Reg and Curly needed twin XL sheets for the camp they went to mid July. I borrowed the sheets from my college kids. Tank didn't need his twin XL sheets back from Reg, because his college bed is full size. I wish you could've been a fly on the wall when I explained the difference between full and twin to my 20 year old son. There was, let's just say, some confusion. He thought twin and full were one and the same, so we spoke in circles for a bit.
After Curly used Mini's sheets, I put them in the laundry room. When I left to take Tank to school, I asked Coach to wash the sheets on all the beds.
Fun fact, most of our kids STILL sleep in twin beds. Ed recently admitted that he struggles to fit in his bed. He is 6 foot 3. The footboard interferes with his feet and he HATES trying to get comfortable. I feel a little lousy that once he admitted his struggles several of the other kids complained about sleeping in twin size beds. Um, it never occurred to me to upgrade people to bigger beds. This is in large part due to the fact that if everyone required a bigger bed, we'd need to move to a bigger house.
Ed plans to live here for about a year, not just a summer, so comfort was a priority. He decided to use his full size college mattress in his bedroom at our house. That full size mattress has been propped up against the piano in our formal living room since early July. Welcome to LIFE AS A SHENANIGAN where circus life is embraced and details, like moving mattresses out of shared living spaces, only happen when one feels compelled to do so. Order be damned.
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| This is the state of the room boys' room. Shared by 3 boys in the summer. The unused twin is leaning up against the desk. Disarray much? |
While I was in Lake Geneva with the girls, Coach hauled Ed's full size mattress upstairs. I didn't even request this. Wonders never cease. Ed swapped out his twin for the full. SO . . . his twin mattress is now leaning up against the desk in the room he shares with Reg and Tank. Indefinitely. I guess.
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| For reference, this the same room. Only Reg was sleeping in there during the school year. Reg's bed is tucked in the back corner by the window. This was Feb. '23. |
Sunday morning as we packed up the car to leave for school, Mini reminded me that she still hadn't found her sheets.
She probably mentioned that at 10 pm Saturday night as I was going to bed (I've been trying out an early bedtime), but let's be clear - she did NOT have all of her belongings packed and organized in advance of our girls' overnight. No matter that this was the ground rule.
*She also mentioned in Lake Geneva that she'd intended to buy some used golf clubs to bring to school, but hadn't. In the spring, a pair of her fav jeans got caught on a nail while at a concert, ripping in a straight line just under the left butt cheek. Guess who was running to Joanne's to buy a patch to iron on in the inside of said jeans at 4:00 pm Saturday? You guessed me, right? Because you've learned that we don't let Mini plug in things that get hot like kitchen appliances and irons.
Notice a theme here: Last minute Lulu. Eleventh hour Elena. Barred from operating appliances Bertha.
Me: OH YEAH. I WASHED YOUR SHEETS AFTER CURLY USED THEM AT CAMP. HMM. (eyes darting around the upheaval that we know as our upstairs).
They weren't in the DUMP, also known as my bedroom. At this point in time, my bedroom is TOO ungodly to even share a photo. It isn't even mildly amusing. Her sheets weren't in the laundry room cabinet where we keep clean sheets.
Me: OH SHIT. I THINK I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED.
Coach changed all the bedding. He wouldn't necessarily pay attention to which set of sheets went back on which twin bed. In his defense, Mini's sheets are navy and we own a shit ton of navy sheets, as anyone with four boys might.
The mystery: which bed had Mini's twin XL sheets attached? Was someone sleeping in said bed? From the top of the stairs, I motioned to Mini, who was at the bottom of the stairs, that we had a situation.
In our family this is done by wildly waving arms around, wordlessly because people were sleeping.
I tip-toed into Ed's room. Utilizing the flashlight on my camera, I looked at the tag on the fitted sheet on the twin mattress leaning up against the desk. Bingo. Mini's twin XL fitted sheet. I pulled it off the mattress.
I started rummaging thru unidentified piles on the floor.
Ed mumbled: WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
Me: MINI'S TOP SHEET. DAD ACCIDNETALLY PUT HER SHEETS ON YOUR BED.
Ed: OH, IS THIS IT? - he held up a corner of his in-use top sheet. Yes, he was using a full mattress, but hadn't bothered to swap the twin sheet for a full size.
Yes, it was her sheet. He held onto his quilt and I yanked the top sheet out from under it, rolled it into a ball and tossed it to Mini in the lower hallway, so she could load it in the car.
Me: HERE, MINI. IT'S STILL WARM. LET'S PRETEND IT JUST POPPED OUT OF THE DRYER.
Mini: WELL, AT LEAST ED WAS USING IT. HE'S THE CLEANEST OF MY BROTHERS.
And that, my friends, is the Shenanigan way. Rest assured Ed only slept on the fitted sheet a few nights before the long-overdue mattress swap.
Mini might want to rethink last minute packing, but I'm not holding my breath. Sadly, I might need to stop delegating sheet washing to Coach. I've begun a list of things that need to be sewn, or replaced (mesh hamper), or found, or bought (golf clubs, possibly) before we see her next.
21 comments:
Wow- that's one big bedroom! We had to bunk beds to fit 3 kids in one room. (We have a bunk in each room, and one even has a trundle underneath. We fit 4 kids in one room for while.)
And at first I thought you were talking about the pack-n-play by the window as Regs bed. That would be too small!
And I hope Mini said thank you for finding her sheets. She's lucky to have you!
Wow, I can't believe your tall kids are all in twin beds! Sorry, I'm still stuck on that detail. That bedroom must be huge!
I love this whole entry so much - probably because I can identify so strongly. We are in the same boat with high schoolers, college age kids and college graduates. Who knew how chaotic living with your young 'adult' children could get!
