Top Five Wedding Shower Gifts I Still Use!

June the one year anniversary of our blog! Thank you to each and every one of you- whether you've been reading since the beginning or just found us. We love to share our thoughts and ideas with you, and get to know you through your comments and the posts you share!

This month will have a wedding theme. Each week's topic is related to weddings or marriage. This week we're sharing with you the top five wedding shower gifts we still use! On Friday we hope to have Mr. Linky up for you to share posts from your site about favorite wedding gifts to get or give!

image source: snow42girl

Our ClassRoom is our Kitchen

This is our ClassRoom........

When we started homeschooling 2 years ago - I had the perfect place for our 'classroom' - the bonus room over the garage! It just so happened my mom was here when I made this decision and so we went to town decorating and making our 'school room'. I must say - it looked like we thought a school room should look! It lasted about 3 months and ended up being a complete waste of time and money! We all hated being up there and ended up doing school in the kitchen every day!

So....that gave me a reason to decorate again and slowly we have made our kitchen area also into our school area! My hubby gets frustrated sometimes because the table is covered in books and whatnot that I haven't had a chance to put away yet but we just slide it out of the way for meals!! I had fun painting and creating a functional space that would not look like a school but was a classroom! Any reason to redecorate,paint and organize is fine with me and I am so excited to show you guys around!

The wall of bookshelves now has another small shelf on it to accommodate all my boxes for the workbox system we just started using and loving! I love all the possibilities of bookshelves and have quite a few of them around our house! The red couch you see is where we do all of our reading and I have 1 fellow who loves to do all his work sprawled out on the couch! Inside the doorframe between the 2 rooms I have sticky tacked the alphabet cards we use!

I made this chalkboard from an old bulletin board(a freebie from a friends trash). I just painted right over it with about 4 coats of chalkboard paint! It works great and I can hang stuff on it too with a push pin if I need to! The bookshelf under the window is made from a rain gutter and was so easy to make! It works perfectly to house the current Science books I want us to look through - the boys can see the covers and it makes it much easier for them to pick one! Go here to see some other ideas for gutter shelves!

This is my Grandmother's hutch that needed a place in our house and is now housing construction paper and notebooks in the bottom, mommies supplies like stapler, pens, pushpins, etc in the drawer and by removing the doors on the top part of the hutch the shelves house the boys daily books like math,LA and games. Each shelf is 1 boys stuff and is easily accessible to me when filling boxes for school!

The bottom of my husband's Grandmother's hutch houses all our art supplies! It was another item that needed to be in our house and so to make it useful I put the barstools away and pushed it under the counter so the boys could get at our art supplies whenever they wanted! I do not have paint or any other art item that I would want them using when I am not watching!

Over the pantry door(on the inside) I have a clear shoe holder. The key to this is(for me) is that it is clear. I hade some that were not clear but becasue I couldn't see what was in the pockets I never used what was in the pockets!! An empty( and clean ) frosting container fits perfectly in the pockets to house the smaller and/or loose items I wanted to stay put in them - erasers, pencil sharpeners,pencils, markers,counting bears,etc. The other pockets have flashcards and other misc. items that I knew I wanted to use but if I couldn't see it I would forget about it! Sorry the picture is funky!

There was no way i could just put books on the shelves so when I found these fun bookends on clearance I painted them , added a plaque I painted with all the different subject names and added some color to the bookshelves! Fun!!!

This has been my project for the past week - a timeline wall. We used a trifold project board last year and it was just a pain to get out every day and put away so I just decided we would have a wall timeline that could stay up forever and we will just keep adding to it year after year! Granted it is right down my front entryway but I am sure you have gathered that I am okay that people know we homeschool when they come to our house! It is still empty as I haven't gotten around to putting up the figures we have studied yet - maybe next week!!!

I am in the process of debating about whether or not to take over the coat closet down here - put a bookshelf in it and house all the science project stuff we are now starting to accumulate as the boys are getting older! A project for another day!!!

I hope you enjoyed this tour and it gave you some ideas for your classroom!!

My name is Julie and I am Mom to 4 Boys - 14, 8, 6, 4. I homeschool the younger 3 and the oldest just finished 8th grade and will be going to High School next year - AARRGGHHH!!! We have been homeschooling for 2 years and have a very eclectic style with a mix of unschooling, Charlotte Mason and unit studies! I started blogging as a way to share our goings on and pics with family (because none of them live near us) at just a little house. I had so much fun I decided to start a homeschooling blog boys,school and fun to document our journey as we homeschool. Come visit me so I can come visit you!!

