Reflections

For various reasons, such as a busy life as a table of six, and Blogger not always being user friendly as well as due to the recent changes that Google and Blogger have made, I have decided to streamline things a bit including my writings.  Using my Facebook page as my main focus of attention will do that for me.  I changed the name of my Facebook page to "Reflections" to reference the change and the essences of each of my two blogs, and the page will reflect my blogs, but opens the door to other ways of sharing too.  It will make life simpler for me as well as for my followers.  I hope that you all will feel the same as well.

For future posts and more, please go to my Reflections page and hit "like", and you will get automatic updates.  It is my hope to continue to encourage, and inspire others while reflecting the things I have learned, and as well as currently experiencing.  God Bless!

https://www.facebook.com/LilLilBecBecPage?ref=hl

Repairs and Remodel Completed

Our repairs and remodel are complete; well almost, as we have just a few minor things still left to do!

 

Our bathroom has walls again!  It boasts a brand new vanity and toilet with new floors and a new paint color!  We love having our bathroom back, especially the second toilet as one toilet for a family of six was just crazy!  We had some potty dancing going on around here as someone almost always needed to go potty when someone else was already using the upstairs bathroom! (Pretty Paizy did the best potty dancing we discovered! LOL!)

 

The kitchen got new flooring and a toned down color of blue compared to its previous color!  It got new floors too!  We really are enjoying the awkward pony wall being gone!

 

With the awkward pony wall gone, our foyer has opened up a great deal, making it so much easier for our large family to enter and exit our home!  We really enjoyed having our guests being able to enter this house with more ease over the holiday weekend!  I really enjoyed that part very much!

 

Our dining room got a fresh new look too!  We had to get new floors in the dining room due to our continuous flooring, and the damage that occurred at the front of the house.  We decided to go with a new color theme too!  Also, I failed to get a picture of another decision that we made, but if you look at the blog's main picture of our dining room you can envision the new change.  On the left side of the blog picture at the top of this page, you can see a railing that separated our dining room from our living room.  Due to the new floors, that railing had to be removed, however, we decided not to put it back.  That decision has opened up our small space and has given our large family another access point into the living room, besides funneling all of us and the kids through one small opening!  I love this decision, while Scot is still trying to warm up to it; however, we have had two other house guests state that they like the decision to remove it! (And yes, there are toys on my dining room floor incase you are wondering!)

Our foyer got a fresh new look with new flooring and new paint scheme as well!  We also love love love having our coat closet and much needed storage back!  It took us about two weeks to get everything back in its place again.  We also got new master bedroom furniture (Paid for in cash! Telling you delayed gratification and money management helps!), and painted our master while we were under construction, and we did a major purge!  We took a lot of things to Goodwill!  Purging and such is a part of living in tight spaces!  Reorganizing periodically is key too!

Family Under Construction

Good day to you all!  I said that I would keep you all posted on our current family of six adventure, so here I am writing!  Work should officially begin this week, but I thought that I would share some quick few thoughts about our family life at the moment.

So like I have mentioned before, this may seem small to some of you; however, this home disaster is BIG for me.  It feels big for a few reasons.  First, it is affecting our functioning and storage space(s), which is absolutely vital for a large family living in some tight quarters.  Secondly, I really do display some OCD tendencies sometimes, and with this being out of my control, and relying on others to start okaying and doing the work, this is just irritating to me. (If you saw the Big Bang Theory this past week, I could so relate to what Sheldon was describing!) While I am not always able to keep up with the demands of cleaning and upkeep to the extent of some people, in many ways I am a clean freak desiring to clean things in a relatively decent time frame.  And with the impending construction, the need to clean has decreased substantially; however, the desire is still very much there!  I have to talk myself out of cleaning things that are about to get either torn up or affected by construction, so I am ready to just get the repairs going already!  I am also aware that this house is about to get a heck of a lot messier before it get's a whole lot better, which scares me.  Our backyard looks like a city dump now.  I can't stand my children playing and/or sitting in some of the affected areas; however, many of the affected areas are right in front of the house and part of the kitchen and major traffic areas!  I also REALLY REALLY would like our downstairs bathroom and closet back!

