Snoopin' in the Boys Room

My childhood bedroom was yellow with a white canopy bed, complete with  yellow and white floral print bedding and curtains.  All the furniture was white and there were baby dolls, stuffed animals and Barbies from corner to corner and top to bottom. And it was usually a mess.  I was not born with the neatness gene...ahem.


My boys weren't either.  


But lately I have started making them take a little more responsibility for the condition of their rooms.  Though after the little walk thrus and photo shoot I just conducted, I think we have some work to do. I found unfolded clothes stuffed in the drawers that were all open in Dracen's room, you can't see the closet floors in either room and the dust is about three inches thick.  


But this post, inspired by Mama Kat's Workshop, is supposed to be about my favorite parts of their rooms so that is what we will be focusing on...


First stop, Dracen's Room.


I had to chuckle the other day when I went into his room to put something away and saw the way he'd carefully arranged a few items on his desk the last time he straightened up...   

These little critters hanging onto the world for dear life made me laugh out loud.

This puppy and monkey in a best buddy pose made me smile.  He's always had a thing for monkeys, so much so that I used to bring him one back anytime I went on a trip.  This particular one was bought at the dollar store for his nursery before he was even born.

The placement of this little cross atop this desk clock touched my heart.  It reminds me that he has never known a life without the knowledge of Jesus.

We do love our little wieners!

One of my most favorite things about his room is this antique bed that served as a guest bed, once upon a time. It is also the same bed Dracen balanced on the rails of in order to turn up the volume on his t.v. the night before we were to leave on a beach trip when he was four years old, busted his forehead open when he slipped and fell on it and landed us in the ER for hours the night before our trip.  It really didn't slow him down much though.  Not much does...

 This picture was actually taken over the summer.  Things aren't quite that neat in there at the present and that beloved Curious George who he once could not go to sleep or barely leave the house without?  Well...I found him here...

Behind the bed.  Poor George!  

This corner bookshelf is another of my favorite things about the room. I gave it a makeover last summer...

 It looked like this before...

And of course, as does his big brother and most other boys I know , he LOVES him some baseball.

I found this little treasure at Kirkland's. It hangs behind the bed.

And this hard hitting silhouette came from Pottery Barn. There is a football player on the other wall.  

Next stop, Devin's Room.

Devin is not into "stuff" as much as Dracen is and as much as I always was.  I was a major pack rat.  Devin is more simplified, preferring to throw something away rather than find a spot for it...

One of my favorite things in Devin's room is this license plate U.S. map we found at Hobby Lobby last summer.  I was under the impression it was 50% off until we got to the register and realized I had looked at the sign wrong.  But Devin so seldom finds something he likes this much (and since I was pretty in love with it myself), I said WTH? and bought it anyway.   

   It hangs over his desk (the one he never uses) that I spent many hours painting several months ago.  It had been Charlie's desk as a youth.  I did a post about it that you can read here if you're interested. I was quite proud of it and am still holding out hope that one day he will actually sit at it to do his homework, rather than on the couch or in the floor, after I've threatened him with his life.

On his dresser, I found a butt load supply of airsoft pellets (some of which are not pictured because they were floating in a vast sea of dust particles) and on and underneath his nightstand are yearbooks for every year since kindergarten, some paperbacks he was forced to read for school, a travel Scrabble, a couple of signed baseballs and a hand grenade paperweight (Yep, he's pretty much an all boy kinda boy).

 

I love this little area of wall space beside his window.  He picked out the Louisville Slugger sign that day at Hobby Lobby, the orange clock he picked out at Kohl's, and the vintage Coca-Cola girl playing tennis belonged to my mother.  She dug it out when she was going through some stuff last summer.  She had never even hung it and asked if I wanted it.  Devin surprised me by asking if he could have it in his room. I painted the frame black...

And that concludes our tour for today and reminds me just how much my life has changed since my early days of floral prints and canopy beds!  

Some parents say it is guns that make boys warlike.  But give a boy a rubber duck and he will seize its neck like the butt of a pistol and shout "Bang!" ~George F. Will

Can I Borrow Your Yukata?

