This Week (In Pictures)

The beginning of the week held so much promise.  I had my to do list for house projects to finish up.  We did a lot this week.  None of which pertained to the stack of boxes sitting in the garage.  Here is a few things we did get done.

Guitar Session with the 'Rockstar'  (Notice how she has one pigtail?  That's intentional.  She said it made her look like a rockstar.)

School work.  Thank you Homeschool Creations for all your lovely free downloads.  :)

Muffins and more muffins this week.  Banana peanut butter muffins are shown here. 

 My little helper was a cleaning machine this week.

I discovered our Cuisenaire Rods match up in size to our Pink Tower.  This was exciting for this Montessori-Loving-Everything-Goes-Together-And-Builds-On-Each-Other-Mama. 

Last Friday I picked up half a bushel of peaches, and this week I made peach butter and peach pie filling.  Yum!

The sole bookshelf I have left after I destroyed the other two trying to paint them all the same color, couldn't stand the weight of all those books.  What to do, What to do?

O helped make dinner.  She loves this little gadget. 

O sewed on my machine by herself for the first time!  I am so proud :)

More Muffins!  These ones are cinnamon strudel muffins.  There is nothing healthy about them, but boy are they good!

House Tour--Kitchen/Dining Room

This room is the hub of our household.  One day, when our garage is cleared out, it will be our entrance/exit as well.  O does about half of her school work at the counter.  I cook approximately 20 meals a day in there (ok, not really, but it sure does seem like we have 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, a dinner, and snacks all day long).  I like the light blue color on the walls.  That was the color when we moved in.  Like the other rooms in the house, it seems a little stark though.  

At some point we will need to change out those barstools.  They are too high for the counter, and it makes sitting on them a little tricky if you are taller than 4'2".

I am not really a decorator, but I do think this room needs something to make it not so plain.  After rummaging through my current possessions I don't have much of a collection that I can display above the cabinets.  I also feel like a backsplash would help things out a bit.  All of the other places we have lived, I felt like I needed to have white accessories, but here I think it blends in with everything else so much, I think I need to go pick up some ceramic paint and paint poppies and wildflowers on all my white canisters and everything else.  Ok, maybe not everything, but something.  

I have never lived in a home with this much counter space.  I love it.  I can spread out and cook on one side, and O can do the same with her school work.

Speaking of school work, since we started school last week we have had some type of school project setting on the counter every day, and it doesn't bother me at all, because there is still plenty of room for everyone to cook and eat. 

The other side of the room is our very unfinished dining area.  That table has been calling my name for weeks.  I need to just finish it.  I had to go on the hunt yesterday for bolts and washers to connect the legs to the table top.  Somewhere along the move, the originals disappeared.  Until the table is finished, this area is big and open so O takes full advantage of that.  With all the new IKEA furniture there has been lots of boxes for her to turn into boats and castles.  This week most of the cardboard was sent off with the recycling so she filled the space with her tent.  The lovebird in the background doesn't love all the large unknown objects constantly being moved in this area.  He squawks at everything then cowers in his house.  

There it is folks.  The main place we dwell in this house.  Any ideas for improvement?  What about the large wall in the dining area that currently has a table resting against it?  Artwork?  Bookshelves?  Large buffet style cabinet?  

House Tour--O's Bedroom

I know I showed O's room a few weeks ago, but since then we have added some fun elements.  I thought I'd showcase those today.

I know the closet isn't really fun, but I just want photographic evidence that her closet can be orderly and she can put her shoes in the proper place, because sometimes it's hard to remember when we are searching for one shoe.  How my child loses just one baffles me, and can send me into a tail spin of furry faster than you can blink.

Decals.  I like them, sometimes.  I did not like peeling them off the walls in our master bedroom.  These kid friendly ones I like.  We bought these almost 3 years ago (and 3 houses ago).  They were up in O's room when she was 2, but when we moved I put them back on the sheets they came on and forgot about them tucked them away.

