Meet our New House

It finally happened.

I feel like I've probably been going on for years about our off-and-on, more-casual-than-not house search. We've always loved our current location, even if we don't love our current house, so for any house to ever match the convenience and joy of living across the street from the park and a mile from downtown, it would have to be just about perfect. It would have to have some acreage, partly grass and partly wooded. It should have extra space for ranging beyond our property lines. It must have privacy. It would have to have, if not necessarily more square footage, more open areas for living. It should have personality, although hopefully not a wonky and spiteful one.

It would basically have to be the house that we just agreed to buy.

I was too excited, and the kids were too wild, for me to take great pictures of our recent visit to the house that we're buying, but, for what it's worth, here are some of my favorite parts of it:

The property has woods, albeit a sort of brambly, overgrown woods that no one has tromped in for decades:

The kids and I explored some of these woods on one morning of our visit, however, and even picking our way around thorns and through brush, we already found so many treasures--a sinkhole, a creek, a jack in the pulpit, a tree growing out of the bottom of an overturned, rusted-through metal washtub.

I've assigned the kids to trail-blazing after we move in, and they've made their own plans for a secret fort where they can spend the night, and a secondary clubhouse, and also a tree house--basically their own little primeval village.

The property has fields, and a substantial amount of them, enough for a giant garden next year:

The current owner says that this field used to be fenced, and horses and cows lived there, so the ground should be very fertile. My dream for it this summer is to fence in an area for a garden next year, then set the chickens free to roam inside and do all my tilling and fertilizing for me.

The property has several odd little buildings on it, including a garage, an actual smokehouse (perhaps next year's chicken coop?), an actual root cellar--

I have no idea what we'll do with this. Do you?

--and a just-about-to-fall-down 1930s general store:

Yes, I'm serious. If it stays standing this year, we can hopefully budget to get it renovated next year--or at least get the floor stabilized enough to be able to walk inside without probably having the whole building collapse on you.

We have a goodly amount of space between us and our next-door neighbors on one side, but on the other side, we do have a neighbor pretty close:

Yes, I'm serious about this one, too. The current owners of the house had owned this drive-in since 1955. They recently sold it to another family, who plans to open it again this month. Matt and I have taken the kids to this drive-in ever since they were born--when they were babies and toddlers, they'd actually fall asleep on the drive TO the drive-in, and then Matt and I would feel like we were dating all over again, sitting on lawn chairs watching a movie with our kids sound asleep in the car behind us. 

My main goal the second that we've moved in is to somehow convince the owners of the drive-in that it would be an excellent idea to let us drag our lawn chairs over to watch movies for free anytime we want. Doesn't that seem like something that you would want to let us do if you owned a drive-in?

Okay, if you're still lingering, rubbernecking our insanity, then now you get to see the actual house!

This is the foyer: 

It goes across the entire back of the house, both the 1980s addition that doubles the square footage, and the original 1940s portion. It opens up to the main door from the driveway AND the back deck, and has two doors leading from it to other parts of the house. I had been hoping to set up an aerial silks rig for the kids (it's the biggest item on their wish list) across one of those beams, but it turns out they're just decorative. Maybe that beam up top will bear weight, or maybe we're just destined to have an aerial silks rig in the living room. The washer and dryer are on the main level in this house--yay!--so the kids can start doing their own laundry, ideally. We also have room for a bench by the front door, and the plan is to set up a system to neatly store shoes and other outerwear here.

From this foyer, there are honest-to-gawd windows that look into the 1940s part of the house:

I guarantee that my kids will never use a door to get from one room to the other.

The kitchen has its own table!

Think of it--a table, just for eating, right in the kitchen! AND there's room for another table in the living room:

The video game stuff that Matt and the kids like could go in here, and I don't know what else. It would be nice to have a place to watch family movies, and certainly some of the children's toys will need to be stored in here. I'm not in love with the carpet, so perhaps this is the place to put the table for messy art activities, with a cheap rug underneath. This is also likely where we'll install the aerial silks rig, if it doesn't work in the foyer. When the girls are older, though, we might give this room more over just to them, so they can have a more private place to socialize with their friends.

The kids' new bedroom is a little smaller than their current one, but it has a big closet, and won't need so many shelves as they have now, because our dream is to shelve the entire family's books together in the big family room. It does have sunny windows--

--one of which leads to a concrete patio where they can play and we can have a container garden.

