My 3 yr old daughter took this pic of me

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Change of Plans

Bad days, inconveniences, illness - these are all things we don't like. I had a very busy week planned out including 2 very important meetings, a visit with one of the kid's bio families, a Dr's appointment, a day of making freezer meals, boys' club, a friend coming over for a visit, a Christmas brunch, Christmas shopping because my funny inlaws are doing gift opening on Dec 2nd lol (I know, eh?), Christmas tree decorating at my mom's, Bible study, and youth group.

And then it happened....about 20 minutes into the freezer meal making, my 2 year old crawled into the kitchen and threw up everywhere.

I feel really bad for her (and the rest of us who are going to probably get it, too) But I immediately started to clear my schedule. I canceled Boys' Club, then rescheduled the Dr's appointment, canceled Bible study, Christmas tree decorating at my mom's, and the friend coming over.

After the mess was cleaned up, I set up the kids in front of their favorite cartoons and cooked as fast as I could, hoping to finish the meals before I got the flu myself. I got 21 meals in my freezer and if I'm still feeling ok, I will do a bunch of baking tomorrow.

I don't like having my plans interrupted, changed, or altered in any way. I like to be in control and to have a plan. But I am realizing that sometimes these interruptions and changes are really blessings in disguise. I get to slow down and enjoy my children and be nurturing and care for their needs. I get to cuddle them longer. I don't have to run all over town.

When my kids get sick, for some reason - no matter how crummy I've been feeling - I all-of-a-sudden feel like super-mom. I don't mind getting up in the middle of the night and giving meds and cleaning sheets and bathing kids and rocking them and singing to them. I don't mind my housework not getting done. All I care about is how my little darlings are feeling and making sure that they know and feel that they are loved.

So today I am a little grateful for life's interruptions even if they are uncomfortable and little messy at times.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Computer Desk Reveal

This was the old desk and it worked ok but I couldn't fit the printer on it, so the printer always sat on this rickety end table about to smash on the floor at any moment....



I needed a wider desk and I had one but it had been sitting outside "naturally aging" lol for about 3 months and it was hideous and heavy and had no legs (I threw them out cuz they were SO ugly)...





I spent a whole day just stripping it and it was a LOT of work....


Better but still ugly...




 I envisioned a beautiful medium brown stained desk and ended up turning out like this....


The wood grain is so ugly and it wasn't staining evenly at all.....


I almost gave up and threw it out but then decided to stain the top very dark walnut and paint the bottom white and then distress it.....


 better....but the ends were ugly so I added wood detail......


Starting to like it but it needed legs so I cut 4 from some logs I had in the yard...needs 8.......


Finished the legs and added the doors that I cut the centers out of and added expanded sheet metal to....


I love it. And now the printer can sit on it, too, and I have intentions of putting the computer tower in the right cupboard to free up the desk space.


One more time  - 


before.....


and after :) The end.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Schoolroom Reveal aka My Office - Part 2

     So I decided to use my "office" (as seen here) as our new schoolroom.The office was atrocious. Please click the aforementioned link and take a look. I could've had a much larger school room in our basement but I knew that I would never feel like doing school down there as we get amazing natural light on our main floor. So I thought that instead, I would use a tiny room and see what I could do with it. Hopefully it's an inspiration to people who don't have a lot of space to work with in their homes. I also made a closet into a workspace for my older son for when he needs somewhere to work away from the girls and those pics are here. You may be wondering where I have moved my office and I will show you that in another post soon :)

 I decided to add some color and this red is also in my entrance and in my bedroom. I only did the one wall and I LOVE birch trees. This mural took maybe 5-6 hours and was WAY easier than I thought it'd be.




The baskets are awesome and I got em at Jysk for $3.99 ea but they don't have anymore :( I also got the white footbath tubs at Walmart for $2 something each. The green canvas bins were $5.99 each and also from Jysk.


These "rugs" are actually bathmats also from Jysk and they were $4.99 ea


The Artwork display


Logan's workstation and the secret mailbox - we will open it each day when the flag is up and see what special activity or book we are doing that day. (Sometimes it'll be a treat)








I use these for crayon, marker, etc storage


I often buy Classico pasta sauce and then wash and de-label the jars and use them to store things like clothespins, magnets, chalk, etc.


I love this one room schoolhouse picture :)


This is a darkroom timer that my mom had when she was young and we always used it as a timer when I was homeschooled so I thought it would be great to keep it going in my classroom :)


I found this pic online and added the chalkboard and cross on the front of the building and our school name and class times. 


And I fell in love with this as soon as I saw it!

I am going school shopping this weekend for most of our curriculum and some extras (I'll just have to find a way to fit it all in there!)

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Kindergarten Days 1 & 2

I wasn't intending on starting school this week, but my 5 yr old asked me at breakfast, "Mama, can you read me a Bible story?" and that kinda set the whole thing rolling. So there was no real plan in place, I just headed to Google (my good friend) and within a few minutes we were having a blast! Following are pics of Jasna and what we did, but Daisy participated, too. I'm just not yet allowed to post pics of her :( So I'm just sharing the Jas pics for now.

First we read the first couple verses of Genesis chapter 1 about God's creation of light and separating day from night.


I printed off Creation Day 1 coloring pages....Picture found here


This one was Daisy's :)


Then my friend Carla had this idea of dark and light monoculars made with toilet paper rolls (I cut one in half) and taped construction paper on the ends.



Then I made mini cupcakes (recipe at the bottom of this page) and colored some icing with black food coloring (from Michael's) and left the other icing white. They decorated each cupcake with popsicle sticks...


The candle represents Day 1 and Light

That was yesterday and then today we again read Genesis chapter 1, the few verses about God separating the water from the sky........


Coloring her Creation Day 2 picture (upside down) - picture found here


Creation Day 2 snack - light blue icing (food coloring from Michael's) for sky, blueberries for water, and marshmallows cut in half for clouds (I didn't have mini marshmallows)


They both really liked it :)


Letter A Do a dot - found here


Daisy's letter A do a dot lol She loved the bingo markers!


Jasna's completed A do a dot


Tracing A picture found here....this one is Jasna's 


and this is what Daisy thought of it - BORING lol


Apple match up shapes for Daisy - she loved this!


while Jasna glued apples onto her tree - found here



We read the following "A" books (most found at the library):


I LOVED this one and so did Daisy. Jasna enjoyed it, too, but it's a younger reading level. Each page says things like, "I have two arms" and shows a corresponding picture. I will buy this book. 


This one was ok. It interested the girls I think mostly because of the pictures, but overall I give this one a 3 out of 5


We own this one and read the two "A" poems in it - Alligater Pie and Anna Banana


This is the Bible story book we are using 



Another library one and we enjoyed it.


This book was delightful, simple, and old fashioned which was a lot of fun!


They snacked on vanilla flavored "A" cookies...


I bought them at Walmart


And I showed the girls that their names both have A in them


 We sounded out the 3 sounds for A and learned the sign for A.
I searched Google images for both of these pics and printed them on cardstock after cropping them.

Here's the recipe for the cupcakes:

2 cups white flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil (shortening makes it fluffier)
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix and pour into mini or regular cupcake papers and bake at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes OR pour into a greased and floured 9x9 cake pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-40 minutes (I think).



We are not going to be doing any school for the rest of this week, so the plan is to continue with the A theme next week and cover things like Africa and it's culture, animals that begin with A, an A scavenger hunt, A foods, more A books, etc. I can't wait!