On Friday of last week, I got quite annoyed with everything, and I began to have some little panic attacks.  I reached my breaking point about it all.  On a good day, Friday was going to be rough regardless.  I had places to be all day long.  I was going here and there like a crazy, wild woman.  At one point, my breakfast consisted of one donut, a few grapes, and I handful of cheddar cheese sticks to go that I swiped at the girls' school during a reception while wrangling both boys too.  Couple that with just plane ordinary exhaustion with a less than a perfectly functional house, I was all kinds of like a loose cannon.  During one of my pit stops at home, I tripped over the area that had flooring and where damaged flooring had been removed--total hazard by the way; and I almost wiped out with Big Mac in my arms, which just sent me over the edge of emotions!  At one point that day, I misunderstood something that Scot sent via text, and I bawled my little eyes out in the kitchen when I thought, incorrectly, that repairs were going to begin another whole week later than what was originally believed.  I probably just needed a good cry, which up until that point, I hadn't really had yet.  I just had shed a tear here and there with a few tantrums mixed in!  I am finding myself as I type this very post actually, getting agitated by it all and the wait, as Big Mac was pulling parts of the old flooring, wall, and cement up with his bare hands in the kitchen, because we are living in a construction zone!  I just want it to end already...

We still have a bathroom vanity to pick out, a new sink to choose, and faucets.  The flooring guy is coming to measure for flooring on Wednesday, which for me as mamma of this household is just not quick enough.  I want to see men in here working on my house NOW...

But like always... I have to wait.  I have never been a patient person, but things like this make me all the more anxious.  And of course. nothing ever happens on my time, which makes me all the more upset, and a struggle... so hence I am struggling and tired of struggling and trying to keep myself in check.  I am getting exhausted.  I also feel like I am just doing a horrible job keeping myself in check, and find myself having to ask Scot as well as God for forgiveness constantly.  I just wouldn't mind, however, if one thing could occur on my preferred timing!

So we have taken a few more projects on while we are at this phase, and while we have a contractor to help.  In the above picture you can see my tight little foyer, which often looks just as crowded every time we are about to leave, for which that day was no different either.  Therefore, the pony wall to the left of the kids is coming down during repairs, and hence the term renovations.  Taking down the awkward pony wall will open up the area around the front door, which will be very helpful.

Please pray for me as this is stretching me big time.  As we speak, we still have not received the contract to sign to get work underway, and this frankly is irritating to me, because none of these people have to live in this mess.  Also, I am realizing how busy a mom of four really truly can be as I am often going anywhere and everywhere throughout any given day.  Fridays are looking like they will be crazy days for the near for seeable future.  With that said, Scot and I are also contemplating allowing the girls to come home via the bus every Friday afternoon so that the boys can have their much needed naps.  I am learning that being a mom to a larger family means that flexibility, and the willingness to change up what were once set plans, is key.  We are a family under construction!

(Again, no time to proofread or edit!)

"Love It Or List It"?????

Last week, I had actually planned to write an honest post about how I was truly feeling about my current little house.  Many times, when I get on here to write about how we are managing life as a large family, and especially of that of a large family living in such a small house as of late, I have usually overcome some form of griping, and/or complaining, to write a more positive reflection of how we make our tight living arrangements work.  Last week, however, I was going to write a true honest reflection about how I was feeling about our little home.  I was going to provide you a very transparent view of my feelings, even after on FB last week when I revealed how I was trying to be at a place of gratitude and thankfulness of our current living situation; however, deep down inside I was griping still as I was grasping for a more positive outlook.

Have you ever seen one of those DIY shows like "Love It Or List It?"  They usually show a couple who are at a point of discourse in regards to the house.  One of the individuals wants to stay in the house while the other just can't get out of it fast enough! (Like yours truly!)  Most of the time, the lack of space and storage are the chief complaints.  The show often shows footage of a family cramming into small spaces like a kitchen, or a bathroom, with multiple family members trying to do a variety of separate tasks.  If a film crew came into our house and tight space, and especially captured footage of our morning routine, our footage would be so very similar!

We have one and a half baths for six individuals.  In the mornings, the girls have to head off to school, Scot to work, Little Man to either preschool, or some other destination with me, and me who just has to get ready at this point in life before I am left alone with my needy Big Mac!  I take my shower first, then Scot does, and then as we are using the double bathroom vanity to either brush our teeth, shaving, blowing drying or fixing our hair, washing our faces, or applying make-up etc. (Not that we are both doing every before mentioned actions! LOL!  I  assure you that Scot is not applying make-up! ;-)  ).  Anyways, I mention that so that you all may get the idea of the busyness we experience in the morning; however, as he and I are trying to use the mirror, and the sinks, the kids need to use it too for various actions like brushing their own teeth and such.  The girls complain when they are trying to brush their teeth as I am blow drying my hair when I accidentally blow air their way, messing up their brushed out locks!  I am waiting for someone to accidentally spit out toothpaste onto the back of somebody's head at some point!  Or sometimes when one family member is using the half bath/powder room downstairs, another kid needs to use a toilet too, which in turn kicks all other individuals out of upstairs bathroom also.  For about an hour to an hour and half it is nothing but chaos, and a shuffle/shifting dance to get everyone ready and out the door!