The kids will also have their own bathroom, thank goodness:

On the other side of the bathroom is another room just that size that I would like to use as my study/studio space. See the skylight?

I'll also need to upgrade that lighting fixture at some point, because that other window looks out onto the foyer, not the outside. I'd love to not store our homeschooling materials in this room, because that's what takes up the majority of my current study/studio, but I'm not sure where else they'd go. This house does have two humongous walk-in closets, so perhaps one closet *could* be dedicated to homeschool materials, with materials currently in use stored elsewhere?

Perhaps here, in the big family room?

We'd like to put a permanent space for the children's computer and our printer here, perhaps underneath a loft bed that we already own, with a reading space on top and large bookshelves on each side. My dream is to shelve the entire family's books together, organized and alphabetized like a library. The space is also big enough that I'd like to score a huge conference table from our university's surplus equipment store, large enough that we could have a couple of projects going at once AND have space for schoolwork. Our big dorm couch can go here, and our record cabinet. I'd also like to attractively store our large collection of games and puzzles here , and the children's creative, large-format toys that love to have space and that the adults love to jump in and play with, too--building blocks, racecar tracks, etc. The room also looks out onto a large back deck:

It will be a friendly space to live our days on in nice weather.

Matt and I plan to upgrade to a king-sized bed in our humongous master bedroom:

We'll actually have room for nightstands to hold our books, and my treadmill could go here and not be squashed for space.

This room has its own big bathroom, with a giant walk-in handicapped shower (that wants to be renovated into a large jetted tub, perhaps?) and TWO giant, walk-in closets.

So that's our house! Our hope is to be settled in by the end of May, so we can start stressing about who on earth will want to buy our current house.

Ideally, someone who really wants a hallway with handmade comic book wallpaper, and a basement that has a giant timeline on it, and kid-painted rainbows on many surfaces...

Future US President Visits the Indiana Statehouse

I've known for years that Will is interested in politics and the government, but until recently, my supporting role in this interest has mostly been to focus on active citizenship--voting, campaigning for a favored politician, following the news and forming opinions, letters to the editor and comment cards to businesses, etc.

One of the first things that Will did after she began to free school, however, was latch onto the Inside Government Girl Scout badge, and begin to work towards earning it. We've had a lot of success this year using Girl Scout badges as a curriculum spine, so later I'll go into all the activities and resources that we engaged with for this unit, both from the badge book and from my own research, but one particular badge book activity is a field trip to a center of local or state government (national, too, I suppose, but how many Girl Scouts could swing that one?). Will really, really wanted to visit the Indiana Statehouse for this activity, and I was shocked at how easy this was to set up.

Our capitol building, the Indiana Statehouse, has a public tour department that offers public tours every hour. The site said that they often had scheduled groups come during these times, but that even those scheduled tours were also open to the public, so I emailed the office, told them what day we planned to visit and what grades the children are, and asked if there were any scheduled tours that day that would be particularly appropriate for us.

The office replied with the times of several school group tours with children in the correct grade ranges, and gave a recommendation about which group we'd like best. I took their advice, and that's how we busted out our front door SO early one morning, barreled down the highway with all the day commuters in order to be in Indianapolis, parked in a garage, sans camera (forgot it in the car but didn't have time to go back for it), hoofed downtown, through security, and were waiting in the rotunda of the Indiana Statehouse bright and early at 9:00 sharp.

Let me just tell you right now: IT WAS WORTH THE STRESS! I don't know if every tour is this amazing, or if it had to do with the fact that one of the children in this tour group was the grandson of one of the state reps, but this tour was an incredible experience, so far beyond what I'd expected that I can still hardly believe it.

The docent didn't go into much detail about the Statehouse's architecture (except to note the Indiana limestone, of COURSE), but I snapped a few lousy camera phone shots to help us remember:

We found The Gettysburg Address! I love it when we find references to previous studies.

The tour itself was wonderfully, appropriately focused on the three branches of government, the seats of all of which are located at the Statehouse:

reading about the governor-- 

--and then standing right outside his office door!

 The docent led us to the House of Representatives, where we all got to sit where the state representatives sit, while first Representative Robert Behning explained to the children why voting is important, in a really kid-friendly way:

He referenced several practical matters that affect children's lives, such as the length of the school day, and sales tax, and explained that it's voting that decides these matters (more or less), and that if the children want to help decide them, they have to vote when they're older.

