A Little Reality

I could just post the above picture and let you all get the impression that my house is always clean(ish) and my children are always waiting cheerfully for our new morning symposium to begin promptly at 8 am.

Or I could post pictures of the mess that I waded through in the week leading up to the above picture.

This next one is only a half-true picture. The mess got much worse before it got better. And you can’t see the entire area rug covered in stacks and stacks of books.

But if I want to make you feel really good about yourself, I could post the next picture, which is much more accurate.

Yes, that should do it.

Patio Project

 

It doesn’t look like much, but this is Luke’s and my potted herb garden! (Leif also helped with much of the planting.) It needs to do an awful lot of growing and we should add more herbs. So far we have basil, thyme, parsley, chocolate mint, lemon balm, strawberries, several different kinds of lavender, and honeysuckle (along with some mosses and creepers).

I’m serious when I say I don’t garden (all you avid gardeners and patio people are laughing). And I’m praying that the deer stay away from our plants. But I sure love the way this looks compared to how disastrous it was a few days ago! This summer I hope to reclaim one abandoned spot at a time. Maybe the outside of our house will look half decent by September.

[This spot is the half of the back porch that extends to the right of the house and is visible from the front. I’ll share more pictures as we finish projects around the house.]

Life @ Mt. Hope

I came home the other evening to see the sun streaming through our willow tree on one of our pleasant days. (We’ve had quite the mild winter.) I snapped a picture with my phone, and it’s a good thing because the sun had gone down behind the hill before I could walk out with my “real” camera. Our house is finally mostly painted, and I love the gray.

The boys have spent some time almost every day riding that dirt bike all around the house and up our little hill and down our driveway. Can you see my gray hairs? They should be visible from where you are. And please don’t look closely at my lawn. It’s now a dirt bike trail.

I have another funny story to share about Leif and Life of Fred. (Honestly, I could give you one of these almost every day!)

Leif saw me on Amazon looking at Pride and Prejudice. [I adore the movies, with both Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen, but I have never read the book. It’s about time I fix that!]

He begged me to "look inside" the book and go straight to the first line, which he read aloud:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

"Yeah, Fred [from Life of Fred] was wondering if he had to get married because he had more than $5,000. That's not something you want to hear when you are only six years old."

I asked him if it was something an eight year old wanted to hear.

"I don't have a fortune. I only have about $20, and that's rounded up."

A couple days later, the book arrived on our doorstep. So, naturally, he picked it up and started reading. An eight year old boy reading Pride and Prejudice, on the couch full of laundry, wearing Minecraft pajamas, snacking on pretzels.

Folks, welcome to my house. [grin]

The Boys’ Room

I’ve spent hours and hours in the pit of despair the boys’ room the past couple days, trying to make it livable. Three boys in this small room for the past 8! years has taken a toll. It (desperately) needs to be repainted. It (desperately) needs new carpet. I need to get rid of the small, abused book shelf and replace it with a dresser for more clothing storage, and transfer a bunch of picture books up to Lola’s room (which is next on the docket).

Even with all the cleaning/organizing/purging I’ve done, it sure isn’t the sweet room it used to be. But we’ve added more books and shelves, so that’s forward progress, right?!

The boys decided to string little white lights up in their room, and I’m going to hang myself (accidentally) one of these days. Just when I thought I had made their room less dangerous…

And if you’re wondering what it’s like to have three boys in the same room at bed time… There are no words to describe their mother’s frustration.

Just. Go. To. Sleep. Already.

Our Christmas Season

I realize it’s been fairly quiet the past few weeks here at Mt. Hope. We’ve been relaxing and savoring the season in a low-key way. We’ve had a few activities, but I’ve chosen not to fuss with pictures so that I can fully enter into the moment.

:: The boys had their Christmas choir concert the first week of December in a gorgeous old stone church with stained-glass windows. The church we attend on Sundays meets in a middle school cafeteria (the middle school I attended years ago) and jeans and flip flops are regular attire, so the atmosphere at the concert felt especially lovely and festive to me with all the kids in their Christmas best. The choir additionally performed earlier in the week at a local retirement home.

:: Levi’s CC Challenge class met on December 1st, 5th, and 8th, and he has had some work to continue the past two weeks. Apparently, he has decided to make his short amount of work take all. break. long. to complete.

:: We had the house decorated by December 10th for a belated St. Nicholas Day celebration—our traditional Christmas party with our best friends. We spent a lazy and glorious afternoon together making marzipan and enjoying each other’s company.

