By Sun and Candlelight

Easter Sunday, 2012 ~ A Recap

 Hello, everyone ... and a Happy Easter to you!

I hope you all had a nice weekend, and a lovely holiday, as well. I thought you all might like to see some pictures from our Sunday?

(Now first ... please let me "warn" you ... this is an awfully long post. I know it might be a little "tmi" for some folks, but please keep in mind, I use this blog as a big family scrapbook and many years from now I'll be glad I captured every last detail!)

So ... away we go!

Well, Earlybird was up SUPER early (as usual) so we let him look through his basket provided he leave his brothers alone. Bill and I enjoyed our (strong) coffee while EB dove into his goodies ...

The Easter Bunny always brings EB a few candies he can have - natural/organic jelly beans and "safe" chocolate bunnies - but mostly special books and toys. Like a ruler of his own, a turtle bath sponge, a Lego to build, and brand spankin' new crayons. Thankfully, he never seems to miss all those extra candies his brothers get in their baskets. :)

Finally, around 6:30 we allowed EB to wake up his brothers ... and I just had to share this picture - fuzzy and dark thought it is - because it cracks me up! Two tousled bedheads, squinty eyes, folded arms ... a general air about them of, "Huh?"

EB, ever the master of ceremonies, was quite happy to welcome the boys to their baskets ...

The older boys also get candies from the Easter Bunny (of a more traditional sort) as well as a couple of magazines, a new sketchbook and maybe a Wii game.

Archie just sat back and observed ...

... most likely making mental notes for later.

And so the day began ...

Now, my mum and I started planning this dinner (this day) many weeks ago. And regular readers of my blog know this because I've talked about it quite a bit! We were expecting a party of 23 people in all, so that takes a lot of organization - particularly when it comes to food preparation and seating arrangements.

We'd be nowhere without our various lists ...

As much as I love the holidays - Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas - I almost love the "lead up" even more. Because I love the anticipation and I have such fun working with my mum putting this all together. I especially love how, as Mum and I work, I glean all these great tips and hints. Like how to care for Gram's silver, and what pans work best for what foods ... bits of information I know my mum gleaned from my gram. And I feel this is a way we keep her with us as we go along. ❤

So, in getting creative with seating, we transformed the learning room into a table for four:

Setting up a small table as a sideboard:

The dining room table can be expanded to eight, but we squeezed 10 chairs around it:

We set this table with some of my mum's "Blue Danube" china and two of my "English Countryside" plates. We also combined silverware sets ... but all the linen napkins once belonged to my grandmother.

And, finally, we had a table for six set up in the family room:

So where did that leave the other two guests? Why, that would be Bookworm and Crackerjack - who kindly agreed to sit up at the kitchen island all on their own.

Now, for a few lots more pictures from the dinner party itself ...

I know this punch looks like nothing special - indeed, the lighting is terrible in my "cocktail bar" (aka the china cupboard on any other day). But I promise you, it was delicious! It was quite a hit, and though the picture does not show it, the shade was the prettiest peachy-pink. It looked just like an Easter morning sunrise. :)

The punch recipe (which I found online) consisted of strawberries, pink lemonade, cold black tea and ginger ale ... and they tell me it was fantastic with a splash of coconut rum. ;)

(Added to my party notes for future gatherings ... a punch ladle!)

Here are two of my smiley guys ... Crackerjack and my brother, Matt.

And my lovely cousins, Kate and Kara with their handsome gentleman friends, Paul and Manuel.

(How time has flown ... I used to babysit these girls!)

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the two couples are playing table-top soccer. We moved the foozball table up from the playroom and onto the deck for the day. Here's a great big party/small house trick ... lure the guests outside, lol!

Here's my CJ setting up "lawn bowling" for the younger kids ...

We even had two little doggies attend our Easter party!

These pretty pups are "Lily" and "Sophie," who belong to my cousin Colin and his wife, Tina, who were on from New York. Though Archie and Oliver were "sequestered" for the day (in the older boys' bedroom), the dogs were kept outside in our fenced-in backyard. The house was already chaotic enough!

So, I have to show you this neat little thing ...

I saw this idea in a magazine ... you (meaning, Bill, who did this for me) simply cut a small purple cabbage in such a way it will hold a thick dip (in this case, spinach) and then arrange your fresh veggies all around it. Isn't it so springy?

Here's part of our Easter party ...

(From left to right): Kate and Paul, Uncle Karl, Grandma Barbara (Bill's mom), Bookworm, Kara, Auntie Marcia and Manuel.

And here's a few more ...

