In Which We Make Our House Work For Us Again

OK--no more whining. S and I put our heads together and finally came up with a solution for making this house work for us AND a place to put all the furniture. We were actually so perplexed I was praying about it last week. Then, the other day I was visiting with my mom and telling her the problem and BOOM...an epiphany! An answer to prayer: how to rearrange to meet all our current needs.

So now, instead of this:

Homeschool cabinet in corner of living room.

We have this:


An office for S!!! (That's some CHEAP Wal-Mart furniture there. Nobody sneeze or slam the door too hard!)
 

And instead of this:

One side of the front room.

We have this:

Wow! A place to hang our map! And you can't see it but our spelling board is hung up too!

 

And instead of this:

and this:

We have this:

Here's the middle of that front room with our new table:

Yes folks, we have a homeschool room again. And it feels good!!! The table is tall, with bar stool-like chairs so Baby Bee won't be able to reach it for a while. And now we don't have to set up the card table in the living room every day.

And S has an office to work in! It's so wonderful!

And that little extra room that used to once upon a time be my sewing room but more recently looked like this:

Now looks like this:

The girls' rooms are clean too. There only remains our room. One day, I'll get all that laundry put away. But for now we are just so excited to make these changes and USE our house the way we need to!

We've got 7 more weeks or so of school. How about you?

My Most Devoted Reader

Good ol' Anonymous Spam. He assures me I am a most excellent writer and always has a kind word to say about my blog, plus a little happy link for me to visit.

I just spend 15 minutes deleting spam comments from this blog.

You other commenters really need to step up your game. Why don't you give me helpful web tips like him? :) Never have I had such a devoted reader.

In other news, I spent over an hour throwing away 2 1/2 bags of trash out of Sweetheart's room yesterday. It's ok--she asked me to! Actually, she bargained for me to! (She knows how to bargain with me pretty well. She knows all my weak spots. Mama will do just about anything for foot rubs, or to have my hair brushed, etc. Yesterday she REALLY wanted help on her room b/c she gave me the full spa treatment.)

I love you Sweetheart--even if you have 50 socks on your bedroom floor.

Anyway, in the course of sweeping out from under all her furniture, and behind everything and just generally getting everything off the floor--I found 50 socks. FIFTY SOCKS folks. And she was still wearing some yesterday! Today we are going to attack the closet and drawers. Time to get rid of what doesn't fit and pass along or throw away toys. Sniff. Sniff.

I've been in no hurry on the toys because once you grow up, you don't ever get to go back. She's been telling me she doesn't want them all and I keep saying, "they aren't taking up any room in your closet, just leave them on the shelf in case you want to play with them one day." But after seeing the state of her room yesterday, I've decided it's time to seriously pare down what's in her room. If you don't own much, you can't junk the room up. Right? Right?

And I must resist the urge to keep everything for Bee later. There is far too big of a gap in ages to store clothes or toys for her for later. Maybe a few sentimental items that all the girls have loved and played with. But really--I've got to let go of some things. EVEN IF they are "perfectly good." (That was my mom's voice there in quotes. She can't throw anything away. Must. Fight. Genetics.)

Baby Bee--conqueror of the homeschool cabinet.

In other news, Bee learned to open the homeschool cabinet yesterday so that is now sporting a child lock. Far too much money invested in homeschool curriculum to risk that. I don't lock everything up, just the one kitchen cabinet that has a gas connection inside it. I don't mind telling her "no." But boy if she ripped up our homeschool stuff while I was out of the room--I might have what they call a coniption. So that's another inconvient addition to our school day. I would really, really, really like to have a homeschool room again. One with a bunch of built-in would be nice. And a play area on the other side for Bee. So if you know of anyone giving a house away--give me a holler!

OK--let the vague, general compliments about my blogging style begin!

Maybe If We Move Out, Then Back In?

I've talked about this a little, but our house really isn't working for me right now.

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm THANKFUL for our home. And really, I LIKE our home. But our family has changed a lot and our house is not keeping up.

