Being Creative in the Middle

I shared a friend's blog posts yesterday to encourage others to be inspired! Her October series "In The Middle" have prompted me to change one of the last places to get real attention and re-arranging in our home; the room that I always put last on the "to do" list, for various reasons. Mainly because everyone else's rooms and the main living areas took precedence first, plus I was cooking a lot of family meals and kept very busy teaching these past twenty years here in the cottage. BUT before I write about the master bedroom and post photos, I have to back up a few months.

Being in the "middle" years means the nest empties out, bit-by-bit. Ours began emptying about seven years ago. When our third child transferred from a local college to go to a state university this summer, I knew I had about two-to-three weeks to re-do his room, which needed repainting. I also needed to bring down a daybed (from the attic) to have ready for this same son, and other guests, before my part-time Spanish teaching schedule kicked in. Working on that project kept me from missing him too much. This is key to making it through another transition: Don't just "keep busy," but stay productive creating new spaces in each new stage of life.

Dear son's kitty was not at all happy that he was moving.

protesting at his feet and clothing bag ~

This is what was left after we moved our son to the university and an apartment he is sharing with some of his old friends. The stack of books is new to the room, but everything else needed an upgrade. We were blessed to have leftover paint from other projects, so I didn't have to buy one thing. Not one thing for the transformation.

I mixed peach, white, with a few spoons of blue paint to make this lovely, beigy-blush hue

I even repainted our daughter's high school daybed and our son's old, small desk an espresso brown, to better co-ordinate and give a richness to the new room.

I then "shopped" a storage area of our laundry room for some art to re-vamp and put on the walls. I painted the frames the same espresso color to go with the furniture and drapes that were left behind.

And that, my friends, is how I spent the last couple of weeks of my summer vacation!


Javamom

Moving Day for our Oldest

Moving Day has come and gone; just wanted to share a few photos!



J's four instruments and longboard

attaching a bike rack


I can't believe it all fit in his little car!

Hasta luego, mi hijo...

Forty Hours Left

Only forty hours until our oldest son takes off for the northern plains for the next phase of his life! This is the calm before the final mayhem of packing up, cleaning up and throwing a going away party for him and his friends.

This past weekend, The Dread Pirate Sparsebeard helped him work on his car to get it ready for the road trip. Today is to be spent with a couple more close friends who probably will not be able to make the going-away party tomorrow evening, for they are both in college in the city, and have hectic schedules of their own.

The previous weekend, we celebrated with family across town and took one last formal family portrait before J moves out.



J came to my final Charlotte Mason book club meeting last week to say goodbye to all my mom friends, some of whom he has studied or worked with in one form or another.

What else do I write? J has grown up so much since spending the summer helping with youth camps in Scotland and traveling about, learning and expanding his perspective(s). He has very strong opinions and is ready for this next step. Staying in our area is just not the best option for him anymore; he has blossomed all he can in this part of the country and needs new soil in which to be transplanted, fed, stretched and even tested. I understand this from my own year(s) right before entering the "twenty-something" ages.

When I think back on it, I, like so many others, would not want to relive the high school years...BUT, the college years are perhaps another matter! Those were exciting times of traveling, learning, growing and maturing. Sure, there are things I would do differently, but the overall experience(s) are exciting and life-changing.

As you can imagine, not only is our sons life changing, but his brothers and sister's lives are changing, and Sparsebeard's and mine are changing, as well. That really goes without saying, but I don't have anything else profound to say at this moment. I'll let you know after he is gone, after we've taken the party streamers down and eaten the last of the cake or brownies. I'll let you know once we begin to change the boys' bedroom to update it to the taste of the next brother in line :-).

Though......

Maybe, just maybe we'll leave those party streamers up for a while.


Javamom