(L to R): My sweet sister-in-law Ami and her boyfriend, Eric, Bill's dad (aka Grandpa Bill) and finally, my Bill. :)

So we served cocktails and appetizers at 1:30 ... and in addition to the veggies and dip, there was artichoke dip with French bread, devlilled eggs (made by Bill's mom), assorted cheeses with crackers, grapes and apples ... and cheese straws and breadsticks served with pesto.

Dinner was ready about an hour later ... 

I use our L-shaped kitchen island for serving, "buffet style" at most of our gatherings. It's central and convenient as most of our house is open from room-to-room.

Our Easter Dinner Menu, 2012:

baked "honey" ham

roast turkey breast

potatoes au gratin

broccoli casserole

antipasto salad*

Annie's macaroni and cheese* - EB's one request, lol!

baked beans*

roasted spring vegetables

cranberry sauce

assorted mustards

Uncle Karl's Irish soda bread

assorted dinner rolls

(I put an * beside the things I made/prepared myself - everything else was contributed by somebody other than me.)

Here I am with my mum, who was keeping EB company while he "chilled" on the couch.

(EB's not always one for the dinner table. Not for long, anyways, lol.)

And here we have the "dining room" party, which included my dad in the bottom center, then, going counterclockwise: my (little) brother Matt, my cousin Caitlin, and my cousin Colin and his wife, Tina, as well as their two (adorable) little boys, Connor and Finn.

Oh my goodness, I have to show you this sweet little boy ... Finn is my first cousin's son, so I'm not sure if that makes him my second cousin (once removed)?

Whatever it makes him, he's such a dear little boy ...  and yes, the baby-lust was surging strong. ;)

So after a brief intermission, in which I had lots of help putting away the leftover food - I set Bill about making coffee, and we got desserts out on the buffet ...

Our Easter Sunday Desserts, 2012:

Auntie Marcia's butterscotch pudding

(served with whipped cream)

cream cheese-frosted vanilla "bird nest" cupcakes*

Guinness Cake*

rhubarb grunt*

Easter blondies*

assorted cookies and candies

freshly brewed coffee

(same * rules apply)

A few shots of the dessert buffet ...

After desserts there was an Easter egg hunt in the front yard!

Caitlin and Colin with Connor.

Crackerjack, Earlybird and Connor.

Dad and Auntie Marcia.

(As you can see, there's a lot of height in my family ... it just skipped me and my mum, lol.)

Earlybird, giving the thumbs up!

My three "Boston Boys" ...

... spending a special day with their "New York Cousins."

:)

So by sunset, the party was over and our guests had gone home ... the flowers had drooped and the flames had burned low ... another Easter Sunday was over ...

But a whole Easter season just begun!

Alleluia! 

In my heart, this is what Easter is all about: celebrating the LIFE and the LOVE with which we have been so richly blessed, and all the amazing things we get to enjoy simply because God is so GOOD ...

I thank Him for every year we're together.

❤

Well, my friends, I hope you have enjoyed this rather lengthy "peek" at our family's Easter celebration, and I thank you for sharing in our joy. I had such fun telling you all about it!

"A joy shared is a joy doubled." ~ Unknown

So have a good night, everyone ... I will see you again very soon!

Outfitting a Home-Centered Desk

But first, a Good Sunday evening to you all. :)

Here we are at the very close of the week, and I finally have a desk post to share with you! It was such a nice sunny day (and fairly mild, too), so I had lots of light and fresh air to work in ...

And here's my new desk, situated in the southwestern corner of our learning/sitting room:

As you can see, I now have an honest-to-goodness "desk chair" for my desk! Bill and the boys brought it home from Staples today, and it's very comfortable, I'm happy to say.

So first off, I worked on filling in (i.e. organizing) all the drawers ... 

The lower drawers are for file folders. On the left I will keep recipe storage and household information. (Seen in the picture at the top of this post.) And on the right is my File Crate System (my weekly file folders).

The top drawers are devoted to the various materials I need as "home manager." On the left: a correspondence basket, stickers and labels, and a master to-do pad (suspiciously empty at the moment, lol).

On the right: my budgetkeeping drawer.

(It may not look very organized, but honestly - it is!)

There is a metal basket nestled in there, and inside that is another small basket holding coupons and gift certificates. Also in the metal basket are current bills to pay, weekly church envelopes, business cards (held together by a binder clip) and my calculator. In the front section of the drawer is a plastic zip-top envelope in which I will (temporarily) store shopping receipts. On the left side of the drawer is a stack of monthly statements (held together by a binder clip - boy, do I love binder clips, lol!). 