In 2006 when we bought this house, we had a newly turned 7 year old who attended private school at our (then) church. We also had a 2 1/2 year old who went to day care a few hours a day at the same school and I worked part-time at that church as the secretary. S worked where he does now, plus was the youth minster part-time.

So when we moved in this house, we set it up for a working family with 2 kiddos who went to school and day care.

Flash forward to 2013:  We have three children, all of whom stay home 24/7 and homeschool. A mama who stays home 24/7 and teaches them and keeps house, and a Daddy who still works 2 jobs. Only now he's preaching instead of youth ministering. Which means he's home far more than he was then.

And of course you may know, dear readers, that I'm a bit of a re-arranger. I keep trying to find better ways for things to work in our ever-changing situations. Let me give you an example.

1. We got rid of TV service several years ago.
2. We only kept the TV for the Wii and movies on the VCR/DVD player.
3. So all those electronics are in the front room where S has his office and we keep our bookshelves.
4. We no longer have a homeschool room since we found out about Bee.
5. So now I use the TV armoire/cabinet for our homeschool cabinet. It's my answer to not having a room. Everything is in one place!
6. Now when we need to make more room in the front room for S to have an actual office to work on sermons, we don't have any more space.
7. Of course the TV et all should go in the TV cabinet.
8. But then where would our homeschool stuff go?

What I really need is just one more little extra room. Or a big one. Whichever.

Hold that. I actually do have one little extra room.

It used to be my sewing room. Then, just earlier this year, I put the homeschool cabinet in there, but that's in the living room now. Right now this little room has a lot of junk. Shelves we can't fit in Little Bit's room anymore because Bee's crib is in there now. Some of the shelves have things on them, some don't. And also my antique sewing machine cabinet, which I have always had a place for since we got married, is sitting out there.

I guess basically that room is furniture storage right now.

Do we have too much stuff? Well, yes. I truly think 95% of Americans have too much stuff. S built the shelves. His Daddy built one of them. The sewing machine was my grandmother's. It's not just junk I want to kick to the curb.

It's like a big giant rearranging puzzle THAT I CAN'T FIGURE OUT!!!

So either I need a different house, a room added on to this one, or a new idea.

I'm going to go to bed and pray for a new idea. There HAS to be a way to make this house work for us!

My brain hurts.
**************************************************

OK I'm back. I've been walking around the house in the dark trying to figure this out. Everyone is asleep and I'm the creeper who keeps popping into their doorways to stare at the furniture and see where I can put a bookshelf. I've got it figured out except one little bookshelf.

Seriously, can we just move out and then back in? Where is Ty Pennington when you need him?

Our School Space 2012-2013

This is it. Our first year of homeschooling to NOT have a dedicated homeschool room. *sniff sniff*

At the beginning of last year, we had a perfectly lovely room. In the past, we've had other lovely rooms. 

But now, we have a perfectly lovely new baby.

Photo by H-Mama.

Which necessitates using all of our bedrooms for sleeping instead of for school rooms. And that's OK. It's better than OK. We are blessed.

So this year...things will be a bit different. {UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR}

We have sort of a utility room on the way to the garage. If you look to the right, you would see our washer and dryer. If you look to the left, you have our new "homeschool room."

This used to be my sewing room. It's pretty small. 

The closet covered with a curtain now holds all my sewing stuff. The little desk in the nook is our bill paying desk.

And to the left of the cabinet is our All About Spelling board and shoe pockets full of supplies. That white door is the door to our cleaning closet--you know, the vacuum, broom, cleaners, etc.

Told you the room was kind of small. And hard to take pictures of. I was sort of leaning backwards over the dryer to get these shots!

Inside the cabinet...

Each girl has a shelf with their books and materials for the year. The bottom shelf holds teacher books and a basket of paper. Last year's work is archived in the black crate on top. Flash cards and stuff in the small baskets on top. 

I always lamented not having a shelf in this bottom section. Then I saw my exact same armoire on Pinterest loaded down with scrapbooking materials and they had used these drawers in the bottom. Genius!

So...I guess it's not so much a Homeschool Room as it is a Storage Space, huh?

I bet you're wondering, "But Brenda...where will you work?" Good question!

