so - they loved school yesterday.
today school was cancelled for furious winds and crazy low windchills.
they were pretty bummed.
and i started the day off much differently than i had imagined i would as well.
we all needed a bit of an attitude adjustment.
so they watched 101 Dalmations
and i chased the light around the apartment
and sat with my back in the sunshine
and started cutting off and rehemming my black courdoroy skirt that i bought, oh, 15 years ago.
we finished reading Kalak and were all happy with the ending.
there was lego building and drawing and coloring.
we had pork chops and peas and tea for supper.
and then i made some double chocolate cookies.
(there might be a recipe share in order tomorrow . . . )
and now, the other three are sleeping and it's time for me to join them.
we'll see what sort of weather the morning brings.
it isn't going to be very friendly.
4 am is supposed to by -19 F but, with the wind feel like -37 F.
but out i will go.
then back home to (hopefully) ready some kiddos for school.
be wonderful, my friends.
love, ~e
in my house
where we've lived (in case you are curious)
the first place ben and i lived (the door on the far left - the left side of the main floor), after we got married, we rented for over a year, but decided that we should live on the other side of the city - closer to both our jobs and our church.
we moved into a tiny yellow house, and 2 months later, ben got laid off from his job - with no indication of if he would get called back or not. so, he looked for 2 months, he found another job (at a resort), and we moved.
after 6 months, the resort owner decided to change what he was expecting of both ben and i and put stipulations on ben's pay based on how much i was willing to work in the office (right after maddie was born) - not cool.
ben found a great carpentry job and we found a place to live. the job lasted, the living situation did not. 6 months later, we were asked to find another place to live.
the house we found to rent was too expensive, but there were no other options at the time. we tried to make it work, but it just didn't. we lived in the house for 8 months, then decided we had to find something else before we got in way over our heads.
so, we started to make some long-term plans and for the short-term moved into an efficiency apartment (in a motel. we lived in a motel). we were very cozy in that tiny apartment for 5 months.
then we moved to the town we live in now. the place we first rented was wonderful (the porch at the far end was ours. there were some shrubs by it when we lived there). we lived there for two years and would have stayed, but the land-lord sold the building and the new owner wanted to live in our apartment.
we moved in april. into an old farm house. the owners told us we could put a wood-stove in for the winter as the fuel-oil heat was astronomically expensive. we loved living there. but toward the end of the summer when ben started talking to them about what woodstove he would like to put in and where in the house, they told him they had changed their minds. they didn't want him to put in a stove. this induced a drastic budget change. to the point where we needed to find somewhere else to live.
in january we closed on a little house back in town. and lived there for two years. we thought about adding on to it, and we thought about building.
we were given the go-ahead to build. and that's what started all of this.
and now we are living in our 800 square feet.
and that, my friends, is our 12 years and 11 living spaces in a nutshell.
(you can read this and figure out where each tree fits, if you want to.)
we are starting to do some christmas decorating here. and listening to christmas music. and drinking spiced cider and lots of coffee. always lots of coffee.
love to you, my friends. ~e
2200 to 800
so, we live in this cozy little apartment now.
we went from 2200 square feet of house with a 2-car garage and a huge yard to 800 square feet and one stall in a shared garage and a shared parking lot/ yard.
but, you know what? i really like it. we all really like it. we are cozy. we are close. we picked out the things that we really want to have around us and packed up or sold or gave away everything else.
do not have anything that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
if that isn't permission and encouragement to get rid of a lot of stuff . . .
we have proven that we don't stay in one living space very long. any of you who try to send us christmas cards know that. ben and i have been married for 12 years and we have lived in 11 different spaces. (only 3 different communities, though.) hmmm . . . i think that means i shouldn't have a lot of stuff around to pack up. really, E? really, you are just figuring that out now? yeah. well.
i have learned a lot, though. about how i live in a space. and for me, small-ish is better. as long as i have a place for everything. which i am working on and almost have accomplished here.
i have a few major organizing projects to finish yet. funny enough, the ones that i talked about here still need doing. this winter is the time to get my pictures organized. i'm going to do it. i've got them all in one place, and i'm going to start really working on the project on mondays while my kids are at their piano lessons. let's be realistic, though. it's almost thanksgiving. i'll start after christmas.
