Christian Homekeeping

The dining room light fixture that was here when we bought the house was definitely one I'd never seen before.  The bulbs burned so hot and they gave off some heat.  They recently started burning out a LOT!  So much so, we knew something was wrong with either the fixture or the bulbs.  The bulbs were also hard to find and expensive I think my husband said.

I finally decided it was time to replace the fixture since now one light wouldn't even work even with a new bulb in it.  I found the perfect replacement!  I love it!  It's lightweight, the bulbs are easy to find and they are LED and don't give off heat.  We are going to probably install a dimmer switch this week because it is pretty bright and not something I want to turn on if I ever find myself at the table in the late night.  

In with the new!  I've been replacing a lot the past year seems like because a lot of things are definitely due for a replacement.  My former living room rug doesn't look too bad in photos but in person it was wore down to nothing almost and really impossible to clean because there was no height to it.  I bought the rug when we moved here 5 years ago for $28 at Walmart, so I think I got my money's worth out of it!  To replace it, I wanted something that was black and white and modern looking and better quality and thankfully found a very nice Safavieh Dallas shag rug that is so soft and vacuums well for $74.

We had purchased the last 2 years of homeschool curriculum for our daughter, grades 11 and 12.  I now have materials to school Preschool-12th grade in this house.  I had no idea how I was going to fit these new books on our already full shelves, there just wasn't any room.  I also have several bookshelves downstairs of non-homeschool books.  Here was the dilemma:

The new books needing a home:


The lack of space to store them:



Those toy food items with prices on them are our math "store" right now.  You can see I have no space to put anything else.  But, I knew with organization and God, anything is possible!  Prayers go a long way as you will soon see.

I also had our craft cabinet in the garage since we moved here, 3 1/2 years ago almost.  I really wanted it in the house and specifically in the homeschool room.  Just didn't think it was possible..  Well, I moved the small bookshelf beside the desk work area and them moved the easel where the bookshelf was AND my husband brought up the white craft cabinet.



Now, tell me how is it possible that I actually brought MORE stuff into the homeschool room, yet I condensed it, even have leftover empty containers AND space opened up on my bookshelves to fit the new books?  If that wasn't enough - it literally feels like we have more space in here!




There is still a lot more organizing I want to do of the things on the black bookshelves and I may even be able to bring in our science supplies that are in the garage!  I also plan to put a big bulletin board or posters on the wall by the bathroom, where I currently have the human body sticker poster.

I can take any child, any age, any grade and school them in this room!  I thank God for that ability.  I have less than 12 years of schooling for my son, 2 1/2 years left with my daughter and then hopefully more with children God will give us through adoption.  It has been a long journey since we started but the Lord has been with us all the way!  We're almost to the finish line with our daughter!!

This is our first time ever having a garage and I'm amazed how much stuff we have accumulated.  A friend said God touched his heart to build us shelves in our garage when we first moved here.  It was a blessing and all we had to pay for was the materials.  I don't know where everything would have went without these shelves!  He also built in some areas to hang the weed-eater, shovel, ladder, etc.

Here they are when they were first built:

I haven't really showed many pictures of our new house and it has almost been a year (in 2 weeks) since we bought it.  This is the first house we have bought, as we had rented for 16 years.  It truly is a blessing!  I kept waiting to get my kitchen just right for photos but I gave up on that, this is good enough.

I've always wanted white cabinets but most houses we had seen, had brown or pine cabinets.  I thought I would have to settle but then we found this house and the cabinets were white!  They were originally pine but the previous owner painted them white.  I also love the gray counter-tops and the white sink that is deep and I think it is ceramic.  I also love being at the sink and being able to see outside or into the living area.

The lighting wasn't that great for the living room photo but here are some pictures of the living room and dining room so far.  I really want a new look but that is not in the budget at the moment, so I worked with what we had.

My friend had some cute star string lights draped across her headboard on her bed and I was in love and set out to find some to match my decor.  I found these beautiful metal silver stars with a brown cord at Bed Bath & Beyond for $12 and I love it!!

We haven't updated much since our last homeschool room photos here.  I've been baby-proofing since my 8-month old son is crawling everywhere and had to empty the small shelf because it had a lot of things that could hurt him if he ever got a hold of them.  I have my daughter's artwork hanging on yarn across the room and used mini clothes-pins to hang the art onto the yarn.

We live in a double-wide manufactured home and use our dining room also as our homeschool room.  I'm standing in the kitchen for the first shot:


Here is another view from a different part of the kitchen:


This is our pantry, which divides the dining room and the living room and gives us lots of room to store food!  It has a radio/cassette built-in with an intercom system.  I put up charts that go along with whatever science we are studying at the time and then we have our bulletin board and a magnetic board for calendars, reading lists, etc.


Looking in from the hallway:


One bookshelf houses the games, puzzles and miscellaneous items and the other one has books on history, science, math and a few other topics.  It also has some new curriculum for the next grade, old curriculum and reference books, science kits galore, etc.  On top we have our microscope, skeleton model, abacus, rock collection and the tabernacle model.  The red basket on top is full of music instruments (tambourine, maracas, etc.)


