Sep. 28, 2009 Madegascar Highland Girl Picture Framed and Hung Up
 You can see the height of K by the smudgs on our mirror! But I thought DH's shot was cool to show the back of the room at the same time as the front, sort of film noir.
 This shows the wall color, the sage green is a bit shy, in some lights it looks regular rental property "antique white."
The boys give the perfect perspective.
A High School friend drew the picture for me in 1987, I think in pastels (and I'm doing the kid's art education?). It referenced a photo in a National Geographic atlas of a little girl from the Highlands of Madegascar. Her facial structure reminded me of Cousin K's, who was heading to Brazil for her parent's first term as missionaries. I paid for the picture by knitting a sweater based on one that I had crocheted for myself. The yarn she bought was cotton, and I thought the knit fabric would be less heavy than crocheted. I wonder if her sweater is still in as good a shape as her picture?
|
•
Comments (0)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Jun. 29, 2009 This Saturday Was a Gift Too: We Got Work Done
Welcome to our tidied up back hallway/mud room!
 DH hung the mirror that used to go with the guest bedroom in the hallway, increasing the anemic light back there. I finally got all the winter things put away (except the boots) and cleaned up the shoe glacier.
I finished the New Living Room Curtains, and DH hung them up in the window.
   You can see the new mirror, and the closet; with TV access and peacefully plain. I never expected to enjoy a peacefully plain room when I was younger, I thought I wanted everything baroque and ornate; but a simple room without too many toys strewn about the floor is wonderful to read aloud in, or sip coffee with DH in. Even B seems to think so.
  Here is the bookcase wall.
 Mom and DH took the kids downtown to see the Expo, where this performance artist had everyone asking, 'Is it marble or a person?" and then he would move slightly. After DH took this picture, he said thank you to the artist, who slowly nodded his head in reply. There were artists representing Leonardo De Vinci and Shakespeare too, in bronze make up, but the camera phone didn't work out on them.
Hold the Presses! Our friend Bob just e-mailed me his cell phone pictures, so here are the bronzes:
I stayed home to do battle with the back hallway and two closets. The kids tried Del's lemonade for the first time, and came home refreshed. B said, "Mom, this house keeps getting better and better." M contradicted, "I think it's getting worser and worser." B went back to finishing Artemus Fowle,
 M got his turn to play BZ Flag I chopped onions for dinner
 K fell asleep after the long walk downtown. And DH took pictures.
I liked getting the house pickedup, and I think B is right; this house is getting better and better.
|
•
Comments (0)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
May. 13, 2009 There really is a floor in the workroom!
 B let me post this picture because my desk is messier than his. The green linens are old napkins and applicayed place mats. I'm going to use them in the new sage living room on an empty shelf as a place for people sitting on the futon to rest cups. K likes to play dress up with them too though, so they will probably wander through the house, she is at coffee cup height. (She also likes sips of coffee too, particularly Daddy's cup, who takes sugar with his)
 These photos were taken from the chair of the computer desk by the window.
 The little bookshelf that used to hold scrapbooking things is now in the kitchen with homeschooling reference books on it. Has anyone seen my copy of Drawing in the Right Side of the Brain? Its gone missing since those books were in a closet.
But all the other books in the house are now on shelves!
Thanks to K who gave us his beautiful shelves when he moved away!
|
•
Comments (0)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
May. 10, 2009 Rooms in process; the pictures
 DH got this whole room prepped and painted this week,
 with a little help
 This is what the room looks like from the hall way
 See how well the TV fits in the closet alcove?
 Here are all those mostly empty shelves, with the roll of fabric that will be the curtains for the window, and the TV/closet area.
This TV set up should keep us from watching too many videos or wasting too much time: we'll have to push aside the curtain and plug in the TV with a temporary extension cord (fire code doesn't like permenent extension cords behind book cases.)
Mean while, back in the new workshop, the center of the room holds some homeless boxes that should find homes once the books move into the living room, and the three shelves in here can receive them.
 And my crafting desk? I've actually used it for sewing and making cards! The light in the evening in this room is much nicer than in the old workshop.
 |
•
Comments (1)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Apr. 23, 2009 Sorting the Paper work
When DH went to work this morning, and I offered to work on the study while the boys were away and K slept, he told me to go ahead and sew, but that if I wanted to help him, think how I wanted the paper work organized.
Which gave me a change to blog, since I seem to think very well through my fingers lately. I did make a list on paper, funny, I had to walk into the old workshop to get the idea for it.