The other night Dracen wanted to get on the computer so he could search for a Japanese Kimono because he decided he really needed one.  Asap.  I asked him how he even knew what a Kimono was and he replied flippantly that they'd read a story at school about one.  


After helping him search the world wide web high and low for a Kimono to fit an eight year old boy that was not made with a feminine floral print, he agreed to settle on a Yukata which I discovered is very similar to a Kimono.

We tried to talk him out of spending his last dime on such a frivolous purchase by asking him where in the world he planned to wear such attire.  He replied, very matter of factly, "To funerals and weddings and stuff like that."  


Oh, of course.  What was I thinking? Duh. So I helped him spend his money on a Yukata.  It shipped yesterday. 


The child is not lacking in personality, I can say that for sure.  The Saturday before last, Charlie had to take a quick trip to Charlotte and had asked the boys if they wanted to ride with him but neither of them did.Just before time for Charlie to leave though, Dracen showed his little tail and got into trouble.  


He told him to get his shoes on because he was riding with him.  He flipped out, begging, crying, screaming...Basically just pitched a hissy fit right in the middle of the living room floor. But when they got back he was completely calm and even jovial.  Charlie said they actually had a good trip once he finally calmed down but it was a good thirty minutes before he did.  


When he was in the midst of his fit, riding down the road, Charlie said he was kicking his feet and yelling, "You're torturing me!" and then through sobs and hysterics, "Momaw says I'm gifted!"    


He's got Momaw wrapped tight around his little finger, being the youngest of her four grandchildren and all.  A few weeks back he decided he wanted to learn crocheting...This, the same boy who loves to play in the creek and hammer things and roughhouse with his brother 24-7.


And he did.  He learned to crochet.  I don't even know how to crochet.  He came home from her house one evening and gave me a quick tutorial. 


I still don't know how to crochet.  


Yesterday when I picked him up at school he began telling me he needed some dirt/soil samples to take into school the next day...today.  His momaw and popaw weren't home but Charlie drove him over there so he could go down to the creek behind their house and collect some clay, sand and a rich dark soil.   


He came home with several Ziploc bags filled with many different types of soil and then went into the backyard to collect some of our crappy red dirt.  He had two Folgers containers, one packed tightly with clay and the other with sand and all those little baggies that he meticulously labeled with a Sharpie.   


And then he admitted that he didn't even have to bring the stuff in.  It wasn't actually an assignment.  He just wanted to do it because they were talking about different soil types in Science and his teacher suggested they could if they desired which completely blew his brother's mind...  


"He doesn't even have to do it?  He's not even getting credit for it? Why?!" 


And while we're on the subject of his brother, I got yet another call from the middle school yesterday.  From the vice principal this time.  Seems he and two of his friends decided to hang out in the hall an extra ten minutes or so last Friday before going into computer class which has landed him in ISS for one school day, tomorrow.


I hung up the phone, practiced my deep breathing exercises and gained control of myself in order to refrain from hurling a lamp at him.  Because that was really what I wanted to do in that moment. 


I've threatened to talk to his principal and teachers to see if I can come hang out with him at school for a day.  Basically just follow him around from class to class.  He cringed from the inside out when he heard that so I'm thinking I may be onto something...


Maybe I'll even see if Dracen will lend me his Yukata for the occasion.  

Some of My Favorite Women...

When I saw Stasha's topic, I knew I had to participate in Monday Listicles today.  In honor of International Women's Day, that fell last week, on March 8th, she asked us to write a list celebrating womanhood.  I've decided to make a list of ten women who have inspired and helped shape my life as I know it...

1. My Mother...She is one of the most selfless, caring, genuine people I have ever known.   She has a gift for seeing the good in everyone she meets and her positive attitude and inner goodness are always a breath of fresh air. She taught me how to love.  

