Here Is Where Our Summer Stands

So we started the school year about a month later than usual. Therefore, we are not yet finished with said school year. This is discouraging no matter how much you mentally prepare yourself. Little Bit is aiming to be though by the 4th of July, and I believe she will make it. She's almost there.

Sweetheart, however, has worked (or NOT worked) herself right out of a summer break. If she's lucky, she'll have a 4 day weekend before 11th grade starts. Sigh. We've talked all we can talk. We've punished. We've encouraged. The saying is TRUE: You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it finish it's work on time unless it wants to. Well, it goes something like that.

But she is down a few subjects. At maximum, her school day should take her 5 hours. Therefore, if she gets on up like she's used to doing in the school year anyway, and starts by around 7am, she should be done by noon. Or, she can sleep in a bit and have a little to do after lunch. That's up to her. It's Wednesday of our new summer schedule and so far she was worked until nearly 4 or 5pm every day.

Horse. Water.

Anyway, in other news. OF COURSE because it's summer I had to completely rearrange the house. You know, we didn't do a thing to the house last summer when Dad was in the hospital. So some cleaning and organizing is in major order around here. S was able to help me move the big stuff around and get the bunk beds re-painted (this time for Little Bit and Bee) over Memorial Day weekend. I wouldn't have chosen to move all the stuff all at once like that, but that was the time he had to help. So, the furniture is in place, but boy the mess we made!

It's hard to feel accomplished when what you did one day was sit down with a washcloth and wipe down all the color pencils because something sticky was all over them. And then I sorted markers (throwing away those that had dried out) and pens and pencils and blah blah blah. All that work on little things doesn't make much of an impact but hopefully we'll be more organized this year!

Little Bit and I are painting the front room. In the past, this room has been a playroom (for the older girls when they were little) and a homeschool room. Now I am turning it into kind of a homeschool room for Baby Bee. You know, Baby Bee who turned 4 a few weeks ago. (!)

I guess really some other posts need to be made. Just too much to catch up on here.

Summary:

We are still in school and that stinks.
We have made a huge mess in the house in the quest to get organized.

It's a good thing there is a date on this post b/c this could easily be mistaken for another previous summer. My life is nothing if not predictable.

Daddy's Birthday

S turned 43 yesterday. We hadn't mentioned his birthday in front of him because we kind of wanted to surprise him by decorating the house and having dinner for him when he got home. (Why yes, me cooking IS a surprise! Not really... just kidding.)

But yesterday morning when we woke up, I didn't want him to feel unloved so I told him "Happy Birthday." Yep, he had completely forgotten it was his birthday. He even had planned to meet someone at church that night.

The girls decorated the dining room with streamers and birthday banners and set the table for dinner. Then we met Daddy at his work and got to eat lunch with him. That was nice. He works long days and we don't get to see him as much as we'd like to. After we dropped him back at work we went to buy his present. My plan was to get him a couple pairs of jeans and some shirts. He needs them and I knew he would appreciate them. But when we got out shopping, I suddenly had an idea.

An idea that caused us a lot of work!!!!

So we went to a local discount store and bought some patio chairs. The tables were not a good size and we already have a wooden table out on our patio. We bought a table cloth, a new welcome mat, a wind chime, something to hang on the wall, and a pretty citronella candle to go on the table.

Then we went home and started cleaning the patio. It was pretty bad. The girls have recently been playing a game that involves mud. Ahem. We threw a lot of stuff away and even got it out to the curb in time for the trash truck AND they took it all!

Then we set out all the new stuff and waited for Daddy to get home to show him his new, clean, relaxing patio. The girls were so excited.

There's a lot more I want to do out there, but this was a good start. Seriously, if you had seen the before, you would be more impressed.

I hope you had a good birthday S! Even though you had to work and all. We love you!

Bee worked hard on Daddy's card. She absolutely understood that she had made one just like her sisters. Daddy asked, "Is this one from you?" She nodded her head big and beamed.

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?

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?

Why I Might Be Tired

We've had a lot of secrets around here lately. Finally, last Friday morning we were able to start revealing them.

Thursday I secretly packed a bag for Sweetheart. Friday morning my sister showed up to take her on a surprise trip for her 13th birthday.

No, they did not take the baby with them. They drove to a quaint little Texas town and shopped, went to a play, and stayed at a Bed and Breakfast. They got home late Saturday afternoon.