So far, I want 4 file boxes for the shelf under the computer desk. I think I can part with my basket with file folders standing up in it if I put a triangular wedge in the bottom of my file box so that my files run up hill and I can see all their labels at the same time. That will make it easier for me to put paper work away, flipping through files all the same size make me feel dizzy, angry and nauseous (yeah, that's over the top, but I am talking feelings here.) I especially hate how folders stuffed with things get shorter and harder to find! I basically hate file folders.
In my basket I only use two folders, the one for bill stubs that have been paid, and the one for tax deductable receipts. envelopes of bills unpaid go in the front (sometimes with envelopes of things I'm not sure what to do with but don't want to loose, like homeschooling field trip newsletters) envelopes of stuff I don't have to do anything about but don't know what to do with go in the back, like the reports from the kid's 529. I not only do not know if I have to save it or not, lately I don't even want to read them.
DH does have a point.
So, new idea: 4 folders for bill stubbs marked with the time of year, so I know where to put them, they don't get fat and fall down, and I can empty them to the shredder when I don't need them anymore. A folder for tax deductable receipts. A folder for finacial stuff, but put in the finaces file box (we have one, but things are getting stuck in the bill box, I couldn't reach where the finacial file box was kept. If lids slow me down, imagion pulling out the ladder.)
A new box for homeschool stuff.
Four boxes with lids, lables, colorful files...this is beginning to sound less like penace, and more like a craft project.
|
•
Comments (1)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Apr. 23, 2009 Moving the workshop means other changes too...
I've been comfortable with the computer desk, even though it had too big a foot print and was at a bad height for my neck, those ponderous drawers held a lot of stuff, so I didn't have to deal with the stuff very much. Now that DH moved the computer to an old computer desk that his lab was getting rid of, I am to design a paperwork system that takes up 1/6 of the space - I'm supposed to shred things now.
I need to get that book I read at my Mom in law's house out of the library so I can see what schedule to de-clutter the paper work with, I don't really know how long I need to keep stuff, so I keep it all.
This has brought a big preference clash of DH and mine into view: I like things out so I see them and don't forget to do things about them. I am one of those people that experts tell will to make lists so that I really can file things away and have a clean desk. (The people who write the how to get organized books all seem to think the same way, accept for the Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker by Aby Garvey and Wendy Smedley. ) But I loose that list! (Unless it's sticky notes) And the messy desk doesn't bother me. At all. (OK, when paper piles get moved, or wires slide over them or I look at it much it bothers me) Risking that I'll then forget to act on something does bother me A LOT.
As an intermediate step, I have tried open baskets for storage, because then the piles are contained. It seems that if I have to lift a lid, I don't seem to put things away. It feels like I'm always working in the flying minute I have to put things away before I have to save K from herself. I'm afraid I'll loose something important.
Afraid. Do I make good judgments out of fear? Is it true that I'm always frantic? Is filing really an unfair expectation?
That basket makes DH crazy. Baskets in general irritate him. The ragged top of the various height papers bothers him. I know that since we share this space, I'm probably going to have to give up my open basket (sob! But it works! I like it! the bills haven't gotten lost since I started using it...!) We did promise God we'd honor each other. So I think what I want is a cabinet with doors - and shelves with open baskets behind it. So I can file things fast and furious, but DH won't have to look at the ragged tops? Of course he will at tax time.
But I think I'm going to have to use a file box with colored folders instead, because they are cheaper right now, and the shelf on this new computer desk is so low, K can reach it. At least a file box lid would slow her down.
But it what if it also slows me down?
Why do I always seem to be doing filing and bills right before poison hour? Can I do bills at another time?
(Poison hour is Arsenic hour approximately from 5-6 PM, whatever you all call that hour before Daddy comes home when the children are acting whiny, everyone is hungry and you are trying to make dinner with your toddler clinging to your knee.)
That shredding stuff: I'm scared K will get into it. Can I outsource this one to B? Would M be able to do it safely? It even freaks me out.
Is this sort of negotiating why people put off organizing their houses?
|
•
Comments (1)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Apr. 21, 2009 Goodbye Yellow Chair
To DH and I, you were the temporary, comfortable chair Mom's neighbor gave us when we moved in, instead of throwing you away. I washed your cushion when diapers leaked, your back was burned when some Christmas lights overheated while draped on you (we were testing them, sorry.)
But to the boys, you were the chair where Daddy reads his Bible every morning. The first chair M and K could sit in, because the square corner kept them from falling over. Great for bouncing on, and standing on to look out the window.
