was about 1/2 inch of dust on the decorative toys on the shelves on the wall. Ew!
Caeden knew I had been cleaning in his room last week, and we'd talked about how dirty and cracked the walls were. Thursday, I'd started patching some of the cracks in the plaster, and I told him I did it because I just couldn't think about anything else but all those cracks and how they needed patched! He didn't think anything of it, and said he thought it looked like he had lightning on his walls.
Friday, I finished patching the walls, patched the ceiling, painted his bookshelf with leftover paint I had from our den shelves, took down his antique toy shades and valance, removed outlet and lightswitch plates, etcetera. Then last night, I sanded down all the patches and taped around all the trim.
So this morning, I put down the drop cloths and started with 2 coats of white ceiling paint. Already a huge improvement! I decided to do the difficult edge between the ceiling and wall next. With our old plaster walls, I have to do this with a tiny paint brush, and it takes hours. But, doing that before painting the bulk of the walls with a roller makes me want to keep going. (I've done it after rolling the walls and it makes me want to hurry up and quit when I do it that way!)
While I was painting the edge line, Sylvia finished practicing her instruments and decided to read to me while I painted. What a blessing that was! She read one of her Dear America books about the Revolutionary War. It was not only a wonderful book (her favorite book, she says), but she reads with great expression. It was a wonderful way to spend the day together, because she enjoyed reading to me and we could still hang out while I painted!
However, the painting took longer than I expected. Dawn and I texted back and forth throughout the day, and she was so sweet to pick up Annah along with Addie when the audition kids got back to the school. She even brought her and Caeden home just before we had to leave for String Project. I wasn't finished with the room, so I told him he was going to have to sleep in the girls' room tonight because the present Krampa and Gram got him was in there and he wasn't supposed to see it until Tuesday.
By the time we got back from String Project and had supper and showers, it was bedtime. I put a little throw over Caeden's head so he wouldn't smell the paint and pretended I was "smuggling" him past his room so he wouldn't be tempted. He decided that he wanted to wait until tomorrow night to "open" his present from Gram and Krampa so that he wouldn't be tempted to play with it, so that made me not worry about him trying to sneak in his room.
After three very exhausted kids went to bed, I begged Jeremy's help with the room. He took the bed apart and moved it temporarily into the hallway. We rolled up the carpet and padding (that were originally bought for my college dorm room!) and carried it and the old mattress downstairs. Then I mopped the floor and cleaned all the wood doors. Jeremy reassembled the bed frame, and springs, and brought up the new memory foam mattress, which was Caeden's birthday present from Gram and Krampa, and put it on the bed to expand. Then he put up the new curtain rod and brought the desk back into the room. At this point it it is the middle of the night and we are exhausted and going to bed. Finishing touches can happen tomorrow while Caeden is at school!
