Living Room Makeover - Progress

When we last left off we mentioned that we had decided to stay in this house and finally (three years later) start to settle down and plan to be here a while. I said we were planning to put some work into the house and yard and we have! We built a fence, completely transformed our yard (photos coming soon!) and have given our living room a much needed makeover!

Our living room has been pieced together over the years with a lot of quick fixes and hand-me-down items. We never planned the room as a whole or looked at the big picture although it has changed a lot over the years. We started out at this house with two couches (a very generous gift from my parents!) in a floral pattern we didn't love so we bought some slip covers for it. If you have ever bought slip covers for a sofa you know the choices are not super awesome. We ended up with some stretchy ones that fit great but the color was an olive green. Not our first choice (mistake number one) but a significant upgrade from the way they were before. We had those for a while and were very happy with them, so we built the rest of the room around the olive green color of our sofas (mistake number two). Eventually we decided the two couches were too large for our small living room so we downgraded to a sectional. Since our room had already been designed around olive green sofas (and we didn't have the money to completely redecorate) we went ahead and bought our new sectional in the same olive green so it would fit in with our existing decor (if you can even call it that). Fast forward a year later and (big surprise) we are already sick of it. We like the size of the sectional but not the color, and what's worse is all the decor we attempted to coordinate with that color we don't like. So we started over and changed everything with new colors but in a way that downplays the olive rather than features it like before.

Here is what it looked like before.

The mantel held a random rotation of photos, knick knacks, vases, etc. with the clock above. Since getting rid of the TV the bookcase moved out from Kaden's room and was filled with toys. The small table and chair was moved out from Jack's room but has since been moved back in because it was too much of a problem (Kaden climbing on it and moving it around). The curtains were cheap, chocolate brown. They were not long enough to close all the way so they weren't so much curtains as just panels. If you look closely at the first photo you can see the rug in front of the garage door was the one thing that pulled it all together - chocolate brown, olive green, and the orange/rust colors in the throw pillows. What you can't see is the entry or dining room. The entry had a pathetic beige rug that was completely unfit for an entry, really it was more of a utility rug which is why it was so plain. We also had a small shoe shelf and a floor lamp along the wall behind the sofa. Above the shoe shelf were a few floating black shelves and some black collage frames filled with family photos. Noticing a trend? Family photos everywhere and not a single piece of art. BORING. We had it like this for a while and it was always just "good enough". As for the dining room, it hasn't changed much other than the ugly vertical blinds.


Here is what it looks like now.

When you walk in the door you are no longer greeted by a cheap excuse for a rug and ugly brown linoleum with gold trim. We put down a durable flatwoven rug that completely covers the linoleum. We replaced the shoe shelf with a bench which has bins for shoes underneath. Much tidier! We took down the shelves that were on that wall as they now presented a head-hitting hazard for anyone sitting on the bench and replaced them with two photographs in large frames (ART, finally!).

Looking back at the front door we also put up a wall lamp in the space between the front door and the window. We will staple the cord to the wall so it hangs straight down and wont get pulled on by little hands and feet.

We also added a small side table, which I am still undecided on. This was a garage sale find (thanks Mom!) for just $5! I am going to paint it black and I think it will look a lot better then, but it's still on the small side so we will see. As for the succulent on top, that may or may not stay there. Kaden has pretty much no self control at this age so things like that generally have to be put up high.

Here is looking back toward the entry at the sectional. The pillows shown here are the same pillows we had before but I eliminated the bright orange that was was there with them. Soon all those pillows will be replaced, we have some lighter ones on order from Etsy that should be here in a few weeks.

We replaced the non-functional (and ugly) brown curtains with light white curtains with a neutral wavy stripe pattern. They are a heavy canvas so they offer plenty of privacy but still let in lots of light. They have grommet tops which makes them look a lot cleaner and allows them to open and close easily.

We kept the bookcase in the same place but I simplified it by removing some of the toy clutter and adding some of our adult books to the two eye-level cubbies at the top. As much as I would like to get all the toys out of this space, it just isn't practical when we have little ones around. We also added a lamp and potted plant to the top and moved the clock over to the corner. I'm still not 100% sold on that location for the clock. After moving the clock we were left with a large blank space over the mantel so we put up a nice big photo wall.

Since it was such a large space we added some mirrors to fill it out a bit and keep it from being way too many photos. I printed all the photos in black and white so the colors wouldn't be distracting or overwhelming. Justin and I are very happy with the way it turned out!

