Let's Talk Beds

In life there will always be areas in which we can improve. Making beds in the morning is no problem for me. I love crawling into bed every night into a made bed. I also feel so put together when I walk past my room and see it made with all of the pillows in there spot rather than thrown on the floor like they are when we turn down the bed each night. Even Paul knows how I feel about having my bed made and will make sure the bed has been made before I get home each night from work. I have learned though that he makes the bed right before I get home at 7:30. He could care less if the bed was made but he does it for me. That folks is love!
 
The babies are still in cribs and only have a toddler pillow and a blanket in their crib so everything just gets left haphazardly after wake up times. For some reason they all love tossing their pillows and blankets on the floor in the morning and after naps so we are often picking these items up and throwing them back into the cribs. Drew's bed I make when I get the boys up each morning. His is super simple because he has a twin size bed with a sheet and comforter. I tuck the far side under the mattress so one side always stays in place. I am basically pulling up his blankets and throwing his sham in place and bam his bed is made. The big girls are suppose to be responsible for their beds each morning and both they and I have slacked on enforcing this. When they 'do' make their beds it doesn't look much different than when they don't make it. I could spend more time in battle over this chore but because their room is on the second level I don't see their unmade bed very often so it doesn't get to me.
 
Now the area in which this momma could use some improving is washing of the bed linens. It isn't necessarily the washing of the sheets (I am very good at pushing the start button on my machine since I do it so often) it is the making of the beds afterwards. We have 8 beds that need clean sheets and after wrestling the first set of bedding I just want to call it quits. To make you all feel so much better about yourselves I am going to share how often I wash our sheets and if afterwards you feel bedbugs crawling up your legs feel free to come and strip our beds, just make sure you put them back on after you send them through the washer!
 
Dad & Mom's: Our sheets end up getting washed fairly frequently and only because a little man who goes by the name Drew still has occasional accidents. Sometimes we are washing our sheets daily and sometimes weekly. If we go a whole two weeks without an afternoon nap accident I make sure the sheets hit the laundry basket. Drew takes his naps in our room because if he slept in his own room there would be 3 boys who would spend the coveted nap time playing. My little man sleeps hard so if we forget to have him go potty before nap he will wake soaking wet. He feels awful when this happens and we almost always know the minute he wakes up if we will be washing sheets because he wakes with a cry which is reserved for 'I had another accident' moments. 
 

What it looks like after nap time.

Drew's: Because he sleeps so hard Drew still wears a pull up each night. As soon as he wakes up he is in charge of taking it off and getting it to the garage. He is very proud when he wakes up dry but occasionally he will have a pull up leak during the night. This is our cue to wash his sheets. If he does not have leak his gets changed about every three weeks. His twin bed is pulled away from the wall so his is super easy to change. I never get grumpy having to change his.
 

Babies: Thankfully I have gotten a lot smarter since having the twins and went away from all bumpers with the babies. This makes changing the crib bedding so much faster. It is just remembering to do it that is the hard part. I would say every week to two is when they will get fresh smelling sheets and blankets unless someone has a leak in between. I do tend to change both boys or both girls if someone needs an in between change because otherwise I can't remember who has or hasn't been changed. The mattress pads only get changed if I can tell they have been soiled when I change the sheet.
 

We are still working on painting the upstairs. The only room that has been painted is the boys room. We are slow going but it will all have a fresh coat of paint before the kids leave for college, I promise.

May be painted but that doesn't mean we have stuff up on the walls yet!

Big Girls: Now this is where I need to hid my face in shame. First off our girls take baths every single night right before bed, they are not sweaty sleepers, and they SLEEP IN A BUNK BED. It is an aerobic exercise to change their beds. No lie. I break out in a sweat by the time I am done. We have even pulled their bed away from the wall to make it easier and I still despise making it. In all honesty their bed gets washed every 4-6ish weeks. Aubrey has asked me recently if I can wash so guess what I will be doing today? All because I love her. After the sheets are washed you will see me performing amazing skills as I lay on the bottom bunk and use my feet to push the top mattress up to tuck in sheets. Talk about feeling out of shape when it comes to simply putting 3 separate linens on a bed. I also tend to wash the extra twin bed we have in the girls room when I wash their bedding. That bed is a piece of cake though so I happily make that one. 
 

Yes, Tate did figure out how to climb the ladder today. It has now found a new home on the floor and Aubrey just pulls herself up to bed. 

Lots of little helpers today.

So when you come to stay the night at our house please just give me 24 hours notice and I promise you you will have clean sheets to sleep in. If you are lucky I will even spray a squirt of lavender on the pillow. I would like to tell you I am going to make a conscious attempt to improve on my washing but in all likely hood it will stay exactly the same. As the kids get older and become sweaty stinky boys I promise to wash more only because I don't want a smell to come out of their room but the nice thing will be is once the sheets are washed I will have 7 kids to make their own beds!   

This was a slumber party the girls had this weekend with their babies. Paul took a picture because he thought it was funny that if we ever had a sleepover with our kids in our room this is pretty much what it would look like.