The minute they left, Little Bit and I started dragging Sweetheart's heavy metal desk to the backyard. Listen y'all...Little Bit was a trooper. My uncle is very ill so my parents had to go out of town unexpectedly and all I had was Little Bit to help me. She helped drag that desk, she kept the baby while I was outside spray painting, she did everything. SUCH a big helper! I was only outside for 10 minutes at a time but I came in one time and Little Bit was changing Bee's diaper. That girl is awesome.

Anyway, I ran out of spray paint so we loaded up and went to get more. Only...I couldn't find anymore of the pink color I needed for the chair.

Chair fail. The beautiful pink color did not cover all the crazy paint from the art chair.

Friday night the four of us went out to eat when S got home from work. Saturday morning, bright and early, we headed out in search of that paint color. But we did not find it.

Time for plan B. We bought an office chair from Wal-Mart (the kind in their dorm stuff) and S put it together. Much better. Then we hurried and finished the rest of the make-over.

All matching hot pink desk accessories, new chair, painted desk, wall stickers, bulletin board, and...

...all new stuff inside too! Three hole punch, stapler, push pins, school supplies, etc.

So Saturday afternoon Sweetheart got home and we revealed her new desk. She loved it! And then we rushed right out the door to an ice cream social with our church.

Sunday morning was, of course, church. I had baked cupcakes on Saturday, but we also had a potluck on Sunday after church. Mama had no time to be cooking so S went to the store and bought some pies. Good enough. We left after the potluck and came home to get the house ready for a birthday reception for Sweetheart. The only way to accommodate everyone was to have a come-and-go event. It worked beautifully. They came, they ate cupcakes, they visited, and they left. I think everyone had a good time and they didn't feel they had to stay for 2 hours. Her cousins came over a few hours early and they all got to swim (thus, the wet hair!). After the party we took her out to eat.

AND...then I came home and started putting together a "Back to School" banner and setting everything up for school the next day.

Yes. I did. Someone please remind me next year to NOT plan her birthday and back to school in the same weekend, k?

And so now we're wrapping up the first week of school, which I'll tell you about later. But suffice it to say, we need a little down time around here! (More on that later too!)

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!

Let's Just Call It Progress Anyway, OK?

Little Bit does NOT like the mess I've made. She told me so. "I don't like it when things are everywhere."

Neither do I dear, but it has to get worse before it gets better.

The contents of our homeschool cabinet, ladies and gentlemen. In the first room you see when you walk in our house. The room with no door, mind you.

But I cleaned out that sewing room!

In progress...

And fit that homeschool cabinet in there!

All my sewing stuff and scrapbook stuff fit into that curtained closet on the right. 

Otherwise known as: Things I Will Get to in Another 6 or 10 Years

I'm pretty proud of that big move, but now I have to re-organize the inside of the cabinet and it's making me twitch a bit. Now that we use Sonlight, our organizational needs have changed. And I also need to get rid of a lot of stuff!

I'll be listing things for sale this week. HOPING to make some cash and clear some space. Some things I'll want to hang onto for Baby Bee but honestly...it will be at least 5 years before she uses any of it. You can't just keep everything for that long. 

Which brings me to thinking about curriculum. Pretty sure I've nailed down all my choices for the year so I'll be blogging about those soon. 

But first I need to whimper a bit. Wander around some. And then finally get this finished. 

In that order. 

In Which I Ignore the Things I HAVEN'T Done and Only Share the Good Stuff

There isn't enough lap for the laptop anymore. Just thought I'd share.

Y'all know I like to share pictures when there has been progress. I don't always feel compelled to share when the dishes are stacked all over the kitchen and we have to dig spoons out of the sink and wash them on an as-needed basis.

Not that we have ever done that, mind you. It's just that I HEAR sometimes people's houses get that bad.

With 3 1/2 weeks left, I know it's time to get with it around here. So, I finished the wall art in the "nursery." The big owl picture will later have baby's name, weight, and birth date stitched on it.

I was very proud of myself for hanging these. I don't "do" not symmetrical well. "Random" and I are not friends.

Except in conversation, of course.

Ready to go! See the quilt folded in the co-sleeper? My aunt sent that to me this week. She made it AND hand-quilted it! Her machine wasn't working, so my cousin (who teaches home ec. in the same town) brought a machine from her school. It kept puckering everything so finally she just hand-quilted it. I love it. Every new baby should have a special blanket or quilt.

I also got the checkbook updated, but that's not really exciting or picture-worthy, you know?

And I DID get those dishes washed. All of them.

Now we're working on the laundry.

And packing our bags.

