17 hours ago
I have to say, I remember having the most fun decorating the kids' rooms a couple years ago.
For the girl's room I was going for a colorful, summery vibe. I didn't want to stick to any one color scheme, because I have figured out through decorating and re-decorating the nursery over the years, that there is always something in the room that doesn't match the color scheme.
I painted the walls a Behr color called "Mayfair White", which is a pale mint green. I picked a colorful floral bedspread, and scented with pink, but the beauty of this scheme is that the girls can bring in toys, blankets, pillows, or stuffed animals in pretty much any color and it still looks like it fits in the room.
Obviously these pictures were taken a couple years ago (look how little Clarice and Gwen were!), so what's changed?
Clarice is now in the room too - we found out we were expecting Georgie and moved Clarice upstairs with Gwen sooner than we thought! Her toddler bed is in the place where the reading nook is in these pictures. The canopy over the area has been taken down, since it didn't seem like a smart idea to have it hanging above my one year old's bed. The gallery wall is also not the same in all these pictures since the girls broke a one of the pictures when they were jumping on Gwen's bed (the room is for living in, not just for show, after all).
Funny story (actually, not funny so much as cringeworthy) - when I was painting the girls' room, I took a quick break and left the lid off the can of paint. A minute later I hear a ruckus coming from the room, and my heart sinks. I went back in there and the kids had spilled an entire can of paint, all over the carpet.
There was a brief pause, as Derek and I stared in horror, and then the entire thing blew up. We were both shouting, I hustled the kids out of the room while he grabbed towels to sop up the mess, everyone was crying. I sat the kids down in front of the TV, and wailed to Derek. "Now we have to replace the carpet! That was not in the budget!"
While the rest of us were freaking out, Derek patiently sopped up the paint. He worked on it the rest of the night, used up an entire can of carpet cleaner, and he got that stain out. Honestly, the floor looks like new! I'm still not sure how he did it, but I was very impressed with his determination.
Did I mention all this happened on Easter?
I'm happy to say we can officially laugh about it now.
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When we were first married, the upstairs of this house was the only part of the house that was finished, but boy, did it look different.
Rough hewn, yellowing wood, which was actually house siding, on the ceiling.
Raggedy carpet from wall to wall.
Old, beat-up wood trim.
The cheapest doors you can buy at the home improvement store.
Dirty white walls.
A bathroom that was not worth noting.
No overhead lighting in the bedrooms.
An old kitchen with white laminate countertops and no dishwasher.
Windows that would barely open, and a sliding glass door that let cold air through in the winter.
But it had a gorgeous wood stove and vaulted ceilings. The bones were good.
My dad helped us update the kitchen, because that was just necessary. We lived in one of the upstairs bedrooms until Wyatt was born and we moved downstairs. I painted the walls, trying to put a bandaid on a house we couldn't afford to fix up yet. And we just dealt with it, for 8 years.
Finally two years ago, we decided we were staying, we might as well make this place somewhere we would like to live! Most of the work was concentrated on the upstairs, for obvious reasons.
What did we do?
Ripped out the carpet and put new (fake) wood floors in.
Tore out all the trims and doors, and replaced all of it.
New windows, and a new sliding glass door.
Covered up the ceiling with white planks (which did a ton to brighten it up, let me tell you).
Repainted everything a brighter color.
Remodeled the bathroom.
So basically, we redid everything except the kitchen (which had already been redone) and the wood stove (which really can't be improved upon).
I really wouldn't necessarily recommend doing all the work yourself, which is what we did, because it was a miserable, crazy few months. But we saved a bunch of money, and it finally looks the way I want it!
A few notes:
You'll notice the couch is green and the chairs are tan in a few photos. The pictures were taken before I bought new couch covers a year and a half ago. If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen the new covers. I'll put a few updated pictures at the end so you can see, but that's why not all the pictures match!
Bathroom not pictured because the lighting is horrible in there and it's terribly hard to take a good picture of it, but trust me, it's nice now.