The dining room, as mentioned above, has stayed more or less the same. We absolutely love our black table and chairs so there was no need to change anything here! We did however take down the horrible vertical blinds and hang white curtains that match those in the living room. What a difference that made! We got rid of the rug that was in front of the garage door and got two matching rugs (same as the one in the entry) to go in front of the garage door and sliding glass door (which previously had no rug). We love that these rugs are super durable for high traffic and dark so they will hide dirt and stains (kids are messy!).

Over the desk I added another art piece using a garage sale frame and some art cards from Ikea. This one is my favorite! The blank wall to the right of the desk will eventually need something on it as well.

My Living Room pinboard has links to everything we used including the pillows which aren't here yet, the silver letters I plan to make, and the possible bookshelf change up we are considering (low on the priority list). We had a lot of help on this from my parents, we couldn't have done it without them! Thank you so much!



Still on the to-do list -
- Paint the small side table black
- Hang a frame (the print that was previously in our bathroom)on the wall directly facing the entry
- Paint/re-style the paperboard boxes that are on top of the desk
- Paint the walls, mostly to cover up all the dirt and scuffs everywhere but hopefully also add an accent wall
- Craft some knock off zinc anthropologie letters spelling "EST 2006" to go above the kitchen
- Possibly paint the mirror frames on the photo wall to add some color to that area (it is a LOT of black)
- Clean or paint the brick around the fireplace, the "covered in soot" look isn't working for me
- Find/make something for the blank wall to the right of the desk
- (Maybe) Replace the birch bookcase and brown bins with a black bookcase and khaki bins


My next post will included details and photos on our yard makeover, stay tuned!

Long time coming.

It's been a really long time since I did a personal update on my little blog. A lot has happened here since the new year, here is the break down.

Around the beginning of the year we started to think about where we are going to send Jack for kindergarten. We had a lot of options, and overwhelming amount in fact, and none of them seemed to be the "perfect" one. As you may already know, we have struggled with behavioral issues with Jack for a long time now (since he was about 12-18 months). He has a tendency to be very defiant and willful and can be hyperactive and get completely out of control. We had problems with his previous preschool and ended up going to the school district and enrolling him in their social and behavioral developmental preschool class. It was nice to finally have him in a place where we knew he wasn't going to get in trouble for acting out, and in fact they were working on those skills with him so I didn't have to worry about what went on when I wasn't there. But as we approached kindergarten registration I found my anxieties returning with even more force than I had ever experienced. What if he didn't fit in? What if he refused to follow directions? What if he threw a tantrum or hit someone or was flat out disruptive? I know all parents worry about sending their kid to kindergarten but I was genuinely worried that it would not be a good fit for him. At one point we talked about the possibility of sending him to a developmental kindergarten which would offer him a similar setting to the one he is in now at his preschool, but his teacher eventually recommended regular kindergarten for him. He has always been somewhat on the fence with his behaviors. They were extreme enough to cause major problems in a regular classroom setting, but at the same time we felt they were not extreme enough to send him to developmental kindergarten (and just so we're clear, that is part of the special ed program. my kid is not a special ed kid). So what do we do? Send him to a developmental program that he doesn't really need to be in, or send him off like a ticking bomb to a regular classroom whose expectations exceed his abilities? Neither is right.

While we were looking at schools (and even researching home school as an option) and trying to find the right fit we were also making a lot of changes at home. I cracked down on our already healthy diet - no artificial ingredients, almost all organic, lots of emphasis on fresh ingredients and minimal grains. I also made sure he was getting his vitamins every day to fill any gaps that his diet left behind. We also simplified our family lifestyle by getting rid of unnecessary clutter in the house, including TONS of toys that were overwhelming the kids. We got rid of our TV and Wii completely, deleted all games from our phones, and put away the iPods so they wouldn't be tempted to play with them (Justin and I weren't using them anyway so they were just another screen for the kids to get sucked in to).  It was a little rough at first and there were lots of questions about why the TV was gone, when it was coming back, and ridiculous amounts of begging to watch shows, movies, play games on the Wii/iPod/computer/etc. I'm very proud to say that I held strong and did not give in even though I was very tempted to. The longer we went the easier it became. Questioning and requests for screen time decreased and just a few weeks later it was as if everyone had forgotten about it all together. Amazingly my kids (mostly Jack, Kaden didn't watch TV at all) found other things to fill their time and got better at coming up with an activity when they were bored. At first there was a lot of pressure on me to entertain them, but as time went on they became more independent and complained a lot less about being bored.