O had a wonderful time deciding where they all went.  She made her OCD organizing mama proud when she wanted to sort them by type.  Owls all over here.  Mushrooms down on this wall, and a flower wall.

There is also an alphabet mat (temporarily) on her floor.  We have been using it for school, and O requested it be put in her room.  She also has new curtains which are impossible to see in any of the photos I took.  It is made of tulle, and O thinks it looks like a ballerina's curtain.

Finally, the bookshelf of toys.  I like her toys on the shelf, but we may have to do some switching around.  My original bookshelf for all of our books can not hold all the weight.  This bookshelf is heavy duty, so it may need to hold some books rather than toys.  If anyone has any brilliant toy storage or book storage ideas please let me know.  :)

House Tour--The Master Bedroom

Wow, first off I feel like I need to up my game on my little blog here, because after collaborating with some other ladies on a different blog, I realize how little time I devote to this one.  

Anyway, here is a snippet of what we have been doing.  Life of course, is busy for all, and lately I have really been feeling the pressure of everything on my to-do list.  The house has taken a back burner so I can care to all the more pressing matters to be taken care of.  The goal at this point was to just get the Kitchen, Living Room, One Bathroom, and Both O's and our Bedroom done for the time being.  The dining room table is still waiting, and we are eating at our counter (which, by the way I Love).  

Then of course I had to go and be crazy and say last week was the start of school.  Ugh, what was I thinking?  Each evening come 8:30, I start running through my head all her school work for the following day, and depending on how I am feeling I pull things out of our school closet that we will be using.  

Back to the main point of today's post, the Master Bedroom.  It's as done as it will be for now.  Honestly, I do not love it.  I love the furniture, lamps and such, but when I walk in it is so...blah.  I live in a cookie cutter house, with what looks like a model of an IKEA room that I just purchased and plopped into the house.  No personality.  Nothing on the wall yet.  It needs some love.  My husband and pretty much everyone else that has walked in seem to really like it.  

  

The end table is pretty clever actually.  The top slides out, and we hide all our chargers in there so they stay in one place (is it just my family that has a problem keeping track of those things?  They are never where I last left them).  

This is actually a sofa table, but we thought it would be a great piece to go across from our bed since we have no dresser.  I think the wall space above would be perfect for a gallery art all.  A little subway art, a few photos of us, and some quotes.  My husband does not see the point of subway art, so it may just be photos and quotes.  I am contemplating making burlap basket for those smaller sections that are all mismatched.  We shall see...I actually have not put anything in those white basket yet either.  I thought I would really be struggling to find adequate storage space, but not in this room.  I am actually trying to find things to put in the room and add some pizzazz.  

In front of the window is the only piece of furniture not purchased at IKEA.  Cedar is a wonderful thing.  It can withstand fire, repels moisture, and isn't effected by mold.  I am pretty happy I chose to put all of our handmade from great-grandparent blankets in the cedar chest and not a plastic bag.  

Our curtains have birds and tree branches on them.  They are about the only thing with personality in the room.

There you have it.  The master bedroom.  It is prepped and ready for personality just as soon as I can make time for it.

First Day of First Grade

Miss O is beginning first grade today!
Here are a few of the fun things we will be doing.

1.)  First Day of School Photo
2.)  Labeling the house (inspired by this lovely teacher)  Language
3.)  A Life size version of Angry Birds.  Seriously, much better than the app.  P.E.  Throwing a Ball
4.)  ABCs on the driveway (We may jump on the letter name/sound or place objects with coordinating beginning sounds on the letter.  We will see where the day takes us.)  Language
5.)  Detective Math Something similar to this, but not exactly the same.  Math
6.)  I may have to incorporate something like this into the day/week.  *Side note:  O is really into being a detective lately.  She loves to solve mysteries and look for clues.  There will probably be lots of detective themed things over the next few weeks.  Some of the books we have read lately are Encyclopedia Brown and Homer Price.  She loves them.  We read an entire Encyclopedia Brown last week at bedtime.  Practical Life/Gross Motor Control
7.)  Detect the sentence.  Language
8.)  Sound Memory Sensorial
9.)  Making a Map of our House.  Cultural/Social Studies
10.)  Establishing our routine.  We will discuss how our days will run, what O will be learning this year, setting goals, and walking through a 'typical' day.


