painting makes me insane

I have painted four new things in less than 24 hours. So far... a chandelier, a bulleting board, a chalkboard, and now my kitchen table. And as I sit here typing I am mentally listing off all the other things in my house that I should drag outside and give a fresh coat too.

The insanity? I have a bathroom torn apart, company coming in three days, hubs on a business trip, and some laundry to get done.

But really, who has time to blog, I remembered something else I need to paint........

A new little project

I was trying to make a checkbook cover, but without a pattern I ended up with a coupon holder. Either way, it turned out ALMOST what I had in my head. Now that I tried it tho, I know how to adjust it to make it better for a checkbook. Did I mention the checkbook didn't fit because my measurements were off by a centimeter? Yeah, annoying. But it still turned out cute and I'm going to use it despite it's crooked lines and funky corners.

New Bathroom, sort of

BEFORE
AFTER

Well we decided we couldn't take the builder's grade bathroom anymore. So on a whim Shane and I tore out the fixtures and floor (when I say Shane and I---I mean mostly him). I painted the walls classic silver (a behr color) and Shane has put wainscoting, trim, and is now tiling the floors.

A note about the color grey. I really wanted a bluish hint to the grey. The originial color we bought (grey timber wolf, sherwin williams) turned an ugly shade of purple in our bathroom. It looked like the charcoal color that I wanted, but it was nasty. So it ended up costing more and an hour of looking at every shade of grey at three different stores before I found a true grey color. We had even looked at 10 different samples at home in the bathroom before deciding on the wolf color, but it just did not look good at all. So color is always trial and error. In ten years of painting I have only "whoopsed" twice. I think that after painting four houses that's pretty good odds.

I just realized the photos are sideways, sorry about that. I'll post more when done. I can't wait to decorate!

Now I have two homeschoolers!

The last few weeks have seemed like a blur. My baby graduated from preschool. We decided that although Reece was only four because he really wanted to do school home with Avery we would graduate him a year early. So now I will have a first grader and kindergartener homeschooling next year. Wow!

He absolutely loved his experience at preschool, but we realized that he felt like he was really missing out at home. So this summer I am going to work on a few basic skills with him to get him ready for the kindergarten curriculum. Because he is younger I will not pressure him to finish all his books in one year. The funny thing that happens with homeschooling is the younger kids seem to start wanting to school earlier and earlier. And because they are involved in schoolwork with their older siblings they end up picking up way more than I ever thought.

Reece has been sitting in on Avery's school most of this school year. Thankfully the Sonlight curriculum we used was easy to adapt so that he could participate. He did all the science and history activities with Avery and wanted to do "independent" work when Avery did.

I am even more excited for this coming year. I've decided to break from buying a complete curriculum box and piecing mine together from different companies.

History: Story of the World

Math: Singapore

Science: Apologia-- Land Animals (this covers geography, landscapes, experiments, etc)

Bible: Character Sketches (this is what the Duggars use)

Literature: Living Book approach (meaning we will read classic literature and base assignments off of that... on my NOOK I was able to download 50 classics for $2.99!) Some of the books on the list are Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Swiss Family Robinson, Anne of Green Gables, Bobbsey Twins

Reading/Writing/Copywork: Sonlight first readers. Explode the Code, Handwriting Without Tears

This is the basics I am teaching. There will be lessons on manners, nature walks, P.E., and socialization mixed in there too.

People ask how I keep the kids socialized and active and here are some of the things we've been doing.

Avery is in ballet, gymnastics, she will starting piano and soccer in the fall, she is with friends at least 3-5 x's a week

Reece is in gymnastics, will start soccer in the fall, and is also with friends 3-5x's a week