Image Map

Friday, October 28, 2011

Intervention Needed - Where I Plead for Your Help

I'm about to expose a dark secret that I've been keeping from all of you who don't know me in real life. I hope I don't disappoint you.

I've written several posts on how to keep a clean house while living with lots of little people. The truth is, my kitchen stays clean, the guest bathroom stays clean, the living room is usually neat, and the dining room stays pretty neat. We don't let people upstairs where the bedrooms are, so let's not speak of that.

Then there is the 'Imagination Room'. The entire rest of my house can be spic-and-span, and this room will look like a bombed out building. In fact, the picture below represents this room in relatively good shape.


I know. It's a disgrace. A scar. A reality.

We call it the Imagination Room for several reasons. First of all, we never imagined we would have a room that we had no idea what to do with. We never considered that there might be a black hole right in the middle of our house. It's where my sewing machine lives and crafting stuff lands. And I do enjoy the crafty side of life, so there is a good bit of stuff. Joshua's keyboard and sound equipment reside in here. The computer sits on the bottom of an old china cabinet that I have mostly renovated (the doors are off because a.) it allows more air to circulate for the machine. b.) it's a good place to prop our feet when we sit here. c.) I haven't painted them yet. d.) of all of the above. Take your pick.)


Mostly it's called the Imagination Room because I like to tell people to 'imagine it's clean and neat and organized' when they come in my house. That's the cold, hard truth of it.

Another space I haven't shared with you is my school area.



It's the breakfast nook just off our kitchen. It's the perfect size for our school table and the bookshelf. It also boasts the busiest walkway in our home: from the living room into the kitchen, just between the table and the bookshelf. The walkway is plenty big enough...unless there are colored pencils and coloring books and game pieces and folders and books and stuff on the floor. Then it's considered pretty hazardous.

I'd like to tell you that the kids never, ever leave their stuff laying around. I'd like to tell you that they are perfect angels about cleaning up behind themselves. But you'd call my bluff, and that would just be embarrassing.

It only took eighteen months for me to see that the Imagination Room needs to be our school room. I'm quick like that. Homeschooling isn't a short term decision. And I have five little people who will be processing through in the next 20-ish years. So why on Earth would I NOT dedicate an entire room to our educational pursuits?

That poor bookshelf is crammed full and I have baskets and boxes and tubs and drawers filled with other stuff that we use regularly. That bookshelf needs friends. We have flashcards that would greatly help our children if they were displayed at all times but I don't have wall space in the current school room, so they rarely make it out. The world map is hanging on the wall in a different room because, again, there is no wall space in the school area. I don't mind my home bearing marks in different places of our homeschooling, but it would make it easier on the kids if they didn't have to walk back and forth.

Now, with that in mind, I need your assistance. I need to paint the walls of the school room. And I'd also love to hear your ideas for a fun and functional space. The room is 17 x 12 feet with fantastic natural lighting. However, there are no overhead lights. Mr. Bookshelf up there is gaining three buddies and they will run from wall to wall down the 17 foot wall that has no windows. My school table (which I LOVE) is 4 1/2 feet square. The other seventeen foot wall has two windows. One twelve foot wall has a window (pictured above) and the other wall has a four foot wide door that we will be hanging drapes across so that the room may be closed off.

If you need any other info, holler. If you have wonderful things that work for you, or dreams of what you'd like, share it or link to it in the comments. If you Pinterest, please @ me so I can see pictures. If your brilliant and want to come do this for me (just for the satisfaction of creating something and maybe some brownies), bring it!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

A Lovely Rescue

She was all alone, unloved and unwated. Her once maple colored finish was dull and dingy. She seemed to slouch into her surroundings, begging to be noticed, yet desperately trying to fade into the background.

But I saw her. She was perfect. Her lines were lovely and feminine. She was strong, despite the lack of care she'd been given. It was simply a matter of asking price. When the yard sale owner quoted me the price, I tried not to grin like a loon. I simply pulled the $5 dollar bill from my wallet, handed it over, picked up my beauty, and took her home with me.

She sat in the garage holding other yard sale treasures until her big day came at last. I popped the back off and then sanded her just a bit. Her new home was to be in the girl's room, so I painted her with a bright, cheery yellow to compliment the colors in the girls room. I took her backside inside and measured for her new dress. Then I cut the fabric and mod-podged it into place. Once dry, I put her all back together and she sat in the living room for a couple of weeks to cure.

And here she sits in all her glory. She is lovely and loved and stands proudly, waiting to see what her little ladies choose to adorn her shelves with.



Linking up at:



The Shabby Nest

Home Stories A2Z

Manic   Mother

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Kid Photography - Botanical Gardens

On our last trip to the Botanical Gardens, I remembered to take the camera so that the kids could work on their photography. Then I promptly misplaced the camera.