Just outside of the utility room is our dining room.

I know most folks who homeschool in their dining room use a hutch or china cabinet to store their homeschool stuff. However, our china cabinet belonged to my husband's great grandmother. It's small, it's a bit rickety, and it's crammed full of dishes and cloth napkins and place mats and tablecloths, etc.  I have no better place to put that stuff. And the utility room is just a few steps away.

We'll work in here some. But even better than the dining room...

...is our new coffee table! We were blessed to get some new living room furniture a few weeks ago. It's the first new furniture we've bought in about 13 years. I'm so excited to have that coffee table! I can sit on the couch taking care of baby, while Little Bit (age 8), works here at the coffee table. Perfect!

It's so perfect that I set up a little area right by the couch just for school.

See how handy?

The black crate holds Little Bit's every day school stuff. No need to traipse back and forth to our storage area all the time. On top are our Bible books for school/family Bible time, hymnals and our globe. 

The last area of our homeschool is my oldest daughter's desk in her room. This picture is from last year but you can see the crazy-painted chair, the metal, sprayed with grey primer desk, and the mis-matched everything on top.

I am giving her desk a make-over as a 13th birthday surprise and that isn't done yet so I can't share pictures of it just now.

But it's going to be awesome!

And that is those are our homeschool spaces for this year. Hope you enjoyed the tour! Now hop on over and see some more awesome spaces!

In Which Crunch Time Hits At Our House

Eleven days people! Eleven days until school starts at the House Revised!!!

And, may I say, there is nothing like The Not Back to School Blog Hop to get you going on your homeschool space. Knowing I have to take pictures this weekend has gotten me motivated to finish the organizing. Bee cooperated today and is taking a nice long afternoon nap.

I also totally bribed convinced the older children to do chores by offering the day off of math lessons in exchange for some organizing around here. I can't be ready for school until the house is ready, you know? I suppose that's not the case if you send your children to school. Those moms wait until school starts and then go crazy cleaning out their kids' rooms. Homeschool moms like to do that before school starts.

All that nesting I did in the spring is paying off, too as the house isn't really THAT bad.

I'm awaiting the arrival of Sweetheart's back ordered Instructor's Guide and then I can get her school all planned.

I declare next week to be PLANNING WEEK at this house.

Which means this week is ORGANIZING WEEK.

Also, Sweetheart's birthday is 3 days after our school year starts. So, we are celebrating the weekend before. She's getting a very exciting birthday surprise that weekend, which will cause her to be away from the house. While she's gone, Little Bit and I are going to surprise her with a makeover for her desk! I can't wait!!

Above is a really random picture of Sweetheart's desk. It's an old metal desk that belonged to my parents. It's sturdy. It used to be that greenish color that makes you think of the desks in the astronaut's offices at NASA during Project Mercury. Well, that's what it made me think of anyway. So several years ago I drug it outside and sprayed it with grey primer, intending to paint it black for our "home office" we had at the time. And....it's still grey.

Also Sweetheart's chair is painted all crazy from when they painted their chairs for the art table we had a few years ago.

Needless to say, a girl who is about to be 13 needs a more grown-up space in which to work. And heaven sakes...things just need to MATCH somewhat in her room! I can't believe I have to wait another week to do this project! I can't wait to surprise her.

And lastly, I need to archive our work from last year. This might consist of putting everything in chronological order and stacking it neatly. Or, it might consist of shoving everything in a crate and sticking it on top of the homeschool cabinet.

 I'll let you know which one wins.

Schooling All Over the House

So, we don't have a homeschool room anymore. I can hardly believe that it was just last school year we started in this room:

It was going to be our 2nd year in that nice, large room. But then, 2 months into the school year, I started feeling completely trapped. I blogged about it here.

By the way, that was the exact same week I found out I was expecting Baby Bee. Perhaps the hormones were helping in my decision?

Whatever the reason, this is what is now in that old homeschool room:

Little Bit sleeps here.

So that left us homeschooling around the house last year. Sweetheart worked at her desk a lot in her room. Little Bit and I worked on the couch a lot as Mama was pregnant and very tired. Our school year was not what I had planned.

