in the works

Several projects are whirling around in my head right now. The first we almost accomplished this weekend. Last week I got the very smart idea to move most of our furniture to make better use of our rooms. Again. To Jeremy’s delight, of course. It really was a totally good and smart idea. We have a “split” floor plan, meaning the master bedroom is at the opposite end of the house from the other two. Many people like this, I really don’t. It means the girls are far away at night. Again, many people like the idea of their children being far away at night. Again, not me. We gave the girls the master bedroom quite a while ago as a big bedroom/playroom. This was ok, because they were at the back of the house, but we still weren’t comfortable with them being so far away. Especially because half the time D ends up in our bed and T is left all alone.

So… my bright idea was to move our bed to the front room of the house (which was the office), the girls’ bed and dressers to our old room, and make the master bedroom a combination playroom/office. We moved all the major pieces of furniture, including the 500 lb desk, the treadmill, the king sized bed, and the queen sized bed. And some bookshelves, etc. Whew. My parents were stopping through on their way home from a trip, so we enlisted their help to move things and entertain small girls. I still have little bits of everything everywhere, because I’m still not sure where everything will go. My entire wardrobe is on my bed and the couch (which seems normal, but usually it’s only half my wardrobe piled on the couch). I actually have an empty spot in the living room and I’m not sure if I want to fill it or leave it for now. Until I find something else to put there. I’m kind of arguing with myself about what kind of house I want to have – the kind where the kids’ stuff goes in their space, or the kind where I spread it out. I think I’m landing on spreading it out, mainly because even when I try to contain it, it spreads itself out. Jeremy will not agree when(if) he reads this, but I think I actually need another piece of furniture or two.

Rattling around my brain:

• I need to fix up our backyard a bit. It’s a mess and I don’t like hanging out out there. Also, need to work on acquiring/building some chairs to sit on. And maybe finishing the waterproof picnic blanket I have half done.
• A yard sale… I’ve been putting it off and need to just do it to clear out my garage.
• A very fun and exciting project involving cupcakes. Hooray!
• Home school… we went to the Kindergarten round up at our local elementary. I’m not thrilled. I think I need to spend this summer really buckling down and getting together a plan for teaching. This should be something I can accomplish, considering I was a teacher, but it seems very hard. I was always a follow-the-lesson-plan-that-morning, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of teacher. Also, I never really liked teaching kids to read. I got out of it whenever I could, usually by taking the advanced reading group where I could do more fun reading activities. I’m good at that. Not so much at the phonics and stuff. I’ve been perusing the internet for ideas. There’s a lot out there. A lot is bible-based, which we’re not really interested in. Some is too not-schooly enough for me, like super Waldorf stuff. I like Montessori ideas, in general, but not all.  I need some structure, but not too much. Also, I need to have cool home school not weird home school. If anyone has ideas, please let me know. I need them.

Also, the sun has come out. Finally. We’ve had so much rain, though not as much as in the Portland area. For us, a lot. It’s been so dreary. but now, it’s here. I hope to stay. Update: It is not here to stay. More rain predicted this week. Lame.