We're having some fun too. Friday we met some friends for lunch at the park. Mama needed some adult conversation. That is one thing I miss about working. My students used to beg me to eat lunch with them and I always refused. "I'm a better teacher when I eat with my friends," I would tell them. "Trust me." The same can be said for moms.

Picture courtesy H-Mama.  See that 18" doll Little Bit is holding? SIX DOLLARS at a consignment sale. SCORE!

And tomorrow we will go on our last field trip before baby. Wasn't sure I would make this one as it's so close to my due date, but Carrie said she would drive and I really, really wanted Little Bit to get to go on this one. See, 3 years ago or so, we had a "one room school house" field trip to go on. The girls were so excited. My sister took the day off work and pulled her girls out of school to come along. My mom was coming too. We were all looking forward to it and then Little Bit's birthday that same weekend.

And then she woke up with 103 fever and the flu. She STILL talks about missing that field trip. (Everyone else went.) So when I heard about this one, which also features a little "one room school house" action, I knew I wanted to try to go. So we don't have to spend so much on therapy for the poor little dear one day.

I predict I will be VERY tired after that tomorrow, so I better get some more stuff done around here today!

Things Are Changing Around Here

I didn't get much done on my to do list this weekend, but we did accomplish a lot. S and the kids both remarked about how our house is changing a lot lately.

New curtains in Little Bit's room. Well, re-decorated ones anyway.

A "new" rocker from Sister for our living room. 

Another new piece of furniture in the living room. It was WAY back in the attic because, of course, we weren't ever going to need it again, right? 

More "new" things for baby. Sweet little baby socks.

"New" accessories in the bedroom. 

Pink baby blankets in the blanket box. 

OK so maybe NONE of that is new. We have been very blessed by others giving us things.

The one thing I did get done this weekend from my big list 'o fun was planning the next 8 weeks of school. We will be shy of finishing our Sonlight curriculum by about 2 or 3 weeks, but we can wrap things up over the summer. I printed out calendars from Donna Young and filled in what I'd like to get done before baby comes. I really like marking things off. Makes me feel accomplished. And "accomplished" is not really a word I would use to describe school lately. My new plan is much more ambitious. We'll see how much we get done each day. We can only do what we can do, right?

Now, today I MUST finish the list 'o fun, which is all office type stuff. Updating the checkbook, paying bills, blah blah blah. Ug.

Double ug.

Nest Progress

I've been checking things off my list right and left!

First of all, since S painted the bedroom and bathroom in January, I hadn't done much else to those rooms. Not a lot was needed for the bathroom.

Some new curtains... (just replaced the middle fabric and with a coupon that fabric was $7)

And some wall art...(which is totally covering bad places in the wall!) The plaques were about $3 each from Wal-Mart and the BEACH sign was free thanks to a scrap of wood from husband's wood shop and some paint.

Then, I just needed to sew some matching embellishment on Sweetheart's curtains. I found pink and green rick rack that fit the bill. "New" curtains for around $7! (Actually less as the leftover rick rack will show up on a different project soon!)

One expense that wasn't all that cheap was a new dresser for Little Bit's room. Her old dresser was part of the nursery furniture we bought for Sweetheart and doubles as a changing table. Little Bit needed more drawers anyway. We got this one at IKEA.

She can only reach the bottom 3 drawers right now, but she'll grow. :)

The old dresser got moved to our room. It will have a changing pad on top. The rug we got from IKEA for $20.

It's already loaded with sweet Little Girl clothes from a friend. Sure hope that doctor was right!

We have some blurry toys ready to go over by my closet. I know they won't be needed for a while, but they are ready!

And the co-sleeper is set up by my bed. I pushed it over for this picture, but we haven't attached it yet. I don't want to have to crawl around that thing until necessary!

The embroidery hoops in the bed are for the wall above the baby bed. That purple and green quilt was made by my grandmother when I was a teen. She wanted to make all of us a baby quilt before she died--and she did!

Here's a shot of the whole "nursery" a.k.a. "my side of the bed." I certainly won't have far to walk in the night!

I also got some pictures hung in Little Bit's room. We are doing her room in birds. This is a puzzle we framed. The puzzle was from the dollar store and the frame I already had--just painted it white.

And on the other side of the room--which will one day be baby's side--an owl picture from a calendar. Again--in a frame we already owned.

That's about it. I will get Little Bit's curtains hung back up today. Sweetheart has several projects for her room but I'm making her help with them so they may take longer. She's really proud of her grown up room so far.

Only 2 months to go--and I have a lot more projects to tackle!!