Home is where your heart is

It has been a while since I've posted and in that time so much has changed, as it does in everyone's life I'm sure. My husband's company was bought out and so we're OUT OF HERE!! I love to travel and have wanted to move since we got here (14 years ago). Don't get me wrong, we've come to love our friends and community but I'm always up for a change and 14 years is a long time to be in one place.

This has also been the impetus I've needed to make another major change, we've decided for a number of reasons to pull our girls out of public school and home school them. I've never been fond of public school, feeling personally that my education was advanced in spite of rather than due to the public education system. We have been lucky enough to live near a good primary school that they have done well at but I've always been frustrated with the amount of time wasted on these state exams. My eldest started getting prep worksheets in kindergarten for the test that wouldn't be administered until she was in 3rd grade! Another reason for homeschooling was simply to have time to re-connect with my children again.  It seemed like school days consisted of us rushing around and shouting at one another every morning, only to be repeated that evening over chores, homework, dinner and finally bed.   Not much of a relationship in my view, and I realize I've only got a few years left before my oldest becomes a teen, who probably won't want to spend much of her time hanging out with mom. 

In pursuit of this new adventure, I've spent the last 5 months researching every topic related to independent education but I'll go into that later.  At the moment, I've got 6 kids here from 8 mo to 9 yrs. and need to go find out what that banging noise is. 

-Shaleza



Rollercoaster rides

What a Summer this has been!  In May, I got laid off from a job I'd had for 5 years. In case you didn't know I am a librarian and in the 20 years of working in libraries, I'd NEVER heard of lay-offs.  It just doesn't  happen- until now. (On the bright side, I got to spend the Summer at home with my 3 kids.)  Shortly thereafter, my husband found out his company had been bought and will be moved to another part of the country.  We're still waiting to find out if he will still have a job.   This Summer has really made me stop and take a look at what's important and what doesn't really matter. 

Oh, and I just started working at a new job today and even though itsonly one day a week, I'm still very grateful for it!

What's your geography IQ?

I'm not the best at geography but I've become addicted to this game - you might want to give it a go too!

The Traveler IQ challenge ranks geographic knowledge of cities such as: Phoenix, Rome or Las Vegas by comparing results against 5,549,266 other travelers. Brought to you by TravelPod, a member of the TripAdvisor Media Network

Enjoy!

The De-shabbified shelf

Recently a good friend gave us this beautiful white distressed shelf. I planned to use it in my daughter's room but she's not into "beat up and ugly." GASP!

How can you not love this? Eight year-olds have no taste. So anyway, I agreed to repaint it in her favorite color - pink. (surprise, surprise)

It's perfect for keeping her dolls and figurines in sight but out of reach of her younger sisters.

Luckily, I still have some paint left over from when we painted her room so I didn't have to go buy more.

My friend likes it so much she wants the shelf back.  Have a great day y'all!

SWAPS

Were you or your daughter a Girl Scout?  Then you know what I'm talking about. For the uninitiated, these are small things made by one girl to be given away to another girl, like friendship pins.  I made these with my daughters (ages 5 & 7) the other day for our Daisy  troop.  I thought I'd post them since they'd be fun to make at a party too.

We started with CHEAP daisies from Hobby Lobby. Each stem cost $1 and had about 8 flowers on it. My 2 yr old had a great time  ripping off removing the flowers from the stems.

The backs were a too long to use for this so we trimmed them down a little. Make sure you don't trim too much, you will need a little stem for the next step.

Here's my 5 year old demonstrating. Her hands are a lot prettier than mine. :-)

The next step is to put the safety pin through the back.

The last step is the most fun - drawing the face and gluing the googly eyes on. We used sharpies for the face and regular Elmer's glue for the eyes - use A LOT or the eyes will pop off. If you have older kids you may want to use a hot glue gun.

                                                                    Anyone else have a SWAP idea they want to share?

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A little insight

When I first started working on my master's degree I wanted to specialize in archives, I love to see what people's lives were like on a daily basis. I want to know what they were thinking, how they saw the world around them and how they felt.  Here is a web site full of photographs that do just that -   http://www.shorpy.com/

Here's a few of my favorites:

Mina Turner and her cousin Elizabeth in Waban, Massachusetts. 1910.

"June 30, 1922. Washington policeman Bill Norton measuring the distance between knee and suit at the Tidal Basin bathing beach after Col. Sherrell, Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds, issued an order that suits not be over six inches above the knee."

July 1939. "Grandson of Negro tenant farmer" Granville County, North Carolina.

New York circa 1901. "Evelyn Nesbit, age 16, brought to the studio by Stanford White." A chorus girl turned artists' model, Evelyn Nesbit was at the center of a huge scandal in 1906 when her husband killed her former lover, the architect Stanford White.

"October 1941. The main-concourse information desk at Grand Central Terminal in New York. "

A woman and her dog in the Harlem section. May 1943.

"July 1942. Woman and her daughter in Washington, D.C."

"April 1917. Daily inspection of teeth and fingernails. Older pupils make the inspection under the direction of teacher who records results. This has been done every day this year. School #49, Comanche County, Oklahoma "

"Miss Marjorie Joesting, August 2, 1926." Miss Washington, D.C., who was runner-up at the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City.

December 1941. Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. "Main street on Sunday."

"Preston DeCosta, 15 years old. Messenger #3 for Bellevue Messenger Service in San Antonio, Texas. October 1913. I ran across him while he was carrying notes back and forth between a prostitute in jail and a pimp in the Red Light. He had read all the notes and knew all about them. "



There are hundreds more at http://www.shorpy.com/. I'm totally addicted to this site!

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Faux Buffet

I really, really wanted a buffet in my dining room but I really, really don't have the money to buy one, even a cheap used one.  Luckily, I have an old coffee table that was given to us by my in-laws when we got married.  Its just the right size but about 20 inches TOO SHORT. I've been thinking cutting the short legs off and replacing them with longer ones but I doubt it would be very stable, so here's my down-n-dirty solution.

I dragged in a plastic folding table from the garage.

As you can see I just stuck the coffee table on top - looks great right? :-)

At least its the right height now.

And Voila!

After hemming the fabric (it's been sitting in my closet for a several years), I just hot-glued it to the plastic table.  I still need to hang the mirror and decorate the table better, but I am so LOVING my free faux buffet!

Have a great day y'all!

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