Room Re-Do

We're finally done with the girls' room.  I took them shopping yesterday for desks and all the fun stuff to go with them. They were beside themselves at the thought of glittery pens, cool notebooks, and other silly knick knacks.  My camera is dead, which is why my pictures have been on the grainy side lately. I'm all about the iPhone, but it can only do so much...

I revamped my work space as well, taking down some shelves and adding these great Peter Walsh accessories from Office Max.

Not to be left out, my little boys claimed the school room table as their own as soon as they found out the girls vacated.

Little Miss Matched

Ever since their grandma and great aunt bought them just about every piece of clothing from Little Miss Matched last year, the girls have been dreaming of redecorating their room in these fun - albeit bright - patterns. They've been ready for a change for quite some time; their current purple flowers have seen them through two bedrooms and almost six years.

They've picked out the bedding

Bobo:

Elbow:

I've made the valances:

Now we're waiting for our painter to come tomorrow and transform their room into an "electric lime" and "dragon fruit" oasis.  (This room is a headache waiting to happen, according to Hubby.) After that we'll shop for loft beds with desks underneath. They're in desperate need of some quieter study space.

Here's To A New Year...

I'm either nesting or having a case of needing new beginnings. I've probably thrown out six or seven garbage bags full of junk in the last two days.  It feels good to clean, regroup, reorganize and prepare for the new year.

2008 has had it's glory, but there were some serious rough spots. We're finally feeling settled and at home in our new community - it's taken almost a year. 

We said goodbye to 2008 with a wonderful jazz service at our church, followed by a kid friendly party at our health club. The children rock climbed, jumped on inflatables, and generally ran around until near exhaustion. Which is why the house is still quiet this morning. (Except for Hubby who is downstairs tackling one of his many projects. This requires loud music, apparently, usually of 1990s variety.)

Happy New Year!

Learning Room Make Over 2

The learning room is pretty much done. We still have quite a bit of Dick and Jane fabric left, but I think we're done decorating for now. I say "we" because this was a collaborative effort. In other words, don't go looking at the seams. The girls helped pick fabric combinations and guided the pieces through the machine -- with help. We've made four pillow cases, a book bag, and the valance.

As for the rest of the room, I like to keep it simple with not too much visual distraction. This suits me perfectly, so I'm glad our little students feel the same way. I remember Bobo's first experience in a "real" school room. She was in Daisy Scouts back in Fargo, and they met in the kindergarten room of the public school. The walls were covered with posters of this, that, and the other. There were plenty of toys and gadgets and a play structure in the middle of the room. Bobo got that glazed over, deer-in-the-headlights look, and exclaimed, "Do they learn in here?" Ah yes, a chip off the old block...

Suffice to say we've kept the walls basically free of "schoolish" stuff. We do have a map and globe that we use along with our history studies, and a home made time line we're adding to as we go through Story of the World.

Learning Room Make Over

I've been inspired by Rebecca and Cheryl to de-clutter Peter Walsh style, especially in the learning room. (My oldest, seeing Walsh's book laying around, has adopted his title as her personal motto. Feeling overwhelmed by anything, she'll run around incanting "it's all too much!")

Since we've only been in this house a short while, the room needs more of a make-over than a real purge. I'm not done yet, but I found this adorable Dick and Jane fabric and can't stop sewing. I'm working on pillowcases for the comfy reading corner and a valance to top our window. (Not all the fabric is as busy as this one; I also bought a red with little white polka dots that is a nice compliment). I have visions of chair covers for my children's little white chairs, but that may be beyond me. Maybe cute book bags?

Clutter is a constant battle. It is all too much! The papers, projects, and goodies that come home from a single Sunday School class is alarming. And a McDo Happy Meal --forget about it! I dread McDonalds more for the chaos of all the stuff (can you unwrap this? where's my toy? what is it supposed to be anyway? did you get honey mustard?) than the smell of the playland and the questionable edibles put together... Sigh.

One room at a time...

Look, look, oh look! See Mom Work!

"Good Thing It's Laundry Day!"

Oatmeal dripping down his chin, shirt, and pajama shorts, Toddzilla deadpanned, "Good thing it's laundry day!" Ah, the joy of a schedule even a two year old can understand. Monday is indeed laundry day (as is Thursday).

It's so easy to be overwhelmed by the routine tasks of running a home. If I've learned anything along the way it's this: a day for everything, not everything in a day. I've tried - unsuccessfully - to lump all the cleaning and laundry into one huge home-care blitz. Not gonna do it. I'm exhausted, everything is half done, and chaos reigns. Simply having a day for laundry, a day for cleaning the bathrooms - you get the point - makes all the difference in our little corner of the world.

The other hard truth I've come to accept is that if you think you're going to get your home care done, you have to be home. Not exactly rocket science, this simple idea still boggles me at times. When my girls were toddlers, we would run from play date to play date with a few organized activities thrown in for good measure. I would often bemoan the fact that the laundry never got put away or the bathrooms still weren't clean. How could it? We were never home!

Swooning.

Stopped by Barnes and Noble to read a few magazines tonight -- part of my newly minted Mom's Night Out. I grabbed all the usual suspects and one I had never seen before called Organize. Oh. My. Goodness! I even like the ads in this magazine. I could spend all evening just browsing websites I've come across in this new found treasure trove of information. How cute is all this and this and this?

In with the fire truck bed, out with everything else!

In order to get the aforementioned toddler bed into the not so big boys room, much clutter had to go. This, it seems, has become a full time job. Moving things, picking up things, organizing things. Where did all this stuff come from? And why does so much of my time get wrapped up in shuffling stuff around?

Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for the many blessings we have. My children are especially fortunate to have relatives who have basically earned degrees in childrens retail. I can look around any room in my house and spot the one, maybe two, things we've actually bought for them. The rest has been given.

Certainly that's the blessing. But it can also be the curse. I often feel as if I have no control over the ensuing chaos. Add a few Sunday school projects here, a prized who-knows-what-from-the-backyard there, the bare necessities of life, and there you have it: too much of everything!

Many have extolled the virtures of only allowing that which is beautiful, useful, and needed into your home. But beauty is most definitely in the eye of the beholder and what my six year old deems way too precious to part with is the very same thing I would send to the garbage heap. Something has to give, especially with birthday season is quickly upon us. (Three of my four little ones have Fall birthdays).

Before we officially begin school this year, I vow to get things in order around here. I plan on doing that by going through all our hot spots and doing some severe culling. I actually enjoy this process. I get close to giddy when I fill bag after bag of stuff to give away. I'll pick one hot spot per evening and hopefully tackle the whole job in a week.
1. My kitchen basket a.k.a dumping ground
2. The front hall closet
3. My older son's closet
4. The girls' room
5. The playroom

That should make a serious dent in the de-cluttering process. It will also preserve my sanity and prepare me for the school year ahead. Here's hoping I find a place for everything and put everything in its place!

Sites for inspiration: Flylady, Declutter Fast, Jeri's Organizing and Decluttering News, and the Unclutterer.