Sell. Swap. Donate. Trash

I'm not sure what is going on around here, but I am totally nesting.

Maybe it is the weather.  Maybe it is the season.

I don't know. 

What I do know is that a week ago I was picking up toys as I do everyday (and yes, my children should be cleaning up their own toys, and sometimes they do, but, seriously, I do it much better and much faster and with much less whining, plus, I put the Spidermans in the Spiderman bucket and the Cars in the Cars basket and the Barbies in the Barbie basket.... ), and I suddenly realized that we live in excess.  Yes, excess.  There are far too many toys in our house, distributed recklessly across the floor of every room that the kids occupy.

And it isn't just the toys.  No.  Everything from my collection of "paint shirts" (you know, the shirts that I save in case someday I will need to paint something), to our shelf of old shoes in the garage that we save just in case we need to hike through the mud someday, to my four re-usable shopping bags that are full of re-usable shopping bags!  Excess!

So, I've been making piles.  Piles everywhere, everyday.  Sell. Swap. Donate. Trash.  The piles grow, and nothing is safe, except...  except!...  the baby stuff.  I come across our baby blankets, or our crib bedding, or my maternity clothes that I've kept just in case....  Just in case we ever have another baby, I should keep our baby stuff. 

Now, don't panic, or don't get excited, whichever side of that coin that you may fall on; We are not having another baby.  But we are also not not having another baby.  We have no plans of adding to our family, but it also isn't a closed door.  And, can I be honest? I do want to have another baby.  But probably not right now.  Though we aren't getting any younger (and one of us especially isn't getting younger, ahem, Devon).

But, anyway, back to my story- I am trying to purge our home of excess.  I am trying to pretend that we are going to move across the globe and we can only take the stuff that we really, really, really want and need.

So, from room to room, and even through the garage, I'm looking for crap to toss. And while in the garage, I unburied our crib, and I was back to that big looming question mark that hangs over my head.  Another baby?

I happen to be in love with our crib.  I found it on Craigslist when I was pregnant with Lucy, and then I had a dream about it, so the next morning Joe and I drove to a stranger's house to buy it, and I've loved it ever since.  Nevermind the fact that it was rarely slept in...   
Do you have any special furniture that you want to keep forever and ever?  Hopefully your special piece isn't a crib because what the heck and I going to do with this thing?  Do you know that you can't even resell cribs anymore?  It is against the law, I think. 

So, I stood in the garage and stared at the crib for a while.  And then, like a strike of brilliance, I had an idea:  I'll assemble it and put it in our bedroom! 

"What?"  That is what you are thinking, right?

Let me explain- Max and Lucy both make their way from their beds to our bed every single night because I was a failure at teaching a baby how to sleep through the night alone, hence the barely used crib. So, Max sleeps beside me, and Lucy sleeps beside him, and Devon sleeps beside Lucy.  But Lucy has recently been kicked out of the "family bed" because Devon just doesn't care to have her knees digging into his back all night.  So Lucy has been sleeping on the crib mattress on the floor in our bedroom, like this...

 

 

 

But now, behold!

 

 

 

I was hoping that it would look like a mini daybed.  Nope, it looks like a crib.

 

Oh well. 

 

The kids haven't seemed to notice the various items that are suddenly missing, which is a good sign that they can live with less.  And I haven't yet started on Joe's room or Devon's stuff.  Wish me luck!