1970 something

 2. Mrs. White...She was my babysitter from the time I was an infant until about the second or third grade.  She kept kids in her home for years and I was one of the last she kept before her retirement. She was feisty and strong as well as warm and nurturing, all at the same time.  She had white hair and I remember thinking that was why we called her Mrs. White until one of the older kids set me straight.  I kept in touch with her, visited her and exchanged letters with her for years after moving to North Carolina at the age of fifteen. I loved her like she was my very own grandmother and still think of her often, especially when I see old fashioned peppermint sticks, orange slices and circus peanuts, all three of which she seemed to have an endless supply of.  She passed away in the early 2000s. 

3. My second mother, Lynne... She married my dad when I was about six years old.  Lynne is one of those people who doesn't meet a stranger and as shy as I was as a child, she managed to bring me right out of my shell and make me feel loved and comfortable when I was around her.  Although she and my dad divorced in the late nineties, I will always consider her my beloved other mother. 

My college graduation, 1994. I don't know how I held my head up with all that hair. 

4. My maternal grandmother, Ollie Mae... She got cancer when I was very young and passed away when I was only four years old but somehow, although my handful of memories of her are very vague, I have always felt a connection with her spirit. One of my earliest memories (I couldn't have been more than three years old, if that) is of sitting on her lap in her front porch rocking chair, in my pajamas, and feeling such a sense of love, peace and serenity. 

Here we are at my first birthday party.  She's the one in the green dress holding little baldie aka me. 

5. Big Mama, my great grandmother... She was a small woman so I have no idea where she got the name Big Mama.  She had a stroke late in life that left her unable to speak but every time she saw me, her eyes would light up, she would try to tell me something and often tried to sneak money into my hand.  She died when I was in the sixth grade and her funeral was the first one I recall shedding tears at.

Here she is at my sixth birthday party.  That's me in the the pink jumper, frowning.   

6. Stephanye...Stephanye is Lynne's (my other mother) daughter.  I talked about the first time we met in a post awhile back... She was a big talker. I was not.  On the night my dad and her mom introduced us, she kept chattering away in the car as I remained mute.  She finally stopped in dead sentence and said, "Mama, Mama!  Can she talk?!" We spent most weekends together and some of my best childhood memories include her.  She still lives in Georgia where she and her husband are raising their three biological children as well as several foster children.  I am in awe of her.  

Disney World, 1988 in Starjet number one. I have no idea why I'm biting my tongue. 

7. Michelle... Michelle and I were both the new kids on the block at the beginning of our tenth grade year.  She had moved from another town and I had moved from another state.  I was incredibly shy and did not make friends easily.  We hit it off immediately and became almost inseparable, so much so that we were often asked if we were sisters or if we had moved there together. I still shudder to think what that year would have been like for me had Michelle not shown up on that second day of Biology class and asked if the desk beside me was taken.  We remain the best of friends still today, over 25 years later.  

Carolina Beach, 1980something

8. Pat...I don't know what I would have done without her when Darin (her son, my first husband) died.  She took a three month leave of absence from her job as a nurse and stayed nights with us, helping me take care of the boys.  We leaned on each other through our grief and I will forever be thankful for her presence, her love, her friendship and her genuine spirit.

9. Shirley...I first met Shirley in early 2000 when she came to help out in the florist I had very recently bought into with my friend Dana. We became fast friends and her lively spirit and can do attitude were a godsend.  She developed a strong bond and attachment to Devin, who was just a baby when she came into our lives, and was there for us when I was widowed at the end of 2003.  She would just show up, start straightening up my house, doing laundry, occupying the boys, keeping me company... She was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor last year, underwent surgery and is still fighting it with all she has.  If anyone can beat cancer, it's Shirley.  

10. Jenn, Kari and Michele...Okay, I realize this is three women, making this a list of 12 women instead of 10 but the more the merrier, right?  These three ladies came into my life not long after I was widowed.  Because they were too.  We met online via an online support group.  I am not sure I will ever be able to put into words what each of them did for my soul.  But I gave it my best shot when I wrote She Knew What I Knew in 2010.   

November, 2005

There are so many other amazing women who have inspired and shaped my life.  It would take me days to recall them all.  So I'll just say, "Thank You!"  Thank you for being the incredible women God created you to be.