I *think* it was Rep. Christina Hale who spoke to the children next, and I'm bummed that I didn't write down her name so that I could remember for sure, because her speech to the children was inspiring. She told the children how important it was that they consider running for office when they're old enough, because they have contributions to society that they can make. She told them that this responsibility is especially important if they're girls or are not Caucasian, because their contributions are currently under-represented in public office.

Syd liked the idea of this:


As an aside--I really liked the group of schoolchildren with whom we toured. They were bright, eager, engaged, participative fourth graders who were funny and clever and outgoing, and didn't seem to bat a single eyelash at a couple of random kids tagging along on their field trip...

...even when the random kids didn't appear to understand how to walk in single file. Seriously, my kids can stand in line like champs, and they get the reasoning behind that, but I suppose that walking in line must simply be a matter in which they're not well socialized, because they just don't understand the concept. The hallways are wide at the Indiana Statehouse--why not walk wherever you would like? To be fair, since I can't name a single instance as an adult in which I have walked in single file, I don't really super care, but I did continually berate them in a whisper on this trip until they finally agreed to do it--more or less:

They preferred to be at the front or back of the line, because the middle of the line, with its personal space invasions, totally baffled them.

 The Senate space is far roomier, so instead we piled into the public viewing gallery above it while a senator's aide gave a presentation and tossed souvenir pins to the children:

My favorite experience, however, was the visit to the State Supreme Court. I like the impartiality of judges more than I like the politics of any of the reps, and I absolutely loved our presentation by State Supreme Court Justice Rush:

She spoke to the children about her previous experience in juvenile court, and she clearly has an affinity with children, because her body language was so welcoming, and her speech so suited to them. She spoke in detail about all the studies required in becoming a Supreme Court justice, and all the reading and research and writing that's required of them, and told the children that if they liked to read, and were interested in things being fair, that they should consider becoming a judge when they grow up. She also pointed out the portrait gallery of justices on the walls of the chamber, and told some stories about some of them, and she, too, explained to the children that diversity among the justices is crucial to reaching fair decisions, and especially encouraged any children who might bring a different perspective--girls, in particular--to become a judge.

After this beautiful, inspiring speech about why girls, in particular, were needed in the justice system, she asked all the girls who were thinking about becoming a judge to raise their hands. All the little girls except Will dutifully put their hands up. Later, I asked Will why she didn't raise her hand, too.

"You don't want to maybe be a judge when you grow up? Justice Rush said that judges have to like to read, and you LOVE to read."

"No."

"Why not?"

"I'm going to be president when I grow up."

Oh.

The docent actually did an activity with the children in which she demonstrated very clearly what each child would need to do, starting now, in order to become a Supreme Court Justice or the president one day, so Will's short-term goals are to study hard, be active in extracurriculars, become the president of a club, and serve as a page in the Indiana Statehouse when she turns twelve. 

Long-term goals: State senator. Governor for two terms. Bus campaign tour of the country. President of the United States.

She promises me that I can live at the White House with her if I want to. 

My Latest: Bookmarks and Pot Holders

the felted wool pot handle covers from Wise Craft

and a round-up of DIY bookmarks

The kids and I also made a bunch more bookmarks that follow my comic book bookmark tutorial, but instead use printable bookmark images that I found online. For myself, I made a Sherlock bookmark, a Doctor Who one that I colored with our Prismacolor markers--

I may be still working on my art skills, but Drawing with Children has definitely improved my coloring ability!

--and these two Supernatural bookmarks (I lost the Dean one, which was my favorite, at the theater during the long Trashion/Refashion Show day--boo!). I also wanted to make a Hunger Games bookmark, but finally I was like, "Dude, you have GOT to stop making bookmarks! There are other things to do with your life!"

Syd made this one, because the kids looooooooove Garfield:

They also love the Avengers, so I think we're going to make some of these popsicle stick Avengers bookmarks for them, too (well, I'll probably keep Iron Man for myself, but they can have the others). 

And then if we're already making bookmarks, I might as well go ahead and replace my lost Dean one, and make a Hunger Games one while I'm at it.

And if I'm making more bookmarks anyway, maybe I'll do just a couple more Doctor Who ones...

2014 Trashion/Refashion Show: Upside-Down Orange

In our four years of creating for and performing in our town's Trashion/Refashion Show, my kid has learned a LOT about being a fashion designer, a makeup artist, and a model, and, yes, I have learned a lot about being a stage mom.

