Chore Charts

I should probably have started this a long time ago, but better late than never! Chore charts now grace the side of our china cabinet. Each child has their own list of things to accomplish every day. I also made one (out of cardstock, contact paper, and velcro dots) that has weekly rotating jobs.

Our New School Room

I am embarrassed to post the above picture, but it helps you truly appreciate what the basement school room looks like now. It took several weeks to get everything cleaned and organized. A big thank you goes out to my dad for installing and wiring new lights and outlets so we could get rid of the extension cords that were strewn everywhere. I am excited to have a place reserved just for school and can't wait to get the new school year started.

My corner with all of the workbooks and extra supplies

The computer desk

New Desks - Ellie's is purple and Jacob's is green
These desks were ones that Nathan and I used in elementary school at Dayton Christian. I taught there for 4 years before we had kids and the school replaced them while I was working there. I took 4 home with me. 1 resides in our dining room, 2 are in the basement now, and 1 is left in my parents' garage. They have graciously stored them for us all these years.

The School Room

The Girls' Room

The new bedding is on and pictures have been hung, so I thought I post some pictures of the finished product. Ellie and Emmaline love their new beds. They have lots of fun playing on them with Jacob and Emmy is doing a good job of staying in hers at night. Napping during the day is a different story. She loves to roam the room (there's a gate across the door so she can't escape), so we've resorted to letting her fall asleep on the floor. Oh well, she'll learn eventually!

Bunk Beds

The girls made their official transition to bunk beds tonight. I think it will work out well, if we can get Emmaline to stay in bed and if we can get Ellie to remember to avoid the ceiling fan. The above pic. was taken before we had the beds put together. It has a really neat staircase with drawers built into it instead of the usual ladder. Thankfully, the bottom step is too steep for Emmy to climb, or we'd really be in trouble. The new bedding has been ordered and we need to move a couple of things on the wall. I'll post the completed look when it is finished. Now Jacob is asking when he gets bunk beds in his room (hint, hint, Aunt Katie...).

The Bunk Beds, complete with two sleeping children

Sleeping Beauty

The End of an Era & Transition

It was with a sad heart that I disassembled the crib today. Knowing that Emmaline is most likely our last baby, it was a little hard for me to take it apart since we probably won't be using it again. I can't bring myself to part with it yet, so it has been relegated to the attic with the other baby stuff. That crib has been used by all three of our kids and bears the teeth marks from Jacob, but I suppose one day I'll be ready to pass it on (or throw it out!)...not just yet, though!

With the crib out of the way, we are in the process of putting together the girls' new bunk beds that Nathan's parents graciously bought for us. Unfortunately, it's taking longer than we expected, so Emmy has been napping in her pack 'n play (she's almost too long for it!) and Jacob and Ellie are using Granddaddy's old cots set up in his room. They pretend they are camping out and it's working much better than I expected.

Napping in Jacob's room
(Kinda looks like she's flashing a gang sign?!)

A Tender Moment Between Siblings
(Wish these happened more often!)

A Sucker for a Sucker

Nathan's parents bought us our Christmas present tonight. We've been needing a vacuum for a while now, so the gift-giving holiday came at a perfect time. Our old one was in sad shape: its hose attachments are broken, the hose itself has a hole in it, it smells like burning rubber when it runs for more than 2 minutes, the self-propel feature doesn't work, and it barely stands up on its own. They treated us to dinner at LaRosa's and then we all headed to Sears to look at the different models. I hated asking for a vacuum for Christmas (they bought us our current one 5 years ago), but with as much as we vacuum, it was a necessity. Here she is in all her glory:

This baby has lots of bells and whistles and I can't wait to try it out tomorrow (the kids are sleeping as I type and I wouldn't dare do anything to ruin the quiet!). It has a dirt sensor, performance indicator, 3 speeds for the hose attachments (so you don't suck up your curtains trying to remove dust), and an agitator reset button. That last one will be a lifesaver for us. If something gets stuck in the brush (like shoe laces, toy parts, etc.), the brush stops turning until you remove the part and hit the reset button. Pretty cool!

