Jonah and Nathan's Room

Sorry about the boring homeschool posts! I really wondered if I should post them or not, but I figured I might as well just in case anyone wanted to know what we use. Not that I'm some sort of homeschool expert! I know that I'm curious and want to hear about what others use. :)

OK, I realize my last few posts have no pictures in them, so here are some I wanted to show you.

Remember how I talked about the HUGE homeschool catalog? Here's proof that it really is as big as a phone book! Actually, it is BIGGER!

Is that crazy or what?!

I also wanted to show you the boys' new reading lamp in their room. Not that it is particularly cute or anything. I just love that they can read on their own and turn off the light when they're done! That may be a bit of laziness on my part. Ha ha!

The "light saber" nightlight is next to the lamp. It's not really supposed to be a light saber, but it sure does excite the boys at bedtime. :)

Just a cheap lamp, nothing fancy or anything. I did let Jonah choose what color to get. There was black, white, or silver. The neck is bendy so they can move it and adjust it however they want.

Well, since we're in here, do you want to see their bedroom? No? Too bad, I took pictures and I'm using them. ;)

My boys share a room. There is a guest/playroom directly across from their room, but they love sharing (so far) and I have no plans to split them up any time soon. I figure when they start bugging me for their own rooms, we'll start thinking about it. Until then, they're stuck together. Hee hee. Yeah, their room is tiny but they don't care and neither do I. It really is just a bedroom.

Here's the view from the doorway.

I meant to blog about their beds um... like a year and a half ago. Oops. Jonah's bed, on the right, was Raymond's bed before we got married. His parents bought it for him about 10 years ago. After he moved out, his brother used it. Then his brother moved out and they didn't need it, and since Jonah was going to be moving out of his crib so that Nathan could use it, they offered it to us! It's nice because it is a captain style bed so the drawers are underneath which saves space. I loved it when Jonah was a toddler, it's a pretty high bed so he was too afraid to climb down. Once he was in bed, he wasn't getting out. Bwahahaha. :)

This is what their room looked like a long time ago when Nathan was in a crib.

Then my parents came for a visit and my dad offered to paint any rooms we wanted done. So we had the boys' room painted, as well as our master bedroom and both bathrooms. (I hate painting and LOVE that Dad was willing to do it for me!) Nathan moved from a crib to a toddler bed at around 15 months old, and we gave the crib away to some friends who were hoping to adopt. (Yes, that means we are done having kids if you had not guessed that already. Haha!)

I stenciled a cute phrase on the wall that I found online. I did NOT do it freehand! We used a laser level and paper stencils to try to get it straight. It is not perfect but it'll do!

We planned to keep Nathan in the toddler bed for a few years and had just started discussing getting bunk beds in the future. We mentioned our plans to Raymond's mom one day, and she said she'd be on the lookout for a bed. That very same day she called us and asked us if we'd like a bed like Jonah's. I had thought about that, but I was afraid it would be expensive, and didn't even know if we could find one just like it. I wanted the beds to match, if at all possible, and figured the only way to do that would be to get a cheap or used bunkbed. Well, God knew exactly what we needed, even though I had not voiced my desires or hopes of having a matching captain bed. Because wouldn't you know it, the very same day we told Raymond's mom we were thinking about future beds, she found a bed exactly like Jonah's at Goodwill! It was $55. Did we want it? YES! There was even a matching nightstand, for around $10 or $15. She was also looking for a bookshelf for Angela, and there was the perfect one there, the size Angela wanted, that matched this bedroom set. How amazing is that?! As much as I'd LOVE to have that bookshelf (fyi, Angela) there is absolutely no room in the kids' room to put it in there so it's better off at her house! Everything we wanted was waiting for us at Goodwill. My mother-in-law paid for the furniture right away so they wouldn't sell it to someone else, and was able to pick it up the next day and bring it to our house. Oh, and if you've been to Angela's house and wonder where the bookshelf is that she got, she keeps it in a closet in the playroom. Hee hee.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought we could find a matching bed for such a steal! What a blessing!

We moved the little bookshelf we already had (this we got from Raymond and Angela's great grandmother's house after she passed away) to the opposite wall and moved the toddler bed out. (Actually, we gave it to Angela.) It is a pretty tight fit with all of this furniture, but thankfully since the beds have drawers underneath, we have no need for dressers. Not that we could fit one in that room anyway!

This is what their room looks like now.

The zebra print blanket is actually mine, but Nathan begged me to let him use it. I don't have matching bedding anymore since Nathan isn't using a toddler/crib anymore. I'm not sure if I want to keep the wallpaper shapes on the walls around the room, since the kids have ripped off quite a few of them. I've thought about buying new bedding that still goes with the theme, but I still haven't decided... It's summer, so we haven't been using blankets anyway. Hmmm, have any suggestions? I could buy matching comforters like this, or I could just get some different mix and match solids/prints. I'm not sure if their room is getting too babyish. I do NOT want to paint again. I'm waiting for them to have separate rooms before we paint again, haha!

See the torn off shapes on the wall? *sigh* Nathan used to do that at naptime when he didn't want to sleep. Grrrr. I suppose I could buy another pack or two and redo them. I'm so NOT a decorator so I really don't care...

Matching nightstand that we got at Goodwill with the bed. It is very handy for water cups at bedtime and keeping tissues close by, as well as a place for our new lamp!

They have their movie "Cars" matchbox-type cars stored in plastic boxes on the shelf of the nightstand. That is ALL of the toys in their room. I'm a mean mommy, I know. They do sometimes store a few stuffed animals in the cabinets under their beds or under the nightstand but I don't see them so it's out of sight, out of mind.

The little bookshelf is now between the closet door and bedroom door.

My boys' room is seriously wall-to-wall furniture and nothing else, but that's okay. It's cozy, and very easy to keep clean! Their room must be spotless before they go to bed; no books, toys, or clothes on the floor. I don't care if the guest/playroom is a mess, I just don't want them tripping on anything if they were to get up in the middle of the night. I don't like going into their room in the wee hours of the morning to comfort a crying kid and stepping on anything either. I'm grouchy enough when my sleep is interrupted. ;)

I hope you enjoyed the little tour of my kids' room!