My Beautiful Pottery Barn Bedding

I remember getting a lot of spankings as a child- no surprise to those who knew and know me, right? But one spanking in particular happened at my grandmother's house. A few of my cousins, who will go nameless, because I would never want to embarrass them, right, girls (you know who you are), were caught in the act of jumping on my grandmother's bed in the back room. Not her bed that she slept on, but on the one that was in the "add-on" area in the back. The add-on area that was more of an outside room than an inside one. The one where I slept on a mat on the floor. That room. Yes, the three of us were jumping on the bed, and I got spanked BIG TIME for it. I still remember it, even today.

When we moved to Springdale two years ago, I wanted to get new bedding for Keith and my bedroom. We had my sister's bedding, which was beautiful, but not me. I wanted something that would reflect my tastes. And I knew when I saw the Pottery Barn Matine Toile espresso bedding that I had found what I had been looking for all these many years of marriage! It was beautiful!

I asked our family to get us the comforter and pillow shams for Christmas. They did and I was so elated. I actually made the bed up for a few mornings, which is a rare event in my house.

So imagine how I felt the first time I saw my babies jumping on my bed. Memories came swarming all over me. I immediately heard "Thou Shalt Not Jump On The Bed."

"Babies", I said in my sweet, loving mother voice, "Please respect mommy's beloved bedding and do not jump on it."

Actually, it was more like "Get off my bed!"

I have completely lost that battle. For one, Keith has a game that he plays with the girls every day when he gets home from work. It's called "Daddy, throw us on the bed." The game consists of him picking them up over his head and throwing them high into the air and letting them land on the bed. This occurs over and over and over until he has to take a break due to pure exhaustion.

Every Saturday morning all three Kilmer kids declare that it's "family time" and jump and roll all over us in our bed. Even Eve the puppy joins in "family time". That beautiful bedding has been kicked on, vomited on, rolled in and on, jumped on, used as Kylie's trampoline and used as Kylie's landing mat on the floor. Many times I come home from work and see Eve the puppy asleep on my bed.

The bedding has been washed so many times that the color has changed from dark espresso to light milk chocolate.

Whenever one of the kids is sick or sad, they want to cuddle up in our down comforter. Clay, especially, loves to wrap the comforter all around himself after he comes inside from playing in the snow. Every night both girls go to sleep in our bed. We move them before we go to sleep, but Kylie seems to always make it back into our room. Yesterday morning I watched her as she woke up, sat straight up in our bed with a huge grin on her face and sighed contently as she stretched herself awake. Then she looked at me and said matter-of-factly "Good morning, mom."

This may sound silly, but I hope I never forget these precious memories that God has blessed me with. No, I don't have the picture perfect Pottery Barn bedroom, but I wouldn't trade my reality with that picture for anything in the world. I have it much better than that!