i think i'll write some posts over the next while about how we are doing the small-space thing. and some more about why. maybe there will be some helpful ideas for others. maybe it will just be helpful for me to write and process . . . maybe you are curious now that i said we've lived in 11 different spaces in 12 years . . . i would be.
so, that's what i've got for today. a peek into our 800 square feet. and another little bit of sunshine. (that picture of maddie and isaac - that's sunshine, for sure. also, all the magnets . . . places we've been, places friends have been. and artwork and photos and a few special pieces of furniture . . . )
wishing you sunshine - inside, even more than out. love, ~E
just an early morning look around and thinking out loud
sometimes, latley, i've thought about what i would take with me if we had to leave our house for good. i don't know why that's been on my mind. but it has made me realize that i really want to get all my pictures organized in some way that it would be very easy to grab them and have them all. cause really, of all the lovely things we have, dishes that belonged to both my grandmas, gifts from my mom, handmade quilts, things my kiddos play with, books and more books, the stuff of everyday living . . . if we had to get out, for whatever reason, i would want us all to be able to grab our Bibles and all our pictures.
and then i look up at some of my favorite pictures on the wall, and i realize that people, all through time, have had to pack a suitcase, or stash things in a skirt or an inside coat pocket, and leave home, for all sorts of horrible and tragic and brave and wonderful reasons. and may of them could only bring one small thing - a broach, a watch, one or two photographs - and that was what they had for keeping memories.
keeping . . . what's important . . .
i'm in the process of paring down in our home. and trying to organize. throwing away. giving away. trying lighten the load - both mentally and in our physical surroundings. living in ten different homes through our almost-eleven years of being married has not helped the organization one bit. there are boxes of things that have followed me around. i've thought i haven't opened that box in 4 years, i should just throw it away. but i know some of what's in it (like baby cards, or a tiny pair of shoes, or a journal, or papers that i know will be helpful for homeschool) and just can't. so, i need to work my way through some of those boxes. and do some throwing, and some putting away.
i keep thinking things like, if i die, i would be so embarassed to have someone go through my things. so, i need to remedy that. because it weighs on me. and i don't need stuff to weigh on me.
so, one step at a time. i brought a filing cabinet up from the basement earlier this week and went through the whole thing and one shelf in my kitchen cupboard. i threw away a huge pile of papers and junk and put everything else in labeled folders in the cabinet. (i found lots of random pictures. see, this ties into my original thoughts . . . )
i found this idea on pintrest. i'm going to start in on it, a month or two at a time. i think it is an excellent way to keep our memories. they would be easy to look through, easy to grab. and all in one place. they would be books that i would be proud to have people look through when i'm gone. it'll be a great step in the right direction.
and i'm going to keep plugging away, a box and pile at a time. i'm going to lighten my load. and i'm going to keep looking for my balance of keeping what's useful and getting rid of things that are just things i'm hanging on to for . . . for what. i want the things that i keep in my home to have a purpose (even if the purpose is simply that it is beautiful to me) and to be kept in such a way as to be accessible and useful to me and my family.
paring down. lightening the load. making home.
happy thursday, my friends. happy cold, windy, snowy, fall-is-definitely-here thursday.
~love, e
one can of purple spray paint, one small paint brush, a bit of wall paint, and a couple hours
now it just needs a clear-coat and a barn-wood frame, and the back of my counter will be set.
i also have some other colorful projects in my head . . . next up just might be a can of orange spray paint (like my sun stars) . . . and maybe some turquoise (for frames and a collage miss maddie's room) . . . and turmeric yellow (on my front door?) . . . and a mural (inspired by this one) above ben's and my bed . . .
i have color on my mind . . .
i love the feeling of skin warm from the sun . . .