It has now been almost three months since we made these changes and everyone has noticed a difference. Jack is calmer, more agreeable, less angry, less hyper, plays well with Kaden, and follows directions better. For the first time in five years life is not a daily struggle. We can get together with friends and I can send Jack off to play without worrying that he will misbehave or bully the other kids. I can send him into Sunday school at church and not check the reader board every two seconds thinking I'm going to be paged to come pick him up because he refused to follow directions. I can take him with me to run errands and not have to strap him into a cart anymore because I know he will walk calmly and stay with me rather than charging off like an animal or racing like a car. I finally enrolled him in swimming lessons because I am no longer worried about his ability to stay with the class and do what is expected of him. I also enrolled him in summer camp, which is huge, because I know that he is ready and mature enough to handle the challenge.

This is not to say that his behavior is perfect all the time, far from it. But it has improved so greatly that he is more in line with his peers and where he should be socially and behaviorally at age 5. He still has a ways to go and we will continue working with him on impulse control, verbalizing his emotions rather than acting out, and following directions consistently without threats of a consequence if he refuses to do so. Seeing these changes has given us so much hope for the future. We all love him so much and are incredibly proud of the progress he has made in such a short time.

While all this was going on with Jack and his school, Justin and I were working out some potential changes as well. With Jack's school situation being completely up in the air and us having no idea where he would end up, we found ourselves considering moving closer to Justin's work. He works in Kirkland during the week and Renton on the weekends. He spends a lot of time in the car and because of that he sometimes misses out on family time. We have been talking about moving for a while but the conversation became more serious. We looked and looked at houses on the Eastside and down near Renton and nothing was right. Everything was lower quality than what we are in now or it was completely out of our price range. We were really discouraged with what we were finding and slowly stopped looking. We still wanted to move but decided to wait a little while and see what happened with Jack's school.

After touring lots of schools, not liking most of them, and not getting into the ones we did like, I finally heard about a school called Room Nine in the Shoreline district. It is a really small choice school (which means nobody is assigned to it, you have to sign up by your own choosing) that focuses on hands on learning, extra enrichment activities, and seeks to meet the individual learning needs of the student rather than trying to conform the student to the teaching style of the school. After touring the school and asking questions I was convinced this was the right place for Jack. I immediately enrolled him and he was accepted. Since he was officially "in" I wanted to make sure I had made the right decision. Justin supported my decision and agreed with it based on what I had told him about the school, but once we were actually accepted he decided to go an see it for himself. So Justin (along with his two retired teacher parents) went to the tour at the beginning of this month and loved the school. We got the seal of approval from both former teachers and we are all feeling good about this decision. A huge weight was lifted, a decision has been made!

Once that was determined we came back yet again to our decision of whether or not to move. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to move to the Eastside or Renton if Jack is going to be at school in Shoreline. And it definitely doesn't make sense to move closer to Jack's school when Justin works on the opposite side of the area. So the decision sort of made itself - we will stay here. We have lived here for three years now and never knew how long we would be here. When you are renting it is hard not to look at it as temporary, but as the kids get older we are more and more leery of uprooting everyone and moving somewhere else. We realize that we will likely end up living here a long time and we are ok with that. We are in no hurry to buy a house and we are very comfortable with the size and price of the one we are in now. We are fairly centrally located to friends and family, Justin's jobs, and Jack's new school so it is the perfect place for us until one of those things changes.

Now that we know we aren't going anywhere for a while we've decided it is finally time to put some work into the yard and house. Our yard, being that of a rental house, has been neglected for years. It is overgrown with weeds at every turn, the lawn us bumpy and difficult to mow, and the fence along the back does not enclose the yard. Two years ago the landlord gave us permission to put up a fence that would enclose the back yard but said that we were on our own for the expenses. Since we didn't know how long we would be here we didn't want to pony up for it without knowing how long we would be here to actually enjoy it. Now that we know we are not going anywhere we have determined it is the right time to install that fence. It is currently about half way done and many other yard projects are underway. It's exciting to see our sad little yard slowly transform into something we can be proud of, I will be back soon to update more on that and post photos of our progress.

Experiences Over Stuff

One of the trickiest parts of simplifying is what to give kids as gifts. Getting rid of toys and clutter easy, but what do you give them when they already have plenty of toys? How can you give someone a gift who doesn't need anything (emphasis on thing).

