Living in a small space...

OK, I know. I haven't blogged in forever. I'm lazy and I've had nothing to say. :-)

But, I was reading a thread on Five in a Row today about large families living in small spaces. Well, I don't claim to have a large family (although, some people think that two adults living with three kids is large) but we do have a space challenge here. Four of us are adult sized 6'5", 5'11", 6'2", and 5'9" respectively from oldest to youngest. On the Loose isn't quite 4 feet yet.

Our house is 1482 sq. feet. I have found that an important sanity saver of living in a small home is to make use of as much vertical space as possible! It helps keep clutter out of the way so that we're not tripping on it as we stumble to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It makes room for guests. It makes me happy!

Both bedrooms occupied by kids make use of the vertical space in the closets.

Here is the space shared by Footloose and On the Loose. The drawers in the middle serve as On the Loose's dresser. Footloose has a "captain's bed" with drawers underneath that she uses. The rods are all adjustable so we can just move them around as their needs change.

Here is the closet in Turned Loose's room. Same idea as the other bedroom but he needed more shelf space. Again, the drawers serve as his dresser. Note some strange science experiment in jars taking place on the top shelf.

I have also recently had my entry way closet redone and posted about that here. You can also take a peek at how I repurposed a book case to make use of some vertical space for toys here.

Eventually, I hope to have the two closets in the master bedroom redone as well. I continue to try to be creative at making use of our vertical space. Of course, most likely, the best solution would be to just get rid of some of our stuff! I mean, how much stuff do five people need?

I'd also love to hear your ideas for living in a smallish space!

A Week of Preschool

This week we looked at the book Yellow Ball by Molly Bang from Before Five in a Row. We didn't do as many book related items as we did the previous two weeks but we did have lots of fun.

We talked about perspectives and located the ball on each page discussing why it looked bigger or smaller or lighter or darker. We experimented with balls and balloons to see which would fall faster, which would float, etc. We even bought a new ball to play with outside!

Our art work explored a couple of different mediums as we re-created the cover of our book. The one in his right hand was created with crayons and the other was created with Do-A-Dots.




Today, the big kids babysat for a couple of hours while I went to a chiropractic appointment and then a staff meeting at our office. Upon my return, I found a Playdough extravaganza! Turned Loose had assembled a tasty looking meal of pizza, a sandwich and a cup of lemonade. (By the way, Footloose insists that I tell you all that the lemonade as her idea and she made the cup.) Turned Loose is quite precise in his methods so the circles you see were actually created with a compass.




Oh, and, come to find out, he used my cheese grater to make the "cheese." Why must he be so realistic?



Yummy Sandwich! Wanna bite?

It was another fun and successful week of preschool, indeed!

Wordless Wednesday

Sedona, Arizona

An organized entry colset....Finally!

I've previously expressed (maybe complained about)  my challenge of managing 5 people and all of their stuff in my smallish (under 1500 square feet) house.  I really am thankful for my house and know that there are many larger families who live with less space. In my attempt to remain content in my smallish environment, I try to make efficient use of all vertical space.

A few days ago, I finally got what I've been dreaming about for a long time. Something to help with organizing some of our things.  Something to solve my problem of an avalanche of stuff falling out at me everytime I open the door. A closet system for my entry way closet!

Here's a view of the closet with the door closed. It's in my entryway. You see it immediately to the right when you walk in the front door.

Here's what it looked like before it was saved from despair! Oh my goodness! It was so horrible. A jumbled mess of toys (see the box of Legos on the top shelf and the big box of wooden blocks balanced near the bottom?), baseball caps, tote bags, the cameras, etc. It was scary, I tell you!




Here it is all emptied out. A blank canvas ready for someone to come and create organizational magic!




And, here it is all built out! I thought about kissing the guy who built it. But, I thought it might freak him out. 





And here it is with lots of the stuff put back in. See, now, the tote bags neatly tucked away on the bottom shelf. The wooden blocks on a nice flat surface no longer threatening to topple out and break a toe. One shelf for printer paper, ink, and the like where I can easily access it whenever my printer is beeping that it's out of paper because someone forgot to refill it! Preschool items neatly sorted in see through bins so I can grab and go! 

Since we live in such a warm climate, I only had a small rod designed into the closet. We had no need for a rod all the way across as seen in the before photos. We rarely need a jacket and, even when we do, all we have are light weight ones which easily fit on a smaller rod in this closet.

It's a beautiful thing--an organized closet! By the way, the shelves are all adjustable so, as time goes by, I can rearrange them to suit my changing needs. It doesn't take that much to excite me, does it?

A happy, contented sigh...

His Grace

I have a tendency to focus on my own negative character traits. At times, I teeter on actually allowing them to define me in my own head. The things I've left undone. The verses I haven't memorized with the kids. The angry outbursts. Not cooking enough homemade meals. I could just let it all swallow me up.

This morning I was encouraged by Ann's devotion at Holy Experience and I wanted to share it with you.

God's grace is sufficient to use my character flaws and mold me into what He wants me to be--one who serves others because He serves me.

Be encouraged, my friends, and enjoy His grace!

A Week of Preschool

This week, we explored Corduroy. On the Loose is quite fascinated with this story. He asks lots of questions about the details when we read it.

We created button patterns from a printout at Homeschool Share:

We colored parts of the story and pasted them into a story sequencing rhyme (also from Homeschool Share):



We colored an "F" with two bear friends to focus on Corduroy's friendship (from? Yes, you guessed it--Homeschool Share):


On the Loose cuts scraps of paper and he glued them to a sheet of construction paper to make a quilt "like Lisa's bed":


Footloose and On the Loose sorted buttons by color:




This is not Corduroy related but he really enjoyed working with his colored links and activity cards:

It was a very productive preschool week. Truly, the kid has an insatiable desire to do preschool! He never tires of it and really keeps me on my toes to think of new and interesting things to do with him. I'm so incredibly thankful for all of the moms who blog about their activities with this age group! I don't know what I'd do without them!

A Week of Preschool

This week was fun! On the Loose and I centered our week around The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It's one of his very favorite books! I found some fun craft ideas online and, I think, we did at least one each day. Here's a sampling:

This was actullay a picture I tore out of one of his "Do a Dot" books.

This was a worksheet I found online  here.

He loved coloring the foods and tracing the letters. It was a great activity for teaching him the days of the week.

Here's a caterpillar we made. The idea came from this link.

We also made Carisa's Tot Book. He wasn't quite as into it as last week's book but still enjoyed it. 

Aside from our caterpillar specifics, we did lots of other things: worked on memorizing a Bible verse, math with funtastic frogs and teddy grahams, playing outside, etc. It was a fun week of preschool to be sure.

For fun, here's a video of him reading the book. Footloose got it recorded for me so it's her voice you hear in the background.

We're looking forward to next week. We'll be having fun with Cordoroy!