Project Monday - the final day in the boys' room

 The closet is looking much better, even with the glare.  If it was my closet it would look neater and more organized, after a project like this, but I wanted them to take ownership of it and let them put things on the shelves as they felt they should go.

Shots of their room.  You may not be able to tell by the glare off the pictures but they're old war planes and their aunt found an old calendar of these planes so we put them up all over the room with sticky tac.  Next we plan to build some model airplanes to hang from their ceiling and Waterman is sewing curtains for the windows.  The curtains have old war planes on it too.

So, this morning, I finished up some things and vacuumed one more time.  I'm happy with how it turned out.  I did want some shelves for their awards, but will save that project for another day.

Making the most of today.
Steph

Taking a break from the boys' room

 I've decided that this year, I will not be the only one gardening.  I am hoping to give the kids bunches of projects to do so that they will not spend their days cooped up in the house.  Summers are great for things and when you have 10 kids in the house, schedules just make things go better. 

So I want to teach my nine-almost-ten year old daughter to bake bread.  I want to read Miracles on Maple Hill to the kids - the little ones won't remember it.  I want each child to have a little garden plot, to grow things they like.  Now, we can't ask the babies what they like so they'll just have to deal with whatever we plant for them.

So we started out with a box.  A four-foot by four-foot square - give or take a couple of inches.  Now I found out it should be less than four feet, but I think we should be able to reach all the spots just fine.  We laid it on the ground and dug it out in some spots so it could be level.

Then I took a pitchfork and dug up the soil about 6 inches down.  We turned it and then raked it, so that it would be loose and not packed down.  Roots like unpacked soil better.

Then we raked it and put more soil in and raked it even more.

Finally it was full enough and we are leaving it till this next cold spell is over and next week we'll probably be planting.

That night we sat down and drew "maps" of their plots so that we would know what is to be planted and where.  We'll draw out 16 one-foot by one-foot sections in each box and plant things in each one. Tall things go in the back and we'll have a trellis of some sort in the back. 

I think they'll enjoy harvesting out of their garden plot, but maybe not the weeding.  Regardless, they will learn about growing things. 

We divided them into three teams with one of the older boys as leader of each team.   They'll work together to help each other keep the weeds out of their spots. 

Making the most of today

Steph

Project Monday - Organizing a room Part 2

We will be having a "Part Three" in this series.  I need more time, so maybe even a "Part Four".  We are progressing.  It may not look like it to you - and don't even look in their closet.  But my world moves much slower than most people's.  I can't finish an organizing project in a day or two - this one would have taken a week even if I could give five or six hours to it daily. 

But progress is being made.  Clothes are being whittled down to what actually fits in drawers.  I need to get them more hangars and a tool to keep their clothes separate.  More about that later.  The room is now set up as we want it, except for the desks.  Only 11 more days of this school year for them (or less, if they work harder), and then the desks will go upstairs.

While I work at a turtle's pace normally, we have a couple of extra things that are keeping us from getting more done.  Grandpa and Grandma are here and Sharpie had a birthday on Saturday (I am not going to make you clean your room on your birthday, and less if Grandpa and Grandma are here.)  and today they have testing at the school the younger kids go to.

So while Grandma and Grandpa are away for a few hours, I'm working on a project to make the closet more organized.  I know you're laughing.  Why try?  That's the question I have too.  But I have given up for too long and it's not helping.  So I'm going to try and ask the Lord for wisdom with a balance - my teenagers need freedom to make mistakes, and yet still need some training and guidelines. 

 First I took a CD and used it as a template on some cardstock thickness paper.  I will glue my colored paper to this.

Then I cut out of the colored paper.  This didn't work super as I had to keep trimming so it would be the same. 

For red and blue, I glued the colored paper to the cardstock first and then cut out the shape somewhat free hand.  No extra trimming.

Next I put names on the rings.  They should fit over the closet rod.  They don't need names as they all know what their color is.  Sharpie is blue, Jones is red, Waterman is green.  It's always been that way with toothbrushes and towels and other things too.

It works perfect.  Nothing fancy, like I would like to do in my girls' room, but it will work great.  I still have to sort their clothes, but they need to be here.  I don't really know who belongs to what anymore.

Making the most of today,
Steph

Project Monday - organizing a room Part 1

The boys' room - they are older and this is a normal look for their room.  I want to give them some liberty, but I also want to give them some incentive to keep things neat.  We have less laundry and the clothes get wrecked less when we take care of them.

My goal is to train them to care for their room, so I plan to ask them to be involved with the organizing.  If they do, they will more than like own it and do it themselves. 

I don't want to overwhelm them by doing this project in a day, so we started last week with some daily chores that would start the process to a clean room.