(spring is really on the way, i think)
we haven't had to have a fire in the fireplace that last two days
the sun pours through the windows and warms everything it touches . . .
and i love cinnamon bread (we all do)
and i love that birds have found my feeder
and i love music in our house (why hadn't i listened to any for so long?)
and i love the sunlight pouring through our windows (two days in a row!)
and i love weekends when we are all home together
and i love that we are all starting to feel better (slowly but surely)
(the cinnamon bread helps with that, i'm sure)
and my husband. have i told you lately how i love my husband?
i really, really love him.
it's all the little things he does that add up
until my heart just overflows.
he made supper most nights this week
and found little gifts for the kiddos - things they could do calmly in the house -
and just cared for us all.
and my kiddos. i am so very blessed by them.
the day i was the most under the weather this week,
they were incredibly good and quiet and independent.
and the Giver of all these good gifts:
i will bless the Lord at all times,
His praise shall continually be on my lips.
for the Lord is good and His love endures forever.
a little more christmas in our home
i know that i've been quiet here - it's only because life has been anything but quiet - in a good way, and in the quiet moments, i'm not blogging, i'm trying to just be with my family.
i've been trying to update my flickr with a picture and thoughts every few days . . . you can check for me there when i'm not here.
this december has been different. we have no snow. and lots of days have been sunny and in the thirties and even forties for temperatures. we are still enjoying riding our bikes and hiking through our woods and having fires in the yard . . . it's amazing. a little strange, but wonderful.
yesterday afternoon, ben and the kids and i went and loaded up the back of his truck with wood and walked and smiled in the sunshine wearing sweatshirts and hats. i love this! to help us feel like christmas there is plenty of ice on the lakes for ice-fishing, though, and we'll eat perch and wall-eye tonight.
i hope to share a bit more with you all over this week. we'll see how it all goes.
i hope that this christmas season is beautiful for you, my friends. i wish you all joy and peace in these next weeks of celebrating.
love and hugs, ~e
homeschool, a notebook and stickers
they are each doing their thing - where they like to do it.
i'm sitting at the table paying some bills, writing some notes, listening to the wind howling around our house, keeping the fire fed, sipping on french-pressed coffee . . .
our coffee pot is broken. :( so i had no coffee yesterday. by mid-afternoon, i couldn't keep my eyes open for anything. i was reading to the kids and started to nod off mid-sentence. i roused myself enough to finish the story, then laid down and napped for an hour. maddie napped, too, and isaac built something with his legos. today, i remembered my french press - man, does coffee taste good that way.
anyway, this post is supposed to be about school. today is the perfect kind of day. we got up with ben, we had breakfast together, isaac and i got the dishes all done, maddie started in on her school-work right away. she's finished, except for her reading aloud and practicing piano. both of those will happen after lunch. isaac and i are working at his pace on his stuff - lately, his pace includes about 15 random stops for nourishment (yogurt, cookies, aplesauce, banana, coffee, water, granola bar . . . ) - the kid must be growing. but it's only 11:00. we should be done with his stuff by lunchtime. :)
i've devised a way to keep track of what we are accomplishing. it's not very amazing or fancy, but it works really well. would you care to know what it is? it involves a notebook for each kiddo and a box of fun stickers.
i write down what needs to be accomplished each day, and the kiddos put stickers beside each item as they finish it. sometimes i write little notes about something they did especially well, or something that needs extra work. i also write notes that will be helpful on their work - for instance, special measurements and counting rules, or spelling rules, etc. this is proving helpful in so many ways - i can see at a glance what we accomplished in a week, so can the kids. they can also show dad what they did in a day without him having to look at every workbook and piece of paper. i can see how quickly they are moving, what they have mastered and what they need extra help on.
maybe i need to start one of these for myself for being ready for christmas - starting with putting the rest of the lights on the tree. good grief. i should finish that this afternoon. :) then i may just have to do a bit of wrapping and sewing. we'll see how long this energetic sunshine keeps me going! (it sure moves quickly these days, doesn't it?)
i hope that you are all having a lovely friday, my friends. i sure am. :)
11.21.11 10:00 pm
twelve hours ago i had no idea that i would teach, sing, vacuum, read aloud, drive kids to the library after piano, mail a package, visit, write, sort out a schedule, bake chocolate chip cookies, serve dinner to ten, and be sitting here with a fairly clean house feeling fine.
i also had no idea that my internet would decide to quit working wirelessly . . . that's why i didn't post this at 10:00 last night . . .
let's see what today brings. :) i hope your day brings you goodness. love, ~e