Room to Remember

So. I have this glow-in-the-dark star sticker on my cell phone. It's the last remnant from the large collection of such stickers I recently peeled from the slanted side of my daughter's bedroom ceiling. I had to scrape them all off, one at a time, with my already traumatized fingernails, in order to repaint her room a couple days ago. She went off to 4-H Camp for four days last week and as our family is kind of big on fun surprises, I decided that this year, I'd try to finish the room re-do project I started two summers ago. For a variety of reasons, I wasn't able to work on her room last year, so I figured she wasn't expecting me to do so this summer either. However, the minute she was safely deposited at camp, I headed to the local home improvement store for paint and supplies. My mother was correct when she once told me that paint and wallpaper would cover a multitude of sins. The sins she was referring to of course, were the crumbling plaster, worn-out wood windows, and crooked walls of my much loved childhood home. Our house now sports it's own assortment of minor sins, so thanks to my mother's good guidance, I know how to fix them up and this fix was gonna be good!

As I got started, I disassembled and removed her bed, moved the big stuff to the nearby bathroom for temporary storage, and shoved everything else over to the alcove of her room- the only portion I finished two years ago. Then, I took one last long look at the final remains of her room as it was when she and her brother occupied it as babies. Hidden behind a tall dresser and mirror was a wall painting I had done for above the crib. Fifteen years ago, when her brother was near to making his arrival, I was a newbie to any sort of stenciling, and the slightly off-kilter lettering is the result of my less-than-stellar centering skills.

The light green walls and white trim in the room were the color scheme of that time, and changed from a Beatrix Potter bunny theme for the boy, to a flower garden with pink roses for her. Now, I'm not typically a mushy, reminiscing kind of person, and I have to admit, I have enjoyed just about every phase and age my kids have gone though, so even though remembering them at that age makes me smile, I've not really had too many misty moments or longing to return to their baby days.

While I was distracted with the aforementioned "variety of reasons," I think I may have missed out on a bit of the serious growing up they've done in the past year or so. It kind of took me by surprise how reluctant I was to paint over the wall mural of their babyhood. My kids are suddenly closer to adulthood than I realized and like the hidden mural, I hadn't even noticed it every day. Maybe that's what made me take a deep breath before slathering on that first roll of new color. Over the course of the next few days, every wall was changed from a pale green to a comforting brown  or a clear-sky blue--the colors she once mentioned to me in an "if I ever redo my room" kind of conversation. The familiar fingerprints on the trim were painted over, and replaced with a bright coat of white. All those glow-in-the-dark stars were removed and tossed into the trash basket. "I'll buy her a new bunch if she wants them back, " I told myself. Finally, after sanding down the lettering and the painted moon and stars, I took up the paint roller and said goodbye to the mural. And now, after three coats of paint, that particular wall is now light blue, with an almost life-sized stick-on wall mural of two horses, and there is no evidence of what used to be there. Eventually, I'll add a bit of picket fence and maybe paint a grassy field around the horses' hooves. The other walls are a soft cocoa color, decorated with a shelf holding her bridles and other horse tack, a pin board with her ribbons from 4-H and school, and an old window from her grandpa's barn is being used to frame photos of my girl and the horses who own her heart. Her lavender bed has been replaced with a dark brown antique set once belonging to her great-grandparents, and the pale yellow and gold dresser has been transformed from an "it will have to do for now" type into an elegant-looking light turquoise beauty. It's a beautiful room with a much more grown-up look, and there is no trace of the baby green or the pink rose garden theme she once had. When she entered the room for the first time, she screamed in delight and flopped down on the bed to enjoy the fluffy softness of the comforter and pillows. She proclaimed the room "so pretty" and "perfect" and couldn't wait to FaceTime her friend to show it off a bit. She's quite pleased to be rid of the nursery look and is eagerly moving on to the "almost teenager" phase.

Me? I still love the ages my kids are now, and I really do enjoy imaging what their futures hold, but when things get super busy, just for a little while, I want to remember with more clarity the way they used to be. So, before painting over it, I took a few photos of the little mural that once was there, and saved a single glow star from the ceiling and placed it on my phone. It's just a little something to remind me that regardless of whether I'm paying much attention, time marches on.