Outside the "Classroom"

Because we homeschool, people often ask us if we have a classroom. When we first began homeschooling, I had a 3- and a 1-year-old in addition to my 7-year-old homeschooler. Because I needed a place where my little ones could safely play while I worked with my oldest, we set up our basement as our playroom/schoolroom/office. We had a table for school, a comfy couch for reading, a separate area for watching TV or using the computer and lots of toys. The walls were adorned with maps, a dry erase board, a cork board, charts, the ABC's and lots of fun "educational" pictures and posters. It was the perfect setting. The younger kids could play or watch an occasional video with absolutely nothing in the room that they could hurt or be hurt by. I could sit in the floor and play with them when I wasn't helping my oldest. Everyone was happy.

As the younger kids got older and started doing their own school work, we moved our school stuff back into the main living area of our home. The basement was too far from the bathroom, it was cold in the winter, and, all those fun toys had become a distraction. So, we moved upstairs. The school supplies went into plastic bins in the cabinets of the china cabinet. The ratty-looking cork board was left in the basement in favor of the shiny new one that now adorns one dining room wall. We got an easel for the dry erase board so that both can be easily stored out of site when not in use. We recently even put a small bookshelf in one corner of the dining room for more organized storage.

Although we prefer the dining room table for seatwork, painting or craft projects, we school everywhere. The living room couch or the patio furniture provides the perfect place for reading. The basement couch is a great place to get some independent work completed without being disturbed by younger siblings. The younger kids even enjoy doing their independent work in their “hide-out” in the backyard.

Schooling in the main living area of our house works much better for me, too. I can wash dishes, cook lunch or do laundry while the kids are working independently. I'm right there for them to come to me with questions...and to make sure that they aren't getting distracted. School used to be a big, separate part of our day. Now, it's just a lifestyle that has become woven into everything else we do as a family simply living our lives.

Oh, and whatever became of our school room? It is now the puzzle-making, sewing, crafting, Wii-playing playroom/office/exercise/TV room.

Kris is the sweet-tea-drinking, classically eclectic, slightly Charlotte Mason, homeschooling mom to her three Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Keys to a Successful Kid's Space

Over the last few years our 'kid's space' has been an evolving process...aside from the general mayhem of assorted baby paraphernalia, squeaky toys and random cars and dolls strewn about the house that is.

When we started homeschooling I was determined to still have my house be my neat and 'just so' house. Now, three years later I can definitely tell you that my opinions and decorating styles have changed. Rather dramatically. And surprisingly enough, I'm okay with that! Here are a few keys to our' kid space' success.

1. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I admit it. My dining room doesn't much look like a dining room anymore ~ other than the fact there is a table and six chairs. Gone are the typical wall decorations and in their place are school calendars, a chalkboard, map, whiteboard, and assorted school gear. It was a little hard for me at first not having things 'just so', but the kid's love it and it feels much more homey now than it ever did before!

2. Make it accessible. I'll be honest and say that not everything is accessible, because there is a certain 2-year-old who cannot be fully trusted with markers and scissors. In general though, everything is at the kid's level and easy for them to access when the would like to use it. Our map, crayons, manipulatives, art supplies, puzzles, etc...are all right at the kid's level so that it is easy for them to interact and participate. Not everything fits in our dining room area, so some things are stored in our room too.

The easiest way for me to keep things organized is using tubs, bins and baskets. I'll admit that I'm a little bit of an organizing freak...so clear bins and such are a passion for me. Being able to see inside the tubs is helpful though and the kids know where to go to find things quickly. Anything that is "hands off" {paints, etc...} are stored up in a closet for later use.

3. Be creative. We are fairly limited on wall space, so I've had to get a little creative with our space. I wasn't ready to take the step of using chalkboard paint, but found some wonderful removable Peel & Stick Chalkboard Panels from Wallies. There are 4 in a pack and each piece is 9" x 12". You can put all four together in any direction/shape you want and make your own chalkboard. I bought two packs so that I had a total of 8 panels to work with.


The best part is they are removable, reusable and will stick practically anywhere. On the fronts of cabinets, walls, etc... They don't leave any residue on the walls and if you get tired of them, you can move them somewhere else without having to repaint or patch holes.

I also added a flannel board to the back of our 2' x 3' white board so it can be reversed to use as a felt board. This doesn't hang permanently on the wall, but we can pull it out and I have hooks in place on the wall to hang it on top of our world map {love those command removable adhesive velcro strips & hooks too!}. We use the large whiteboard for our spelling time with the kids and otherwise it is hidden behind our shelving unit when not in use.