I know, your awe in my ability to keep up with things, how very organized I am, and my grace in doing it is seeping through the computer screen. Thank you.

Never fear, the camera has been located (for the time being) and I grabbed a few pictures to showcase the much loved activity of picture taking.

By Elizabeth


By Sarah Grace

By Thomas

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Tuckered Out

Thomas, Sarah Grace, Elizabeth, and Anna are in Scottsboro with my parents this weekend. A long weekend, actually, since they've been there since Wednesday night. We pick them up tomorrow.

The house is a train wreck, but I haven't sat down much since I hit the ground running Thursday morning. Deep cleaning has happened, but the surfaces got piled up. It's an insane cycle.

We also had a yard sale today. Suffice it to say, things have been busy and this little guy has been a trooper.

But he's done now. Sleep claimed him in the middle of playing.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Just Another Day

Life is entertaining. Truly.

Y'all remember Doo-Doo? He's resurfaced again. With one of his buddies in tow. Anna is beyond thrilled. The day she found her beloved friend, she carried him all over the house with her. Some of her other favorite toys are little felted wool fruits and foods that I ordered from here for Christmas last year. Among those foods are strawberries, potatoes, cookies, bananas, and peas in a pod. Now that you have all that information...

Anna was quietly playing with her toys on top of the coffee table when I noticed she kept contorting her little body at odd angles.

"Anna, do you need to go potty?"

"No, I need to play with my Doo-Doo."

*commence giggling*

"Well, honey, let's leave Doo-Doo there and go potty real quick. He'll wait for you."

"Okay...", but she paused. Gathering up her two favorite toys, she carefully duck-walked over to me. At this point, I could tell she really needed to go pee, but she had to take care of first things first. "Mommy, will you hold my Doo-Doo and my peas for me while I go to da poddy?"


I tried not to laugh, but I couldn't do it. I'm really very juvenile that way. I was also Mommy enough to agree through my giggles, hold the toys, and carry her to the bathroom before we both got wet.

And since we're on the topic of bodily functions, I've got another one for ya. I usually leave this kind of sordid thing for other people to talk about, but occasionally a Mama's just gotta share.

Daniel is such a good natured baby. He's a little co-dependent, even for a baby. The kid does not know how to be alone. And rightly so. His siblings are in his face all.the.time. Rarely does the child get to breath fresh air because some-little-body is hovering 6 to 18 inches over his sweet little face. However, he seems to prefer to live life this way.

So when I changed his diaper the other day and tossed a towel over his boy parts so as not to have an indoor sprinkler and then walked away for a few minutes, it came as no surprise when he started fussing after a minute or so. I was in the dining room helping one of the older two kids with a math problem that had them stumped and I knew where the little girls were, so I wasn't concerned about Daniel and his fussing. He was just lonely.

Or so I thought.

When I wrapped up things with Thomas and Sarah Grace, I rounded the corner back into the living room where I had left Daniel laying on the floor. He had managed to flip onto his belly (a feat he doesn't accomplish with any ease at all) and was on the bare wood floor. And not happy about it. I laughed and talked to him as I walked over to him. As I neared, I realized that there was a less than pleasant aroma wafting from his general vicinity.

The little towel had been useless. The kid hadn't peed. He'd rolled over, and in his effort to roll, he had projected poop all over the floor and up the wall. Not even a drop on his little bottom. Clean as a whistle.

Believe me when I say I diapered that there boy up quickly just in case he wasn't done. Then I set about the business of cleaning.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Just A Quick Peek

Here is one of the projects I've been working on this week. A bookshelf for the girls' room. Bright and perky, don't you think?


Please excuse my wonky photography. I take bad pictures on a good day. When I'm trying to squat in a dress to get a decent angle, I also take crooked bad pictures.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Obviously I Wasn't A Boy Scout

Several months ago (as in I was still pregnant with Daniel), I was asked to help with a 'Decorate on a Dime' event that a lady at our church is heading up. When she asked, I snorted and waited for the punch line, y'all.

You see, I have ideas about what I want to do, but our budget says that I have to do a lot of these things slowly. In an effort to speed things along, I have learned to refinish furniture to suit my sense of style. I have also learned that I really enjoy doing these kinds of things.

But the sanding and priming and staining and painting and wood filling and sanding and waxing and sanding of furniture takes time, a precious commodity around here. My people still want to eat every day. More than once, even! And my husband expects clean underwear in his drawers. And we home-school our children.

Point is, if you walk into my house and notice it looks disjointed, it's generally because I just haven't gotten to that project yet. And I am a little particular...I would rather have nothing than have something that is just a place filler. This might explain why only three of the nineteen windows in my home have curtains...

