A New School Room

When we first bought the house we live in, we weren't planning on home schooling our children yet. That was almost 7 years ago! This house had a formal dining room in the very front of the house that we decided to turn into a playroom.  At that time, we only had Aaron, and Ethan was 3 months from being born.  The playroom was a favorite hangout spot until 4 years ago.  At that time, we put Aaron and Ethan in a room together and most of their favorite toys went in their room.  The playroom still got plenty of action because we were LifeGroup leaders at our church and when the LifeGroup came over, the kids in the group went like magnets to that room!  When Andrew was born, I found that we didn't hang out and play in the playroom with him like I had with the older two because I was doing school instead and Andrew had to be where we were or in the playroom by himself - which he didn't like! A little over a year ago, we stopped being LifeGroup leaders and the playroom stopped being used.  It became the catch-all room instead, which for a room at the very front of the house is a very bad thing!

Anyway, we decided to turn the playroom into a school room, and it was a great decision!  We got rid of a lot of our toys that weren't getting played with, moved the ones Andrew liked into his new big boy room, and left a few in there for Drew to play with while we did school.  We moved the giant bookshelf with all of our curriculum out of a hallway it had been in to the new room, along with a recliner that had been shoved in my office (and not used), and a table that had been my cutting table in my office and before that our kitchen table.  The result is a great school room! We can now all be working at the table, or one can work at the table while the other reads in the chair, all while Drew plays with his toys in one corner!

The view from just inside the front door of the house.  Actually a respectable room now!

The work table.  When I want to cut out a sewing project, which isn't very often these days, I'll have to do it in here - hence the large cutting mat between the table and the wall!

The reading nook, which is where I'll spend my days reading the boys' read-aloud books to them!  It has also become a favorite place for Jerry to sit and decompress.  Wow! We actually  made this a functional room! :)

I love my sign over the white board! I still haven't been able to collect on this, but I am holding out hope that it is my get rich quick plan...

The curtains I bought for this room weren't long enough, and didn't come in a longer size.  But I got creative and altered them!

Doesn't that look like they were meant to be this way? And yes, I did do the cutting and pinning right here on the table!  This is also Drew's toy corner.

Overall, I am so happy with the way this room has turned out! I am hoping that it also helps keep the school clutter out of the other rooms in the house! Maybe we can actually relax in our living room now!  Is that too optimistic?

Before...Kind of...

I forgot to take a true before shot of our back patio, but you can see some of it behind the wrestling football players here:

And this is the first part of "during":

Mini Post Monday

• I cannot believe that there's only 19 days until Christmas.  Time flies.

• This week, my parents celebrate their birthday.  Both born on December 8!  How cool is that?  I won't tell you how old they are, though...after all, occasionally my mom reads this blog! 

Dad, playing a game with Aaron and Jerry.

Mom, helping me with the dishes after our big November birthday celebration!
• I restarted the 100 push-up and 200 sit-up programs I tried to start a while back.  Um...I'm weak.  And sore.  Enough said.
• Jerry started tiling the shower in our bathroom remodel! It looks amazing.  I married an amazing man.

I love the offset design with the glass tiles!

Detail shot.
• I've been getting a lot of headaches lately.  I woke up with a headache yesterday, and it was all I could do to get up to serve my turn in nursery duty.  Needless to say, we came home as soon as our duty was over, and I spent the rest of the day in bed.  The headache went away around 9:00 pm, but this morning it is back.  ::sigh::
• School the next two weeks is all about Christmas!  We are making Christmas crafts, reading books about how people celebrate Christmas around the world, and making Christmas treats in the kitchen.  Man, I love homeschool!

• Ethan has already outgrown all the pants I bought him for this winter.  Good thing he has a little brother, because I would hate getting rid of pants that have only been worn a few times.  He now weighs 5 pounds more than his big brother, who is almost 2 years older than him.  I told the boys that pretty soon Ethan would be passing his clothes down to Aaron...I think Aaron is not liking that idea very much!

Two closer brothers are hard to find. I am truly blessed!

Silly shot.  This is actually a lot more normal for our house than the last one...
• I'm enjoying the fact that it is soup and stew weather again!  I've missed soup.  I don't know how people who live in climates that never really get cold ever enjoy soup. 
• I did the majority of my Christmas shopping online this year, taking advantage of Cyber Monday deals. It is so wonderful to get a package of stuff delivered to my door each day!  It is also nice that I don't have to find a time to go out without the boys so I can keep their gifts a secret. Plus, it is driving the boys NUTS to know gifts are in those big brown boxes at the door and then not be able to open them up right away! :) Amazon.com, I think I love you.

• I want one of these for Christmas: Eureka Enviro Steam Mop. I think that officially makes me a dorky grown up.

Mini Post

Didn't I used to do these regularly? :)

Jerry has been working like a maniac on the second bathroom we are remodeling.  I love this bathroom.  It is so peaceful and beautiful that I just want to go in there with a good book, shut the door and hang out for a while.

Jerry hard at work.  We bought this table at Pier 1 and he drilled a hole into it and added the plumbing himself!

The beautiful sink and vanity combo! 

Jerry raised the pipes in the wall to put the faucet right into the wall.  And check out that seashell frame - it is so lovely!

We added blue, brown, and yellow accents.



 Last week, Jerry's parents came for a visit.  We don't get to see them too often, so it was great to have them come.  While they were here, we had a huge birthday celebration for the four people who had birthdays in November!

Jerry's dad turned 75!

Jerry's mom turned 73.

Jerry hit the big 3-6!

And baby Andrew turned 2.  How is that even possible??

 In totally unrelated news, check out this potato!  It is truly a Texas potato.  Doesn't it look like a pair of cowboy boots?