Now, I showed you the right hand side of the desk when I first arranged it the other day. It looks pretty much the same, only I made that little letter holder a bit more purposeful. (It now holds a task binder, the "active" weekly file folders, my notecards, shopping notebook, and daily routine index cards.)

Above the desk I hung my projects clipboard.

On the windowsill, just behind this side of the desk, I used those pretty planter pots for some tiny desk accoutrements. :)

Orange holds tiny multicolor clothespins (for a neat project I'll tell you about soon), yellow holds small binder clips, green holds nothing at the moment but I had stuck my reading glasses in there, and blue holds medium size binder clips.

(So far the cats have left these little pots alone, but that could all change in a moment - most likely an after-midnight moment - so we shall see.)

Now, the left side of the desk I've kept mostly open because I can't decide what I want to put here, but for now, I have a small crate with my clipping journal.

(Which was promptly taken over by Archie.)

I think I'd like to get a two-tiered inbox for this spot. A place in which I'd keep things to look at - correct, address, file, etc. I'm thinking about getting something like this.

So here's the desk view to the left ... my reading (and tea) corner.

And here's the desk view to the right ... the family reading corner.

A closer look at Earlybird's February "library" nook:

Underneath that table there are nature puppets, a portable dvd player and a basket of videos, puzzle buckets and a few games.

So I think it's coming together quite nicely! The desk fits in well here, and it feels great to have a space devoted to home management. The family computer is located here, so the boys do share this desk with me sometimes. In fact, as I finish this post, I'm sitting in my reading chair working on my laptop, while the boys are at the desk, laughing at some Star Wars website ...

And Archie's still in that crate!

:)

Well my friends, I hope you enjoyed this tour of my new desk, but I'm going to sign off now as it's getting late and I've kept you here long enough! I'm looking forward to a quiet Sunday evening with my fellas, having supper and watching TV ... but I'll be here bright and early tomorrow to kick off our Downton discussion, so I'll catch up with all again then! 

*★ Good night! ★*

File Folder Migration

Well, I took a few steps towards setting my desk up today! First off, I moved the file crate system (sans crate) into its new home:

The folders fit perfectly in this drawer. :)

Now, you all might remember how hard Bill worked to set me up with an under-counter, in-cabinet, rolling-cage scenario last year? (God bless that man, he is good to me!) Well, I am happy to say I made this file folder "migration" with his blessing. When he found this desk online and showed it to me, the first thing(s) he pointed out were the TWO file folder drawers!

(And not to fret - that rolling cage thingy will be put to good use - he's thinking he might keep his "upstairs" tools in the crate for easy access. OR we might keep seasonal baking supplies under here ...)

I also started laying out a bit of my "stuff" on the desktop to see how it would look.

I'm really trying to keep my penchant for clutter under control, so I'm doing this little by little. (Carefully arranged and color-coordinated "clutter" is soothing to me, lol - but I know open spaces are more efficient, and to most eyes, more attractive.) Helene asked about a lamp and a chair ... and we're thinking on that. I'm not sure I need a lamp here, since we do have two soft lights in either corner of this room, as well as an overhead light. And then of course, there are all those sunny windows! But Bill mentioned something about a task light so we'll see ...

As for the chair, well the one we're using here is just a stand-in till we get a proper desk chair. (It's a lovely chair - an old family piece - but it's low and very hard!) Actually, we bought a desk chair at Staples a month ago for EB and it was not too expensive but very comfy and nice looking. Though I love the idea of a white, wooden "swivel" chair I'm going to opt for comfort over style ... or hopefully, a happy marriage of the two. :)

So the stuff I set up today included my Mary Engelbreit page-a-day calendar, which I set upon a slice of tree branch. The branch gives the small plastic calendar a little more presence, and compliments the woodsiness visible through the windows. I also set my pens, pencils and scissors in an old candle jar. The red goes with the room, of course, and I love the star motif.

Also added, was this pretty metal letter/file holder. I used to keep it up on the kitchen island, tucked against the wall corner. In this, I keep odds and ends - some practical, some pretty - but I do display my current ("active") file folders here.

Keeps them handy and visible!

Then of course I laid out my primary planning tools:

The month @ a glance calendar, my household binder and my Daybook. The daybook is open to next week's planning page because that is what I worked on today. (I start my "next week planning" on Thursdays.) The little notebook is my "weekend errands" notebook. I start working on that on Thursdays as well.