On the first day, I asked them to each bring down a laundry basket with things from the floor.  They only had to fill the basket and bring it down.  Then I helped them sort the things and get them put away.  The boys measured the room and I drew a map of it.

The second day was to clear a bookshelf of school books and prepare it for reading books.  We packed away the school books in boxes in the attic.

The third and fourth days were clothes from their drawers.  They figured out what would be stored in each drawer.  Then they took their clothes up to their room and put them away. 

Their room will need to be neat before they get Wii.  That is where I need to check it each day.    And make sure that they have done their jobs.

Over the next few days we'll be working on their closet and giving them bins and baskets to put their things in.  It's not likely but my hope is that they will use them. 

Making the most of today.
Steph

Project Monday - Gardens and vigilance

Every year, I plant a garden with the good intentions of making it through a season - not with a bountiful harvest - but with a victory over the weeds.  And every year, I might do a little bit better, but never coming out the victor. 

This weekend we planted our peas.   We have many little plants growing in our greenhouse, but the peas were planted in the garden bed.  I filled the whole bed with peas.  The bed is in the midst of the whole garden, and last year peas were one of the things planted in the three beds.  It worked pretty well.  Problem is I tore apart the other two beds. 

So we watered the soil on Thursday night, while I was working the soil on Thursday, I noticed it was pretty dry.   We decided that we needed to wait until the soil was a bit more moist.  The next day we planted the peas even though the soil was still quite dry.

Jules and Tractorman were out there helping me.  We pounded stakes that Jones cut for me on the ends of each row.  And then I started weaving string to make little things for the peas to climb.  Not sure how well they will work, but I tried chicken fence last year and it was bulky.

The Lord brought good rain last night, so they are good and watered.  And while I was in town today, buying a heat lamp for our newest babies (chicks), I found blueberries and rhubarb.   My grandma used to make some amazing strawberry-rhubarb jam and I would love to do that. 

The rhubarb won't really be able to be harvested for another two years, but I will be glad I did this now.  I planted the blueberries on either end of the three rhubarbs and all of this in a row at the top of my strawberries.  Now to paint some rocks to go near them so the kids know they aren't weeds.

My thoughts this morning were about the vigilance needed to maintain a garden that is free of weeds.   You can't just sit in your house and wait for your plants to grow on their own.  You really need to be out there pulling the tiny things that poke up.  And if you pull them often and while they are still tiny, you will have less to contend with. 

If you wait till the weeds are tall, you will find yourself with sore arms and a back ache and working like crazy in the heat of the summer.  But if you work in the springtime and while they are tiny, you will save yourself a lot of trouble.

Sin is a lot like that.  If you allow yourself to do things you know are wrong and you justify them and continue to walk in sin.  It will be a lot harder to eradicate the sin once it has taken root in your life.  Work on it often and early and it will be so much easier.

Making the most of today
Steph

Project Monday - Bathroom closet

This was my project this weekend.  I have organized it and cleaned it before.  But didn't really use baskets, mostly I just put like things on the same shelves.  The problem with this solution is that things still get messy and you can't find stuff so you buy more - at least that's how it is in my house.

One of the things that I wanted to buy with the bit of extra we got from income tax time was some baskets or  bins or organizing supplies.  I was hoping Carpenter would agree.  But I got desperate and grabbed a bunch of shoe boxes lying around and some bins I already have and started sorting the closet.

I pulled everything out and wiped down the shelves.  Then I started filling shoe boxes with like things - face stuff - meds - vitamins - teeth (we have a plethora of things needed for teeth now that we have braces in the house) - cleaning supplies - soap - sunscreen - nails, make-up etc.   

Now there are a few things that are "loose" on the shelves, but mostly things are in their basket, which I can pull out easily to see what we have.

Next step is to find some paper and decorate the shoe boxes.  I'd also like to get some new shelf liner for the shelves.  But that is by far cheaper than buying the bins themelves.

Making the most of today,
Steph

Project Monday - a cute idea for the garden

 I found this cute idea on Pinterest, a long time ago.  I don't spend a lot of time on that site, but I do have a few things that I'm excited about doing.  I've been waiting for spring to get started on this one.

 How fun letting Tractorman paint the base color of the rocks.  Now we've washed the rocks and there are a bunch of rocks sitting on the registers warming up so that he can do more painting.

 I think I should make a frog out of this one, but I'm not that talented.  

If you have more art ability than I you can do so much more.  When we put our plants out in the garden we'll put these rocks near them, so we know what's coming and so the kids can learn to identify the little plants coming up.

I'll update with more pictures of other rocks later.  I have to pick up some different colors of paint.  I think Ill cover these with some clear finish so that they last more than one year.  

Making the most of today,
Steph