*I noted in bold what subject area we are covering.  The color coding is also the particular colors I use to keep everything freakishly organized.  This is mostly for my benefit :)

Settling In

Confessions:
I still walk in the wrong room about half of the time.  None of the bedrooms are where I think they should be.

One of our neighbors (behind us) has a tendency to leave unsavory (ie X rated) TV shows on all night long, and since he doesn't believe in blinds or curtains we can see it in our spare bedroom.  As F and I were discussing solutions to this one morning in the front yard I started looking at the neighbor houses, and then looking at our house.  For the life of me, I could not figure out which house was the one with the TV on all night.  Huh, wrong side of the house there Amy.  I am continuously confused.

Another neighbor had grandchildren over one evening and they were playing in their backyard which is plainly visible from O's room.  Instead of O going to sleep she stayed up and watched the children outside her window, for two hours.  I went to check on her when I was going to sleep, and discovered she popped the screen out of her window so she would have a better view.  *sigh*  New house, new boundaries to teach.

I am still not used to all the sounds that come with the house.  Not just thinking the air conditioning is on, when I hear the refrigerator, but rather I hear thumping noises and keep going to see if I have visitors.  I still haven't figured out what I am hearing.

Beautiful flowers hang on our front porch, and it is apparent the people before us enjoyed landscaping/flowers.  I am struggling to keep all those pretty flowers alive and am failing.  Too much water?  Not enough?  Those flowers are so stinking picky.  Thank goodness we are 2/3 of the way done with August and they are going to die soon anyway, right?  I have a black thumb.  I can kill cacti.  These flowers just don't stand a chance.

Yesterday I was so sick and tired of spending from the moments I woke up to the moments before I went to bed unpacking I decided to take a 1/2 day break.  O and I went to the playground, we read books, and did nothing in particular to make the house look more like home.  It was splendid.

Boxes. So Many Boxes.

I admit it.

I have too much yarn.

Seriously, it is out of control,

and I am just now realizing it

now that I have to move it all.

All those boxes in the picture above?

All crafty things.  Whoa. (Ahem, that's

not all of it either!)

Out. Of. Control.

We still have a mess everywhere :)

And O is loving all her toys.

Seriously, she is just happy to be in her room

playing with trains.

Thankful for a happy and content little girl,

because I have a lot of work ahead of me this weekend.

Work in Progress

We have been here a few nights now.  There is still much to do, but we are making progress.  It's kind of slow, but progress none the less.

Yesterday for every one item I have found a home for, I have had to remind O to pick up (or pick it up for her) a toy or shirt or to stop getting new things out.  One step forward.  Two steps back.

Then there is the problem I feared when I peaked in the storage unit.  Mold.  Considering we live in a humid environment I should have known leaving our stuff in a storage unit for so long would have quite an effect on our belongings.  As I was unpacking the storage unit, I was thinking about Matthew 6:19 (don't store up your treasures here on Earth, where they can be eaten up by moths, and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal).  Ah yes, so very true.  We did discuss getting rid of a lot of our extra stuff, but we were thinking more of a garage sale rather than a dumpster.  Oh Well.

Here's a few bits and pieces of what we have so far....

The sofa is in.

It's big.  It's Comfy.

It's new.

It fits in the room well, and there is little to no

room for a lot of extra things or furniture.

O's room was pretty easy and quick to

put together.  Her dresser, bed, and doll's

bed were all in my parent's house so that

took minimal work.

O was excited to see her rainbow rug

and chalkboard back out.  She squealed

when she saw the rug, which made me

smile because that rug took forever to make.

