Lately, or Not So Lately

Life is full and busy!  We've started back to AHG, play practice, and last week we tried a nearby tutorial for art and music.  In the meantime, we are reaching the end of our first quarter of school this week!  We only have to update our umbrella school at the end of semesters, but I've been working to update my grade book and letting the girls know where they stand in each of their classes.

Nate is learning to read and add.  The big girls are learning much in Latin and unit studies with books.  Gabby is learning cursive, and Kate is studying fractions.

We've gone on field trips to the zoo, a lake,

  

 Elle meeting Miss Clara, the sheep

 

 

 Nate milking a goat.

 

Washing with a washboard

and to a living history day at a nearby historic site.

 

We took our annual trip to see Shakespeare in the Park (HenryV this year).

Life has been full!

To top it off, some friends of our family were moving and offered us a set of bunk beds.  This led to a major rearrangement in bedrooms here.

We'd been discussing what to do when Ellie out grew our crib.  I will be sad when she out grows that bed that has held all four of our babies!  But we'd discussed it.  It didn't seem quite fair to put all three girls in one room and leave Nate to himself in a room of the same size.  We'd discussed ways to try to make it more fair, like all the dressers being in his room.  We discussed turning our family room into a bedroom for the girls, but it is completely open to the living room and the upstairs hallway, so that would take some adjustment too.  The bunk moved things along a bit.  We have opted to give Kate a room to herself.  Gabby and Ellie are sharing a room.  I've painted both of those rooms.

Then Nate is taking a storage room, which of course had to be emptied.  It had been used as a music studio or drum room before we bought the house, so layers of sound insulation had to be peeled away.

 

Underneath is a patchwork of drywall, green wall, and other assorted things to form the wall.  It will need a window to be a real room for him, so that is on the list.  It isn't huge, but as they don't need to store toys in their rooms it will be enough for a bed and dresser.  When he's older, we might look into a loft bed for him to have a bit of extra space, as the ceiling is plenty high to accommodate that.

All this left us with a spare bed, which we have placed in the library, with plans to fix it up as a daybed/reading couch and extra space for company.

We are nearing completion on the girls' rooms--needing to finish hanging a few things, and we can see the end in Nate's room, if we stand on our tippie toes.  We still have to find homes for a few things that are sitting in our bedroom, waiting to find a good resting spot, but we're getting there!