And you can't see them too well here, but there are tiny ceramic plant-pots on the windowsill. I bought these at the nursery for all of $2 apiece! We may plant seed in them on Candlemas (or perhaps Ash Wednesday) or I may just use them to hold little desk things like camera batteries, flash drives, binder clips and such.

So that's all I've done so far! The other three drawers are still empty and the other side of the desk is still open. I'm slowly working my way around ... :)

Well, my friends, thank you so much for stopping by ... I hope your Thursday was a good one! Our day was busy (in and out, back and forth), but we're home now and the sky's growing dark - though it seems to stay "light" a little longer these days ... and that's a very welcome thing! 

So have a good night, everyone ~ I will see you again soon!

❤

Hot Cocoa, Handcrafts and a New Command Center!

We enjoyed such mild weather today! It was so sunny, and the air felt soft (if that makes sense) and smelled almost like Spring. Even so, the boys and I thought it was a good day for cocoa! So my "Tuesday Tea" this week was hot chocolate with a dollop of whipped cream and a small shake of cinnamon sugar. This mug was a gift from another homeschooling mom years ago ... it was made locally and I just love its earthy colors and texture. :)

And speaking of gifts, I'd like to show you some lovely things made for me by two kind and thoughtful friends ...

The first is this pretty tea towel, hand-sewn by Elizabeth:

Isn't it beautiful? The colors are just perfect with my kitchen! And the nostalgic pattern reminds me of my new set of mixing bowls:

:)

And Theresa crocheted these sweet kitty toys for my Archie and Ollie:

As you might expect, the kittens are simply smitten with them ...

❤ I am so grateful to Elizabeth and Theresa for their lovely and thoughtful, gifts. I will treasure them always! ❤

Now, before I go I must give you all a peek at my new desk - aka "command center!"

Here's how it looks from my "tea corner" where I'm sitting at this very moment ... that's Bill figuring out the wiring underneath.

I think it fits the corner very well!

(My "corner office," lol.)

I will do a follow up desk post (more than one, most likely) once I have all my 'stuff' arranged. I love how clean and clutter-free it looks, and I'll try to keep that in mind as I arrange. ;)

Well, my friends, thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope you all had a nice Tuesday, and I hope your night brings you much comfort and rest. Tomorrow is a busy day for us ~ we're hosting Bookworm's Brit Lit group here in the morning, so I may not "check in" till after lunch. So if I don't make it on early - have a good Wednesday as well!

❤

Winter Tea Tuesday ...

❤ January 17th, 2012 ❤

Well, it's raining here now ... the morning snow has mostly melted, and now it's just a dark, drizzly afternoon. Yes, the weather is lousy, but I've decided to just romance the whole thing and pretend I'm living somewhere in England ... Winters are wet and chilly there, yes? 

Weather aside, it's easy to pretend such a thing with the beautiful cup and saucer set shown above. This was a very thoughtful and generous gift from my friend Emma from Norway. She and her children picked this set out for me and had it sent to me for my birthday - and it did indeed arrive on my birthday! (As I said to Emma, it's always fun to receive packages, but never moreso then on one's birthday!)

And isn't it just lovely? The cup is just the right size and delicate shape (reminiscent of my Gram's Irish china, the cups I drank tea from as a child) and the wide saucer plate allows for a sizable snack. Which is just what I did - I allowed myself a sizable snack. ;)

And my snack today (besides the Earl Grey tea), is some lavender-scented shortbread from Dancing Deer, a Boston-based cookie company. We send our non-local relatives gift packages from this company at Christmas, and we have always been thrilled with their service. And of course, the cookies are delicious! (They make brownies, too.) You can find them at Whole Foods - I recommend the molasses clove cookies, especially.

Now, I have to show you a couple of things before I wrap up ... one, is the "new" secretary we now have in our dining room. This is where I keep my new teacup set - along with some other special items:

This handsome piece of furniture (and I'm not sure it's actually a "secretary," maybe its called something else) belonged to Bill's grandmother, and it's long been residing in our basement storage. (For shame, I know!) But with our new dining room coming together we finally have a place for it. It looks especially nice with our dark dining table, and I just love how it looks set against all that yellow!

And something else really quick - here's the pile of books that are thoroughly distracting me from what I should be reading: 

Most of these are Christmas and birthday gifts, but one is from the library and one I've owned for years. (You can probably tell which one that is - the one with the creased binding!) All are tempting reads on a quiet winter's day ... and links will be found under "Mama's Reading" - a sidebar list I'll get up soon.

I also must point out the glowing angel candle in the righthand corner. My parents gave her to me for my birthday - she turns herself on when it gets dark, and then shuts off again after five hours. I find her light so soothing!