No toys on the shelves yet.

Everything still has to be cleaned.

The only piece of furniture in our bedroom is what

we just picked up at IKEA last week.  We have no bed.

We have to buy a new one because ours is covered

in mold.  

I told O she couldn't bring any toys

into the house until they were clean,

so she opted to play in the garage.

The fridge died approximately 24 hours

after we got the keys to the house.  This

is the replacement we got in yesterday.  

The bookshelf is slowly filling up.

We went through and decided to get rid

 of a lot of our books (like college books

we never look at).  I love books, but we have

a library down the road and we don't need all

those books.

This is going much slower than I would have hoped.

That is due mainly to me having to scrub everything with

disinfectants before they can be put away.  

At any rate I am happy to have a new place to call home :)

The Keys, Please.

We have the keys to our new place.  

Here are a few before pictures.

Master Bedroom.  

The pictures are pretty much spot on with the color.

Grayish lavender wall.  

Striped shades of blueish gray, lavender gray, and pink.

This bedroom will be O's room.  

Green walls are staying (for now).  

We also just got the carpet cleaned, 

so almost all those stains are gone now.

Bedroom #3.  More stripes.

Yes, that's yellow, orange, and a yellowish beige.

I had a lot of sanding to do 

before I could even start painting.

Master Bedroom is getting painted

a khaki shade.

Ugh.  I had a momentary lapse in thinking.

I grabbed white paint and started painting the trim.

Turns out, I painted flat paint on top of semi-gloss.

So, I get to go fix my mess.

The glowing room is going gray.

Buh-Bye Yellow.

:)

This Week...

We had a shopping excursion this past Saturday.  We shopped at IKEA (possibly our favorite store) 7 1/2 hours.  Yes, you read that right.  How can two people spend 7 1/2 hours in IKEA?  Well, as soon as we got there, we ate in the restaurant inside, then we perused the showroom not once but twice.  Then there was all those people.  Wow, IKEA on Saturday is not for the claustrophobic.  We finally made it down to the marketplace and area where you collect your things, only to decide we needed to eat again (it had been 5 hours at this point).  

We found all kinds of fun things, and are excited to get them put together in our new place.  The best part about all of it?  We spent $11.  My parents have given us IKEA gift cards for Christmas the last few years, and we have been stockpiling them.  I love gift cards :) 

When we finally made it back to my parents' house I saw a stray kitten headed my way.  I am not a cat person (or pet person) per say, but it was a kitten and I do have some compassion.  I leaned down and he/she? came right over purring rubbing its head on my hand.  I called O over to take a look and we played with the cat a few minutes then went inside.  

The next morning the cat was on the front porch waiting on us.  Then my mom set out an old towel for it to sleep on.  The next day the cat made it into the backyard.  The next thing I know, my dad fed the cat.  Then it was a cooler evening, so my dad put the cat in the garage.  My dad also brought home all sorts of kitten supplies like food, formula, and something to clean ears with.  Yea, I think they have a cat now.  

O has named it 'whiskers' and calls it a teenager.  She also thinks the cat is saying 'mama' when it meows at her, so she is certain the cat thinks O is the mama.  The other day after we got back from running errands I heard her run up to the cat and say, 'here is your mama, little teenager.'

In other news, we finally made it in to our old library.  O was excited to play with the blocks.  She was rather disappointed that several were missing and more beat up than she remembered.  Nevertheless, a tower was in order.  

I also went paint shopping 2 times.  We decided to go super neutral with the wall colors.  I never used to be this boring.  When we first were married I painted our bedroom gold.  However, we have a lot of brightly colored accessories and we also have had all of our stuff in storage for so long I don't remember if our dishes are circles or those rounded squares.  It will be like Christmas morning going through boxes.  

I am excited for all of the moving and assembling and organizing about to ensue, and yet also very tired just thinking of all that needs to be done.