The best way to give gifts without adding to the clutter is to give experience gifts. At first it can be hard to come up with ideas for experience gifts since up until now we have been focused on stuff, so when we need gift ideas we automatically think of toys. Here are some experience gift ideas that would work for just about any kid -

1. A family membership or passes to the zoo.
2. A family membership or passes to the aquarium.
3. A family membership or passes to the children's museum.
4. A family membership or passes to the science center.
5. A family membership or passes to a museum (art, natural history, etc.) with kid friendly exhibits.
6. Passes or a punch card to the swimming pool.
7. A pre-paid session of swimming lessons.
8. A pre-paid session of gymnastics classes.
9. Pre-paid martial arts classes.
10. Pre-paid music classes.
11. Pre-paid art classes.
12. Pre-paid day camp (spring/summer).
13. Movie passes.
14. Restaurant gift certificate.
15. A gift certificate to a roller skating rink.
16. A gift certificate to an ice skating rink.
17. Passes to a limited time show (like disney on ice or the circus).
18. Passes to a children's theater.
19. Passes to a puppet theater.
20. Gift certificate to a paint-your-own-pottery store.
21. Pre-paid sports lessons (soccer, football, baseball, basketball, etc.)
22. Pre-paid dance classes.
23. A special outing (to any of the previously mentioned places)
24. A slumber party. (great for grandparents to give!)
25. A  hike or trip to a nature destination (like lava caves, a cool waterfall, whatever is nearby)

There are so many more that I didn't list! Once you get the ball rolling the ideas come so easily. Get creative, look around for things that your kids would like but that you wouldn't usually buy for them (like mime classes, or ski lessons) those will make the best gifts!

Kids love spending time with people and connecting with loved one. As a kid I was the one who would always complain about "lame family activities" but every time we got out of the house and involved in the activity I always loved it. Everyone wants to know that someone loves them and cares about them, and what better way to show it than with the gift of your time. Even if you can't give them your time you can still give them a great experience that they can learn from and enjoy.

Why Simplify?

As I have been reading my book Simplicity Parenting I have been doing a lot of simplifying and downsizing, and not just with the kids. Some of you have probably reading and wondering why I am on this crazy quest to live like I just hopped off a covered wagon. I know I can get a bit extreme at times (understatement of the year) but there is actually a method to my madness.

The main motivation behind nearly every crazy thing I do is Jack. If you have met him before you know he is a very spirited kid. He is amazingly smart, inquisitive, sensitive, funny, affectionate, determined, and loyal. But he is also hyper, stubborn, explosive, inflexible, defiant, independent, and intense. All of these issues we have had (and are still having) have pushed me to look for a solution. Justin and I have always felt that there is nothing "wrong" with Jack, but we need to find the solution(s) that works for him. After learning how food additives can negatively impact child behavior we drastically simplified out diet. After realizing how easily Jack gets overstimulated we went him to a developmental preschool and have made a conscious effort not to put him in situations that will cause him to spiral out of control. After noticing how much he is influenced (usually negatively) by the TV we finally got rid of it all together. Each change is a baby step toward a simpler life, and since we have yet to achieve the desired result we will continue to simplify.

I have learned that most of Jack's negative behaviors come from his desire for attention. Like most kids he doesn't understand the difference between positive and negative attention. When he wants my attention he might throw something, knowing that when it hits me I will most definitely turn around and pay attention to him. What he doesn't realize is that when I turn around I will be unhappy about having something thrown at me and send him to time out (or at the very least let him know that I don't appreciate that kind of behavior). This becomes a viscous cycle that we have struggled with in the past - he acts out because he isn't getting enough attention, and I pull away from him because I am mentally and emotionally exhausted from all the negative behavior. If you have a difficult child like Jack you probably understand exactly what I am talking about, if you don't have kids or don't have a kid like Jack then you probably can't relate at all.

Simplifying is great for everyone, but especially for a kid like Jack who wants nothing more than to connect with others and have the attention he craves. Without all the extra stuff cluttering up our lives and distracting us from what is most important we are free to spend time with one another. When his room is covered with toys/clothes/books/games/junk he becomes overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, bogged down, uninspired, and unhappy. When his room is (mostly) clean with a few simple toys and bins within reach he is able to focus more in his play, clean up in a short amount of time, and easily switch from one activity to another. This allows him to be more in charge of his play because it is manageable for him. He feels more in control of his surroundings and is able to exercise his creativity and independence. It also takes away a lot of the frequent frustrations and stresses and makes him more calm, happy, and positive. We enjoy each others company more when we can play together without him taking out his frustrations on me and hitting/throwing/screaming every time something doesn't go his way. We are able to focus on one thing at a time, like completing a puzzle start to finish, when we aren't distracted my so many choices.