My friend's mom, Kathy, recently blogged about her excitement over getting a new kitchen floor and range for Christmas. She said that it must be showing her age, but I must agree that this new vacuum has me pretty excited as well.

The Old Shed Finds a New Home

The old shed from Nathan's parents' backyard made its way to our backyard today. We have big plans for what we want to put in it. I just hope that it all fits!

Thankfully, it's not too heavy! Here it's being lifted over the fence by our driveway.

Now, it's being carried across the backyard.

Here it's being lowered into place.

Right now Jacob and Ellie are using it as a play house. I know they'll be sad when we fill it up and they can't use it anymore. Remember the flowerbed that I redid in the spring? The door of the shed comes right up to it, so next spring, I'll have to do some plant moving in order to keep them from getting trampled.

Shed Floor

Nathan's parents got a new shed, so we are getting their old one. Nathan worked hard today getting the ground level and putting down the cement block. The job probably would have gone quicker, but Jacob and Ellie insisted on "helping".

Standing in dirt

The Crew

Digging in the dirt

I love this shot of Paige and Emmaline

Almost done

Hurricane Ike Visits Ohio

Who would have thought that we'd experience Level 1 hurricane winds here in Ohio?! On our way home from church today, we heard the high wind warning on the radio, but really didn't think anything of it. Thankfully, we made it home before the madness started. The winds clocked in at 70 mph and it was pretty amazing to watch the trees in our neighborhood sway from the roots up. We don't have any trees on our property, but we kept a close eye some of the neighbors'. The above picture shows a huge branch that fell across our neighbors driveway. It took Nathan and 4 other guys to move it onto the curb. A lot of people (into the hundreds of thousands) in our city are without power. Fortunately, we still have ours. I think it is because God knows we leave for Indianapolis tomorrow morning and I need to pack!

Branches down across the street

Our driveway

You can't walk the sidewalks right now because so many branches are covering them

A Rose By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet

Usually the roses on either end of our front porch are done blooming by June, but due to the cold spring we had, they just started blooming this week. They are absolutely gorgeous, although I can't take credit for it because all I do is trim them back every year. Enjoy the loveliness:

roses on the east end of the porch

these are on the west end

After

After a week of painting (and some tears because the one-coat cover paint took at least 2 coats), the kitchen was back in order in time for our Memorial Day cook-out. A big thank you to my sister for helping me hang stuff on the wall (I was even able to use my new tools from my birthday!). Nathan says that it looks like the Incredible Hulk blew up in our kitchen, but I love how it turned out. If you're wondering why I chose this color, it's because I needed to match the sunflower painting (see pics. below) that my sister bought me for Christmas...and I was looking for something that would hide the inevitable dirt that the kids get on the walls. Click HERE to see the before pics.

If it's not one thing...

Why is it that as soon as you start to do something with the house, something else goes wrong? While in the midst of painting the kitchen, Nathan had to replace bathtub faucet. It had been dripping for awhile, so my dad (our handyman, who was already patching a hole in our kitchen ceiling from a bathtub leak 1 1/2 years ago!) decided to take off the handles to try and fix the drips. The parts were really rusted, so he put the handles back on with hopes to buy the needed parts and return later to fix it. Fastforward to that evening...Nathan was attempting to run bathwater for the kids when the hot water handle flew across the room because the threads will no longer hold the handle to the faucet. (On a side note, I now know where to turn our water off in the basement should the need ever arise again!) This morning, Nathan went to a plumbing store and bought a new faucet/shower combo. After he got home and took the old faucet off, he found the pipes to be so rusted that you couldn't hardly see through them. He decided to replace them while everything was taken apart and headed to the hardware store for the parts. As of this afternoon we have a new faucet and it doesn't leak! Yeah for my hubby, who although he doesn't like to be, can be very handy indeed!

Before...

We started painting our kitchen this week (which explains my lack of blogging!). Here are the "before" pictures. I'll poster "after" ones once everything is back in its place.