This has begun to wear on my positivity in regards to staying in this house, because I realize that Big Mac is not even really included in this bathroom shuffle yet!  However, Scot wishes to stay a bit longer, as I desperately dream to one day run very, very fast from this little, tiny dwelling.  I did agree with my husband to stay for a bit longer since we believed that God had called us to get a few things straight first financially, however, I have found myself griping and desperately wanting to "LIST IT" already!

Well, as I was struggling with my heart, this small house, and having only one full bath with one half bath for six individuals, God decided to place a trial before me and bring us down to only one full bath, and even less useable square footage than we already have had!!!!!!  With a leak, our little house suffered water damage, and is now in need of repairs.  My downstairs half bath is pretty much gutted, which leaves us with only one toilet available for our large family!  Our already lack of storage has been compromised as our downstairs coat closet suffered damage, and was gutted, causing all its contents to spread all over the house in various spots, like our master bedroom for instance...  (sigh).  Some of our damaged items and other items are currently on our back deck too!!!  Like our downstairs toilet, due to the fact that it can be used again but had to be removed for repairs in the bathroom first... (sigh)  Then there is our lost square footage.  While this damage may not be as extensive as it could have been, the fact that we only have 1280 square feet to begin with in, and we are now down to much less useable footage for SIX PEOPLE, is a whole other element that is just hard to fathom, and to deal with when you already felt like your four walls were caving in on you as is, and on a good day!  Therefore, please don't judge me when my good moments are mixed in with several tearful bad moments during repairs and construction!

So my closing thoughts:

1.)  Be thankful for what you have, because you can always have less!
2.)  While I feel like our obeying what we have believed God has asked us to do, and my sometimes frail attempt at being submissive to my husband's wishes--"to stay," has made our situation worse, I have to trust that He has a plan for us and our future living situation regardless.  It does seem like a cruel joke in a way, and I have questioned God, and complained some, but that is where His grace comes in thankfully!
3.)  Our goal at the present, is just to get this house fixed, and repairs completed.  I will keep you all posted as we go!  I get to redecorate a few rooms so I am excited about that. We were going to renovate our upstairs bathroom rather than our nice looking bathroom downstairs; however, water damage has left us with no other option.  We will start working on the upstairs bathroom soon.  We may have to piece meal it for now as we go.  I am also going to go and redecorate my master bedroom for kicks while I am at it!  I will try to find more useable space when able, and I will show you all when I do! 
4.)  I have actually begun to get excited about this house again as we plan on splashing some new colors on the walls, and décor, which is a good thing, because I have been so negative about this house with in the last few weeks.
5.)  And I will being praying for patience as the repairs and such are being made, because they just don't seem to be happening as fast as I would like them to be!

(Please ignore any grammar issues as I simply do not have the time to proofread thoroughly!  I hope that you were able to understand the thoughts for which I was trying to convey!)

Phase Two of Operation Girls' Room: Functional Space

Yes, as embarrassing as it may be, the above picture shows what the main wall in the girls' room use to look like before we got started.  As the girls got older and moved into the same room, this space began to lack some serious storage.  It had also become very non-functional.  Something needed to be done as we had decided that we were going to try to stick it out in this small house for a bit longer.  And so... we got busy!

 

Yes, I climbed up into the girls' bunk beds for the picture just above!

These two pictures show what we did, and what we have gotten accomplished thus far!  Scot still has to improve their desks, which will include a sliding shelf to add more space and function for the girls to do homework or crafts at their desks!  The girls use the drawers in the center of their wall unit to store their clothes.  The storage cubes/shelves store their books, nick knacks, craft supplies, toys, and more!  They each have a lamp at their desks to use when one of them wants to do something while the other one prefers to take a nap for example--okay may be a very unlikely example as of right now since both girls detest naps, but you know what I am trying to say!  The boards that hang just above their desks are magnetic to keep hold of notes and such, AND they are also small dry eraser boards too!  The pink boxes that you see attached to the boards are pencil holders that are magnetic, but that can also be removed from the board, and placed sitting upon their desks!  What a totally awesome idea!  And FYI to all you girls out their, the pencil organizers also came with little mirrors too!  How totally awesome and nifty!  We were still in need of additional storage space on this wall, so Scot found these pink storage benches for their desks!  So the girls can sit at their desks, but also store things too!  What a totally awesome idea!

You may live in a small space, but there can be several ways to make that space more functional!  My girls have more storage space than they did previously, and they now have their own separate little desks with additional lighting.  They even have ways to hang up pictures of friends on their magnetic dry eraser boards giving them the option to personalize their own space!

With a little planning and a little shopping, you can make any space work, and be the king or queen of your castle!!!



Phase One of Operation Girls' Room: Storage

 

Okay, so I showed you all what we did in the boys' bedroom.  Now it is time for me to start sharing about what we did in the girls' room.   I will do it in stages, however, for sake of time on my part; and that is pretty much how we worked in their room as well!