I am also surprised that all your very tall kids sleep in twin beds! I feel your pain on the disarray of their rooms. I went through that for years with my very messy 4. Some things you just have to let go. I did however keep my room tidy — for my sanity I needed to go in there, close the door and pretend my life wasn’t so out of control!
We upgraded everyone (except the dog) to full size beds about 10 years ago. The dog has a twin bed on the loft. The kids have full size beds. I am really considering upgrading at least one of them to a Queen, for guests.
mbmom11 - It is a huge room. That was part of the reason we bought the house. The hall bathroom was also huge. I think that room is like 17 x 15. The other two bedrooms have bunk beds. Mini and I were both relieved to have located the sheets before Coach realized. We didn't want to be scolded for leaving for a girls' overnight without having her packed, which would be more of her issue than mine.
Nicole - Yep. I never dreamt of redoing their rooms when they were about to leave for college. Not that the bedrooms would've accommodated bigger beds anyway. My parents didn't get us different beds when we were older. We always slept in twins, as did Coach. Coach is 6' 4" and my brothers are about the same. That bedroom is huge. We had two kids in each room when they were younger and moved three boys in one room when we tried to adopt the two brothers a few years ago. Then Lad took over that smaller room and he had a full size mattress -resting on top of our old coffee table. See? The place is up for grabs.
Anonymous - Amen. The bins and the abandoned piles of clothes and not knowing what bin belongs to who. Well, it's chaos. I'm working on organizing my room. My room took a lot of the overflow of WAIT, WHOSE IS THIS? It ain't pretty, but I had one truck come today and take away a bunch of boxes and bags.
Pat - Lad slept on a full size mattress when he lived here. If you recall is was balanced on top of our old coffee table and the bottom drawers-piece of the bunkbed. That ended up allowing him to store loads of reptiles under his bed. Talk about chaos. When Ed had a friend stay here a few years ago over Thanksgiving break, his friend asked him how he managed to sleep in a twin. I thought that was so strange. His friend was barely 5 feet tall. I didn't realize that a full size would be much longer I guess.
My room is NOT my sanctuary. Ed uses the corner that once housed 3 pack and plays for his work from home card table. He sits there twice a week. I have boxes of books that are waiting to be donated. I have a specific charity I went to send them to and it isn't near my home. Then there is a clothing dumping ground thing happening. I am on it though. Now that the school year is up and running, I'm diving in and organizing.
Kara - Yeah, I guess I missed that memo. I didn't know that was a normal thing to do. Space really wouldn't allow it anyway. Even your dog has more space than my kids have, when taking into account body sizes. I guest room. Dare to dream. Although, I'm not sure many people would want to stay with us. We are a lot.
Two of my three had twin beds until they left home. The one full size we had was because the bed frame happened to belong to my childhood bedroom set, so one of my daughters inherited it, getting the full size bed. I guess I was a lucky kid, back in the day.
My kids never understood about flat vs fitted sheets until they went away to college. I enjoyed your themed nicknames! LOL!
Bijoux - I slept in an old bedroom set that belonged to my grandparents as a kid. It was a double bed. My folks collect antiques and when Ann, my oldest sister, was around 7th grade they bought an antique set for my room. They measured the room in the middle of the night - I woke up in the middle of it. Then they alerted me that I was going to share the room with Marie. I'd always felt left out and I should've been thrilled, but when I realized they were bumping me because they bought a new bed set for Ann, I was ticked. I did love the twin canopy bed that I graduated to . . . eventually. Ann has made fun of us for not upgrading the girls from their doll house bunkbed, but at this point? They will be grown and flown soon enough.
Let's pretend they just came out if the dryer!!!
I love it!
Because I love you, I'll refrain from calling Children/Family Services. TWIN BEDS for grown men? I'm surprised they kept growing...Heck, maybe they would have been taller? LOL!
Mini. I love all your nicknames for her. Last minute Lucy! She's a special young lady.
I think you'd best just let Coach do the laundry (you need assistants) and then deal with it later as you did. So funny picturing you tiptoeing looking for sheets on unsuspecting sleeping peeps.
We have enough trouble keeping our bed & the guest room sheets organized. Your world is too much for me.
My childhood bedrooms [2 different houses] had built-in bunk beds under the upstair eaves, nothing like this large space with moveable furniture. How swanky is that!
My 6'3" husband does NOT have fond memories of trying to sleep in his twin bed at home as a tall young man. When we got married and had a queen mattress, he was so incredibly grateful for the comfort.
Among other things. LOL
I can't imagine your laundry load. It must be overwhelming. Yikes.
Beth - I was SO glad we found her sheets. I knew we'd be seeing her at an ND game soon, but I hated the thought of dropping a kid at college without sheets. The sheets WERE warm.
Suz - Where have I been? Oops. Thank you for not reporting me. I don't think we stunted their growth, but it is funny how twin beds always seemed 'normal'. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I was SO glad that this happened tp be the bed the sheets were on, because there were OTHER twin beds in use. ;)
Ally - Sometimes my world is too much for me too. ;)
Mini had a lofted bed last year in college and there was hardly enough room for her to slither into the bed. This year she got a room on the top floor and the building has an extra cinder block, so there is more space. It makes a big difference.
Nance - I'm laughing so hard at 'among other things.' You are killing me.
I never knew I was supposed to upgrade bed sizes. That wasn't listed in the manual my kids came with.
There is a ton of laundry. Mini complained all summer, because she's a college kid now and I don't do college kid laundry.
As a childless, partner-less person, I am... in awe of your ability to navigate the physical and mental chaos of your life right now. I would probably decompensate and take to my (twin-sized) bed. FTR, as a relatively mini person (5'2" on a good day) I'd be perfectly happy in a regular twin. ;) Good luck excavating your room.
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