Lofty Ideas

Let's give it up for 2020 for giving us a crash course in recognizing what our coping mechanisms are. For me, it's become evident I throw myself into house projects when I'm stressed. The triggering event? Learning we'd be starting the schoolyear 100% distance learning. 

Upon hearing this news, I got flashbacks to the end of the last school year when Carson was huddled up in a dark pantry eating cereal straight out of the box during one of his Zoom calls. We can't blame him, we didn't really have a great education station last year, but we were about to change that. 

My goal was to create a space where each boy had his own area to have a sense of pride and ownership over, and that would provide a clean, organized learning environment. If we were going to do this distance learning thing, we were going to give it our all and do it right! Especially since we had a little time to prepare for it this time. 

Jeff got right to work bringing my vision to life. 

It gave him an excuse to buy a new saw and drill, so I think this project turned out to be a win for him too. 

One week of nonstop work and the room was done!

Eli now has a Dodger's player's picture in his frame. 

Yay! I'm so happy with it and it really did ease a lot of my anxiety about distance learning to have a designated learning-friendly space where we could spend our days. I started out the project pretending I was doing it all for the boys, but let's be real, the boys don't care what their study space looks like. I did this completely for me so I have a cute, inviting area to work in while I play teacher. 

I love it! Have we already busted open a beanbag? Yes. Yes we have. I have a feeling we will be spending our weekdays doing schoolwork and our weekends fixing all the things we've broken in the house after being home all week. 

My mom kept reminding me I have four kids, feeling like Jonah was getting left out in all the homeschooling. In an effort to appease my mom, I bough Jonah a little toy box that doubles as his desk should he choose to spend the morning coloring. So far he has only used the toy feature of the box. 

Once the schoolroom was done, I used all my anxious energy to clean and organize every space in my house. I sorted through and organized all of our clothes, rearranged the kitchen cupboards, and tidied up the garage. I had everything we own perfectly in a designated place. Because taking control of the things I own is apparently how I feel better about having no control over the school year. 

And with everything perfectly ready for the main event of my stress, the first day of school, I self-sabotaged and started another project the weekend before the big day. 

When we first moved into our house we had Eli and Carson sharing a room and Lincoln and Jonah in the other room. We have since discovered everybody goes to sleep a lot faster and quieter if we split the younger and the older kids up. 

This presented a problem because I had created a Batman room for Lincoln, but he ended up going into the black and white space room with Eli. That left Carson and Jonah in the Batman room that I never totally loved. I had drawn that skyscraper scene on one wall and to be truthful, I never used a level and most of the buildings could have been good friends with the Tower of Pisa. 

Being home all day every day has a way of making you really want to take care of the things you don't like in your house, so I took a paint roller and my last free weekend before we were tied down to school and got to work. It still has a little bit of decor work to go, but I love walking past this room now. 

I want to add two long shelves here next to the picture, and I'll probably hang some navy curtains. I loved this picture my brother-in-law, Dallas, took. It reminds me of Carson because he always runs ahead of everyone when we go on hikes and he loves to be the trail leader. He's adventurous and free-spirited, so I liked the idea of a nature/mountain room for him. 

I did lots of speed painting and was able to finish this room in a weekend! With all my house projects done, I was ready to start my new job as Mrs. Excell on Monday.