Home sweet home

I love coming home.

The sight of the familiar, the warmth of our worn floors and furniture, the feeling of being taken care of and loved. Even when my house is messy, I still love coming home to it, because it's... well.. home. Especially for a mom with five kids under seven who needs to be constantly aware of where they are and what they are doing- home is where I can relax, let my guard down and let the kids play.

Because we are a homeschooling family, we spend a lot of time at home, the kids spend a lot of time in the yard, and we spend a lot of time wandering around the neighborhood. In short, if any family needs a good home, it's us.

That is why we feel so enormously blessed to have found our new home. This is so much more than a house for us. The minute we saw this house, we fell in love with it, and the longer I am here, the happier I am with it. I am not even detered by it's age (32 years old.. older than me!!), nor the fact that there are many more bugs here than our newly built first home. (motherhood has made me very brave. I can camly squish all sorts of bugs in kleenex, pull big huge fuzzy caterpillars off my curtains, stomp on ants, and vacuum up centipedes. I can even stand still while bees buzz around my head).

We moved at the beginning of august, and while it's been a whirlwind, and I'm still not unpacked yet, I love being here. So I'll stop talking so much and give you a tour!! Today you can see the first half and when I get the rest of the house cleaned up you can see the second half LOL... I'm not sure if the whole house will ever be clean at the same time, so this will have to do.

Living room:


We've never had a living room before, this is a treat for me to have a room that is(supposed to be) unlittered with toys. It's a quiet space to enjoy company, pray as a family at night, and practice the piano. A place to read quietly on the couch, drink tea with my husband while the children clean up the kitchen after dinner, and watch the birds in the big spruce tree outside.


Kitchen/eating area:

The kitchen is a different layout from our old house, but it is still very workable. The hanging cupboards open from both sides, so the kids can easily set the table for me from one side, and unload the dishwasher from the other side. There is a desk in the kitchen with a bullentin board that I a like to sit at with the laptop while relaxing in the aternoons, planning my school days, and doing general household administration (thinking about, and making plans for school, meals, laundry.. but not actually DOING anything LOL).

I love the window over the kitchen sink. It looks into the backyard, so I can watch the birds and squirrels, and of course the kids.



Homeschooling Room:


This used to be a dining room, but it makes the ideal learning room for us. It has a lovely picture window that looks onto the side yard. There is a big cherry tree outside which the birds frequent. We are going to install a bird bath and a bird feeder out there so we can spend time watching birds and learning more about nautre up close. There's a family of 5 robins that live in our yard or very near, and we have enjoyed watching their antics the last week or so.

I'll have a bigger post on our learning room in the next month or so as I get it organized the way I want it. It's such a treat to have so much room here.



Living Room:



This is a sunken room with a warm fireplace, wooden mantle and built in shelving, and a patio door to the deck. We are going to replace the flooring soon, to a warm hardwood with some nice braided area rugs. Right now, this room holds the baby toys, a few kid toys, and some of our grownup fiction books. We want to get a nice leather couch, two leather recliners, and a coffee table and use the space as a true family room. A warm space for gathering with the kids after dinners and on the weekends to play games, read books, sit by the warmth of the fire, drink hot cocoa. The possibilites are endless!!

Kids bedroom :



E, Z and H all sleep here together. They didn't want their own rooms -- they love being together. Eventually we'll likely have a girls room and a boys room, but for now they are all in here and love it. It used to be two rooms, but they knocked out a wall and now it's one big fun room!