That's a quick peek into our kid space in our house! Hope you enjoyed it!

I am a homeschooling mom of 4 that range in age from 2 to 8. Before becoming a mom, I worked in our local school system as a preschool special education teacher and hold a master’s in Early Childhood Special Education. My blogging started on No Ordinary Moments as a way for me to share some of the funny things happening in our house and progressed to Our Homeschool Creations, specifically focused our homeschooling adventures. ~ Jolanthe

Don't Buy Clearance...If You Want Matching Pieces!

Usually I'm pretty frugal, so before our baby was born, we were looking for some great deals for his room. We didn't find out what we were having, so we went with neutral that would work for either gender...and for any future children. We got some great bedding from Burlington Coat Factory on clearance made by Lambs and Ivy. It's called Zoofari. I figured that if we had a girl, we would add flowers and butterflies to accent.

We also got the furniture at Burlington on clearance. This ended up being a huge issue because I wanted the furniture to match since we'll be using it for years to come! That meant I had to call all of the local stores to check their supply. The bad thing was that they had started clearancing it about a year before we bought it, so most places were out!

We ended up getting the crib first at a local one as well as the convertor set. Then we got the hutch from one near my parents. I then found the changing table...at two locations in Texas. Neither of them were near where family lives, so my parents took a day trip to get it!

I think it ended up all looking pretty good together. It has been difficult to get all the pieces together and matching bedding, but I think it has been worth it. I, however, will not buy bedding or furniture in the future if I am planning to match it up!

Growing Up Girly

JD and I were one of "those" couples, the ones who don't find out if it is a boy or a girl when they are pregnant. We picked out a neutral crib bedding and also two paint colors, one boy and one girl, to paint the room after the baby was born. LilE's room is purple.


For the past 9 months or so, she has been sleeping in her crib turned toddler bed waiting for us to paint furniture for her to have a "big girl room."

When designing your child's room, there are so many options. What size of bed? What type of storage? Toys? Reading corner? Dress up area? Desk? TV? The possibilities are endless. You have to pick what works best for your child (and you too, of course) and the living space you have to work with. For us, I found three things that our little girl needed to place in her 10x10 space.

1. Sleeping space.
We took down her crib and replaced it with a daybed that was in the office. I thought about taking the sides off her crib and using the full size headboard it was designed to become. But then she would have ZERO play space in her room. And I wanted to girl her room up a bit with the white furniture.


2. Storage space.
Closet space is less than desired at our house. All closets are bi-fold, her room included. We do have an extra chest of drawers that was moved into her closet to have more organization in there. We ended up painting the one in the closet and swapping it with the one in her room. A little paint, decorative trim, and hardware make a world of difference on a piece of furniture. The chest in the closet is for storage as well as games, toys, and dress up clothes. It is easily accessible for her, but not in baskets cluttering her room. She does have a book basket on the floor, but we plan to get this book shelf cubical (the 6 cube one) to better organize the books she has.


3. Decorations.
LilE's room has been neutral since day one. I wanted to make this big girl space a space that is unique to her. As stated before, we used the wall color as an inspiration. I love her new bedding. Matching the bedding were some great wall decals. JD, being the artistic one in the family, took the blank canvas and transformed it into a butterfly garden. Love it! Not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but he striped the wall behind her bed after she was born. Love that too! In the near future I plan to add more frames to show off family and friends.

The New Storage System

I am amazed at how many toys and books accumulate in just a few short years of a child's life. Some days it's so bad that it looks like Toys R Us threw up in my living room. But we try to keep the majority of toys put away in a proper place. Our homes have never allowed for a separate playroom, so we store most toys and books in the boys rooms - mainly Mark's room. This is where the boys (ages 3 1/2 and 1 1/2) spend most of their time playing.

Following breakfast, the boys play together in Mark's room for 1 - 1 1/2 hours together. I'm in and out during that time directing some play, but I was finding that for the most part they emptying the toy box and pulling out every toy they could get their hands on. There was hardly a part of the carpet that was visible by the end of morning playtime. Plus, it was taking 20 or more minutes to clean up before lunch and it seemed to be very overwhelming for Mark. I had tried to tell him to only get out 1 or 2 toys at a time, but that didn't seem to be possible for him. I think both boys were on toy overload. So I decided to implement a new system a few weeks ago to see if we could solve some of these problems.