We had to empty our smaller shelf to baby-proof for my son who is crawling now.  We had tacks, staples, tape, paper clips and all that sort of stuff there that we put into a cabinet on the side of the pantry.  I'm thinking of filling the small shelf with baby books for him to look through while we do school.



We have a dry erase board and a map of the world on the wall and then our All About Spelling magnetic board with tiles on the floor.  However, we have to move this somewhere because my son keeps going for it and he could swallow the tiles, so it isn't safe to be on the floor.  I'm just not sure where we are going to put it.  I have thought of putting it somewhere else in the house and calling it our spelling corner.


We keep our dry erase markers, eraser, scissors and pens and pencils in these holders on the wall for easy access.  I also got some free wall art online and printed it and painted some old 1980's frames black that I got for free and used them to make the cute signs.


Then in our living room, we have a large desk with a piano and a space to either do work or hold ongoing projects.

I love bookshelves for many purposes if you couldn't tell already.  I had a wire rack shelf and another shelf in the laundry room and it took up a lot of space and we had to cram my floor cleaner and small vacuum and buckets in there and it was a hassle to get through the back door.  I wanted something simpler - and as I was getting black shelves, I figured why not another shelf for the laundry room?  It definitely simplified it and I love it!


The top shelf is towels, washcloths and linens.  2nd shelf is toilet paper, paper towels and some extra cleaning items.  Third shelf is the "tool" box or junk box and bucket with scrub brushes.  However, I've since put the tool box on the very top and the bucket in the shelf above the washer/dryer.  So now, that shelf is our mail center.  I plan on buying a plastic container for the tool/junk box eventually.

The last two shelves are for hubbies shoes.  I lined them with paper towels to catch the dirt and he knows to let wet shoes dry on the red rug before putting them on the shelf.  ;-)  My daughter and I have shoe racks but hubbies are too big so this works well for them.

A note on the red rug - it has been wonderful!  When we come in the back door, with it raining here a lot, our shoes are usually wet and muddy/dirty.  I was soooooo tired of mopping the floor there and it always looked dirty.  So I got the idea to put the red rug down and now I just vacuum it once a week!

I've been through more decor in the past 8 years than probably most of you have been through in your entire life!  I have always liked the modern look and that is what my Air Force dorm was decorated in.  My room back home even was always a bit on the 'crazy' side lol.  I had BRIGHT yellow walls and multi-colored accessories and I had designed it myself much to my mom's disliking.

Then when I got married, I figured I would have to decorate like my mom and sisters and so worked with what we had in our first apartment and I was a 'country bumpkin'!  Apples in my kitchen, etc.  Although it just wasn't me, I figured this was what I was 'supposed' to do.  Then I came to the place where I wasn't going to decorate my home with what other people's home looked like but rather something I liked myself!  So after being married for about 2 years, we redecorated in BLACK modern decor with leopard print thrown in.  I really liked it until......

I received comments and jokes about how "dark" it was and I was never sure if they were serious or just making fun of for no harm.  After I had my daughter, I had postpartum depression and figured it must be the dark furniture that everyone had joked about!!  So what did I do??

I went shabby chic!  LOL  I got a pink couch, all pastel colors throughout my house and lots of roses.  My husband actually didn't mind and liked it.

Then we moved and came to a new location, to get made fun of again for our decor!!!  Some said it looked like a little girl's room and others even mocked and said "they would never put their husband in a house filled with pink and roses".  I was sad because I had come to this new place and met with so much disdain on what others THOUGHT of my decor!

I let them get to me and put my shabby chic decor away and chose a brown slipcover and "acceptable" style that surely no one would laugh at. 

Then I had a talk with my new Pastor's wife. I told her how I wasn't sure how I should decorate and how others here in this new town I just moved to where making fun of my decor so I took it all down.  To sum up what she told me:  You shouldn't let OTHERS determine what YOUR home looks like!  I had let what others thought of my decor determine my decor!  It was too late though because I had already took the decor down and spent money on another.  But I learned a valuable lesson from my Pastor's wife and one that I practice today!  She is truly a wise woman!!

So fast forward....we finally had the means of getting new furniture and choosing our OWN style that we have always loved....MOD!  We like black and lots of it, with splashes of bold reds and black/white patterns thrown in the mix.  We didn't have much money but we bought what we could on the little budget that I had!  It isn't my "dream" furniture because I don't have $20,000 to spend on decorating lol....but I love it nevertheless and we only spent roughly $1800, and that furnished the living room and dining room!

Someone had asked for me to share pictures of our decor and that is what brought on this post and then I will also be posting the photos of what we have done so far!  Now, I still like a few other decor styles but haven't tried those yet...maybe one day but I will only redecorate because its what I want! ; )

If you are so concerned about what OTHERS think of you, then you need a reality check!  Listen to my podcast on "What God Thinks" and make sure your mind is in proper prospective!