Well, my friends, I hope you've all had a nice Tuesday but I must be off. (I bet you knew I was going to say that, didn't you? ;)) My tea break is over and next on my agenda is ... starting the dishwasher, popping a lasagna in the oven, and then jumping into a nice hot shower - I have a new soap to try out!

So have a great night, everyone ... I'll see you again soon!

❤

Making Room for Christmas

Happy Monday, my friends! I hope you all had a nice weekend.

We were very busy here on the homefront, decking the halls ... peeling cats off the walls.

>> o.O <<

Yes, it was a bit crazy here for a while, but now that the finery's been hung and the storage bins stashed away, I'm trying to get back to that atmosphere of relative ...

(Cat antics notwithstanding.)

So the sitting room - aka learning room - has been transformed for the season! We got our tree up, and added holiday touches all around the house, inside and out. So it's really beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here ~ even if temperatures will reach 60 degrees today, lol.

I thought you might like a little look at our sitting learning Christmas room this morning ...

(Honestly, I didn't choose the paint and fabrics specifically for Christmas - but I knew they'd look great at this time of year!)

Here's the tree we brought home last week ...

Our ornaments, as you can see, are very homespun and child/cat-friendly. Someday we might graduate to fancy breakable bulbs but materials like wood, felt and foam work best for all involved now.

Not to get ahead of ourselves, but here's where we'll display our Christmas greetings this year:

I lined the windows with this pretty holiday ribbon (held  by a few pushpins), and all along it, I attached tiny wooden clothespins. The pins will hold the cards very nicely!

 

And in the corner of the room I organized our nativity set.

 

Only the wooden donkey is safe to be left out - Oliver is quite obsessed with the soft nativity dolls!

*

*

He kept raiding the manger Saturday night! First it was the angel, with her fluffy hair and sparkly star - she was hard to resist - then it was the shepherds with their wooden twig staffs.

He was relentless.

So the angel moved to the top of the tree ...

And the rest of the dolls were tucked safely in a basket.

We also had to make a few adjustments to the tree skirt ...

Namely, snipping off the "holly berry" beads and "pinecone" seeds. The cats thought those seemed pretty tasty. I do love our tree skirt, but I love my cats (and their digestion tracks) even more!

And here we have the nature shelf, with our Advent Tree on display:

(The God's Eye hanging from the tree is a craft we made a few years ago. It's hung in honor of two upcoming feasts: St. Juan Diego (12/9) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (12/12). This week EB and I will explore Mexican Christmas customs.)

And above the doorway into the kitchen, we have a little reminder:

~**❤**~

It's good to remember how blessed we are! In the midst of all the "merry mayhem," it's good to find (make!) time to sit and remember our blessings ... to take comfort and joy in each one.

Sure, it can crazy out there, but we are in control of in here.

Hearts and Home.

:)

I wish you all a wonderful week! Thanks so much for stopping by, and please take care ...

I will see you all again very soon!

A New Year, a New Room!

Happy September, my friends!

And thank you very much for all the wonderfully kind comments about our "new" learning room! I'm so very happy with it, and I'm glad to think you all like it too. :)

So, as promised yesterday - in that post that kind of got away from me, lol - here is a little tour of the learning spaces in and around our "new" learning/sitting/keeping room.

Now I have always liked this corner - it's been my corner of the learning room for years now - but sitting at the table was never very comfortable. I really like having a (soft!) chair here where I can work on my laptop (as I am right this very minute!) or read or even write and plan, if I use a lapdesk. We left the "teacher" bookcase here because it provides great storage and fits this wall space really well. I tried to declutter the shelves a little as they had really become an eyesore - a catchall for extraneous books, magazines, papers, and random craft supplies, etc. 

  

And here's how it looks now!

  

What I have here is:

At the very top of the bookcase is a basket filled with my seasonal craft supplies - things I will need on crafting days, but don't really need out in the open. As much as I love the visuals, it can get messy pretty fast - and I can just see the kittens having their way with all that stuff! 

On the top shelf is my collection of Everyday Food, my favorite cooking magazine. The next shelf has a basket which holds my camera and the binoculars. (I make sure to keep those long, dangling straps well *out* of sight and tempation!) Then I have my beloved birch logs standing behind a sweet little cross reminding me of something I try to think about every single day. :)

Next I have a small birch bucket filled with unsharpened pencils, a couple of Sharpies, two pairs of very sharp scissors and, oddly enough, some twisty little silk flower vines. (They just look so lovely poking up through the golden pencils.) Next is the iTouch for listening to music or, more often, newsradio. And tucked in the corner are two pretty boxes holding personal stationary (bottom) and prayer slips (top).