 Andrew is suddenly VERY attached to his blankets.  He sleeps with them, carries them around the house, takes them with him when he plays, says goodbye to them when he leaves to go somewhere...  As you can tell by this picture, he isn't happy with just one blanket, he wants every blanket he owns at once!

 This year, we actually got some amazing fall color!   We don't normally get fall color.  The leaves here tend to go from green to brown, but we got a lot of rain this fall, and this is the result!  Now, if it wasn't 82 degrees out as I type this, it might actually feel like fall out there!

Hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Mini Post Monday

I never grew up celebrating Halloween, nor do I promote it with my own children.  However, each year at this time of year, my church puts together a huge event for families in the community to provide a safe, fun place fore kids to come all dressed up.  This year, they really outdid themselves.  There were hayrides, bounce houses, horse rides, a petting zoo, dozens of game booths for the kids to visit, live music, puppet shows, smores, hot dogs, funnel cakes...oh, and tons of candy. Since my kids cannot eat the candy due to their allergies, they even had a bag with little toy prizes at each game for my kids!  Wasn't that an incredible thing for them to do?  Needless to say, the kids had a blast.

Andrew as a frog.  He loves frogs and makes the cutest little "ribbit" noises!

I really wanted to capture a picture of Ethan, but he was in camo, so I'm not sure you'll be able to spot him...  :)

I didn't get a picture of Aaron in his costume (bad mommy), but he decided out of the 5 costumes he has, he would wear the exact same one he wore last year.  So if you're dying to see him, do a search for last year at this time, and mentally age progress the pirate you find by one year.

While his brothers ran around totally thrilled, Andrew was a bit overwhelmed by the thousands of people and tons of noise.

Both Aaron and Ethan were able to throw the football right into the opening twice in a row!

Believe it or not, that went in! We really have to work with this kid on stepping with the proper foot when throwing a ball...

This is my all time favorite game!  The kids have to stick their hands up a giant nose to grab a piece of candy.  The lucky kids also get some snot (aka water squirts or green silly string)!  How awesome is that? (Yeah, it's obvious why God gave me 3 boys...)

Jerry has been working overtime in the bathroom.  He is trying to get it to at least have a functional toilet and sink when his parents come to visit in 1 1/2 weeks! This weekend, he got the rest of the wainscot and moulding up, tiled and grouted the floor, and hung the mirror.  I cannot wait to show you how this looks with the vanity and sink in also!  It is going to be amazing.  Now I have to choose a paint color for the wall between the wainscot and ceiling.  I think first I need to find some sort of accent tile for the shower, then pick a wall color from that.  I've learned it is much easier to pick paint that matches an item, then to look for an item to match paint!

Amazing tiled floor.   The shower tile is this same travertine only in 8" tiles rather than 12".

The mirror I found last week.  I took one for the team and went shopping to do my share of work here in the bathroom! :)

 Did any of you happen to notice when my adoption ticker turned the two year mark last week?  Originally we thought we'd be going to China to get our little girl around the 28 month mark.  Now it is at least 48.  Sigh. So we still pray for her birth mom, that she'd be found by the officials soon after her abandonment, and that she'd stay healthy and be loved in the orphanage. And I still have a Hannah sized hole in my heart as I wait for her.

Now I'm going to make a shameless plug for my business!  I am currently running a contest! If you would like a chance to earn some free jewelry by simply showing a Premier Designs catalog to your friends, family, co-workers...and making sales, let me know!  You earn 20% of all your sales in free jewelry and have chances to win 1/2 price jewelry, a Petite Swaravski Tennis Bracelet, and an aditional free item (up to $40 value) of free jewelry! Plus, the person participating who gets the highest retail in sales gets a bonus $50 in free jewelry! I have 3 participants so far, so the contest is on!!  To join in the fun, just leave a comment with your e-mail address, or contact me via the info in the pic below to get started!

Okay.  That's the end of my shameless business promotion.  You may now go back to your general bloggy fun.

Mini Post Monday

• Last week I knew there was no way I'd get a post up, but I almost published one that had the Mini Post Monday title, followed by text that said, "Made you look!" I decided against it thinking some of my (3) readers might not find that as funny as I do.
• It's been a while since I've said anything about remodelling, but our house remodel continues none the less.  It's going a bit slower recently, though.  Here's a glimpse of the portion of the kitchen that's 100% complete!  Isn't it lovely?  It is a lot darker than it used to be, but I love it!

(I also like having all my doors back on the cabinets.  These were open and doorless for a long time!)
• Of course, most of the kitchen still has the "patchwork" feel to it, but slow and steady wins the race, right?

(Old meets new.  Modern meets the 80's.  My kitchen is having an identity crisis!)
• We also started on the other hall bath.  It looks like this right now. 

(Actually, right now there is no sink and a tub has been added.  Oh, well.  Next week.)
• We're not using this bathroom much right now! :) Here's what it looked like before we started. Cute, but not very functional.

 (I thought I had a picture of it before we started...I hope Jerry has one somewhere!)

• We've made good use of the claw foot tub! It now lives in the boys room an is a favorite reading nook! 

(Doesn't every little boy have a bathtub in his room?)
• No we did not get a dog.  This is the "thinking spot" that Ethan told us he needed.  He sits in here doing nothing but think quite often. 

(Yes, our son willingly puts himself in the dog house!)
• Scouts has officially started again.  This year, Aaron is a Wolf.  He is still loving it, and Ethan has declared that next year, he is going to be a Cub Scout, too.  Our popcorn sales have started, too.  Anyone want to buy some popcorn? :) 

(My oldest is sure grown up all of a sudden...)
• Isn't Andrew cute?

(Loving some pancakes!)

(Making a silly face at the camera...)

(Okay, Mom.  I'm done getting my picture taken now!)