August Fields

pillow talk

a couple of weeks ago i won a giveaway from melanie over at pretties and posies!
i won the “H” pillow and the “No. 7” pillow….so cute.  
H is our family initial and 7 because we have 7 people in our family.
the pillows came packaged so pretty that i had to take a picture 🙂
i tried them out a few different places.
before settling on their final destination (for now)….our bed.
thanks melanie! i love them 🙂 
you can visit melanie over at her blog or her etsy shop.  

our life

piano lessons for the three big kids….love the fact the piano teacher comes to our house.  he definitely found a niche catering to homeschoolers! 
dubs usually plays “run away” during school time! 🙂
deanie has started the nancy drew series
hank is busy during his “blanket time”….that realistically only ever lasts 7 minutes.  tops.
bathtime.  hank, dubs, boone.  i love the delicious smell of just bathed babes. 🙂
deanie and dancy recently had choir and drama performances.
deanie was the princess (in the pink dress) and dancy was the messenger (all in black w/ a blue sash).
the homeschool performing arts in our area really pulls out all stops.  the shows are fabulous and 
the kids gain such great theater and stage experience.

Homeschool Room Part One

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the TRUTH.” 3 John: 4


this is the verse that is written on the doorframe to the school room.  and truly it is my prayer.
you can read more about marking our house with scripture here
a schoolroom.  as a homeschooling family this is a major deal for us.  a separate room just for school!
now,  i don’t think this is a necessity because i know many homeschooling families that do school all over the house.  
currently, we have a section in our basement designated for all of our school stuff.  
when we were designing the new house we put a lot of thought into the schoolroom.  
we came up with ideas such as: 
1. schoolroom should be close to the kitchen
  this gives easy access for drinks and snacks.  also, i am often in the kitchen so that would keep me in close proximity to the kids while they’re in the schoolroom.
2.  schoolroom should have plenty of natural light.
currently, since our schoolroom is in the basement, we have no natural light.  i wanted to be able to see the rain, the leaves and the sun.
3.  storage for supplies and shelves for books
this is pretty basic for any homeschooler.  i’m happy with our system now so we just needed
to incorporate something for the new room.  there will also be two simple desks (you can see built
against the wall below) for independent seat work or tests.

4.  an old school door
so excited that i actually did this! you can read about the great search here
the Bible verse is cased in now.  pretty cool to know that the WORD is forever in that frame.
the door came with plenty of ‘scribbles’.  the 3 big kids are trying to wipe some of it off. 🙂
5.  a checkered floor just because 🙂
edited to add this post to Met Monday over at BNOTP

beautiful chicken house

i was perusing my google reader and i stopped cold when i saw this picture….

it is a chicken. house.  a CUTE chicken house.  wow.  
you can see all the details over at heather bullard’s blog
as beautiful as it is…and it’s beautiful alright….it’s actually functional and practical!
side doors all around for accessing different sides.
Heather has all the details and more on her site.
i am definitely saving this in my “would love a chicken house someday” file 🙂

boy bunk room – part two

the boy bunk room is taking shape!  we decided on a 4 person bunk unit.  if we ever needed more beds we could put another bed or bunk on the perpendicular wall. 🙂
below you can see the beginning stages.  mdf board was mounted to the back walls.  i had to pick out a mattress at the mattress store so the builders knew what depth the beds should be (these are fit for a 9″ deep mattress).  also, we decided on xtra long twin mattress’ since we’re dealing with boys here….and if this is their bed for life (in this house) we wanted to give them room to grow! 🙂
finished bunks before paint and fixtures! 
as you can see we designed the bed based on the one i had seen on the traditional home website.  
you can see that here. 
the kids giggled and laughed when they first saw them and immediately clamored to the top bunk. 🙂
keeping with the desire to allow reading and the joy of reading around every nook and cranny of this house we had little shelves built in (for books!) with an outlet (for alarm clocks, ipods etc.)
each unit will have a stand alone sconce as well (see below) that will allow for individual reading at night.
we’re planning on having the bunks painted in benjamin moore’s fieldstone color.
  
on the opposite wall is a window seat with bookshelves.  boone is on top of the world thinking of all the books he can have in his room now.  that little man (he’s 5) can read like it’s nobodies business! 🙂
okay….so orange has been boone’s favorite color for the past year and a half (before that it was goldenrod)  isn’t he funny?? 🙂 🙂  since it’s a pretty dominant color we’ll just be…..well….accenting with it. 🙂  
i found the lamp at goodwill for $7.00.  love it.
this fabric is amy butler and is called…..are you ready?  
august fields!!!! 
 i’ll be snatching a little bit of this up for accents on pillows or something.
thanks to my friend holly mathis for finding this line for me!
this adorable john golden print doesn’t have orange in it but when i saw my friend 
shannan at flowerpatch farmgirl had it in her little man’s room, i was smitten.
he has a shop on etsy and when i purchased my print he was having a buy one get one free sale!
the other print will be going in the playroom….but more on that at a later date 🙂
these are the sconces that will go by each bunk, on the back wall.  mr. daddy and i love the idea of being able to read at night then reaching over and turning the light off….versus having to climb out of the bunk to turn the light off.  i think this definitely promotes reading and provides good light to each individual. 🙂
lights are from here.  push button on/off switch was mr. daddy’s idea.  ðŸ™‚