How Do You Make A Bed?

How do you make a bed?

Before this past Easter Sunday, I thought you’d pull up the sheet and blanket, smooth out the wrinkles just so, and drag the bedspread / coverlet / quilt over the top. Throw pillows “tossed” (So who really believes that?) a tiny bit askance along the headboard and a comforter fixed “just so," I thought, suggested order with a casual air and decorative know-how.

Not so! After daughter Christine, her husband Daniel, and their children Jacob, Micah, Rebecca, Sarah, Susannah, Johanna, and Josiah left Sunday, I began pulling sheets off the six beds and crib. Upstairs I stripped Jacob’s bed. Downstairs in the “nursery” I removed queen-size sheets and a crib sheet before opening the door to the “dormitory,” home to three full-size beds, one single, and an antique trundle bed.

When I walked into the girls’ dormitory I laughed and almost cried when I saw my antique spindle bed, its headboard lined with stuffed animals and two “stuffs” tucked gently under the sheet. Which of my daughter’s daughters (ages 11, 9, 7, 6, 2) thought of that? I don’t know. But being a wise (?) grandmother with insight into her grandchildrens' personalities, I have a hunch. And I know that once the idea was broached, the other granddaughters participated eagerly.

Anyhow, I want to leave the old spindle bed from my dad's family as is, complete with stuffed animals on the headboard and tucked under the covers. But I can't do that. Sheets must be changed, stuffed animals--depending on Yellow Dog's munching whims at the moment-- will disappear. But the next time I make the bed, I'll place the "stuffs" as they are now. I took a picture, a picture that will bring back memories of Easter 2008 and of grandchildren loved and remembered. And if my grandchildren read this, I do love you and will always remember you and the joy you've brought into my life.