You CAN Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

...or at least, change its bedroom furniture around.  ;-)

For almost all of the 45 years since my parents had this house built, a bed has stood at a certain spot in the master bedroom (visible, for example, in the third picture in this post).  I can't remember my parents' bed ever being in a different place (although I do remember several different beds they had through the years, my favorite being a waterbed that I thought was the Height of Luxury when I was a child); and when Jeff and I moved here 12 years ago, we may have had a brief stint of placing our bed diagonally in a corner (it's been too long ago for me to remember if we actually did leave the bed like that for a while, or if we quickly realized how much wasted space there was in that position and decided to move it back to a more traditional location).  But other than that, there's always been a bed in the spot between the two windows in the long wall.  Where else should a bed go in that room?! 

In the late spring of this year, I was itching for a change; so one day while Jeff was gone, I moved around the furniture to try having the bed in a diagonal position again.  Wouldn't you know, I again realized I didn't like it--and what's more, in the process I pulled something in my back and paid for it for a number of weeks after that!

But that didn't stop me. 

Jeff and I decided to move the furniture around yet again--including having the bed on the short wall instead of the long--and this is what we came up with.

We have loved it.  :)

From the hallway looking in...

 The baby corner, with maternity photos, baby name meaning signs, etc.--it's the place I nursed and rocked my babies.

The nursery opens right off ours--a very neat feature my parents included when they designed this house.

 There, where that dresser is, is the spot where the bed always stood!  But no more...

 Now it's on the short wall...

 ...under the gorgeous painting Jeff's dad did, and the two Jerusalem mirrors that came back with us when we returned from Israel in 2005.

 It gives the room a little different feel...

 ...but we've enjoyed it.

 Continuing around the room...

 Jeff gave me this figurine many years ago when we lived in Tel Aviv.  Somehow it's survived all these years!  That might be due to my strict "no fighting in my bedroom! this is a peace zone!" guideline I repeat to my children when they start wrestling or fighting with light sabers or playing Active Shooter v. Police with their nerf guns!  ;-)

 At the homeschool convention last year, one of the speakers gave out this paper with a crucial reminder that I've needed over and over since then as I have felt that I am NOT ENOUGH...but GOD IS.

 Sometimes in life, it's nice to shake things up a little bit. 

It's also nice to have a soft place to land--even if the location has changed.  :)