Next shelf down holds a pretty jar (not yet filled with treats) and my books of the moment: Jamie at Home, The Gardener's Community Cookbook, The Barefoot Contessa's How Easy is That?, Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook and What to Cook & How to Cook It. Finally, there's a basket filled with our field guides.

On the floor next to the chair is my reading basket:

And just to my right is my "work" countertop - where I park my calendar and computer, etc. 

 

You may remember, a while back I showed you how the cabinet directly beneath this counter now houses my file crate - so far that's working out well - but, I also made better use of that old tea drawer:

All (or most) of my desk supplies are now stowed here: scissors, stapler, tape, stamps, mints, binder clips, paper clips, pushpins, rubber bands, hole punch, favorite pens, pencil sharpener, glue sticks, highlighter, post-it notes, mouse and mousepad (when not in use), camera stick, lip balm and hand lotion.

It gets really nice light and lets me feel in the middle of things and yet, kind of in my own little sanctuary at the same time. :)

Moving on, I used an old desk from the boys' room as a console table under the windows here:

I borrowed lamps from the front room and filled the drawers with a few of EB's things - i.e. his LeapFrog Explorer, a collapsible magnifying glass, a new stash of crayons, etc. On top of the table I placed a basket filled with our standard containers of pencils and child-friendly scissors. Also on display, some of Earlybird's magazines ... as well as two dear little owls that may or may not remain here. They belonged to my grandmother and they are ceramic - absolutely precious - and pretty much in the line of kitten fire. So far they (the kittens) have been good about them (the owls) but just to be safe, the "breakables" retire to a safe location roundabouts 7 p.m. every night - just about the time kitty "happy hour" kicks in. ;)

Speaking of kitties and happiness, here's EB playing with Archie earlier today:

Beneath the kitten window seat - which they love - is the old book-bag bench, redisgned to hold some of EB's educational materials. 

Maps and atlases in the corner, and then three baskets with placemats beneath each designating the subject within - science, social studies and math (L-R). I'm slowly filling these baskets in but so far we have things here like whale models, planet puzzles, birdsong gadgets, math picture books and "good manners" flash cards.

(The school bags - those monogrammed totes we've used for years to hold the curriculum texts, workbooks and notebooks - will be kept in another location. I'll blog more about those in a future post.)

(I must take a moment to point out that the kittens heartily approve of the new digs. This here is Archie, and he is especially fond of taking his afternoon nap here, preferably on somebody's lap.) 

In the corner which used to house the nature shelves, we now have the family computer desk:

Bookworm and Crackerjack use this computer - for personal stuff (fun, games, creative writing, etc.), but also for their math and French lessons. They also do supervised internet research for projects and reports.

On the wall above the monitor I wish to hang a classroom clock (yet to be found/purchased) and a couple of picture frames I already have. In the basket beside the desk (also something of my Gram's, made by my great uncle if I'm remembering correctly) we have our seasonal books, recently refreshed with all our favorite "autumn" titles. (I'll put up a sidebar booklist very soon.)

More of Gram's owls ...

(The little red dish in the background holds our supply of wadded up scrap paper - the very best kitten toys we have found.)

By the way, you might be wondering what we've done with our nature shelves, because as longtime readers will know - they have always been a very important part of our learning room. Well, I miss them, but we have taken them down for the time being. Mostly because the kittens would claim them as a self-service snack station, I'm sure. (All those "yummy" bits of dried flowers, crab claws, dead moths and snakeskin, etc. would be absolute fodder.)

So when we emptied out the room for renovation, Bill packed up all my nature project and reference books and stored them in an accessible location downstairs; I know where they are shoud I need them. The binoculars and field guides now reside on my "teacher" shelves shown above, and as for the "treasures" we inevitably will start collecting (such as the toppled sunflower head I picked up just this morning), well - I'm working on a way to display them in a cat-friendly way. Presently, there seems to be hardly any surface these fellas can't reach!

I may set up a small freestanding shelf somewhere "safe" (if there is such a thing) or we may use the kitchen windowsill since it's narrow and (so far) they've not ventured up there. Or I may do a collection/shadow box mounted on a wall such as this one ...

For years we had a bulletin board mounted here, but lately I haven't found much use for it. I'm thinking of hanging a set of framed (educational?) prints here - OR - I may start a wall photo collage project (something like this). I'd start with September and add pictures as we move through the seasons. I think it would be a fun way to showcase/remember/celebrate our year. :) I'm excited by the idea, but it's a project I need to think about some (and discuss with Bill) before diving in.

