A little better

There's nothing like posting a picture of a totally trashed room to motivate you to do something.  Moving the bookshelf in here really made me think about how I wanted to have this room set up.  After our big trip to the Y we went to IKEA and I bought this shelf.  It seems like all the furniture we have is vertical instead of horizontal and it makes things look even smaller.  So, ta da.... horizontal.  I still may move it into the closet but it feels like a start in the right direction.  Maybe I'll even get something hung on the walls soon.  We're all about coloring these days.  They all wake up in the morning and start coloring.  It's a little freaky.  When we took L to the neurologist this week, he was crazy coloring in the lines.  I was impressed & so was she.  It's funny how they suddenly start doing that!

Oh the chaos!

Right after we made it a school room.... so glad that ugly yellow is gone

Painted a nice gray now but that furniture placement didn't work.

The room feels more functional now but it's obviously a mess & a blank slate for decorating

This is our school room.  Earlier this week, I had a furniture moving fit because the armoire we were using for our supplies just wasn't cutting it.  I ended up smooshed in the corner between the armoire doors & my table.  The table we had been using was too high and too small to really function plus I missed having it on the porch.  I keep waiting for that moment of inspiration to hit me because I would hate to do a bunch of work in here in haste and end up hating it.  So, now it looks very, very bland and it's a total mess.  The L's went a little berserk at the end of our school day yesterday, hence the chairs all over the place & knocked over.  Didn't help that I tripped over them in the dark when I went to get the computer.  LM yelled in her sleep (Ken said she very clearly said, "Don't take it from me!") and I couldn't get back to sleep.  It's going to be a long day when the day starts before 4 AM.  The good thing is my grocery list is made and I found some ideas for how to make this room more beautiful! 

The kids' room

I had been thinking about having the girls share a room for a while so that we could have a school or play room.  Lincoln & Coralee had frequently been asking to sleep together at night so I wondered if he might feel left out if we had the girls together.  After Christmas, Ken mentioned that if we had them all in the same room, I could have both a play room & a school room.  Thankfully the transition has been pretty good.  If anything, it consolidates the locations of the troublemakers (the L's).  We also dropped naps which seems to be helping the bed time battles we were having previously.  Our house has been in a little bit of chaos since moving the kids' stuff around but we're slowly getting things back together & in order.  It doesn't help that our Saturdays have been dominated by soccer & basketball games (woohoo for only 2 more weeks of that).  Yesterday we finally got the curtains up and I found sheets at Target.  In my mind, we were going to do a gender neutral room with lime green & yellow accents.  The only fabric for curtains that the kids would agree to was western.  We've been there, done that & had a bunch of accessories so it was a fairly cheap thing to do.  We still have some accessories to add and we need to tackle their closet but it felt good to have things on the wall & beds made.  I plan on making a quilt for big girl who is now in little man's bunk bed.  He's sleeping in her bed (think he's heard too much about having a seizure & falling off the top of the bunk) & poor baby girl is on a crib mattress on the floor.  One day we'll make a platform for her mattress.

Baby Quilt

I keep saying I'm going to make a quilt for my kids but so far that hasn't happened.  My hairdresser is expecting her first kiddo in a few weeks so I wanted to make her something special.  I loved the colors... so springy!

Pom Pom flowers

Every now & then I get the bug to make something to say "thank you" to the ladies that love on my kiddos at church.  I completely missed getting that done for Christmas so I decided to give it a try for Valentines.  I didn't have anything better to do.... certainly not dishes or putting away the 3 baskets of kid laundry.  I was inspired by these flowers that I saw on Pinterest.  I had made some out of felt at Christmas but had some leftover quilt fabric and decided to use that instead.  I was really thrilled with how they turned out.

A new blog!

I've thought about doing this for a while.  We have a family blog but I seem to only update it for the kids birthdays since Facebook came along.  I love reading crafty blogs especially since I can find them much easier with Pinterest.  So, I thought I'd give it a try to have my own place for posting some of the fun stuff I've made.  But first, a little of the reason why I've embraced "beautiful things". 

I always said I would never homeschool my kids and yet that's where I find myself.  Insert concerns about social skills, lack of accountability, etc.  When I was teaching full time in a Christian school, our headmaster had us read the book Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning by Douglas Wilson.  I was wowed by the ideas of a classical education.  It was so different than the way I had been taught & was teaching.  It was a natural place for me to go when we decided to homeschool our kids.  I heard someone say that homeschooling redeems two educations.... yours & your childrens'.  That has been the case for me.  I have re-learned so much over the past two years.  I have always loved history so it's been neat to see how dates & events intertwine when I'm reading.  I could give so many more examples but this blog is really about crafting, so I need to get back to the topic at hand.

One of the books that I started reading (but still haven't finished) is Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey.  I never highlight in books but there was so much good stuff in there that I couldn't help myself.  One of the reasons we homeschool is to give our children a decidedly Christian worldview.  This book talks a about how there is truth.... not many truths but one ultimate source of truth.  As our creator, God made us in His image meaning we have similar qualities.  As an example, He is a creator and He has given us the desire to create new things.  It explains the ingenuity of man to go from farming with hand tools and eventually to tractors & even hydroponics.  We're always looking for ways to do things better & more efficiently.  God made things beautiful and we desire that as well.  In our modern worldview, we get stuck in the land of "usefulness" instead of enjoying & encouraging beauty.  As I read that book, I was convicted that the things I saw as important.... taking care of my children, cooking good food, keeping house, & making my home pretty were valid things.  They were part of who God created me to be and part of His purpose & character.  It was eye opening & freeing.  So, I've embraced "pretty".  Sure, when I'm crafy I don't get to the sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, laundry, etc. for a bit but that's okay.  There's time for that later.