The Shuffle Begins

As I alluded to in my post on Wednesday, we're going through some changes around here.  

Remember this picture from last month?

My mom, who lives about 2 hours away, came to take Annaliese to her house "for a week."  Annaliese's plan was to look for work there, where her best friend since infancy lives.

Her plan was successful, and that was the last we saw of her!

The two girls are spending oodles of time together, and she's working and happy.

She's grown up.

I should have realized it last Thanksgiving, when I saw this picture.  I guess I was in denial.  

With Annaliese moved out, it was time to start The Shuffle, which will ultimately get the babies out of my bedroom.  

Annaliese's former bedroom gets a set of quick & dirty bunkbeds made by Paul out of mostly recycled materials.  

These are intended to be a temporary setup while we move kids around and do some building.

Ultimately, the bunk bed doubles as a room divider, giving Josiah and Samuel each a side of the room.  (Don't mind the Huggies tote J used to move his stuff downstairs, or Sam's pink sheet.)  

With the teen boys downstairs, we moved Eli in with Jack, and voila! an empty room!

A gross empty room, much in need of painting.  Boys.

Jack is helping by wiping down the baseboards.  

So that's where we're at.  I've chosen fabric for Katie & Luke's bedroom, and it should be here on Thursday.  Once it arrives, we can confirm a paint color and start the painting.  I say "we" but Paul gave up on me doing any actual painting years ago.  14 years ago, as a matter of fact.  When we moved into a house that needed every room painted.  I helped with the first one.  He did the rest.  I was pleasantly surprised he didn't give me the hairy eyeball when I started talking about painting this room.  

While Paul concentrates on painting, and building a shelf and installing a dowel in the closet, I'll concentrate on sewing curtains.  Maybe it will distract me from missing my baby girl.  Nah, probably not.  But I'm looking forward to showing pictures once it's all finished.

  Thank you for taking a moment to click for us!