a hippie with a minivan

under the weather…

we have a had a few rough days… runny noses, fevers, coughs, throwing up, sore throats and more…

I guess we are lucky because we haven’t really been sick since October but the last few days have taken their toll on us…

Sleeping especially has been hard because fevers come back at night, and laying down means more coughing and throwing up… and then the night before last I pulled a muscle in my back and yesterday I had trouble moving because of it…

Anyway… today we are feeling a bit better, though my nose is running like a fountain…

Tomorrow we have friends coming over for supper and to help move the last of our things…

We just have my bureau to do and then all that will be left are the closets…

Almost done!

english…

Last week at the homeschooling meeting we planning out a few activities… a few of them are so-so and don’t really fit in with the kids personalities, or our values so I am not too sure that the boys will be interested… but at least I know about them I can present them with the option.

Because the other moms often spoke about their children being interested in learning English, I thought that it might be a good idea to propose something in English to help them learn and so that my kids would feel like thy can fit in a bit more…

It was supposed to be here but because of the changes in the house I asked to either prospone or find an alternate location and we found a place to do it not far from my house…

It turned out well at first but the room that we were in was too small and there were yoga things that had been left out which made a perfect distraction for the kids…We read a few books out loud making sure that they understood the main words and had them act out some of the things… I had brought some “easy readers” that have new words that they may use and it was fun to see them trying to figure out what the words meant… but after reading and playing out a game…. the combination of so many kids in such a small place with mats and cut up pool noodles turned into moments of total chaos… some needed to go home but two of the moms headed over here after and the kids played in front yard a bit while we taked in the driveway…

We are going to be getting together again in 2 weeks and make sure to have a bigger space and have some more things planned and I have to say that I am totally having doubts about having everyone here because the group is getting bigger and my space really isn’t that big… but overall, the kids seemed to enjoy it and were learning a bit of English and Colin had fun doing a few things and being understood and Xavier started to warm up to some of the things proposed a bit near the end…

I think one of the problems that I found yesterday is that I proposed it so that we could “fit in” a bit more, but they seem to need and want something a lot more structured than I am willing to put effort into…

Sunday night…

So, we did quite a few hours of changing things around today and I think that we are done for the night… or at least the big stuff…

Though we might have to sell the bed with the house we were barely able to squeeze our bed down the stairs and into our new room, the computer desk has been brought up and computer is now upstairs and working…

We still have to bring the bookcases and books upstairs but that could be done slowly over the course of the next week, and then it will be my dresser which probably is the heaviest piece of furniture and we might wait until next weekend when we could have a bit of help, needs to be brought into our new room…

Besides that we have to transfer things that are in the closets and rearrange the rooms the way that we want them…

To date though, I love the changes… All of our rooms will be more spacious (except for the playroom and office) but we are thinking about not having as much stuff in there anyway… Having more open space will meant that the rooms will be more inviting, easier to keep clean and just help with the flow of the house…

So we still have a lot to do but it will be worth it!

(and Simon added when I was up from the computer)… And tomorrow Simon will go rest at work.

The change has started…

So I have planned and measured and we have started the change in the house…

We started late today, after I got home from grocery shopping and lunch so we didn’t get much done as I would have liked so at the moment it is looking like a total mess which is a bit discouraging to say the least…

Khéna’s new bed is in their new room, his dresser is down stairs and his clothes are in the closet. He will have the double bed that was in the guest room.. I put it so that the pillows are on the long side so the bed is 6 foot across and all the boys can snuggle together if they want…he is really excited…

Most of the toys have been transferred into the new playroom and for their room to be finished we just need to bring down their bed…

So though I don’t think we will be able to do it all tomorrow here is my plan…

bring their bed downstairs
put our room furniture aside (in the boys old room)
transfer the office by bringing everything upstairs (in our old room)
Bring our room furniture downstairs (in the old office)
Bring the sewing room upstairs (in the boys old room)

After those things are done then it will be the “little things”… the closets, the stuff on the wall etc… but those are things that will be a bit easier…

It feel really weird at the moment to have started it… I have been thinking about it for so long…

wish us luck, if we can get most of it done… maybe by tomorrow we will be sleeping in our new room!

update 12pm: this morning it took longer than expected to bring their bunk bed down stairs. It needed to be dismantled almost completely… and then put back together… but their bedroom is now downstairs!

just a little change…

I am facing the fact that we won’t be moving in the near future… Where I want to go is just too expensive, jobs are scarce and things are just not timed very right with finances etc…

So if I can’t move, I need to make the most of what we have now.Which means in our homeschooling life and our home life…

We have been living in this house for almost 5 years now and sadly it still doesn’t feel like a home. So I have been thinking about what would help and I think that changing rooms around would help with the flow of the house.

We have a split level with 3 closed rooms on the basement level (office, guest room and large Playroom plus the laundry room) and 2 bedrooms upstairs (our rooms) with the living room and kitchen.

Right now the boys are in a room that is 10 X 11… with a very small closet (in their room are two overflowing dressers, a bunk bed and a toddler bed)… and our bedroom is slightly smaller though we have a larger closet…

My idea would be to have the boys room where the playroom is now which would have the advantage of having space for their bunkbeds, their dressers, a large closet and I would put the guest bed in there which would become Khéna’s bed… and there is alread some shelves up for books etc… and they would still have room for some toys if we decided to have it like that…

Our room would go in the office space downstairs which is the second largest room in the house so that we would be near the boys room and because the room is bigger, Simon could have his clothes in our room also (right now his clothes are in the guest room) and we would be on the same floor as the laundry.

The other advantage is that all of our daytime living space would be on the same floor… I would have my sewing room upstairs and easier to access, and because it wouldn’t double as the guest room we could put our other table in there which we could use for crafts, puzzles, games etc and it would give me extra room for cutting fabric etc…

I am still debating on whether to keep the office downstairs and have the playroom upstairs or vice-versa….

Anyway… those are my plans and I really want to do it and soon but it is hard to even imagine where to start. It would be a great oppurtunity though to declutter even more and do a deep clean of the house…

Has anyone done something like that? any tips on where to start?