I do hope to resume regular blogging (and my 5 a.m. exercise routine) in the near future. In the meantime, there has been so much TO DO! Spring and fall always usher in a burst of change in my life.
First I caught a bad cold after staying up late two nights in a row. That's all it took for major congestion to move in and steal my voice for a week. I attended the MACHE conference and I do still mean to blog about it.
Then there was Easter and ham and lamb and potatoes and chocolate. And chocolate. And chocolate.
In the midst of this there was the overwhelming urge to spring clean, put away winter clothes and purchase needed summer clothes and shoes. I might also mention the big summer planning session I had scheduling soccer, T-Ball, introductory karate, a session of ice skating and swimming lessons at the Y.
Oh, and the basement. For a few exciting weeks my DH and I had decided to finish the basement and make a school room for morning seat work as well as a bathroom and exercise room. We mapped out a schedule and for some reason thought we could pay as we went along. Can you guess what happened next? Yes, we quickly decided that a summer-long DIY project would be WAY too much stress for us at this time.
So.
I re-arranged and cleaned our current classroom. We are still planning a paint job - maybe a refreshing green or robin's egg blue with this rug from LL Bean and this desk (for me) from IKEA. This is due to the fact that sitting in kids' chairs for two hours really does a number on my low back!
While I don't have any pathetic before photos of my mess, here are some "after" shots:
I moved all my Catholic Mosaic and seasonal books by the sofa to free up some classroom bookshelf space
I moved all of my "teacher help desk" stuff away from the kitchen table and carved out a spot for myself in the learning room
The toddler loves to pull up a chair beside me at these kids' sized desks but they will have to go soon!
In the meantime I enjoy having some space by my mom books to plan to week -
My new label maker is working overtime these days updating files
And here is the current TO-DO file holder -
I cleared off enough to designate TODDLER SHELVES, though she is still too much of a pitter-pat to apply herself very long -
I am also in the process of making toddler acticity bins for each day of the week. These are in the front hall closet -
The science/art/music shelf
And our liturigal/circle time table with holy water in the teacup (for now)
I am also meaning to post about candle decorating sometime soon!
Here is another wall of the classroom
And our new schedule with house cleaning moved to a time slot AFTER seatowrk is finished. Much less stressful for me and easier to begin the school day on time!
For the basement, we decided to move down the toys-with-many-parts such as these -
And the Waldorf toddler play stands/kitchen
Another HUGE task was the periodic cleaning of the girls' room. All because we thought a shelf like this would help keep their room neater -
But after we filled it the room still looked like this:
Notice that Sunshine gave up and is talking to her siblings out the window?
Two big trash bags later it looked like this:
Fairy Town was moved to the floor of the closet
And a dress-up corner was arranged
The BOY project the same day was this:
The mud room looks slightly better without winter coats and the mitten tree doubles as a hat rack.
Now here are the spaces I DREAM about being clean and organized:
The next challenge I am facing before returning to the blogging and exercise world is waiting for my little toe to heal. Yes, I broke my tow by walking into a door frame on my way to change a poopy diaper. My foot is bruised and swollen and all I can do is to take Advil, Tylenol, buddy tape my toes and elevate my foot with an ice pack for days on end.
My toddler however LOVES mommy's new hobby of lying on the sofa. I'm really present to her these days as she climbs all over me!
Easter blessings to everyone and please pray to Dr. St. Gianna (whose feast day is coming up on the 27th) for quick healing!
