Less forest, more home

"Sometimes our life reminds me

of a forest in which there is a graceful clearing
and in that opening a house,
an orchard and garden,
comfortable shades, and flowers
red and yellow in the sun, a pattern
made in the light for the light to return to.
The forest is mostly dark, its ways
to be made anew day after day, the dark
richer than the light and more blessed,
provided we stay brave
enough to keep on going in."

~Wendell Berry, The Country of Marriage, III

Happy weekend: here's to less forest, more home.

The boys are going camping.

{So I guess more forest for them!}

The girls are enjoying time together and walking in the March for Babies 

{feel like you can throw $5 to the cause? click here}

Various and sundry social engagements for the daughters.

Baseball.

Mother's day.

Hats off to all you mothers and motherers!

Enjoy your lanyards.

photos via JF PLS's flickr

Bunking

In the cabin that my grandfather built, there is a bedroom downstairs for the grandparents and then there is an open loft upstairs with...(counting)...seven beds, a mix of doubles and singles, that can sleep eleven or more.  Plus a crib or two.

On summer evenings, all the cousins would be put to bed upstairs at the same time and grandpa would tell a story about Billy Johnson the pioneer boy and Tokonebo his Indian friend.  He would tell it....very...slowly....with many...breaks...so we...would {ideally}...drift off...to....sleep.  Then (if you outlasted Grandpa's storytelling) you could eavesdrop on the grownups and their games for hours into the late evening.  As you can imagine, I gleaned a lot of knowledge from words drifting their way up to the loft: On life, loving, fighting, sex, living, religion, politics, other perspectives, and always humor.

Later, all the grownups would climb the big wooden staircase, find their beds,  (some of them) snore, and sleep.  All of us in one big cozy dorm-style room.

All of this is just to say: I'm a fan of that kind of situation, bunking together. At least in theory.  

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In our current house, we have a strange set-up.  There are two master bedrooms (don't know why...one has a big room + sitting room and the other has a big room + master bath) and two itty bitty bedrooms.  Currently, G and I use the master bedroom with the master bath, the girls each have a tiny bedroom, and Sam uses the "sitting room" for the other master bedroom while we use the room itself as a study/studio/craft/guest room.

I'm itching to shake things up and one option is to have the kids (or at least the girls) move into the other master bedroom, dorm-style.  They have had their own rooms for several years but part of me thinks/wishes that they would be closer if they were sharing a room for these last few years before they move away and do separate things.  But I realize I may be living in my own glowing la-la land where kids make their beds and talk late into the night about sisterly things.

Did you share a room growing up? What are your opinions on bunking together?  In favor? Against?

Show and Tell Wednesday

It's Wednesday, my favorite day, and I feel like some show and tell. So here's a look at another corner of my world, one of my favorite rooms & where I tend to head when I have some time. We made one of the bedrooms into a project room for everyone (but when the kids are at school it's mine! all mine!).

^

We call this room the studio,
which is really kind of pretentious
but it makes me feel all creative and writerly
so that's what we call it.

^

Here's where we keep all the supplies:

paper, stickers, markers, photos, stamps, etc.
The kids do homework here or cut up paper into tiny, tiny bits.
They love it but they're not all that great at cleaning them up.
(I picked them up today so Stie wouldn't feel compelled to fly across the
country and vacuum them all up. Hey...that's a good idea!)
Pictures leaning on the walls because
I can't actually decide where to put them
but they make me happy the way they are.

^

We got a couple of round tables
so the kids could do homework cafe-style
or leave out a game of chess or scrabble.
The wall over there will hold a big bulletin board.
Once I decide which fabric to use to cover it. Sigh. Decisions.

^
Here's my desk.
(Hi neighbors!)

^

my creative sister made the photo mosaic of me and my parents
from a childhood picture taken in Peru
I love this photo of Sam and pumpkins

^

a small wooden tray
holding a jumble of photos and postcards and quotes I love

^
Stack of books I love
because I'm trying my hand at writing stories
and sometimes I just need to be reminded how the masters do it
Paper box holding paper clips, etc.
Glass of water because I'm shunning Diet Coke
from my life right now. Sadly.

Work counters, white tables, chair, lamp, rug, and desk from Ikea. Other things just picked up here and there.

A little more show-and-tell

^
We woke up this morning to a little fog,
a little more leaf color
This is the view from our front porch,
across the street
I love October

^
A cry for help, this is
In spite of all the reading I should be doing,
I had to sort the books by color
I've seen it in magazines & flickr
and couldn't resist

^
We finally replaced the two hideous light fixtures
(one was painted green and mauve, the other a lovely
verdigris leaf concoction)
in the kitchen
{yay, Greg!}
they're both cheap Ikea lights
but I love the lift they've given

^
Here's the view from the family room
to the kitchen
Walls and windows still bare
I like the gradual, live with it approach

^
Front room/music room
to the left is a nook with the piano
(Chairs and rug from West Elm,
sofa by Southern Furniture Co, as far as I can tell)
Still searching for window treatments
and an ottoman to soften things up
And side tables and lamps
Any suggestions?
Should I hang pictures or do bookshelves
above the sofa?

Home sweet {quirky} home

It's always an adventure (sometimes painful, sometimes fun) to turn a new house into your own. We knew going into this one that there were some...shall we say...quirks that we were inheriting. The previous owner is an artist and she definitely used the house as her canvas. Before we start painting and redoing, I had to share some of the unique aspects of our new home. As my humanities professor always said, "different isn't necessarily bad...it's just different!"

1. (Starting at the top left.) This light, like many of its friends throughout the house, has been painted over...shade, cord, everything.

2. Likewise EVERY PLUG in the house. Not just the faceplate, mind you, but also the actual, wired, plug-goes-in-here thingie. I think this will require a bit of electrician work.

3. Look closely and you will see the kitchen mural of a big daisy, very Farrah Faucett-like with the wind blowing the petals back from its face. I'm sure if I were an adolescent male flower, I would want this on my bedroom wall but since I'm not, it's going to have to go.

4. Another mural that is directly across from the main entry to the house. Before I got a chance to take the picture, the kids (okay, I helped) took off all the fake jewels that were intermingled in the mural. That's right, I bought a home with a bedazzled wall. When we first walked through, there was a little pedastal in the lower left corner with a fairy on it.

5. (next row) This isn't so bad, actually. The colors aren't me, though, and I think the way the chair rail molding zigzags up the staircase is a little distracting so we're going to take it down.

6. That's right, folks. That fan is painted: the paddles and the fixture itself. I'm very excited about this room, though. It will be our project/homework room. We just got several IKEA pieces that will house all our art-sewing-craft materials, etc. Then we'll put a couple of tables in the middle of the room with stools. I'll post after photos in August once it gets painted, etc.

7. This is the little fireplace in Sam's room. Nice, huh? Well, here's the quirk:

8. It has tiles with soft-core romantic scenes on it. Yeah, we'll be at least painting over those.

9. (next row) This is the view from the master bedroom, through the see-through french doors, to the master bathroom. Clearly these people haven't heard that a little mystery, a little privacy is a good thing.

10. Another mural, this one in the master bedroom complete with glow-in-the-dark stars.

11. Also another painted light cover. It kind of defeats the purpose of lights, doesn't it?

12. Finally, this is the fireplace in the family room. I actually kind of like the harlequin-style painting on the mantel and my kids love it. Maybe this quirk will make it through. For now.

Stay tuned for the next installment...things I *love* about the new house.