Back 2 School

Well it's back, school that is. We began yesterday, so we now have 2 days under our belt for the Spring semester. Good feeling.

We now have a new school room. Jathan moved all of his church things up to the new loft and we took over his old office. I love it!!! It is nicely organized. School books, the computer, supplies, they are all at my fingertips now. I think the new room helped get the kids excited to start school again.

Jathan isn't quite all moved into his office yet. His stuff is up there, but not all things have found a home yet. It takes time. Plus he needs a desk, that would help with much of it. That will come in time, as soon as he has time to look for something.

The new room is mostly decorated, a few finishing touches will help, but those will have to wait until I have more time. The builder is coming back on Thursday to complete a few odds and ends. I will try to post pictures after that happens. The room looks great though. Plenty of room for out of town guests who want to escape the cold!

It's Almost Over!

The addition is almost complete. Today they are putting on most of the final touches and super cleaning it. There will be just a couple of final touches to be completed in the near future, like the stair rail. It is just in time for my mom and sister as they are flying in tonight! We have painted the furniture that is moving in the room and Jathan will pick up the mattresses today. Everything is falling into place. I will be sure to post pictures very soon.

It is going to be weird having the construction over. I am use to work crews coming and going. People that I have no idea who they are walking around in the back of our house. It might become a little quiet around here. I imagine that it will be a bit strange. It will be a nice strange though.

Construction Update 11/4

Yesterday I walked around the addition and inside to take some pictures. They put the stucco wrap on the outside, insulated the inside and have begun to put up the sheet rock. Here are a few pictures of the progress.


This is our old patio with the new patio next to it. The area on the right use to all be roses, so we ripped them out, now there is a floor made with pavers and wall going around it. The wall will have stucco put on it to match the house and a stone cap.


The bedroom part of the addition.


The arched door going into the bathroom.


These are the stairs going up into the loft. It is very hard to get an idea of what they will really look like from this picture. The runners are stained, but are covered with paper, and the treads are just temporary treads, the real ones are stained and a lot thicker.


The little nook in the loft that has the sheet rock already.


The is on the side where the addition is joined with our house. The window is our new window in our family room. I call this new area the courtyard because it will be a patio with building around 3 sides of it. There will be a walkway around to the front yard on one side and a walkway around to the backyard on the other with a fence closing off the 4 side of the patio. The family room and kitchen will have a window looking out to it. There will also be two doors going to it.

So what have we been up to…

August started with construction and school. The construction is because we are adding on to our home. Off of our family, there will now be a bedroom, bathroom and loft. The bedroom is so my mom can stay for as long as she would like and have her own space, the bathroom is for obvious reasons and the loft is for Jathan, whatever he would like to use it for. The builders are great, the kids actually miss then when they aren’t here for a day, but it is definitely a change in our life. For the most part we truck through school, able to ignore some of the extra noises and people around, other times when the drilling is a few feet from you or the hammering is above you, it can be a bit distracting. All and all despite the mess we are surviving. However, we will definitely be happy when it is all behind us and we can have our yard and house back to normal.


School started in August, my third year of homeschooling. I can’t say that I am any closer to being a veteran than I was at the beginning of Paige’s Kindergarten, but I am learning as we go and I do think that every semester is getting better. Paige is now in 2nd grade, Clay in 1st grade and Drew in preschool. I am grateful for the this opportunity.

One of the beauties of homeschooling is the flexibility in the schedule. Labor Day weekend we were able to turn the 3 day weekend into a trip to visit friends from college. Instead of the usual Sat-Sun-Mon holiday we left Thursday afternoon and had a Fri-Sat-Sun holiday. We had a great time playing on the beach, playing games and visiting. Jathan left Saturday, taking the Greyhound back home, while the kids and I stayed an extra day.


On that Sunday, the kids and I picked up my mom from the airport and headed to Palm Springs for the week. We stayed in a condo, had school like normal, but got to enjoy the pool on our breaks. In school we were studying the desert, so we took a few fieldtrips while we were there. We had a great time!

Currently, in October, we have been busy with school, Jathan working and I have tried to get our home as organized as possible. With the construction going on and things a bit out of place, I am fighting for organization in the areas of the home that have not been affected. At least have someplace seem neat and tidy. Jathan is coaching Paige and Clay in soccer. This year they are on the same team, which is so much more convenient than last year. Clay is taking a month of art lessons. We are trying them out to see if this is something we want to continue. Art seems to be his love, to the extent of him telling me that he doesn’t need school, since he is just going to paint. We will see about that! Last week we took a dairy field trip, which was great fun. The kids (actually the moms too) took a hayride through the dairy and got out to see the cows milked. Following the tour we had a nice picnic lunch drinking milk of course with ice cream as dessert. A great time!