As I get ready for this new year, with even LESS space as we have added a new blessing to our home, I am really having to wrap my head around this "no homeschool space" thing. I would love to have a room again. I would love to have a room big enough for homeschooling and playing. It sure sounds nice.

I've never planned a year without a designated space!

We got some new living room furniture recently and I'm thankful for the new coffee table in the living room. Little Bit and I can work there as well as the dining room table. That will be nice. I am fitting all our homeschool stuff in the old sewing room so at least our storage is in one place and not all over the house.

I've got the cabinet in there, but the floor is now full of piles and stacks of stuff. Must finish organizing! Still, I'm thankful to have a small space to PUT everything at the end of the day. I'll give that tour when I'm finished. It's not pretty right now.

Sweetheart will be working at her desk again this year. For her birthday (next month), we are fixing up her desk area. I hope it will be really nice and "grown up." I'll share that when I'm done as well.

So basically:

1. I don't really like not having a school room. Humph. But I'm trying to be content.
2. I'm going to do some things.
3. I'll show you pictures when I get those things done.

Now you may return to your (infinitely, for sure) more exciting school planning!

Revisions, Revisions Everywhere

Today is our anniversary. *smile* We've been married 19 years! I cannot believe that...but when Sweetheart asked me this morning what I was doing at that time 19 years ago I had no idea. Cannot remember at all what I did the morning of our wedding.

So maybe it's not so hard to believe that its been that long ago after all.

Well, nineteen years and I'm going to be the wife of a preacher. Our preacher and his family (our good, good friends) are moving to another state. That's a post for another time. We are going to miss them because not only are the husbands friends, the wives are friends. You know, as opposed to politely visiting with your husband's friend's wife? You have friends like that, right? No, we are all friends. AND ALL of our girls are friends. We hate to see them go, but all along I have been trusting God. Because I know He is able to work all things for good for those who love Him. He can work it for their good, our good, the church's good....all at the same time. He is that amazing.

But with them moving, that leaves our church without a preacher and S has been asked to preach. Mind you, he'll still be working his regular job. So, that is one reason why I was rearranging--to make a place for S to study and prepare sermons. We did that now but have I taken pictures? I have not. Later, OK?

Me. A preachers' wife. Huh. Still kind of wrapping my head around that one. I mean, S has always wanted to preach...but here we are. I always thought "one day he'll be a preacher" but I did NOT think, "one day I'll be a preacher's wife." I guess that one should have been obvious, but it didn't occur to me so much.

Baby Bee is 2 months old tomorrow. I know! She is so sweet and cute and we are all still totally in love with her. We HAVE been able to get some school done even though she is a great distraction.

Come on...math...or me?

Is it just me, or are there a lot of revisions going on at our house lately? I was looking back at posts from this time last year...wow. I was busy re-doing the school room...NO idea a baby was in our near future. Now we have 3 girls, no homeschool room, and I'm going to be a preacher's wife.

Stick around. There's just no telling what's going to happen around here next!

Fitting

**I told you I'd share our 4th of July journal pages today, but I didn't get any pictures made. Here is what we did. 


I've said it before: floor plan matters more than square footage. I still believe that. This house we live in is small compared to today's new houses, but much bigger than many houses in this world. Still, we know that a family of 5 once lived here and fit all their belongings.

Of course, they eventually moved.

So, adding Baby Bee did squish us up a bit more. I know she's just a tiny baby, but even tiny babies have to have a place to live. I know that large families fit WAY more kids into their square footage than I am dealing with. Our girls have been allowed to keep more personal belongings than large family kids are allowed to keep--simply because they could.

Bee sleeps in our room right now and I'm pretty proud of figuring out a way to fit all that.

Bee's bed beside ours. The dresser is used as a changing table.

We'll keep her in there with us until that doesn't work anymore. Then she'll move in with Little Bit. (That would be in our old homeschool room. It's the bigger room.)

This is now Little Bit's bedroom. 

When that happens, Little Bit will need to get rid of some things. And some furniture will have to go out of her room.