:: My best friend, Char, is my own personal Christmas elf. She loves Christmas so much and her excitement spills over to bless me. My sister stopped by to chat and complimented me on the darling star garland hanging at the top of my entertainment shelving unit. I had to tell her that Char made it for me. [Shannon was not surprised.] And then she complimented me on my gorgeous greenery wreath. Yep—Char. And then Char sent me home with a container full of decorated sugar cookies and fudge, which I shared with the kids, and homemade baklava, which I shared with no one.

:: Russ bought me a new flute as an early Christmas gift, and I’ve been playing daily.

:: My ChocLit Guild book club met for our annual cookie exchange. I always look forward to book club, but book club plus a huge plate of goodies to bring home is as good as it gets. I shared my favorite almond strawberry thumbprint cookies.

:: Russ and I attended a Christmas party for one of the businesses he works for. We’ve been attending this particular party for years—a room full of truckers. As in truck driving instructors. Seriously. But I get both prime rib and lobster, so it’s all good.

:: We attended a quintessential small-town nativity pageant with Char and her mom and kids. It was about 45 minutes away, held in an old elementary school (now the small town’s event center). This pageant has been a community tradition for 74 years! There were nine scenes with full sets and costumes, and a choir singing numbers between scenes. So lovely.

:: This year, Russ had the brilliant idea to put our Christmas tree on the front porch. Now I’m wondering why we have never done this before! With such a tiny living space for our rambunctious, always-home family, even a small table-top tree feels overwhelming in the living room, but this year we purchased a slightly larger tree and the boys had a blast decorating it. We can easily see it through the windows, so it doesn’t feel as if something is missing.

Right after we put it up, a major storm blew through with high-wind warnings. I was questioning our decision for a few hours there. Now we’re in the middle of flood warnings. It’s a blustery, wet, sloppy mess out there.

[You can see our new paint color in these pictures. It didn’t get finished [sigh], but at least it isn’t blue with a mismatched blue shop in front of the house. I guess I’ll have to put up with the caulk marks by the front door, random blue tape here and there, and the piles of stuff on the porches and around the shop until the spring. I’m learning to not care.]

:: The kids continued with AWANA this month, and now they are off for a couple weeks. Swim team practice continues all month long for Russ and the boys.

:: Levi and my sister both ended up with the stomach flu a couple nights ago (several days after Rilla was sick) and I’m having déjà vu. We spent weeks last Christmas break taking turns with the stomach flu, and I’m praying it doesn’t continue to make the rounds this season.

:: When I first pulled all the Christmas books off the shelf, I didn’t think I’d need to do any other Christmas decorating. We have so many!! So the boys have been reading and we’ve been working our way through the Christmas movies.

:: Christmas cards go out on Monday. Nothing like the last minute… I suppose I should wrap gifts at some point also…

:: We’re spending Christmas Eve at our house with Russ’s adopted parents, Ron and Haley.

:: Christmas Day will be spent with my family, as usual.

:: Levi’s 13th birthday is the following week—on New Year’s Day.

:: And then we have something fun planned for two days later… [surprise!]

How are you celebrating this Christmas season? Are you busy or relaxed? Or both?

The Annual Clean House Photo

My living room looked nothing like this photo this morning. And this afternoon I had to stage the photo just right so that you could not see into any other room, like the kitchen. Especially the kitchen.

But this evening the kitchen and bathroom are passable. (We won’t talk about the bedrooms.) Please stop by unexpectedly while my house is clean. You have five minutes to get here.

I don’t usually have quite so much furniture in here, but I added a coffee table and a few chairs (and removed about 50 books from the large ottoman) in preparation for book club this evening.

I adore my new entertainment center. I was so sick of that huge red armoir (and old television) that took up a ginormous amount of space and jutted its sharp corners into the room. This one is stream-lined, fits the space perfectly, and holds a huge number of DVDs and other odds and ends in the spacious drawers. It’s a tricky space because we have a wall heater near the floor, and I was ecstatic when we saw this at IKEA for much less than we would have spent to make something custom and not as nice. (The shelves and drawers are customizable.)

Time’s up.

The couch is now full of laundry.

The Live & Learn Studio

Come on in! I’m not sure what to say that I haven’t shared before, so feel free to ask questions in the comments. This space is in our detached shop. Russ’s office space is in the nook to the left of the entry.

 

Learn from yesterday. Live for today. Hope for tomorrow. ~ Einstein

If that isn’t the perfect quote for the living and learning room at Mt. Hope, I don’t know what is.

