Passage of time

I spent yesterday painting my youngest son's room, it's been nine years since I did it last. I was pregnant with Rachel. On one point it feels good to have change in is room but it is bettersweet because I am painting over the "jungle" and what seems a childhood.

The "jungle" is the result of having to spend the summer in that room while we tore out the floor in our bedroom. It was hot that year, so I spent a lot of time in the air conditioning. The jungle was a mural I painted on two of the walls and also added shaped clouds to the ceiling. Hippos, giraffes, elephants, assorted birds, and tigers will be painted over this afternoon. The room will no longer show signs of that period of our life, but will become a "teendom".

By the Nov 17 we should have new carpet upstairs in both the boys rooms, and since the rooms will be painted the upstairs should be out of the remodeling stage for at least a couple of years. Thank God. It's great when it's done but the in between time is just a chaotic mess.

Then it's the kitchen and addition part of the house, probably in the spring, since it will take that long to pay for the carpet. Not to mention the winter of tracking we can eliminate from the new flooring.

I am not ready to give up the image of my younger children and all the trappings of childhood, but they are coming. I have it with John, starting with Aaron, and see it staring me in the face with Rachel. It's funny because I have done this before with Brandon, and you know I didn't like then. Must have somehting to do with them going out into the world and no longer having control of choices they make.

Have a Blessed Day.