Today I started the project that I've been putting off for several weeks - making the 6 slipcovers for my dining room chairs. I don't mind sewing projects, but I do mind projects that I have high hopes for but very little knowledge or skills to accomplish!! It's intimidating. BUT....the longer I put it off, the more beat up those chairs are starting to look. A friend loaned me a slipcover pattern, but my chairs won't work with her pattern, so I've had to craft my own. Oh, joy. Still, today I made a practice one with scrap fabric that turned out all right, so I bravely cut up all my fabric and did a little of the hemming. I'm not usually such a careful sewer, but I'm trying really hard to do it right. I doubt it will be perfect, but I'll get it as close as I have the patience for.
I'm also working on organizing and sorting through lots of things around the house. Everything got so disorganized as I shuffled things from here to there to make room for Nicole. I'm finding things in the strangest places. So it all has to be located and put away in it's more permanent location. Although since it's me, nothing is really permanently located. ;-)
AND I'm considering moving our day-to-day school stuff downstairs. Home-school in our family has changed so dramatically this year, with the two older kids being basically on their own. I love to read aloud to the kids, but the couches are downstairs and the school stuff is upstairs. And once we finish reading we usually just bounce straight into another project. HOWEVER - when we have to change location I tend to lose the kids' attention. So I've been making room for some of our supplies - the ones we use every day - to have a permanent home downstairs. That means moving my homeschool desk downstairs. I have a home planned for it, but need to move a little stuff out of the way. Basically it's just a big rotation of a couple of pieces of furniture.
And while I'm at it, I'm considering splitting Hannah and Brynne up into separate bedrooms. Their little room is SO cramped with all their stuff. Brynne does all her work in there, so she has all sorts of school books, projects-in-progress, clothes, personal items, etc. And Hannah has pretty much as much stuff as Brynne. So in order to do that, Logan will get moved upstairs into the "family room" which will still basically be a playroom - except that he'll sleep in there. He's cool with that - he'll be with all the toys! And it makes sense for my seminary student (and future seminary student) to sleep downstairs close to the bathroom they use in the mornings.
I could also put Kenna and Natalie in the playroom, but I'm not sure I trust them in there yet. I'm thinking in a couple years when Logan's looking for a little more privacy (and has his own studies to work on in middle school) then I'll swap him with the little girls. They can share the big room over the garage. They also don't need much closet space yet - and that room has a pretty small closet.
So essentially, I'll be losing my family room, but it will still be mostly a play space and I don't hang out there much myself, anyway.
I'm getting a new-to-me piano this weekend, thanks to Jenny - who has herself a lovely new piano and kindly offered me her old one (which is still a lovely piano). Hannah is thrilled. Not too long ago while she was practicing she turned to me and said, in her most teenage-ery voice, "I'm sorry mom, but this piano really sucks". ;-) It made me laugh, but it's true. We're passing it along to a family in our ward who has two girls taking music lessons but no piano. They won't care about the quality of the piano for awhile, still. I warned them it's not great for a dedicated musician, but nothing wrong with it for a beginner.
So that's some of what I've been working on. Through it all, we've been fighting off colds (I think I'm the last one) and so we have occasional sick days for various people sprinkled here and there. Makes it hard to feel like we're on schedule, but we'll get there eventually!
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