So that was what it looked like right after our remodel, but a few months later I got a few new couch covers. I didn't feel like re-taking all the photos, so here are just a couple more recent shots to give you an idea of how it looks a slightly different now.
Here's the linkup - share a post with photos of your house, and add it below!
I used to be of the school-should-not-start-until-after-labor-day-what-is-wrong-with-you-people persuasion, but this year, we are starting school on August 20th. I just wanted to give us a little more wiggle room. That means our first day of school is a mere three weeks away, as of the typing of this post. While I'm intending on doing a post about my curriculum picks for 2nd grade, right now I have my hands full trying to find pockets of time to get everything organized and finalized for the year!
So, I thought I'd just share a few of the resources for homeschool planning that I've been loving lately.
The Lovely Homeschool Course - I snagged this homeschool planning course earlier this year for a great deal, and it has been 100% worth the money. The course comes with editable PDF files to help you plan out your year. Last year, with having a baby in the middle of the year, we mostly kept things flexible, which was what we needed then. But this school year, I was hoping to develop more of a routine. This course is letting me plan things out while still letting me leave room to be flexible, so it's just what I needed.
Better Together - This is a book written by Pam Barnhill, all about "Morning Time". If you haven't heard of Morning Time, it's something many homeschool families incorporate into their day. If you have a homeschool friend, ask them if they do Morning Time, and you'll sound like you know what you're talking about. Basically it's a time to gather together for Bible reading, singing hymns, memorizing Bible verses, reading books together, or whatever else we want to do.
Morning Time is something I really want to incorporate into our daily routine this year - what I love is that this would be a time for all of my kids to learn something together, even the littlest ones. As they grow, I think it will be a wonderful tool to connect as a family, even as I have a large range of ages. This book gives some practical tips for morning time, as well as addressing the "why" of it all, and it's making me excited to get started in a few weeks.
Simply Charlotte Mason - Stay tuned, because a post about my curriculum picks for 2nd grade is coming, but this year we decided to try out a local co-op. We will meet with other homeschool families once a week, and the little kids will do some activities related to the subjects of literature, history, and science. It'll be fun social time for all of us. The downside is that we have to at least kind-of-sort-of keep up with the curriculum they pick. I have my own curriculum I'll be working through with my kids this year, but we'll also have to go over what we're learning at co-op.
They picked the Middle Ages to study for history this year. Now, you have to understand that the Middle Ages has never been my personal favorite period of time to learn about, and the curriculum they picked is okay but...well, a little dry. I'm actually not looking forward to it, and that's a problem for me. My whole philosophy for elementary-level History education is that if we aren't enjoying it, we aren't doing it right.
Enter Simply Charlotte Mason. I remembered that they have recommended book lists for every historical era, for every age group, so I checked out their list for 2nd grade level Middle ages, and I am relieved to find some fun supplementary books to add in to our read-aloud rotation that look more interesting to me! If I'm more interested, my kids will be more interested, and we'll all be happy. Basically, Simply Charlotte Mason is my new go-to for books to make boring subjects interesting.
The Read-Aloud Family - Speaking of booklists, I'm relying pretty heavily on this book when picking read-aloud books for our morning time. And if you haven't listened to the Read-Aloud Revival Podcast, get yourself over to iTunes and get inspired!
This article about Loop Scheduling - Sometimes I have too many ideas and not enough time. There are all kinds of books and resources I want to use, but if we tried to use each of these every day, we'd be doing school until dinner time (or later), and that's not reasonable. When I read about loop scheduling last year, it made so much sense. I have a whole list of "extras" worked out, things I want to loop through every couple weeks, and I'm really looking forward to incorporating subjects and activities we wouldn't be able to get to otherwise!
This post from my blog friend Elisha about her homeschooling method - Read through the article - basically that peaceful, joyful tone that Elisha is hitting is my goal for our homeschool, no matter what method/curriculum we are using!
That's all I have for now, stay tuned for a curriculum post coming up...sometime soon!
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