Thank you for comfortable seats during movie nights, nursing babies, and being associated with a good example to my children of morning devotions, I'm glad you aren't really personified, because this entry is making me feel almost as bad as the children do about us putting you out on the curb.
But not enough to bring you back inside now that you've been rained on.
|
•
Comments (0)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Apr. 17, 2009 The First 3 Bookshelves
The Book Brigade to empty the old short shelves
 We had to pen K up for this
 Now the room looks much more peaceful, and all the old stashes of books in boxes in closets have found at least a temporary home.
 Complete with fun place to hide.
   But still no new kitchen curtains.
 |
•
Comments (2)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Apr. 17, 2009 A perfect gift
Our friend K gave us 14 bookshelves. DH has installed 6 of them in pairs. We are planning on stacking the other 8 in what will be the guest bedroom/TV room. So we will have 7 bookshelves, 7 ft tall, with 7 shelves each.
Lets see, 17 more years of homeschooling with Charlotte Mason proclivitities and way too many hobbies...we'll stay neat and tidy for another 3 years.
But it's still a perfect gift. |
•
Comments (0)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Apr. 7, 2009 What do we use our study for again?
We are actually going to switch the rooms of our house, put up tall bookshelves, and get rid of the three huge desks that have too great a foot print. That way our over night guests will have a door and a closet, and we will be able to check the mail, do laundry and answer the front door without going through someone's bedroom when they stay here. The computer room/study/sewing area/scrapbooking space/Mom fix it/pay bills area will be in the large room off the kitchen with the front door that currently the living room. Whenever we have friends over, they wind up in the computer room anyway, to fix something, or show us something on u-tube. It will give me better natural light for sewing, and put the computer in a more public space for when our kids are teenagers and presumably using the internet by themselves.
Our friend K, in moving to NYC, has given us his 72 inch tall bookcases, in 14 parts right now. They are everywhere. They are sort of an espresso color, stained black, with a bit of veneer showing through. I thought they'd be just too dark, but with the cherry colored mirror frame and rosewood futon, they look pleasant, they are the same value. We've calculated that all the videos, books and VCR tapes will fit on 4 of those shelves. So if we give the bookshelves we don't need to the guy from K's old apartment building, we can get most of them off of our front porch. (?)
DH is feeling so excited about the move, it is his mental vacation from other frustrations. I am trying to join him in the fun part, but am more nervous about the whole transition parts, being a less strong and energetic person in general. But nerves and fear are not inspiring, or respectful.
I know that even though K has moved away, and my cousins K and B have a baby now, we do have friends who can come help us haul stuff. I also know that we are quiet capable of organizing a barn raising sort of Saturday so that the inconvenience to our volunteers is minimized, and they at least get fed nicely. It is so hard to ask for help, and to maintain respectful boundaries while doing it. But we've done it before. Perhaps I feel weird about it because this move is to get me a better crafting area, and not to benefit one of my kids?
So, hopefully, here are some better questions to ask myself and DH as we make our master plan for the new move, then figure out how to do it:
What are all the activities we will do in this room?
Where in the house should the musical instruments go?
Where should the 4 plastic totes of manipulatives, Lego robotic parts, and Thomas Trains go?
Can we store them better somewhere else?
Since the workshop/study will be in so much more public a space do we really have enough storage space planned for DH's big computer rebuilding storage projects?
Does it really have to be good looking, or if the colors are matching, can we go for friendly industrial?
What ideas do the kids have for the space?
What about the double kids desk that B uses right now for afternoon independent work? is there room for it?
Perhaps we'd be wise to keep the tall plastic utility shelfs?
what seating should we have around for those visitors who keep us company while we fix computers or laugh at u-tube?
Does a corner computer desk allow for over the shoulder laughing?
Do we need space for head to head competitions?
Where will the Jr F.I.R.S.T Lego team work?
What about the kid visitors, as B and M will start having friends who want to do computer games together or regular games?
What prep space do we need for wrapping presents at Christmas?
OK, I think that keeps things from oozing out of my head. K only got me up 3 times last night, and DH got up with her at 6AM when she was playful and hungry. My brain still wants to go on vacation though.
|
•
Comments (2)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Jan. 3, 2009 Study Edited part II (the pictures version)
So, how are we coming? I said I'd post photos, but first I had to clean off the horizontal surfaces; of the coffee cups, the files stacked by the computer for reference, the toys stuck up high were K can't reach them, the toys strewn about the floor in the hopes K will play with them instead of the big boy's toys (choking hazard city)...This is in no way how it looks all the time, it's the un-embarrassing version that won't make DH feel all crawly up his spine. As this post did last year.