So now we're leaving the learning room, proper, and entering the familiy room just beyond. Since EB has a nice little "work" corner here I thought I'd include it in my learning space post.

This is Earlybird's computer - and before you ask, yes he does need his own computer separate from the main family computer. It was in everyone's best interest (and peace of mind) that we did things this way. ;)

To his right is the biggest bookcase we have in the house - and it will most likely never move; it's too huge to fit anywhere else!

Off to EB's immediate right I hung a round bulletin board just for him:

There will be more here next week once we "officially" begin lessons, but so far I have a few leaves from the backyard and a "good manners" card for contemplation.

Looking at the big bookcase a little more closely, here is our "Family Faith" shelf where we keep all kinds of things - reference and instruction books, storybooks, Veggie Tales movies and miscellaneous booklets. (I'll make some sidebar booklists for this shelf as well.) I also have our statue of the Blessed Mother here (it belonged to my father's parents) as well as our nature puppets and a lovely little St. Francis doll - our family's patron saint.

I am in love with these little saint dolls; you might remember I posted about them around Easter time?

We keep EB's book baskets here ...

From left to right we have science books, social studies books and just plain good reading books. 

He (and Archie) think it's a pretty neat set up!

Honestly, we do some of our best work all stretched out (dare I say, just like a cat?) on the floor ... ;)

So there you have it, my dear readers! I hope you enjoyed this tour of our "new" learning room! We're enjoying it very much - especially on this fine first day of September. As I finish up this post I have all the windows open and the overhead fan is spinning that fresh air all about. The boys are all out here - figuring out how to install "Angry Birds" on their computer, lol! I'm hearing the dishwasher running and a cicada whining somewhere off in the woods, and the kittens are enjoying the windows, too ...

It feels like a pretty good way to kick off our September ...

I hope your month is off to a good start, too! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and taking a peek at our "doings." Until next time please take care and take joy! I will be back here again just as soon as I can.

:)

Thoughts on the Learning Room ...

Or, Where Do We "Do School?"

As homeschoolers we're quite fond of the saying, "the whole world is our classroom," but it's still nice to have a designated space in our home for storing and displaying our "school stuff." In our house, the "learning room" is a small-to-medium-size area situated between the kitchen and family room. When we bought our house 11 years ago, it was a 3-season porch: there were seven storm windows, two doors (one to the deck and one to the kitchen) and no insulation whatsoever. (Hence the 3-season availability!) 

Within our first couple of years here, we (meaning, Bill) opened it all up - he began with the wall between the kitchen and porch, and then eventually the rear exterior wall came down too, as a family room addition went up. Bill also raised the ceiling, installed "real" windows and insulated the floor. (As you may have guessed, I married a very handy guy!) Eventually - once the family room was done - it became our dining room, but the many windows afforded the room lots of air and light, and its position right off the kitchen made it a great space for homeschooling. Over the years it became less of a dining room and more of a "classroom."

Well, our classroom (or learning room as we usually call it) recently underwent another makeover, and I've been blogging about it a bit recently. Basically, I felt we weren't making the most of this room - which is my favorite in all the house for its windows and "central" location. For one thing, the older boys use the kitchen island for seatwork, and Earlybird and I can (and do) work all over the house. And for another, the dining table only gets used as a dining table on occasion - we take most of our meals around the kitchen island. (That's actually something I'd like to change ... but more on that project later!) Ultimately I felt that the room would be more enjoyable with a bit more elbow room and some comfortable seating. I wanted to make it a place for curling up with my boys and/or a good book, or chatting with company, watching the birds, or just "hanging out" ... learning and living as the days go by.

So I talked with Bill about my ideas, and was very glad when he readily agreed! After some discussion (and a wee bit of debate), we came up with a plan, and once our schedule afforded us some free weekends, we dug in. :)

The first thing we did was to move the large table out to the front room which will now serve as formal dining room - and by formal I mean "official" not fancy. ;) Then we took out everything else! The bookcases, the benches, the bags, the crates - all the kids' "stuff" as well as my "office" paraphernalia. 

Then Bill got to work - while he primed the walls, I looked for a new paint color. (We had decided on moss green, and our eventual choice was called "dark sage.") While he repainted, I shopped for a couple of modest-sized seating pieces. It's not a big room so I didn't want anything too bulky - but I was looking for comfort! We ended up purchasing an upholstered chair and loveseat in coordinating red/cream patterns.