We started by purging the toy box and sorting the toys into different categories. We did this while Luke was sleeping so that Mark and I could work uninterrupted. I made him select some toys and stuffed animals to donate to a local charity and we talked about how we could share our toys with boys and girls who didn't have as many things as we did. (He did much better with this than I thought he would. We got rid of a whole paper bag filled with toys and stuffed animals.) We also threw away broken toys that were beyond repair and placed toys that were fixable aside to be repaired. Then we placed different sets of toys into small, plastic shoe boxes labeled with their category. (Some of our boxes included small cars, trains, Little People pieces, large cars, balls, blocks, etc.) And we placed only large toys in the toy box.

Our new system is visible on the book shelves. I also stack the books horizontally

so that it's easier for the boys to put them away without getting frustrated.

After we finished sorting Mark and I talked about how we were only going to play with 2 things at one time and that we would completely put one toy away before getting out a new toy. And all but 2 boxes went into the closet. I also would like to take some pictures and affix them to the boxes. Mark does pretty well with word recognition, but I think that would help Luke to be able to also pick up and participate more in clean up time. I thought Mark would resist this new system, but he has really responded well to it. He has more room to play because the floor isn't covered with every toy he owns. And he still has the freedom to choose any toy to play with - he just has to choose 1 or 2 at a time. Best of all, it's made clean up a breeze. He isn't overwhelmed by the process and can easily sort two different toys into boxes without being reduced to tears.

I try to remember that this is a little boy's room. It isn't going to look perfect - and I don't even want it to. In fact, I haven't spent a lot of money on furniture or decor because they are rough and play hard. I don't plan on painting the walls because there are multiple car and/or train crashes into them a day anyway. But I do want to teach my children to take care of their things and maintain order. I believe that's part of being a good steward. And I want them to be able to play and enjoy their toys, which they can't do in a room that has no space or with toys they can't even find.

More toys stored in the closet until their use.

Books with soft pages go in the top of the closet so that we can see them and remember

to read them often, but Luke can't tear the pages because he has access to them.

Our new system really works great. What tips do you have for me? How do you organize toys and books, especially in shared spaces?

Room to Grow

My boys are three and a half and 20 months old. We hope to have more kids someday too. So when we were looking for a house last year, we wanted room for our kids to grow. And not just grow- but explore, create, imagine, and enjoy!

My favorite space in our house is a corner in the basement that is set up as an activity center. It has a felt board, chalk board, bulletin board, and little table and chairs. For instructions on how to make the felt board, see this post at Blissfully Domestic. To see my inspiration for the idea, see this post at The Artful Parent. Creating the space was a fairly quick weekend do it yourself project!

We use the bulletin board to show projects that we have finished, hang up each week's Sunday School lesson, and sometimes put up flashcards (here's a link to our family site showing everything we put on our bulletin board one day).

We use the chalk board for just drawing and "writing." You could also put a dry erase board up, or something magnetic. I just love to use chalk board paint! In the picture above, I have everything ready for learning about the letter Q. During our "lesson," we listed all the words we could think of that started with Q on the chalk board .

Here are some of the fun ways we use the table: #2 likes to climb on it (in fact, right now we have put the chairs up to keep him on the ground!). #1 likes to do puzzles, paint, work with lapbooks, play a counting game, and match socks!

The felt board has been a lot of fun! Do you ever watch Blue's Clues and notice how the felt frame changes depending on what the episode is about? That was my inspiration for some of the things we do on the felt board. You can see above we learned about farms, earth, rockets, and dinosaurs. The big picture is the Easter story that he would put in order. I printed clip art of the events, and just glued them to felt. The hardest thing I've done for the felt board is the alphabet. Some of the letters were hard to get just right!

Hope you enjoyed peeking in on my favorite kid space in the house!

This Week: Kids' Spaces

Our topic this week is Kids' Spaces! Even before your baby is actually born, you're thinking about where she's going to sleep, play, and eat! And as kids grow, they seem to need even more room. This week we're showing you our kids' spaces, from bedrooms to playrooms. We'll also give a few tips for organizing all the stuff you have to fit in their space!

On Friday we will be featuring learning spaces! Jolanthe from Homeschool Creations will be showing us her kids' spaces! She has four children, ages 8, 6, 4, and 2, so she has lots of great ideas for organizing! Stop by her site this week to get to know her.

If you are a homeschooling family and have a space where you do your projects and lessons, we'd love to see it! Please email us for more details! todayshousewife (@) hotmail (dot) com

image source: Pottery Barn Kids

Book Winner!

Random chose the number 5 which is:

Paula Constable said...
I am following you on Twitter. @paulaconstable

Congratulations Paula! Please e-mail me with your address and I'll contact the publisher and have them send it! THANKS!!