This kind of lifestyle switch is not just for kids, and it doesn't just apply to toys. I have found myself that when there is too much stuff in my house I too become overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, bogged down, uninspired, and unhappy. If I let the clutter get out of hand I tend to feel less like I own these things and more like these things are owning me. I am constantly rearranging and trying to find the optimal organization to make everything easy to get out and easy to put away without the entire closet crashing down on top of me. And then, after organizing and re-organizing so many times I start to wonder - do we really need ten USB cables? Do we really need this totally impractical set of white towels that we haven't used once since having kids? So we really need to hold on to clothes that are worn out, out of style, or don't fit properly? No, we don't!

Simplifying has allowed me to stop the organizing cycle and spend more time doing things that actually matter. Reading to the kids, cooking, playing dinosaurs, going to the pool, exercising, and reading my book. The one thing that almost always gets cut is "me" time. Granted, I still don't have a lot of "me" time, but I have been going to the gym 3-6 times per week and still manage to keep up with everything else. That is a big deal for me! It used to be that any time I would try to do anything extra like take the kids somewhere fun or do something for myself (even just reading a book) I would drop the ball somewhere else. The laundry would pile up, the dishes would pile up, and I would get stressed out. Yes that does still happen sometimes, after all I am not super mom... but it happens a lot less and I am able to have fun a lot more. I used to feel guilty just sitting on the floor spending time with the kids, how messed up is that?! If I would sit on the floor with the kids doing "nothing" I would feel guilty that I wasn't doing "something". I would think "How can I just sit here when there is laundry to be folded, the garage needs to be organized again, Jack's room is a disaster, and there are crumbs on every inch of this floor?!" Clearly I had my priorities wrong and clearly my stuff was owning me.

So when you ask "Why simplify?" there isn't a simple answer. There are lots of reasons, lots of different motivations, but the idea is always the same - to enjoy life more. I have been learning about this and experimenting with it in my own life a for a long time now so if anyone has questions, needs advice or assistance, please ask! I am happy to help!

Jack's Room

We updated and redecorated Jack's room for his 5th birthday back in November, but I never posted it here. So here is Jack's new room!

I used white spray paint on these spice racks from Ikea to hold all of his books. I loved the idea when I saw it on Pinterest but when we used it in real life I wasn't so in love with the way it worked. I think it would work much better on small board books, Jack's large books have a tendency to topple over when you pull one out. We are not using the spice racks for books any more and I am looking for a way to repurpose them somewhere else in the house (maybe in my toddler's room to store his board books). I do like the idea of forward facing books though, great visual for kids who can't yet read!

Jack's bookcase is an Expedit unit from Ikea. I am slightly obsessed with Expedits, I think I could put on in every room of the house. They are super functional, versatile, an sturdy. Make sure and secure it to the wall though if you have little ones, they are not very heavy and would easily fall over if it was climbed on. The bins inside the Expedit are from the Itso collection at Target. I have looked for more plastic bins like that because they are awesome and totally bulletproof, but all I can find for the Itso is the fabric bins.

The bedding is the same that he has had for years, we designed this room to stay with the theme he was already using (just much more put together). This bedding is from Target. I don't think they carry this exact style any more, but they always have lots of cute bedding!

A bird's eye view. The rug is from Ikea and the white shelf with hooks is from Target. The curtains are simple black-out style curtains (great for kids who go to bed early but have a hard time falling asleep when it is still light out like in the summer) in navy blue, those are also from Target.

This loft bed is by far my favorite part of the room. I bought it on Craigslist for $80 and painted it with white spray paint. It required a ton of paint (probably at least 12 cans) but it was so worth it. I love this bed and I am so happy I took the time to find one used and fix it up instead of shelling out money for a new one. Jack loves his bed too! Eventually I would like to get a small mattress to go down below since he sometimes likes to sleep down there and may someday have friends sleep down there.

Beside the bed in the corner is Jack's art area, or his "office" as he likes to call it. Pretty much everything you see here is from Ikea. The lamp, the rods and hanging cups, the little red table (a Lack nightstand) and the little blue chair. We also have a roll of art paper from Ikea that is currently on top of his bookcase. I had planned on putting up a shelf above the table to hold art supplies and the paper roll but I couldn't find one that was just right for the space. Eventually I may find one to put there but for now it's ok as is. Here is the pin that inspired this art space.