With the furniture ordered, Bill next installed the wood flooring. I've always been a "carpet" girl (it's what I grew up with and it feels nice underfoot - especially in winter!) but Bill has been itching (literally) to get rid of our carpeting and replace it all with more natural flooring. It's so much better for everyone's respiratory systems, but especially Bill's and Earlybird's who both suffer from environmental allergies. And since it's not a big room, it didn't take too much time to install, once Bill got the hang of the nail gun. And when he was done I was a convert! I had no idea I'd like wood flooring so much!

Finally it was time to move the furniture back in and arrange things to our liking. Or I guess I should say "my" liking ... this room belongs to everyone of course, but we all seem to be referring to it as "Mama's Room," lol. ;)

So, here's a picture of the room late yesterday afternoon ... but since I've taken up so much of your time with all of this "backstory," I will do another post tomorrow, giving you all a tour of our new learning room and all its nooks and crannies ...

And we'll need to talk about school supplies and schedules and curriculum choices, etc. There's much to do these days, with September pressing upon us! 

So I'll be back tomorrow with more on the learning room ... but for now, I will wish you all a pleasant day and offer my thanks for your time and attention.

See you all again soon!

:)

My File Crate's New Home :)

I hope you all had a nice weekend. It was very busy here, with our construction underway and the year-end reports due a.s.a.p. I got a good start on the reports - Bookworm's is all done and I have plenty of notes for the other two. By this weekend I hope to have all three reports done and the ed. plans for next year all set, too. I'll mail the whole package off to the school system in about a week's time - God willing!

Now, about that "construction," well, really we're just changing rooms - switching the dining room to the front room (which served as a living room) and changing the dining room (aka the learning room) into a sitting room. Bill is repainting the walls and re-doing the floors (lifting ages-old carpet and installing wood flooring). We've ordered some new furniture as well. :)

I'll keep you all up to date on the "remodel" but for now I'd like to show you the new home for my file crate. As most of you know, I like to keep the crate as accessible as possible; to my mind this is a big part of its success. In the design for the "new" sitting room, however, there isn't really a place for the crate to sit out in the open. I could keep it on the island, but it would sit too high, and it's really too bulky. I mulled over ideas for using a smaller (and more attractive) crate, but Bill came up with a great solution - a way of keeping the crate conveniently close and easy to access, but still out of the way. He reconfigured the under-island cabinet - the one that faces the sitting room, the one which sits under my "workspace" ...

... and fitted it with a handy roller basket for my crate!

This cabinet used to hold a whole bunch of hodgepodge - bread machine, electric tea kettle, ice cream maker, snow cone maker, cupcake carrier ... some holiday light strings, a garland of ivy, a few doilies in various sizes. In short, it was a real mess!

All those items have been moved to storage downstairs, and as you can see, it is now all cleared out. Bill had to remove a back shelf to make room before he installed the roller basket for the crate ...

Ta-da!

The crate fits perfectly inside the roller basket! To make it quite secure, Bill sawed off the stubby plastic feet and secured the crate with ties.

The drawer you see above the file crate cubby is my old tea stash drawer - it was fun to keep my tea boxes here, but I've decided I just don't drink enough of it to warrant a whole drawer devoted to it, lol! We're going to make it a school supply drawer instead - a place for rulers, pencils, tape, stapler, pens, etc. (Post on that coming soon.)

Because, see, as we morph the dining (learning) room into a "sitting room" I'm losing my devoted school room space. These days the older boys do their work up at the island and Earlybird really kind of does his all over the place - at the computer, at the table, at the counter, on the couch, outside, etc. With the boys getting older, and the prospect of getting new kittens sometime soon, I thought it was a good time to simplify. Less "stuff" sitting out, more (hopefully) clever storage. And because of all the windows and great light, I really wanted to make better use of the room - we'll be in a sitting room far more than we will a dining room - or "school" room for that matter.

And since I stand here at this side of the counter to do "my work," (I'm standing here at this very moment!) I think it should work well to have the file crate stored in this way. True, it's not at waist level, and true, it's hidden behind a cabinet door, but I think with a little practice it will come to feel familar.

More on all of these "changes" coming soon. I am still working on answering reader questions (re ~ the file crate and otherwise), but to be perfectly honest, every spare minute this week wil be spent completing the ed. plans/school reports. I'll be back again just as soon as I can, though ... in the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful week. 

See you again very soon!

:)

Thoughtful Thursday

On my mind this week ... 

... swatches from the chair (left) and loveseat (right) we ordered this weekend.

Next up: paint samples.

:)

Have a great Thursday, my friends!