So: the shelf DH gave me as my very own (generous man! and I've got more desk drawers than he does too!)
My desk space, with peanut butter jars on top with petty ribbons and do dads. You can buy pretty jars to keep embellishments in at Michael's, but as I always buy the same kind of peanut butter, and they always use the same jars, this was a no-brain-er, yet still pretty and uniform. Mostly. I also saved some spice jars, because they were pretty. If I were going all out on the scrapbook-y way of life, I'd have re-covered the tops with patterned paper, but as my circle cutter got schmaltzed this year, and the jars are kept where only an NBA player could see the tops of them, I didn't do it.
The computer desk is the same except that the middle left drawer is no longer stuffed to capacity with old receipts, and it is moved away from the wall so I can get at the shelves without emptying them from the side. My Grandma William's dress form that I have not used in 7years is in the corner, with the trash can, harder for K to get at it, she loves packaging.
DH's shelf, and closet computer set up.
The computer in the closet is his experimental set up, where he tries fun Linux things, and does stuff too complex for me.
Hopefully the boxes of books on the floor, which I artfully avoided photographing, will either go to the Friends of the Attleboro Library Booksale, or eventually get back on our bookshelves when we buy tall bookshelves from Ikea, soon.
|
•
Comments (0)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Dec. 29, 2008 Study/workshop edited hooray!
We decided not to switch the living room and study after all: the sound of the movies would keep the children awake. As it is when we watch grown up movies after bedtime, the kids call down the hall, "That music sounds scary, are you sure you should be watching it?" which is good accountability I suppose, but rather annoying!
DH got inspired this Friday to move the heavy furniture to a better arrangement. Our friend K the brilliant batchelor (boy, is he a catch! got any eligible ladies to introduce?) happened to drop by, so we recruited him to move stuff. We fed him, so that was a fair exchange. When the guys looked at the drawer for receipts I'd entered into the bank balance spreadsheet, they both said, "You (we) need a shredder." So I ran out to several stores to buy a shredder, better books shelf, and other stuff available in North Attleboro along Rt 1 that I could shop at quickly with no children in tow, and combine trips to save gas.
Once we had more shelves, other closets got ransacked and re-organized to take advantage of that new shelving being available, and I discovered that mold was growing on the little closet wall off my bedroom, so I moved papers into another box, bleached the mold, and left that door open to stir and warm the air. I also moved the shelf away from the outside wall to the hopefully dryer inside wall. You start re-arranging and it just spreads and spreads...I'll post pictures once the shreds are vacuumed up and the flat surfaces are cleared off. The house is now messier than it was, but we know that's temporary once we cut up boxes for recycling, take stuff to the Salvation Army and Library Book sale...With the mold in closet, we can't keep all our stuff anyway.
So the bones of our creative space are better, hopefully we can finish what we started and enjoy creating here soon. I have a deskfull of little things needing to go to a perminant home, and some empty shelves. Hopefully I can prioritize important things to spaces easy to reach, and archive up to high shelves where they can be difficult because I don't need them very often.
This is a step towards the ultimate inspiring workspace: we want to replace the huge desks and handy storage drawers with little Ikea tables and wall hung storage: so that the foot print will be smaller and we can manuver in here easier with more margins around the furniture. But buying new will take some budgeting, and work around future dental work.
I realized that I am keeping some thing because I feel like I will be less of a creative person if I let them go: if my yarn stash is gone, am I still a knitter? Will I ever sew again if I get rid of the bit of left overs my aunt passed down to me that are so '70's in color I'm not sure what to do with them? What about the '80's patterns for dresses I wore to banquets with the youth group? I need some confidence: just because I'm makeing homeschool and co-ops doesn't mean I've stopped being a creative lady - I'm so addictied to making things I can't help it! In fact, in a way, I'm more dangerous than I used to be, because I'm teaching the next generation. So maybe I really can let go, because the stuff doesn't define me. But I don't really want to get rid of everything. It's nice to know that I (theoretically) could.
|
•
Comments (1)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Dec. 2, 2008 The Roman Shades and Quilts are done!
 I was very happy to have the Roman shades done before my Mother in law arrived last week, because I was pretty sure she had made quilts for the bunk beds, and I wanted her to get that "Ah, something is complete and beautiful." feeling.
Well, she had made quilts, and the room is complete. Not usually this tidy, but complete!
