Some Improvements

Dan did a bunch of work around the house over the last two weekends. He was a bit discouraged I realized when he nearly opened the front door and shouted to the world, "Hey wild animals...come on in...you are welcome to live here as long as you clean up after yourselves and make yourselves available to my children for study at least once a week- deer, racoons, whatever...come on in!" Can you blame him? He's battled yellow jackets for about three or four weeks (and he finally WON this past weekend), we all battled a squirrel, and we've already heard our annual mouse friend take up residence in the usual spot. Two of the three invaders were eradicated. He sealed off and insulated the stove pipe (located behind this chalkboard) in a way that critters will not find inviting (and yes the chimney has been properly blockaded as well). The bonus is that Dan re-hung my chalkboard even better than the first time and I didn't even have to ask!! That piece of molding is up using holes that were already in the brick. I always knew they were there...I wonder why he didn't?

I decided to give up on my former school boxes because they just took up too much floor space. We can use those file boxes to store school stuff in the archives. Here we have a seven drawer storage beauty from Walmart. The bottom three drawers store the kids' school notebooks and current work. The first small one is J3's drawer- he loves that his math book is within his own reach. The top drawer has glue in it. I haven't filled the other two yet. On top are some large sized school boxes from Target. I picked on up every time I went in during school supply season. I hope they come back to town next year because I must have bought ten. All these homemade games and small math pieces need a home. Look how they nest so nicely. They are covering the weather calendar though so I might need to move them.

You might have noticed that the new drawer set replaced this one...this is the place where the kids can craft on their own. The drawers hold cardstock and regular scrap paper, index cards and library pockets, stencils, tape, hole punches, and a stapler. On top is the caddy that holds many of the writing utensils the kids need. We are dangerously low on scrap paper. That means my recycling bin is full of folded paper! The puzzle storage was here so I'll show you where I moved that when I'm done labeling it.