So way back when my friend Allison (who is an incredible home decorator, by the way) asked me to do this, I said, "Sure! That sounds like fun!" (after I recovered from the lady-like snorting, of course.)

The event is tomorrow night. I have 33 hours and eighteen minutes to be ready for this presentation. And sixty-eleven projects going at once.

I meant to complete some of the stuff I was working on before Daniel was born and tackle a few more projects. I wanted to Be Prepared and have time to get all beautified before the presentation. But time got away from me. Newborn, laundry, food, and school among other things vied for my attention. So now it's crunch time and here I sit blogging.

On the other hand, I've got some good before and after pictures that I may get around to posting to the ol' blog. One of these days. Maybe. Perhaps.

I make no promises. Now I'm off to add another coat of paint to something...

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

A Child's Prayer

Bedtime prayer is a special time. Here is where much of the heart-talk between the girls and I take place. Here is where questions are asked, thoughts are voiced, worries are aired, and fears are wrestled. Here is where many of the rewards of Motherhood take place, and where we find our children in intercession for others. It's a sweet, sweet time.

Right now, at this moment, the girls all pray on their own. Joshua and I tuck them in and he kisses them before he goes off to the boys room to pray with them. It thrills me with each child when they speak the prayers of their heart after a year or so of repeat-after-me prayers. It makes me look forward to that special time with the girls even more to know that all three of them have things they want to say and want to express, with regards to prayer or to the whispered chats.

We always start off with me walking around to each bed and tucking each girl under the covers and a bug hug and kiss. While I make these rounds, we all sing a hymn. My sweet Sarah Grace, who sings loudly and adoringly and off key. Elizabeth, whose voice is barely a whisper as she hides half behind her beloved blanket, but whose heart is sincere. Anna occasionally misses a word or four but sings right on pitch and always with a smile.

After the song ends and all three girls are tucked in, I settle on one of the beds to pray for them. I ask them if they have anything they want me to pray for, and then we do.

Then, the precious begins. We take turns with which girl begins. All three of them start off something like this:

"Dear Lord, Thank You for the day so great. Thank You for the world and how You made it. Just thank You for Mommy and Daddy and Thomas and Sarah and Elizabeth and Anna and Daniel. Thank You for friends and family. Thank You for our church and our friends there and thank You for our house. Thank You for my soft blanket."

And then they diverge. Sarah Grace goes on to thank God for how she gets to learn about Him and to pray for people who don't have homes and for children who don't have parents. She prays for any person she can think of that has an illness or is pregnant. She gives thanks for Jesus, the life He lived, the way He healed people, and how He died for her. She wraps up with asking God to "just put a hedge around Satan so he can't do his mean tricks" and then assuring Him that she loves Him very much and is so glad that He lives in her heart. "Pwease help me to be good and to love others."

Elizabeth goes on to pray in broad strokes, encompassing pretty much every person in the world in one way or another. She then reiterates her thanks for her blanket (each girl has a special blanket from their babyhood that they love), tells God she loves him and thanks Him for Jesus.

Anna...now Anna just started praying on her own a few months ago. She is at the stage that I find endearing and entertaining. She prays with her eyes wide and her head on a swivel. She gives thanks by name for her grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. Then she goes into great detail and gives thanks for every. single. object. in the room. Or at least the ones she can make out by the glow of the night light. Then she thinks carefully about what she might have forgotten and is thankful for those toys and books and clothes and food items that aren't in the room with her. And always, her toothbrush.

I laugh, but then I remember that God loves to hear her sweet prayers. She can't comprehend, in her two year old mind Who God is and all His greatness, but what she does know is the she wants to talk to Him. She is beginning to understand that He is responsible for all the good we have. Including our toothbrushes.

Monday, October 03, 2011

Daniel - 5 Months

Has it really been a whole month since I last posted one of these? The time, it is a flyin'.

Photo Courtesy of Thomas

I'm five months old...
...and let me tell you, I DO NOT LIKE SLEEPING ON MY BACK. Are we clear on that point? If I flip over in the middle of the night from my belly to my back, I go just a little berserk until somebody flips me back over and tucks my blanket around me.
...and my Mommy thinks that this habit is only slightly high maintenance.
...and I have a tooth!
...and another almost through!
...and incidentally, I drool. A lot.
...and I really and truly believe that I need somebody to talk to me about 85% of my wakeful time.
...and I would really prefer that somebody just carry me around most of that time, too.
...and I like sweet potatoes and apples.
...and man! Do I ever know how to have some massive blow-outs.
...but Mommy doesn't like to relive those moments, so she said I can't tell you any more than just the essential facts.
...and I am The Smiliest Baby ever, according to Mommy and Daddy.
...and I am much adored by my Big Brother!
...and my Sisters, too!
...and life is good!