I think it is beautiful. Ah.
|
•
Comments (1)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Nov. 20, 2008 Statistics of Future Redecorating
Someday I'm going to replace my short bookshelves with tall bookshelves with the same footprint, hopefully eliminating a case or two of the warped particle board early marriage kind. When I do, this is what I'll need to know:
We need 53 linear feet of bookshelves
9 feet of videos/DVDs
6.5 feet of cds
and the volume of my desk drawers are 5 cubic feet.
B helped me with measuring today. I ran my idea to my Mother in Law about our living room and study/workshop. We hang out in the workshop much more than in the living room. The cramped quarters make me irritated. Why not switch? DH liked the idea, but I thought it was a bit far out - even though it was my idea originally. BUT Mom-Mom likes it - so it can't be too crazy!
Right now our living room is where we put guests as well as most of our books and the TV. If we moved the futon, TV, some books, and the mirror to this little bedroom, then when people visit, they could have a door, the front door would not open into their room, and they would have a closet. The TV could be stashed in the closet, and closed off for visiting.
Meanwhile, the big room would give me the space I currently don't have to cut out pattern on the floor near where I'll sew them, and everyone who hangs out while DH fixes their computer and install Linux will have room to breath, instead of being crammed in this little former bedroom.
|
•
Comments (2)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Oct. 6, 2008 Making the Workshop Wonderful
It's been a while since I've posted about room redecorating. The nursery and the boys room are great. The living room has been reshuffled to more of a peaceful rectangle than a weird semi octagon, DH found and repaired a large HD TV, so we will get to watch PBS after the big broadcasting switch next Winter. I'm thinking about how to make the workshop work better. It's the grit in my oyster shell right now.
In This January's Major Apartment Reshuffle, DH and I crammed our three large office desks into B's old bedroom, with three bookcases, to form the new computer/electronics/sewing/stamping/scrapbooking/storage area. It's jammed. And now with K's play enclosure semi perminantly in the middle of the floor, so that I can type while she plays with toys and does NOT eat dust bunnies, I feel crowded, uninspired, and grouchy.
Writing about dust bunnies:
She's our little omnivour
Eating Dust Bunnies off the floor
Boy has she got teeth galore
She's our little omnivour
DH composed it while bouncing K on his knee. She loves it. I seriously have to deep vacuum my bedroom.
Back to the workshop: you either have time or money. Right now both have prior commitments. So, what CAN we do now? Plan well for when we do have both of them.
DH has been pulling out the IKEA spec pages for the living room shelves. If we get taller bookshelves in there, some of the storage problems from the workshop will move to another room. Meanwhile, I realized that text books I don't need for B and are saving for M don't need to be on the craft bookshelf, they can hang out happily in a closet in a box, or in the plastic totes in the living room.
While our budget is a rudementary form, I do know what I can safely spend on my hobbies. This month I bought The Inspired and organized Scrapbooker
 It has pretty pictures, pretty projects to make to help me get organized, and quizzes with essay questions to help me think through how I make scrap books (not at all lately, too busy with other things) and how my space could be organized so that it's easier to make them at all.
I found the question in chapter two "list 5 things or people who inspire you creatively" very encouraging. Maybe I would feel more like making things if I had pictures up of friends, as well as magazines hanging around.
Of course, the space is also the sewing area, so I asked my dear friend in South Carolina how she organized her new sewing space, and she said that kitchen design books applied well, but this link was also good.
Designing a Sewing Center
So I tell my growly self that we are working on it. If we have a great plan to use what we have more intelligently, if I sort through what I need, want, don't need, feel guilty about parting with, or store rather than think about, then I'll have space to do stuff in, feel creative in when I have a few minutes and actually make something.
K wants to practice scooting now, got to go!
|
•
Comments (1)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Jun. 26, 2008 So, Did Ikea make a difference in the Boy's Room?
I'm so grateful to the various relatives who made this Christmas's theme the Boy's New Bedroom! Things aren't always Ship Shape and Bristol Fashion, but cleaning up is not so impossible anymore.
 "Trofast" drawers can be put in their slots but often aren't.
But Sunday School projects still are homeless, and they don't have a place to display cards or art projects. I need to make their bulletin boards and hang them on the doors somehow. We were going to move the school desk in from the living room to their room, but I like it as it is. Art projects get done on the linoleum (easier to clean) and B does his independent study in the living room during M's nap. The many, many shelves increase the horizontal surfaces so the special Lego creations can be safe.
