July 16, 2013

You've Got To Rearrange

You may remember this post I did awhile back about the change our family is making to cyber schooling. I mentioned that we will be setting up shop in our rarely used formal dining room. So recently, we dismantled that space and did some rearranging. Because in the wise words of the Brady Kids, "When it's time to change, you've got to rearrange." Ok, sorry...I can't help myself sometimes. We took apart the furniture and moved it down to the basement. Strange, right? Well, I thought so at first too. Then I thought some more.

I thought about my beautiful furniture sitting in a storage shed waiting to be needed again. I thought about our basement and the space we have there. I thought about the fact that now that we are cyber schooling, we will have much more time for good old fashioned fun like Scrabble and Monopoly. I thought about my own dear mom who let us keep board games up for days. I thought about the fact that in the days of modern technology, my own children may be missing out on the simple fun of playing puzzles and board games for days on end.

And so we decided to set up the dining room furniture in the basement. We packed away the beautiful pieces of china and crystal that Steve and I received as wedding gifts and stored the beautiful hutch before filling the sideboard with our collection of family games. We moved the table down and hung the beautiful prints that my Madison painted. I am excited for all the use that dining room set will soon see and the hours of family games that await!

In addition, we pulled the ping pong table out of storage and made room for it now that the kids are older. What an awesome decision! The kids have not stopped playing! And imagine that...no Wi-Fi needed! It may seem simple, but I hope that these small changes will bring my sweet family even closer together. And I couldn't end without a few before and after pictures, right?


The Dining room before the big move...


 with all the beautiful crystal inside. Pretty, yes. Practical, not so much! : )


The table in the new space...all ready for hours of family fun.


I had to hang these beautiful pictures Madison painted for me .


Look what I found written on the underside of the extra table leaf...a note I wrote almost twenty years ago!


Perfect spot for the sideboard...


filled with our collection of board games.


and finally...this is what my middle two have been up to for days on end now!


I will post pictures of the new schoolroom when it is done. Hopefully soon! : )





14 comments:

  1. I LOVE the dining room table in the basement! Great idea. And I LOVE Madison's beautiful artwork. So excited for your new adventures in homeschooling. Please keep us all posted. :)

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  2. Oooh, I am excited for the big reveal. I am terrible at decorating/rearranging a space, so I will take any inspiration available! Looks great so far!

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  3. Looks like good times ahead for your family.
    We play ping pong here also. I actually am pretty good!

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  4. It was a great idea moving all of that to the basement. It looks great down there and will be a good place to play board games. Can't wait to see the new school room. How exciting.

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  5. I swear I hear the crack in your "puberty" voice as you wrote the words...LOL! Honestly, that's the first thing that came to mind LOL. Yeah for this change. You did a GREAT job with it!!

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  6. Hi there Billie Jo! Ya know what? I think that your dining room table looks PERFECT in it's new home!!! I'm so happy for you starting this new journey. So far so good girl!!!

    PS ~ We have a hard puzzle set up in our dinning room right now. At first I cringed that it's been there for days and days and days and then I thought about it some more and love that it's been there for days and days and days :) Who needs the formal dinning room anyway?! :) You're doing great things for your family! :)

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  7. I love your idea for the basement!!! And I love the thought of all the things your table will see now, even more than before!! Those prints are beautiful, she's so talented!

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  8. You are so clever! A great new home and some new changes, while sometimes daunting, can be some very good things. I cannot wait to see more and hear how things go! Yay!

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  9. Great decision! A friend of mine (mother of 10) always talked about how beautiful things are meant to be used... not just looked at. Your kids will remember them better that way.

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  10. What a great idea to make use of everything in the basement! Looking forward to seeing the changes upstairs, too!

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  11. Looks great! I didn't realize your daughter was such a talented artist!!! How wonderful to be able to see her own work framed and displayed! Hugs.

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  12. It looks wonderful! You are such a smart cookie! :) It is so nice to see children playing games that are not on a screen... They are learning wonderful social skills! I always love seeing M's artwork... Those are so pretty!

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  13. I love your new dining room! I can not wait to see your new school room.
    I wish we had extra space for the kids to spread out. We have a card table set up in the living room that has had a different puzzle on it all summer long.

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  14. looks awesome! and those prints from Madison are the perfect touch:) can't wait to see the finished school room. (and a big WOW on that one!! somehow when I was catching up I missed that one!) ping pong tables are so fun, the girls would be in heaven!
    have a happy day billie jo

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Thanks so much for saying hello!

Billie Jo