Blue-Footed Musings

Last night I looked out upon the world and decided that the weather wasn’t bad enough for a school cancellation in the morning, so I went to sleep expecting to wake up at the usual time. I did not bring the phone with me into the bedroom. So, of course, the school called at 6:00, and I had to get out of my cozy bed to answer the phone.

It wasn’t a cancellation, but rather a 2-hour delay. The idea of sleeping in a couple of extra hours sounded pretty good. But, to sleep in, you have to be asleep, and that’s something I couldn’t seem to manage when I went back to bed. I tossed and turned for hours, until I finally gave up all hope of falling back asleep. I ultimately got up later than usual but less rested.

This was not just a poor start to the day, but also a poor start to the season. We are only three days into December and I’m already short on sleep. I hope I can catch some extra Z’s soon. If not, it’s going to be a very difficult month!

Now that my bedroom is fully furnished, it’s become my little den of peace. I am adamant about keeping it that way. In the morning I open up the shades and the drapes to let the sunshine in. At night I close them to shut the world out. I make the bed every day, even going so far as to get Martha-Stewarty with the throw pillows.

Hard to believe, isn’t it? Because in the past, I was never the bed-making type. I never really saw the point of it. If you’re just going to climb back into the bed at night, why bother making it neat in the morning? But now the world has gone full-on crazy and maintaining a comfortable, controlled space is one of my ways of coping.

No one is allowed to ruin it, not even the man with whom I share it. He’s already tried a few times. He left some lightbulb boxes strewn randomly around (the nerve!). So I neatly arranged them on his shelf. He left a pile of laundry on his side of the bed (such audacity!). So I folded it and stacked it on the blanket chest.

Now, as we contemplate getting our house into shape for Christmas, there is one rule that cannot be broken: NOTHING may be temporarily stored in our bedroom. I don’t care what kind of messes we have to create or tolerate elsewhere in the house, we are going to treat the bedroom as a sacred, inviolable space. And that’s that!