As usual, I haven't finished the curtains.
|
•
Comments (2)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Mar. 10, 2008 Yet another thing we love about the new room
B reading his Bible, the main goal of literacy scored!
 DH calls the bunk beds "The Cave and the Crow's Nest"
Could it be that bunk beds and night lights promote literacy?
|
•
Comments (0)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Feb. 11, 2008 Chair photos
I decided today to work with the boys on finishing the apolstry on their rocking chair. I called it art, or maybe shop, maybe life skills? I talked through how we organized the project a lot, so they'd see one way of keeping track of the project - taking pictures of the chair as old layers came off, so we'd have a reminder of the order of putting new layers on. It's sort of craft archeology.
First step was to find everyone's safety goggles. I may not work for Dupont anymore, but they are still in my system. Then there was the "these are tools not weapons" speech. Actually I consider weapons to be another sort of tool, and when my Dad taught me to shoot, he had lots of safety rules too. He'd have fit in well at Dupont.
I only had one set of tools, we had to take turns with the tack ripper, the needle nosed pliers (good when the tack heads come off leaving the shank behind, or when only part of a staple came out) the high powered magnet for picking up staples and tacks from the carpet, and later the staple gun, which was a big bummer: only I had big enough hands to depress it. This led to tears, snack time and run around outside time in quick succession.
Here the trim and skirt are off the chair, doesn't M look adorable in safety glasses?
Chair skirt as mayoral sash.
View from the bunk bed of us removing the stuffing cover and under the chair rail cover.
TaDa!
Ok, the back rest looks a little weird, but I'm hoping a few months of reading and rocking will smooth out the stuffing bumps.
|
•
Comments (2)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Jan. 29, 2008 Re-Arranging the House
Both boys had little fevers this morning, and were more than usually interested in snuggling before breakfast. Ah, I thought, this is not the day we have great breakthroughs in understanding arithmetic algorithms, lets just move boxes. They greeted this announcement sceptically, "Aren't they both work mom?"
Well, yeah, I guess box moving and organizing is just as hard as arithmetic, but we can play fun music with lyrics while we do it, and no one will get distracted like they would with school work.
I have bitten my tongue about 3 times this morning when the boxes were opened in the new bedroom so we could put away old Sunday School prizes, wrapping paper, plastic dinosaurs, and such clutter. I want to say acidly "You kept this? Why?" I'm trying to remember that B threw out or gave away three large trash bags, and 3 large boxes. I'm trying to teach them to sort and organize so they know how to do this themselves. I brought this on myself by not setting a volume goal of how much to give or throw away. They are young and learning well. Messes now are worth the pay off when they can organize things as young men. Surely organizing clutter will help them organize term papers? I hope?
At least I'm learning from my years of teaching Jr High Sunday School. Lots of kids I've taught resent their parents throwing away their stuff stealthily, or selling it on e-bay. It's one of those issues that come up about a month before the sullen teenager face jells. But I've still got to be the grown up here a little bit more!
I need to give more guidance . I need to set a better example too. But I do wish the cheap toy pipeline would help out though: if only the various Sunday school, co-op, community, YMCA classes would ask me to deal with bad behavior rather then reward good behavior with junk. Since neither B nor M behaves badly, they get lots of junk. Much of it edible. They now have year round Easter baskets to keep their edible rewards in, the Halloween candy doesn't disappear before the Easter candy arrives, the Easter candy is supplemented by Summer birthday goodies. Maybe if we didn't have the eat your dinner before a treat rule it would disappear faster, not sure how that would be on teeth.
Ugh, I guess this means I need to speak up to their teachers, as well as set a better example and set boundaries. Ugh.
Maybe tomorrow.
|
•
Comments (0)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Jan. 28, 2008 House Photos
Well, here is the impact on the rest of the house. First the living room:
Now two views of the study, the clean, inviting functional view, and the distressing-boy-do-we-have-work-to-do view (with M to make it cuter).
The boys didn't really paint all that much (I'm not THAT laid back, some control was important to my sanity!) but they did get in some paint, also shown are my cousin and her husband, who taught us about painting, and really kept our spirits up.
Here is a cute snap of M working with Daddy, notice the toy hammers? Gotta love the imitation - I hope like "dearly loved children."
And here are some photos of the room as it turned out to be, in various stages of moving in: 
 We will be removing the frame and moving the ladder to the other side soon, so fan experiments are less inviting - meanwhile they got the lecture about unbalancing our landlord's fan! (by the way, the wings didn't really work on the Bionical. They proved it imperically)
|
•
Comments (2)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
|