But the bedrooms are not the problem.

Our front room (the first homeschool room we ever had...and former playroom)

now houses books. I like to call it the "library" like we are so rich we have a library. Also the pet birds are in there, a chair, and the armoire that holds our homeschool stuff.

There isn't room for a table in there anymore so it really isn't a "homeschool room". In fact, it's not good for much of anything except storing things. Besides the chair, there isn't any way to "use" that room.

And then there is the sewing room.

Wow. Things sure were neat then. See the curtained closet to the right?

I also made a bill paying nook in that room. There's the curtained closet again.

Well. I'm thinking. Still thinking. 

See, S needs a place to sit and study. 

The old study area I made for S. Baby Bee sleeps here now. :)

We need our homeschool stuff closer to the dining room. So I'm thinking (and this is just still in the thinking stage...) of moving that armoire to the sewing room. Which would mean all the sewing stuff has to go in the curtained closet. And a LOT of junk has to go. Then...there would be room in the library for a desk or table for S. 

Hmm. This is not about my rearranging problem (Hello. My name is Brenda and I'm a chronic re-arranger.) This is about making our house work for us. This is what we have. There HAS to be a way to make it work! 

And if it doesn't work, well...at least I will have cleaned out a lot of junk in the process, right? 

The Downside

The downside to not having a homeschool room?

This.

And I'm sorry to say our dining room table looks just like that this morning. Yep, we ate on trays in the living room last night for supper. The good news? We're all set for school this afternoon!

Little Bit has been very whiny about school, but she's doing well. Her pleas do not affect my emotions one way or the other. Sorry darlin'. School IS happening. Only 39 more days to go. We can do it.

But now if you'd like to hear me whine about the kitchen or the laundry...we can arrange that. And I can whine because there IS no end in sight for those things.

Weekly Wrap Up--Week 13

Hey! Remember when we used to do weekly wrap ups around here? Me too! Feeling like you missed something in weeks oh...6-12? Well, basically mom napped and the girls played and somehow we got a little school done each day. You didn't miss much!

But last week we were on the ball!

So..I don't have any actual pictures of school taking place, but it did. Trust me. It took a long time each day, or so it seemed since we aren't used to actually doing every subject. Saturday morning we had some school to do because I had taken last Monday off and at 5am Saturday morning I had an epiphany!

An epiphany, I tell you!

See, I've been waking up for 2-3 hours for no good reason every night. THIS particular time, I grabbed my phone off my nightstand and started typing notes so I wouldn't forget all my awesome ideas.

(And I never did get to organizing the kitchen.) (Later, OK?)

First of all, I realized some things about our homeschool room.

1. It's crowded.
2. I won't fit in there much longer.
3. We only use the table for about an hour a day.
4. We stack crap on it the rest of the time.
5. It's hard to vacuum after the birds with the big table in there.

So....out went the table. (Just stored it in the garage--it's a good table!)

And now we have sort of a library. Neat. Clean. Simple.

Uh...did I ever mention that a few months ago we moved the homeschool room back to the little room at the front of the house and the girls have their own rooms now? Hmm. Guess all that happened on my break. So I have no pictures of how crowded it was in there with the bird cage and table and TV cabinet and BOY HAVE I BEEN A SLACK BLOGGER!!!

By the way, we moved the girls to their own rooms shortly after this post and right when I found out I was pregnant.

So....now we have a room to store all our homeschool stuff in (plus the girls have bookshelves in their rooms for school books) and we work at the dining room table, the couch, the living room floor, and at their desks. I like it. I don't feel tied down to sitting in the same chair all day and we are still getting things done. AND our dining room is not junked up.

AHHH. So much better. (I really cannot believe I didn't tell you about the rearranging! Or take any pictures! Man!)

OK, so this is not really a wrap up---more of a catch up.  Here are some pics from last week:

Kids 12 and up are asked to help serve at our homeschool group's Thanksgiving feast. 

Sweetheart was SO proud to be old enough to help with the "teens." 

After lunch, Little Bit colored with some sweet  friends. 

And got to be the 5th little turkey during the Thanksgiving stories for the younger kids.