Review: Boundaries with Kids

I was introduced to this book about 6 years ago and have consistently used it as a reference, not only as a parent, but in my practice as a therapist. Boundaries with Kids is written by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend for parents of children of all age, but I believe this book is most helpful for new parents or parents of toddlers who are attempting to teach boundaries from the start.

Here are some of the questions this book addresses:
What are boundaries?
Why set boundaries?
Why do children need parents with good boundaries?
What are the obstacles to setting boundaries?
What are the negative effects my children might develop due to having weak boundaries?

This book shows how to deal with these (and other) sorts of problems:
Impulsivity
Whining
Procrastination
Aggression
School issues
Inattention to parental directives
Inability to finish tasks
Personal responsibility

Boundaries with Kids address 10 Boundaries kids need to know. Each “law” as the book calls them, provides a lifelong lesson that will prove beneficial throughout the lifespan. For example, predicting the consequences of an action, self-motivation and reducing the tendency towards immediate gratification are detailed in this book. Each law is defined and the authors offer suggestions for teaching and modeling it to our children.

This book is well-written, without a wordy textbook feel, is easy to read, and filled with practical advice and real-world examples. Above all, Boundaries with Kids is loaded with Biblical principles, encouragement and truth. I would highly recommend this book as a permanent addition to your parenting library.

I’ll end with two of my favorite parenting verses.
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it”. Proverbs 22:6

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it”. Hebrews 12:11

Marcy is a licensed therapist, as well as a mom to toddler, Lincoln and wife to Ryan. You can read more of her at You'll Never Believe This.

Same Kind of Different As Me (and a Giveaway)

A lady in my church was recently talking about this book and how she knew Ron's wife when she was in high school. She told a little about the story and I definitely wanted to read it! I checked it out from the library and got started. I am not a big reader, but I was able to finish and turn in the book before it was due!

Same Kind of Different as Me is a great book written in an interesting format! Each chapter has a change in who is writing--Denver or Ron. It starts with a little background about how each man got to where they met--at a homeless shelter in Ft. Worth, Texas. I couldn't believe some of the stories--Ron was in a car that was right behind JFK when he was shot and other interesting tales!

Without giving too much away, Ron was married to a God-fearing woman named Deborah who encouraged her husband to befriend a loner named Denver when they met him at a homeless shelter. This seemed like an unlikely friendship, but God had greater plans! After a few years, Deborah found out she had Cancer and fought a hard battle against it. During the fight, Denver was drawn in as a member of their family as well as their greatest prayer warrior after God changed his life. This is definitely a book that requires tissues handy as you read how God used different real-life situations for His good.

We are honored to give away a copy of the book to one of our readers! If you would like to have a chance to win a copy, go to Same Kind of Different as Me and look around. Come back here and tell me something interesting you found! After you do this, you can also get FOUR extra entries by following us on Twitter, being a Facebook fan, subscribing to our blog or grabbing our button for your blog. Please leave a separate comment for each thing you do. Closes on Friday night...winner will be announced Saturday.

Oh and Happy Birthday, MOM!! :)

Review: 100 Picture Books

Last week was Children's Book Week. In honor (although a bit late) of children's books, I took a look at a few that were new to our home. How did I pick new books to read? A couple of months ago I went to a literacy function in town called Lapsits. At the local library booth I picked up a brochure entitled "100 Picture Books." In the past year LilE and I have started visiting the library, but there are so many children's books and I was a tad bit overwhelmed at what to check out. This brochure was a life saver. Although we have not read them all, we have gotten a good start. Most have only been read once. And some were a bit too long for my girl who has a short attention span at three years of age.

Here are my/LilE's top 5 favorites off the list:

Freight Train by Donald Crews. Greenwillow, 1982.

A colorful book depicting the different cars of the train and the places they pass while on the tracks.


Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin, Jr. Illustrated by Eric Carle. Holt, 1972.

A colorful and repetitive book about what the animals and students see during their day.


On Mother’s Lap by Ann Herbert Scott. Illustrated by Glo Coalson. Clarian, 1992.

A boys favorite place is on his mother’s lap. He loves it even more when he brings his toys and blanket. But does he have a change of heart when his sister begins to cry?


No, David! By David Shannon. Blue Sky, 1998.

David is constantly getting into trouble for his actions. But in the end he finds his mother still loves him.



The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. Viking, 1962.

Caldecot Award winning book about how a young black boy enjoys the snow.


What is your favorite children's book? We would love some new ideas for the summer!