Thoughts in no particular order:
I got a strange and unfamiliar burst of energy, creativity and optimism yesterday. I have been patiently waiting for this since, oh... Christmas or so. Maybe Thanksgiving? I'm jumping on it. No telling why it happened, or when or if it will ever happen again!
It's true what I've heard - in one day, it's not possible to cook from scratch, homeschool and keep the house clean. Two out of three is great. If you do happen to get all three accomplished, please don't tell me about it!
There is nothing better than a sleepy "baby" crawling up in your lap and falling asleep. It hurts my heart to think this might be my last go-round. She is so, so big already.
Yesterday was a good day because we kept the TV off almost all day. Then I assigned some EWTN kids shows and a science show as "school". Ahhh. I am a genius.
I've decided the school/activity/play room is my office. I will be checking in after breakfast and making it my base until before dinner time. If I am busy in there, everyone else wants to be in there too. I am a genius, again.
We made this chicken recipe last night - fast, easy and completely delish. I couldn't use all that butter but it says you can use chicken broth. I didn't have any, so I just made less sauce. Did I say it was wonderful?? I was a rock star (and a genius).
We are getting a nice snow storm today! I'm looking forward to getting the kids outside this afternoon. It might mess up my office hours (see above). Oh well. Snow Day!!!! Jeff got around it nicely last night and will sleep through it all day. Hopefully the roads will be cleaned up some before he has to drive back tonight.
Sweet hubby texted me a link to a Chicago mail-order pierogi store. He has a lot of nerve to send me that in the wee hours when I am starving. Drooling...
Well, that's my Wednesday morning! Hope it's a good day where you are.
Showing posts with label Home Keeping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Keeping. Show all posts
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Learning Space
Nothing like a perfectionist to have to rearrange the whole house in order to get one room in shape! I had to make room for the toys that were cluttering this space, so I pulled all of my Christmas stuff out of the closet, moved that upstairs, moved the toys into the closet, cleaned out some cabinets to make room for the craft stuff that was also in the closet, moved my photo boxes to another room... you get the idea... Humorously, after all that, the only logistical change I really made from last year was to rotate the table 90 degrees so that we have more linear space to work at.
This is essentially our 3rd bedroom. It's the front room of the house so I think it would make an awkward bedroom anyway, what with the front door in there and all. (The door is not ever used as an entrance.) Unfortunately the room is painted pink - why, I just can't figure out - and we can't change it. At least it is light and bright and has plenty of natural light pouring in! Very important to me.
I always have the window blinds open during the day, but the door has to stay shut or "people" would get out! Here is the opposite view, with me standing in the doorway looking in toward the interior hall.
My cabinets are next to the stairs (to the right of the bookshelf above) which go up to a little room that we use only for storage, since it is not climate controlled. Frankly, this room isn't well climate-controlled in winter, either. We didn't even use it in January and February last year, so I hope we can come up with a working solution this year. Back to the cabinets: some school supplies are in there, but also my crafting supplies and all of my home decor stuff as well. I'm thankful for the doors; it's not so pretty inside!
I added some seasonal border to the shelves just for fun.
My file corner with activities to keep Molly out of trouble. Yeah, right.
New this year - a little white board for all kinds of fun things, but especially for illustrating things I want to show both older kids at once.
Supply boxes for the boys:
My beloved apple bucket that I found with no tag on it at WalMart. The manager asked me what I wanted to pay for it so I said "a dollar!" Are we noticing a pattern here??
Our most diligent scholars enjoying some table time:
Or windowsill time, I suppose.
Let's be honest with each other though. You all know this is what it really looks like when not staged for the photo shoot. Right?
I thought you would understand.
On my wish list: A globe, a history timeline, and some comfy cushions or beanbag chairs to make a reading corner by the window.
Now you know where we are hanging out most afternoons. Thanks for visiting our learning corner!!
This is essentially our 3rd bedroom. It's the front room of the house so I think it would make an awkward bedroom anyway, what with the front door in there and all. (The door is not ever used as an entrance.) Unfortunately the room is painted pink - why, I just can't figure out - and we can't change it. At least it is light and bright and has plenty of natural light pouring in! Very important to me.
I always have the window blinds open during the day, but the door has to stay shut or "people" would get out! Here is the opposite view, with me standing in the doorway looking in toward the interior hall.
My cabinets are next to the stairs (to the right of the bookshelf above) which go up to a little room that we use only for storage, since it is not climate controlled. Frankly, this room isn't well climate-controlled in winter, either. We didn't even use it in January and February last year, so I hope we can come up with a working solution this year. Back to the cabinets: some school supplies are in there, but also my crafting supplies and all of my home decor stuff as well. I'm thankful for the doors; it's not so pretty inside!
I added some seasonal border to the shelves just for fun.
My file corner with activities to keep Molly out of trouble. Yeah, right.
New this year - a little white board for all kinds of fun things, but especially for illustrating things I want to show both older kids at once.
Supply boxes for the boys:
My beloved apple bucket that I found with no tag on it at WalMart. The manager asked me what I wanted to pay for it so I said "a dollar!" Are we noticing a pattern here??
