Getting a room settled

Well, of course, the kids are asking for their rooms to be setup.  So - Mom to the rescue.

I consider it a blessing to them that I love to arrange (and rearrange) furniture and it matters to me that their room reflects who they are.

I think a clean room encourages play and creativity more than a pile of clothes, a pile of toys and a continually stinky, unmake bed.

So - since Katherine's room was leaning towards the latter room I described, today was set aside to fix it up.

She has the biggest room of all 3 girls and after only having tiny rooms all these years, this was a bit challenging for me.

With this arrangement she has her bed and other furniture on one end.  I also hung up a blue painting that Matt painted several years back.  She will be so excited that her Daddy's picture is hanging in her room.  I also hung up a cute painting that was in my room when I was little.  I can't wait to show my Mom when she's here tomorrow!  The hardest part of her room was finding a cute way to arrange all her "stuff".  Some of it is cute and decorative and some of it is just scraps of paper.  Hopefully she'll appreciate it! (I know she will.  The look on the kids' faces is half the reason I do this!)

This is the other side of Katherine's room.  We didn't bring desks with us to this house and she was pretty heartbroken.  So - we found a way to make her storage cubes into a desk.  This looked like a war zone before I tackled it today.  Now she has some cute fairy pictures and a picture she made at school.  It's a drawing of herself and says "I like me!".  I thought that was perfect.  In addition she has some spaces for toys, decorations and all her "office supplies".  And it just looks so darn cute.

My kids are fighters.

School begins next week.

Who me? Chaos?

Thankfully.

We are so ready around here.  We have gotten our class lists, visited the new school and are ready with school supplies in hand.

I'm a bit nervous about 2 new schools, my youngest in Kindergarten and my oldest in her last year of elementary school.  It is amazing how much they have changed in just one year.

I can see all the girls growing up and my hope is that they can be kind and loving to those around them.  Although I don't think it'll be to each other any time soon.

Every read those posts from Moms who have wonderful children?  They seem to always be posting photos of their kids hugging and sharing toys and making each other breakfast.  Seriously? If I wanted a picture of something like that I'd have to be some kind of superhero.  That split second is nearly impossible to capture.

In my space I'm going to have to be real.  My kids fight.  A lot.  They call each other names, they pinch each other, they even occasionally chase the appropriate younger sibling around creating terror and panic.  It's chaos.  Often.

There are moments of love and kindness.  I try to praise them anytime I can although it is admittedly hard when my heart rate has not lowered yet from the chaos.

Anytime I'm really frustrated I can just quote the words of my wise mother: "Just wait, you'll have a kid just like you someday."