I don't need to explain the thoughts in my head, or write about why I am trying to do certain things here. I am posting because it has been a long time. We have grown up and are still growing around this house and good things are happening. We are doing our first year of Kindergarten and it has been fun but more of a learning process for me. I find that I have to learn how to manage my time and how to let certain things go so we can do what is really important.
We have been having a month or so where someone is under the weather. Right now we all have some sort of nasty little cold. There has been a lot of herbal tea, soup, and more TV than I would like but we are surviving. Today I only have half a voice and it is surprising to me how serious the kids know I am just my my eyes.
I have been busy this year making a lot of wooden toys to use for our school time. I tell them a lot of stories and sometimes we have fun setting up the scenes and acting it all out. I have had to re-arrange my life and my house a little bit to have a place for all of these creations. I liked the end result more than I thought I would. I enjoy seeing all of the bright toys sitting on the bookshelves.
A big thing for me happened a couple of months ago, I finally got my husband to install the large farm sink I bought 4 years ago when we moved into the house. It was problematic as the sink is a different dimension that the old one and we can't just get a new counter top for a reasonable price as the old one is completely custom in every way. So just a little sink project has turned into a huge debacle. So the new sink is in and I love it but it is not on a pretty counter. I will keep dreaming but for now I am so happy to have a more functional sink in our tiny kitchen. We even went as far as to install a water filter directly to the line so as you turn your cold water on for a nice drink woalla! Fresh tasting water right out of the tap. What can I say, it is getting luxurious around here.
With all of this new sink came some other fun things in the Kitchen as I have been baking our bread with a San Francisco sourdough starter. I have been using the organic flour you can get at Costco and it was rising like a dream. It was super nice, predictable and fast (for sourdough). When we did our NO spending month in January and part of February I had to use some regular flour for a while (due to running out of flour unexpectedly and having no money to get new flour) and it started to rise less and less and my breads were predictably turning into bricks. When I had used all of that flour and was able to go back to my regular flour my bread has begun to resemble its old self. I found it an interesting experiment to say the least.
A few pictures from around my house are here in this post as it is always interesting for me to look back on them a year or more down the line. Can you see that branch thing hanging on our wall back there. When my dad gave me my scroll saw, that was the first thing I made out of some scrap pieces from a piano we tore apart in the basement when we bought the house. We use it now as a little place to set up our seasonal displays. Due to my feelings of not wanting clutter and how small our house is I was having a hard time finding a place for our nature table. Now we just use the branch and the desk. The branch was not an easy first project for my scroll saw but hey, that's just the way I work I guess. Most of the time I just jump right in and sink or swim.
This is almost how my kids room looks now, of course it is the one room that changes the most. I still can't believe I have three kids crammed in that little room. Sometimes I get really frustrated that our house is so small but then I remember that it is really good too. We are close and we don't have a lot of useless stuff. This small house has taught me that I can be happy with less, and that if something is going to be brought into my house, I better love it. It has been a process but I often think of what my mom said to me one time, that living in a small house and sharing rooms with her siblings made her family closer.
Of course the cram of three kids in one room wouldn't be possible with out this great toddler sized bunk bed that my dad made for my kids. We didn't want a full size bunk because it would have filled most of the room as well as the concern of them falling out. When I stand by the one we have my shoulders are at the top bunk, and the mattresses is as skinny as a crib mattress. I love this little bunk bed as it is sturdy and made out of real wood. I also love how I can snuggle them on it because I just fit, head to toe length wise.
Things are always changing and that is good. We have fun most days and we are gearing up for warmer weather. We didn't really have a winter and so it has felt like spring for almost a month and a half now. I have been working on some pretty big garden projects and am excited for some upcoming adventures.
1 comment:
Lovely.
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