My Aching Back

On Tuesday we rolled up our sleeves and began summer cleaning. I'd planned to start in my home office, but the kids' rooms were so disgusting I couldn't help but begin there!

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The boys' bedroom was so bad, it took 3 full days to complete the job.

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Here is Jacob cleaning his fan while Dylan hops down from making his bed on the top bunk.

The boys, of course, believe Mom is insane when she makes them scrub window sills, wash walls, empty the closet, turn out their drawers, and vaccum behind the bed.

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We filled many, many bags with old clothes, toys, and books for our upcoming yard sale. We filled many more for the trash man.

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The results are worth the effort. I told them I was going to take pictures so, when their room is a mess again, I can close the door, tape the pictures to it, and pretend the room still looks this nice!

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This is the view of their room from the kitchen. Let's take a little tour!

Dylan is my eccentric child. He's turned his bunk into a little bunker. He keeps a small box next to his pillow to hold his lotion, his favorite mementos (such as Shamu from Sea World), and other important items. Between the box and the pillow is his Ninja puppy.

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Across the room an Ojibwa dream catcher hangs from the ceiling to catch his bad dreams. Dylan has very vivid dreams.

Dylan hates when the sun lights up his room before he's ready to wake up, so he put this cardboard-backed poster against the rail to protect his face from the sun's rays in the morning. That way he can sleep in later.

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His atopic dermatitis (the worst form of excema) disrupts his sleep patterns, so he's gotten creative about protecting his sleep time as much as possible.

Jacob assigned Dylan to sort through their books, telling him to get rid of any he no longer wanted. Jacob said he wasn't interested in the old books anymore.

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Dylan made a huge pile of books for the yardsale. As I went through them later, I read the titles aloud. Jacob discovered he wasn't so ready to part with all of them after all.

"Frog and Toad Together?! That was my favorite!" Quite a few went back on the shelf.

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The TV has no reception, so the kids use it for DVDs and videos, or games if they hook a game console to it.

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The children's toys of the past are disappearing, replaced by trophies, awards, school and Scout projects, and photos of friends.

I love how each item my boys choose to display has a story or represents who they are and what matters to them. They are surprisingly sentimental for guys their age.

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For instance, the little red-and-white ceramic lamp on the bottom rung of the shelf (which Jacob made in his woods tech class) used to be in their dad's nursery when he was a baby. It says: "Let love shine."

Speaking of their dad, he brought them this desk 2 summers ago. It's probably the least used piece of furniture in their room!

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The drawers are all full of their things, to be sure (I made them organize the drawers), but the purpose of the desk was to provide a quiet place to study and do homework. As if! They do their homework, but only because they have the meanest mom on the planet. (Just ask them!)

Don't you love our matching furniture? I prefer to think of myself as eclectic, rather than mismatched, thank you very much!

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When the kids were small, we painted all their bedroom furniture blue and white, but 17 years later it's all a little worse for wear.

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We bought the tall white cabinet for extra storage space because the closet in their room is tiny.

And here we are back at the door. To the right of the door is the aforementioned tiny closet, adorned with old artwork.

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And that concludes today's tour of Jacob and Dylan's newly clean bedroom. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Please return tomorrow for the upcoming tour of Sarah's amazing, spotless bedroom!

Jacob and Dylan worked so hard all week that I rewarded them today by allowing them to walk to nearby Family Fun Park, which has go-carts, miniature golf, and an arcade.

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They returned with giant candy suckers, a bunch of little arcade prizes, and a jellyfish mood lamp, featuring little rubber jellyfish that bob around the vibrating water in the tank. Interesting!

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Do you remember the little air pipes like the one Dylan has in his mouth? Blowing into it caused the little ball to float just above the pipe! I haven't seen one in ages--until today!

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Now if I can just train my sons to keep their room clean, my mission will be accomplished!