 

 

 

 

So let's begin with the girls' storage... or the lack there of!  Besides for their really cool closet storage and organization, the girls pretty much only had one other way to store their clothes.

 

 

And that one other means of storing their clothes was of this tiny piece of furniture we called the little cupboard!  Each girl got two plastic drawers, and then one drawer each from the actual piece of furniture itself.  You can probably imagine that with two little girls, and the accessories that so many girls have and own, this was NOT at all sufficient!  Something needed to change like something fierce! 



As we started school and Fall clothes shopping we needed to come up with a solution as we were exploring what our possibilities were; so Scot bought plastic storage bins with wheels to place under their beds!  This was such an awesome idea as well as functional!  In fact, I fit so many clothes in there, and there was, and still is, so much room to spare!

I can't wait to show you what else we have been working on, but I will save it for another time as I have to make dinner; but the BEST part is yet to come! 

With that said though, I thought I would show you what we did with the girls' plastic drawers.  Remember Little Man's play area that I had to create in a flash due to need, demand, and time? 

I had mentioned that I had plans to improve this play area especially when it came to storage.  I was going to use my host credits from a party to pay for the organizers needed; however, like in true "Host Becca" form, my sales were a bust!  (FYI--I have decided to NEVER host a party of any kind ever again, because the results are almost always the same for me: no body comes or buys anything.)  Due to dismal sales, I had not one single host credit.  Not one single one.  So I needed another solution, for which my husband came up with.

The plastic drawers from the girls room found a new home in Little Man's play station!  We were able to do so, because the little cabinet is no longer in the girls' room!  Yep, you have to wait and see what we did in their room!  In the meantime, I love how much more organized Little Man's play area looks, and how accessible Little Man's toys are to him now! (Again, ignore the air purifier in the corner.)

It's all about using what you have sometimes for "a make it work" moment! 

Be on the look out for the biggest and coolest change thus far! 

Take care everyone!

The Boys' Room

Okay, a couple of weeks ago, I wrote how I will be showing you all how we are making our small house work for our Table For Six sized family.  We have been making some improvement in our use of space.  Some changes are larger than others.  I am beginning with one of our first changes.  It was fairly simple; however, the change was noticeable.  Well, it was noticeable to us!

Our first project was in the boys' room.  Cramming two boys in a rather small space was quite a feat!  We had to get a mini/micro crib to make it work for the time being.  And then we had to shuffle furniture around.  However, we still needed more storage room.  What we had just wasn't cutting it anymore!  So we bought more furniture and shuffled more furniture around.

Here are the before pictures.  As you can see, it is quite a tight space.  The changing table used to be where the mini crib is, but we had to move Big Mac in so things got moved around.  Although the changing table was in front of the window, I assure you that Big Mac was safe, and was never in risk of falling out of the window.  For the most part, the window had been closed; however, on the few occasions that it was opened during the summer, it was barely opened, and we used the locking safety devices that the window had, and it would absolutely remain barely open at all times.  It was locked in place.  May be only a Barbie could sneak through on her belly!  Anyways, the changing table and their tiny closet was all they had to store both sets of their clothes!  So things had to change! (Also, just so you don't think that my walls are smudged or notice any other odd things, I kind of photo shopped a few things out of my photos that were identifiers.)

So we moved the changing table out of the room completely because it was broken anyways and did not provide much storage.  Now, I pull out a changing mat, and I change Big Mac on the floor rather than on a changing table, which in the end is okay now, because he has become such a wiggle worm while I dress him and change his diapers!

The toy chest now sits in front of the window where the changing table used to be located.  I feel like that change just simply opened up the room more.  The toy chest used to be where the boys' brand new dresser now sits.  I can't tell you how excited I was to put the boys clothes away where I had plenty of drawer space!  I don't have to hang up as many of their clothes in their closet anymore!  Just a few more drawers has been so helpful!

The boys' room is very small, but they enjoy playing in their room anyways!  The corner between the crib and window is still wasted space that I have to figure out.  I will post about that when I have a solution for it.  We are also already planning for when the boys get a little bit older and need larger beds.  We hope to move before then; but life happens, so we are planning for the what-ifs. 

And of course, if we are still here in this house when the boys need larger beds, I will be sure to post a picture of how we do it!

Now this is just a small change!  I can't wait to show you what we did in the girls' room to provide more storage, space, and even little desks!  I will post some pictures of that soon!  And we still have more plans ahead!

Be blessed by what y'all have, and what God has provided you!  Make things work!  Sometimes things in life shouldn't be about the bigger, and what we believe, to be the better things!  It is all about perspective!

Be on the look out for my next post!