Below the bed is the book nook. It is filled with stuffed animals and a cozy little reading lamp (from Ikea). Jack loves to go down here... so much in fact that we have caught him out of bed in the middle of the night several times. He will go down into his book nook and turn on the little light and silently read at like 2am. Crazy kid :)

Here is the book nook all lit up. Super cozy!

 

We used a curtain wire from Ikea to hang a curtain under the bed. For the fabric curtain I just took an extra matching bed sheet (he never uses the top sheets anyway because he hates them) then folded it in half and attached the clips that came with the curtain wire. And voila, a little fort! Eventually I would love to make/sew an actual curtain that goes down there. Probably in navy blue.


So there you have it, Jack's new room! What do you think?

Simplifying.

I have been doing a lot of work lately to simplify everything. Simplify our routines, our clutter in the home, our food... everything. Much of my more recent efforts, as I've mentioned previously, have been on Jack and his environment. I have gone through every part of his room - closet, toys, books, clothes, stuffed animals - and gotten rid of anything that I know he doesn't love. Clothes that don't fit or that he never wears, books he doesn't like/not a good influence/I don't like, toys that are broken/battery operated (with a few exceptions)/don't get played with/etc. I cleared out anything that would overstimulate, encourage aggression or violent play, frustrate or be too complicated, or anything that was nothing but buttons to push repeatedly.

What we are left with is a collection of our best toys, the ones we had wanted to pass down to Kaden, the ones we invested the most money in and put the most thought into when purchasing. This includes - race cars, lincoln logs, trains & tracks, a few trucks/machines that are kid-powered (battery free bulldozer, crane truck, etc), a small collection of books, a small collection of board games & puzzles, and some animal and dinosaur figurines. As I type this out and list everything individually the list seems very long to me considering how much stuff I tossed out into the garage, and I am amazed that we still have so much. That just goes to show that downsizing was truly necessary after all. I can honestly say that there are more than enough toys in this house and the kids haven't missed anything. There is plenty for them to do and nobody has complained about any of the toys that are gone.

As for Kaden's toys, I have also gone through them and picked out the best ones to keep. His were a lot harder to sort through since most of them were non-battery operated, many high quality wooden toys, and things he hasn't had very long (he is only 18 months old after all). After his first birthday his room was bursting with toys that wouldn't fit on his bookcase, and then Christmas came along three months later and there was seriously too much stuff (Although we are so thankful for all the generous gifts we have received!) I ended up clearing out several battery operated toys, lots of (cheap) plastic toys, and anything that is more geared for babies than toddlers. Most of this stuff was purchased by us and it has definitely taught me to be more intentional with my purchases.

Eventually I think I will go through an do another round of simplifying, but next time I will be putting toys out in storage to rotate back in later. Now that we are down to our favorites there isn't much I would willingly get rid of, so keeping them in storage is a great way to hold on to them without adding to the clutter in the house. Having toys on a rotation also helps kids stay interested and engaged. Have a back stock of toys in storage will mean I can rotate a few things out and a few things in every couple months and watch as the kids are thrilled to rediscover an old favorite which they had forgotten.

After getting rid of the TV we moved a few bins of toys out into the living room but it looked messy and thrown together and I wasn't happy with the way it at all. The other night I decided to move Kaden's bookcase out along with a small table and chair from Jack's room. For a long time I hated looking at toys in the living room. I wanted it to be an adult room and the kid things should stay in the kids' rooms. But now that the tv is gone and I have nice toy storage I am ok with having a kid friendly living room. I realize now that having a home completely geared for adults is not the best way to keep the kids happy (not to mention the constant bringing toys out to play, then cleaning them up and dragging them back into the bedrooms was exhausting). Now it looks much more polished and put together, don't you think?

Overall I am very happy with the direction we are going. It takes a lot of work to research, change, simplify, and fix but I believe it is all well worth the effort. Some people might think we are crazy but I don't care. We have already seen positive changes in Jack so I know we are on the right track! I am going to keep reading my books and being my hippie self, saving our family and our planet one baby step at a time :)

Speaking of toys...

Since I've been talking/thinking a lot about toys lately I thought this was especially fitting. It contains some crazy info! I discovered this guy's blog and I can't stop reading all of his awesome infographics, I love getting my facts in such a bite sized and fun way.



Source: frugaldad.com