It's summertime and I've been crazy busy driving the boys to their various lessons. Austin started his cross-country practices (2.5 hours a day), and JP and Connor attend 12-15 taekwondo classes a week, plus they are also on their school's cross-country team, which practices 2 hours each evening. Ben attends 6-7 taekwondo classes a week, and drum lessons too. We haven't been able to have our family dinner much lately with this new schedule, and that makes everyone a little "off." In addition to all that, we've been volunteering at a horse rescue (shoveling poop, mostly) one morning a week, and the 3 older boys have their guitar lessons. Ben received a new drum set (a good one!) for his 8th birthday last week, and the house has been alive with music these days. Connor is performing in a talent show with his (first) girlfriend, and they have been practicing their duet. Last night we sat around a bonfire and listened to them practice together. It was just fabulous. The big boys played basketball, ultimate frisbee and just enjoyed the last days of summer. School begins Sept. 7th for the three who attend Lima Christian School, and Austin begins September 12. In spite of being almost frantic with activity, I still managed to get on a re-arranging the house kick. Call it summer madness, but I decided that my downstairs office should be converted into another bedroom. Yes, we have the extra bedroom in the basement if we need it, but I don't want any of the kids to make that room their bedroom. It's too far from our bedroom, and the room is full of exercise equipment and instruments too. So, with help from Austin, I dragged all my bedroom furniture (except the king-sized bed) down into the office. The desk had to be dragged upstairs, which was a huge pain in the you know what. The computer network will also have to be reconfigured to work in our bedroom. Then, everyday last week, before picking up Austin from cross-country practice, I stopped at a furniture store for a quick look at their bunk-beds. I always know exactly what I want, which makes it difficult for me to shop. I breeze in, take a quick look, and quickly reject everything on display. Salespeople just don't know what to do with me! I tell them, if you have what I'm looking for, I'll know in a minute. Finally, I found a bunk-bed set that matched my criteria. Single on top, double on the bottom, wood stained light cherry, can be separated into two beds, and four under-bed drawers. It's being delivered on Tues. Then, since I moved our dressers downstairs, we needed new dressers. I figured if I was going to buy new dressers, they should be for us, not the children, since we don't break things as often. And it needs to match the desk I just brought upstairs. Another dozen trips to various furniture stores, and viola, a match. I liked it so much I bought the nightstand too! Now all I have to do is hire someone to build a wall and a doorway. The office opens into the living room, and that won't work of course. Then we have to decide exactly who will get the new room! JP is already making moves on it, since it's bigger than his room now, but if JP moves downstairs, then Connor will have to move into JP's old room and let the 3 little guys have the bigger upstairs room. It'd be easier to move Ben downstairs, and then have Logan and Isaac join him there. Anyway, it's been a big project. The re-arranging of furniture brought me to the decision to give away the big desk and file cabinets that were in the rec. room downstairs. We moved them there temporarily when David consolidated his two offices into one, and it was time to finally find them a home. I posted them for sale on facebook, but ultimately ended up donating them to the martial arts academy. Now there is a ton more space in the rec. room. Hmmm. Maybe a foosball or air hockey table? We have a pool-table and ping-pong table down there already. For someone who hates to shop, I've been on a roll lately!!