The desk dividers are bookshelves. I’ve added tension rods on the back of each for hanging posters and clipboards. The big bin under Luke’s desk is filled with wooden track and trains for Lola.

This room really is the all-purpose room. Russ works in here. We do lessons in here. The boys play on their computers in here. The boys play games (Monopoly is a favorite) or watch movies with Dad or play Wii. Russ takes the kids down here to hang out when I need some space or quiet time.

And, yes, the Dr. Pepper cooler works.

Little Learning Spots

Over the past year, my husband has been able to work from home a couple days each week. I’m so thankful that the company he works for is flexible in this way, particularly since it is a 45 minute drive to work, but this means we are sharing space at home. He is often on long, important phone calls, so this also means that we (three loud boys and a toddler) can not share space easily. Our learning studio doubles as his office space. Consequently, we must spend a great deal of time up at the house during the school week.

I’m grateful we have a fabulous space in which he can work without being disturbed. I’m grateful to have him home more often.

I thought I’d share some little spaces I’ve carved out of our main living space to accommodate our schooling when we don’t have the benefit of a dedicated “school room” since many others are also juggling school and life in their living rooms and kitchen.

We do have a small room off of the living room that holds my desk/computer space as well as bookshelves and drawers for all the books and resources we aren’t using right at the moment (which is an important function—I have no idea where all that stuff would go otherwise!!). We also keep backpacks and things for our Classical Conversations day in that room. I love having the space for storage, organizing, and planning, but the kids do not do any work in the little school room.

All lessons are done in the living room (on the couch) or kitchen (at the table). All books for the boys’ independent reading are stacked and spread on the large ottoman or my new little table in front of the couch. Those alone are a large percentage of our school work. I rotate them often so the books are current and coordinate with our other studies.

The books or curricula that we use together are corralled in a fabulous orange crate I found down in the shop. I have no idea where it came from, but I love it. The books fit perfectly. They are well-contained and somewhat hidden but easily accessible (Bible lessons, memory work, Latin, spelling, writing workbooks, science, history, etc.).

The books that are always available for the boys are kept in this sad little shabby chic tea cart that has seen better days. Bibles, Life of Fred books, and encyclopedias go here.

All table work happens in the dining nook. The laptop hangs out here for math lessons. This is where writing and spelling are done. I recently got the huge white board from a friend and I love it.

We’ve had a rough time with stacks and piles and avalanches of stuff on the kitchen counter. In a moment of exasperation, I purchased a shelf (two shoe organizers, actually) and a bunch of small bins to hold all of the miscellaneous scissors, math DVDs, tape, rulers, writing utensils, 3x5 cards, and such that was driving me crazy. This way it is all super accessible for use at the kitchen table and is more likely (though not guaranteed by any stretch of the imagination) to be put away and not dumped on the counter. We also keep our CC Essentials materials in the green bin under the counter so that it is easily transported to class on Mondays and back again.

Our schedule will be a little different next year as Russ changed one of his days at home to the day when we are out busy with classes and activities all day, so we will have three full consecutive weekdays for lessons in the studio. I’ll post pictures of the Live and Learn Studio next…

Kitchen

I hesitate to show these because the lighting is atrocious, but I took them on the (cloudy) morning of the open house. (Looking into the kitchen from the living room doorway. The mudroom door is on the left. The laundry nook is the curtained opening on the far away right. The dining nook is on the right. The refrigerator is hidden right next to me on the left.)

I like these much better:

Hallway Display

For those of you asking about the display in the hallway, it’s really hard to get a good picture because our hallway is so narrow and there isn’t much natural light, but this will give you a good idea. They are just clipboards with a random assortment of 8x12 photographs. (I’ve fixed the mismatched clipboard and the crooked picture since then.) Clipboards are fun because you can so quickly change out the display. (And 8x12s are very inexpensive at Costco if you want to change them often.)

This is the view up to and down from Lola’s room (there is always a stack of stuff at the bottom of the stairs):

Living Room

Welcome!! (Not much in the way of natural light when it is a cloudy, rainy day—typical for Oregon.)

And my March/April mantel (okay, maybe I won't get around to changing it every month):

The “Master” Bedroom

So many pictures and thoughts and ideas to post, so little time. I’ll get there—eventually.

One little bit at a time. In random order. Without much commentary. Without editing (who has time for that?).

Full disclosure—this is what it usually looks like:

The Princess Tower