I've Decided Some Things

I believe I have blogged on and on lately about how tired I've been. may have mentioned lately about being tired. We had all last week off of school and I went out of town to a ladies' retreat this weekend. I've had some time to think. Here is what I've concluded:

I do not want to go back into that homeschool room!

It may look pretty, but it feels like jail.

It finally hit me last night as I was lying in bed. I have lost me! I know that sounds dramatic but folks I think I have been having a bit of a homeschool burnout. I've never had that before, but this is our 5th year and I found myself thinking of the old Reba McIntyre song "Is There Life Out There?" (Except I don't want to go back to school like she did in the video thankyouverymuch. Nor do I want to be married to Huey Louis.)

Anyway, I think the disdain I feel for walking back into that homeschool room is because for the last 6 weeks, I have been sitting in there for 4-5 hours a day. Then what else do I do with my time? Well, meal planning and prep, grocery shopping, mom taxi, errands, housework, laundry, and then on the weekends we do family stuff. And in the middle of all that---I realized---I am not ever doing anything I want to do!

Don't get me wrong--I WANT to homeschool my kids. I WANT to be a homemaker. I WANT to go do things with my family. But everything these last 6 weeks have just felt like I run from one "have to do" item to the next with no stops for other things along the way. There has to be joy in the day. This should not all feel like one big job that I don't even like!

I have to make it where I can enjoy these two loves!

What am I doing wrong, I wondered? What happened to "just live life and your kids will learn long division along the way?" (I've never bought that, by the way) Isn't homeschooling supposed to be a way of life....not a job?

So I decided to try a little experiment this week. You remember our wall schedule, right?

Well, I'm going to rip those suckers right down and shove them in a cup. Then we are going to start our day with a prayer or some Bible reading (that has been missing this year too) and then I'm going to set the girls loose to get their school work done. I am placing the responsibility on them. I am tired of the homeschool sun rising and setting with me. 

Of course there are lots of things they need me to do with them during the day. So, I'm going to clean off the table in the homeschool room and announce there is no more "assigned seating." Just plop down where ever you like and if I'm needed (like for 100 Easy Lessons with Little Bit), well I'll just plop down next to wherever she sat. Variety is the spice of life, right? Why should we sit in the same chair every day?

As they pull cards from their cup and think about what needs to be done, they can decide where to work for that particular task. Handwriting? They have 3 choices: their desk in their bedroom, the dining room table, or the homeschool table. Read-alouds? I want those to start happening on the couch. I've made a place under the lamp table to store the Sonlight binder and the books. The girls will be responsible to come find me, ask if I can read with them right then, gather the materials, and meet me on the couch. If I am not available--they can pull another card and work on something else until I am. Math? They both know how to put in the DVD and watch their own lesson and get started. I'll probably join them to make sure they understand it, but they can take the initiative to get started!

So what am I going to be doing, you may wonder? Well, I decided I'm going to be a mom. And a wife. And a homemaker. I'm going to go ahead and wash those dishes. I'm going to switch the laundry out. I'm going to sew on those quilts the girls will need soon. If I'm sewing in the dining room, and Sweetheart is having trouble with math, well she can just join me at the table in there. I realize I will still be doing a lot of school with them, but I hope it will be broken up and done all around the house and not feel like such drudgery.

Now this is just an experiment and I'm sure it will need some tweaking. I suspect it may drive me crazy to have them interrupting me all day long just as I get going on a task. We may need to make some rules about "these subjects first" and "then these." But something needs to happen where, between the 2nd grader and the 6th grader, the mom has a break or two in the morning.

I'm happiest when I have some sort of project going and right now, I really need to start working on Christmas presents. Hopefully, with my new plan, there will be time for that. I'm done being in control of each little item. It's their schoolwork and they need to get it done. I'm letting go of a lot and letting them take the reins.

I'll let you know how it works out! And if things work out like I hope they will, we may be moving back to the smaller homeschool room.

Mama's gone off the deep end, but it's gonna be OK!

Signed,

Your slightly crazy but it's OK because I have a plan friend