Our most diligent scholars enjoying some table time:
Or windowsill time, I suppose.
Let's be honest with each other though. You all know this is what it really looks like when not staged for the photo shoot. Right?
I thought you would understand.
On my wish list: A globe, a history timeline, and some comfy cushions or beanbag chairs to make a reading corner by the window.
Now you know where we are hanging out most afternoons. Thanks for visiting our learning corner!!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Patio Pictures
The day after my last patio post, we dragged ourselves out of bed sometime around 7 am to see the cement mixer sitting outside the door:
Beyond exciting for the kids - this is how they were occupied for two straight days!
The guys used wheelbarrows to bring the concrete around behind the house, where they dumped it and spread it smooth. We couldn't believe how fast they worked!
As it was drying, it looked smooth as glass and almost shiny. I was happy enough at the thought, although I suppose it might have been kind of slippery.
But we were surprised when, an hour or two later, the guys sprayed off the top layer with the hose, and lo and behold... pebble texture underneath! At first it seemed very rough and scratchy, but a few days later, it was glazed and sealed. Now it looks wet and almost sparkly all the time, but it feels very nice and is not slippery at all. As we discovered last weekend:
Anyway, here's your virtual tour. Beginning at our side door by the parking area, they poured us a sort of landing pad. Nice not to have to walk out right on to blacktop, as we did before.
The gate used to be there, and I hope to heaven they put it back soon! The yard is no longer "fenced" and I have to watch Molly every second as she tries to escape into the driveway, which we share with a business with vans and trucks!. Here's what it looked like before:
Anyway. From the landing pad, walking along the side of the house:
When you turn the corner, the main patio is tucked in behind there:
For reference, here's a rather poor picture of what it used to look like.
And here is the new patio! Isn't it bee-yoo-tiful??
As you can see, the old rails were removed and apparently they're not coming back. While we liked the coziness before, it feels so much bigger now that it's wide open. Not to mention, easier access to the shrubs will make maintenance much more pleasant and probably more frequent!
Such a nice, new area calls for much better furniture and accessories than we have, so we'll have to work on that over time.
Here's the view of our yard from where the patio chairs are. (That is our neighbors' house back there... a little unusual, I know. They have a very big back yard of their own, so this one belongs to our house.)
Did you notice the spiffy new landscape lighting they added? It is so pretty in the dark.
The company that did the concrete work is called Allgeier Concrete Drive Inc. They did such a first-class job and were the nicest people you could meet. They were especially good to the kids, and even took the time to pour us a stepping stone and help the kids to make their hand prints. While we were gone on errands, the guys engraved the date and decorated the stone with leaf prints for us.
I just love it so much! Wasn't that the nicest thing to do?
We will surely be spending even more time out back now, especially when the weather cools off a bit. I'm sure some of you reading this will be out there with us!
Beyond exciting for the kids - this is how they were occupied for two straight days!
The guys used wheelbarrows to bring the concrete around behind the house, where they dumped it and spread it smooth. We couldn't believe how fast they worked!
As it was drying, it looked smooth as glass and almost shiny. I was happy enough at the thought, although I suppose it might have been kind of slippery.
But we were surprised when, an hour or two later, the guys sprayed off the top layer with the hose, and lo and behold... pebble texture underneath! At first it seemed very rough and scratchy, but a few days later, it was glazed and sealed. Now it looks wet and almost sparkly all the time, but it feels very nice and is not slippery at all. As we discovered last weekend:
Anyway, here's your virtual tour. Beginning at our side door by the parking area, they poured us a sort of landing pad. Nice not to have to walk out right on to blacktop, as we did before.
The gate used to be there, and I hope to heaven they put it back soon! The yard is no longer "fenced" and I have to watch Molly every second as she tries to escape into the driveway, which we share with a business with vans and trucks!. Here's what it looked like before:
Anyway. From the landing pad, walking along the side of the house:
When you turn the corner, the main patio is tucked in behind there:
For reference, here's a rather poor picture of what it used to look like.
And here is the new patio! Isn't it bee-yoo-tiful??
As you can see, the old rails were removed and apparently they're not coming back. While we liked the coziness before, it feels so much bigger now that it's wide open. Not to mention, easier access to the shrubs will make maintenance much more pleasant and probably more frequent!
Such a nice, new area calls for much better furniture and accessories than we have, so we'll have to work on that over time.
Here's the view of our yard from where the patio chairs are. (That is our neighbors' house back there... a little unusual, I know. They have a very big back yard of their own, so this one belongs to our house.)
Did you notice the spiffy new landscape lighting they added? It is so pretty in the dark.
The company that did the concrete work is called Allgeier Concrete Drive Inc. They did such a first-class job and were the nicest people you could meet. They were especially good to the kids, and even took the time to pour us a stepping stone and help the kids to make their hand prints. While we were gone on errands, the guys engraved the date and decorated the stone with leaf prints for us.
I just love it so much! Wasn't that the nicest thing to do?
We will surely be spending even more time out back now, especially when the weather cools off a bit. I'm sure some of you reading this will be out there with us!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
