Making our Home a Haven - Fixing things up addition

 Yesterday was a very good day! Ken unfortunately wasn't feeling good but he headed off to work anyway. (He did come home early and went straight to bed at about 4:30 however.) It was so nice to get up to a neat house on Thursday morning. That is one thing that I have been really working at accomplishing this week- leaving the house clean and neat before I head to bed. I have been especially concentrating on our counters and sink area in the kitchen. It is so much nicer to get up to make breakfast in a kitchen that is really clean!

  School went well. The picture above is of Aaron reading out of the Dick and Jane book to Megan and I. Aaron has been a bit slower reader than my older kids, I wasn't worried about it but decided the reading book that we had been using just wasn't helping him to learn very well so I just switched to having him read outloud to me (and usually Megan joins us too) out of the Dick and Jane book and that is going quite well. Reading time has been a very fun and relaxing time while we do that and he is gaining confidence. Yea!

 I did have fun working on several projects to try to make my home look nicer and be cleaner. I thought I would share them with you.

In our entry way we have a little table. On it I had a bunch of herbs that I brought in from the garden this fall. Originally it looked pretty nice and it was useful too as I could cut some off to use in cooking. Now however....well, it was rather dead and yucky looking. Not so beautiful to greet everybody that came into our home.

BEFORE

 I decided to remove all the dead or dying plants (what a concept!!) and I decided to get it looking ready for spring.   

AFTER

 I put a few odds and ends together and decided to display this collection of things.

 In the big vase was some dried rose buds, a nest, some feathers the kids had found and a few other odds and ends. It is kind of unique looking but I like having all those natural elements there to look at and enjoy.

 Another project was to finish cleaning my desk. I am excited to report that it is now all clean and neat (at least the outer surfaces (I still need to go through the drawers and some shelves) and ready for use! I hope I can keep it this way for at least a while! I was motivated a while back when reading that people might judge you on how affective you are by looking at your desk. I didn't want people thinking I am some sort of messy, never get anything done sort of person and I am determined that I will keep my desk in better shape in the future!! (Sorry about the weird shadows in the picture, the sun (which I love) was just streaming in and I couldn't take a good picture.)

Next project was Megan's corner of her room. She is still in the training process for keeping her stuff neat and I wanted to figure out some ways that cleaning and picking up could be easier for her.

Here is her area before:

 It was quite messy, we had lots of loose art supplies and books tended to end up all over.

 While I was trying to think of ways to keep things organized I remember the little spice racks that the kids made a few months ago at Home Depot's building day. They hadn't worked for my kitchen and we didn't know what to do with them. I decided that we could use them for Megan. The older kids were gone to a Library program so Megan and I decided to have a bit of painting time together. She choose the colors (Green for grass, pink and purple for flowers and yellow for the sun.)

 We had these little butterflies on hand (that had been part of a mobile sort of thing, somebody had given them to us.) and we decided to glue them on our racks.  We then hung them up. The Sun of course had to be on top! I really like the way they look all bright and colorful on the wall!

 We also added some shelves on top of Megan's dresser to keep the books that she likes in. The little corner table had been in the living room last year but when we redid the living room we moved it in here to be Megan's "desk".
Megan and I are pretty happy with the new look! Now if I can just get her trained in keeping it pretty and clean. :-) Aaron was inspired by our organizing and is working on tin can organizers for his desk now.

Yesterday evening Ken didn't feel up to game playing but the rest of us had fun playing "Hit the Deck with the Hand". That is not the most exciting game in the world but it was neat because Megan was able to play it. Usually she just "helps" as we play a little more advanced games.

All in all it was a good day and we are having another good one today. We are staying home all day which I always love! :-)

Making Your Home A Haven at The Homespun Heart

Frugal Friday at Life as Mom