Skip to main content

some saturday organization…

so, if you’ve been to my house or have seen pictures of my dining room, you know about the “art wall”. basically, we have a big, blank wall that spans the kitchen and dining room and we decided to use it to display the kids’ (read: layla’s) art. it was getting pretty full and i was dreading the process of pulling it all down and/or taking down old stuff and putting newer stuff up, and then trying to figure out what to do w/ the old stuff, etc. etc.

we got a BIG shelf for free a couple of months ago and i wanted to use it to gather and organize all of my homeschooling supplies in one place – out of micah’s reach. it’s been sitting in the garage, collecting random crap (i think that’s related to the theory of chaos) because there wasn’t any place in the house where it would fit, that didn’t already have furniture there and i hadn’t figured out what to do w/ it yet.

BUT, i knew i HAD to do something about the school stuff. our current system (or lack thereof) was NOT working. micah would get into stuff, spread it all over the floor; i had things in boxes out in the garage (out of sight, out of mind) and not getting used. i had things left over from when i quit teaching that i wanted to use, but weren’t accessible easily… the whole thing was just one big, disorganized mess. the story of my life!

anyway, i decided to bring the shelf into the dining room. we do most school work in here anyway. so i stripped all the things off the wall… any guesses which of the 3 piles is layla’s?002

so now that all that is down, the wall looks like this:001  and then, finally:004

do you think i’m starting to look like a homeschooler?

i pulled stuff onto that shelf from every room in the house… okay, well not the bathrooms. i pulled stuff out of my preschool boxes, finally pulled some encyclopedia-type books that have been in a box for years, put all the art supplies in a location that might actually encourage me to USE them, scoured shane’s pit bedroom to find this, that, and the other thing that didn’t belong in there… holy cow! i have sections for each different subject. and i think the best thing is that i managed to locate 19 pencils WITH erasers!

i’m sure there’s more stuff that needs to go on there, so fortunately there’s still more space! and i just remembered i have a globe that will look great on top! ;)

and now i need a replacement art wall…

Comments

  1. LindseyJune 26, 2010 at 8:12 PM

    We try to encourage the kids to put their artwork on their bedroom doors, that way is out of the way but everyone can still see it...just an idea! ;) The shelf looks great...want to come over and organize my crafting stuff for me? ;) HA HA BUT you've maybe inspired me! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Dapelo FamilyJune 26, 2010 at 8:21 PM

    Looks good! How fun to have everything together. I have to keep things accessible and in one place or I never use it. What happened to the green carpet?

    ReplyDelete
  3. rachelJune 26, 2010 at 8:25 PM

    green carpet is everywhere BUT the kitchen and dining room.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

all comments are moderated. unkind comments will be deleted.

you may like...

boxed in.

so i’m feeling a little bit stifled right now. when i took over responsibility for shane’s education, i knew i was making a big time/lifestyle commitment. i also figured that layla and eventually, micah would be involved in this endeavor. i knew that i was stepping out into a great unknown, having never completely done this sort of thing before. it was an experiment. in general, this experiment has gone well. not entirely as planned, but well, nonetheless. i mean really, when you’re dealing with kids (or other human beings, for that matter) what does go as planned. but at this point, i have to say that homeschooling is NOT my favorite thing. it’s not that i can’t do it. it’s not that shane isn’t learning. it’s not that i’m excessively overwhelmed or that i feel like i’m failing. it’s not any of that. the best thing i can figure out is that i feel ‘boxed in’. i feel like my time and opportunities are so limited for all of us. it’s not just about shane, and with layla and micah so mu...
6 comments
read more »

meal plan monday… and idiot-proof shopping.

so last week was horrible in the ways of all things homemaking.  i think i made more mess and distress than home.  but i’m back on the wagon this week so here we go. monday: ham, baked potatoes, green beans tuesday: beef stew, sourdough wednesday: soy chicken, rice, salad thursday: meatloaf, fries, peas & carrots friday: pizza & beans saturday: navy bean & ham soup, sourdough sunday: waffles, sausage now here’s my gripe of the day:  how big of idiots do people think we are?  a couple of weeks ago, i went to buy a pack of tortillas. i generally buy the soft taco size, since that’s usually what i’m using them for.  i was dismayed to see that they now sell them in 3 sizes; small, medium and large.  WHAT?  no burrito size?  makes them sound really authentic, huh? today, i was at fred meyer and i needed a package of navy beans.  so i go to the bean aisle.  there were no navy beans.  ...
2 comments
read more »

how to clean your room

i was discussing this sort of thing w/ my MIL recently and she said there were some books she had when the boys were young that explained things to kids that adults often tell them to do w/out giving them explicit instructions. so i thought about it and decided to write my own.  i mean, really, if i expect shane to clean his room, i ought to tell him HOW i want him to clean it, so he knows what i expect.  so i wrote them out.  keep in mind, these are 9 year old instructions. they would have to be adjusted accordingly.  i actually don’t expect him to do much less than i would expect of myself.  (bummer for him!) How to clean your room: strip your bed. put all dirty clothes in the laundry basket put all clean clothes in the closet or dresser put all shoes in the rack on the door. pick up everything off the floor and put it on your bed to sort. start by throwing away anything that’s trash. return anything that doesn’t belong in your r...
4 comments
read more »

displeased, at odds, feeling kinda… itchy.

not like in a ‘get some calamine lotion’ way… I’m just kind of in a funk. I seem to do this periodically, when there’s not a lot going on. maybe I just finally have time to sit back and reflect at what is/has been going on in my life because I’m not running here and there LIVING it for a change. we’ve been SUPER busy the last several months… with the house buying and the packing and the moving and the unpacking and the end of school thing and the moms club thing and the pasadena wedding thing and the birthday thing and the stp thing… and all that time it was this mantra… if I can just get through may! which turned into “if I can just get through june!” well, here we are nearing the end of july, and minus a few outstanding commitments and other such stuff I need to get done, I’m sitting here in the middle of summertime ‘life as usual’. late nights, late mornings, little plan of what we need to do or where we need to go… it’s SO nice! unfortunately (or probably the opposite), it gives me...
1 comment
read more »

fillet of sole

so i sat micah at the table today to eat his lunch.  he had a plate of food, a fork to eat it with, he was buckled into his seat, and had shoes on his feet.  i left the room and came back to find him out of his chair, done with his food, and this scene:    want a closer look?  i know you do…     yes, that’s a fork IN the shoe.           have i mentioned he’s a total houdini?  the straps are still buckled and it’s impossible to get them tight enough to keep him in.  but i’m loving that he left a shoe behind.  it’s so cinderella. i’m kind of thinking at this point that i should maybe look inside the shoe, just to be sure he didn’t stash any of his lunch in there. i’ve said it before, i never claimed to have normal kids. at least he ate…
4 comments
read more »