Change, Change, Change....

My husband is starting to wonder when this streak will end! During the last month, I have reorganized the kitchen, shuffled four rooms and made a ton of CHANGES! And almost all of it is because of my dear homeschooling friend Marsha.

Marsha is also a contributor for The Heart of the Matter. Last month we realized that we both live in NW Houston, so we decided to get together for a play date and lunch. She has such a beautiful family and we had a wonderful time. However, I walked away that day with more than a new friend and homeschooling inspiration.... I came away with inspiration and enthusiasm for our family!

After seeing how close her three boys were, and seeing that they shared a room, and hearing her personal story of sharing a room with her sister, I fell in love with the idea of having my girls share a room. One of the reasons we love the idea of homeschooling is that the girls will be able to get really close and hopefully build a strong friendship, and while I think there will be a lot of challenges in sharing a room and not necessarily having that personal space, I think there are a lot of advantages as well.... and we can always change things up again later! So I talked to DH that night and he wasn't opposed to the idea at all -- he just wondered what we would do with the extra room. Well that is when I told him phase two of my inspired-by-Marsha-plan: I wanted a different learning space!

Prior to this past week, we mostly did our homeschool in the living room and kitchen, and then would go up to the playroom sporadically throughout the day. The playroom was a pretty decent sized bedroom and had a TON of creative spaces and toys, but I would feel claustrophobic being up there for long periods of time. I loved that Marsha had a large den devoted to her homeschooling - it felt light and airy, like you could breathe and relax. I thought the perfect space for our homeschooling would be our large game room/loft, which, at that time, happened to be holding all of our weight and cardio equipment! It was spacious, had large windows and was open to the living room below, so it felt very light and airy :-). BUT, in order for that to be our new learning room, we would have to move all the weights and cardio equipment into Cali's old room, once we moved her into Jordan's room. That would also then free up the former playroom, which we could now make into a guest room (which would be helpful since we have family coming up often now that we live closer to New Orleans)! PERFECT :-)

He agreed we could try it out and I have to say that while there were a few bumps with the new room situation, the benefits have already outweighed those few original bumps. Jordan had been wanting someone with her in her room and now she has her sister, and she has really stepped in with the nurturing big sister role when Cali gets upset. When they wake up early (or earlier than I would like!) they have each other in their room to play with. I even have Jordan occasionally napping or at least staying in her room for quiet time, knowing that she needs to set the example for Cali - WOO HOO :-) As for the other rooms shuffling, we moved the weights into Cali's room this weekend, and with Gregg gone this week traveling for work, I did the rest! I must say I am VERY pleased with the results. (I will post pictures soon!)

So so far, we have four rooms shuffled, changed and reorganized, and that alone would have been a lot.. BUT then she had to go and post on Heart of the Matter about how her boys make their own breakfast and how when her oldest was 3, she had to be triple-dog-dared to let him do things that he could do but she had been doing for him.... YIKES!!! That is TOTALLY me! So I followed up with a few emails which led to my kitchen being reorganized for Jordan and Cali to be able to get their own cereal and snacks (healthy choices obviously) and vamped up efforts in allowing Jordan to pour her own drinks, cut her banannas (with kid safe plastic knives obviously), and reorganizing the fridge so she can get her own drinks in there without fear of breaking our glass bottles of condiments! WHEW! But, again, it is going great and she is literally beaming at her new independence!

So..... if you were wondering where I have been and why I haven't been posting much this week, this is why... I have been in the midst of CHANGE. And Marsha, my husband kindly asks that you withhold any influential thoughts or suggestions for at least a couple weeks lol!!

Have a great weekend, y'all!