I have actually said the following words to another human being, and MEANT them: "Please go full glitz on her, with super-dramatic eyes." We again owe Syd's beautiful hair and make-up to the students of the Hair Arts Academy, who always generously donate their time and skills to making all the models runway-ready.

I have become adept at packing a full day of nourishing kid food, none of which will stain one's clothing: hard-boiled eggs, string cheese, graham crackers, tangerines, granola bars, baby carrots.

I carry safety pins in my pocket.

I also carry tiny toys:

I photograph the dress rehearsal, since I can't sit in the second row during the performance:

Syd's signature move this year was a kind of jump+spreadeagle pose. She spent a lot of time airborne.

In fact, I spend most of the performance standing right here, just behind the curtain at stage right. It's a great spot, since Syd and I can watch all the activity behind the curtain at stage left, consisting of the stage manager and all the models about to walk:

I also know that there's no point in even trying to leave the theater for the two hours between dress rehearsal and our final call-time. Much better to hang out in the theater, reading or playing with tiny toy dogs in the balcony, watching the aerial silks and hula hoop teams at their own dress rehearsals:

Four years into this fashion show, I am well into the realization that this kid owns the stage. I am always so, so nervous for her that one of these years I may well have a pre-show heart attack, but as I'm sitting here at the table writing, with Syd sitting next to me working on her cursive/geography, I just asked her if she ever felt nervous before she walked.

"No." Didn't even have to think about it.

"Well, what do you feel?"

"Excited. And as soon as I'm done, I wish I could do it again ten more times!"

There you go, then.

Fortunately, aerial silks always opens the show, and their performances are so awesome (in the literal sense of the word) that my pending panic attack gets settled down enough that life can continue. I have to share both of these performances with you, both because they'll make your jaw drop (seriously, watch them full screen for the full effect), and because this is the group from whom Will takes lessons. These strong, brave girls and women are her role models:



Side note: While chatting with an acquaintance yesterday, I discovered that his daughter was the star of last year's aerial silks performance, the one who did all the impressive spins and falls and so stunned my daughters that they immediately asked for me to find someone to teach them how to do this amazing thing, whatever it was.

"Ah, YOU!" I said to him. "You are THE reason that I've spent hundreds of dollars on aerial silks classes in the past year!"

Syd, as she's been every year since she was four, was the model who opened the show. I love simply watching her performance, of course, but to me it's even better knowing all the work that she put into it, the way she has her marks and her cues memorized, her well-rehearsed routine that she practiced and timed and perfected over many weeks, the way she smiles openly at the audience:

And yes, she seriously would have done it ten more times, just that way, although I was pretty happy to be done with it after the once:

Much better, to me, to sit in the audience and watch the hula hoopers--

--and the Trashion runway walk, and to follow the Jefferson Street Marching Band up and down Kirkwood afterwards, random sidewalk cafe patrons taking cell phone videos of us as we passed:

And that's it for this year! The kid has her memories to sustain her until next year, and I have the happy satisfaction of a job well done, a major accomplishment accomplished, and the knowledge of a well-deserved rest from this particular project for the next several months.

Although... as I was chatting with my acquaintance about the show, he said, "Just imagine next year. Not only will you have one kid on the runway, but you could also have two kids in the silks performance."

I just...

I can't...

You know, I simply won't think about that for a few months.

Work Plans for the Week of April 28, 2014: Geography and Government

Even without formal work plans, last week turned into a very productive school week. We had one inspiring morning at the Indiana Statehouse, followed by an enriching afternoon at a museum of Native Americans and the West (where the kids were introduced to, and LOVED, the work of Ansel Adams!). Will discovered Scrabble. We spent a morning exploring our possibly, depending on contractor bids for crucial repairs, new house and property--

view up from the root cellar

--and have been building many castles in the sky regarding this potential adventure. The kids attended 4-H workshops on geology and recycling, and experienced their first Color Run. Will had chess club. We watched Breaking Away, a movie that is filmed in our hometown (much of it blocks from our house), and had some interesting conversations about what the movie portrays vs. our personal experiences, particularly in regards to the Town and Gown theme--side note, but one of my major fascinations (I have many) is the phenomenon of the "college town." The kids began learning dressage in horseback riding class, and Will had one fabulous morning helping to film some promotional/marketing material for the IU Art Museum, although she claims that the cameras were NOT focused on her when she accidentally dropped a cup full of red paint onto the floor and it basically exploded all over her--seriously, she had red paint inside both ears, and up her nose.

The biggest event of the week, however, was the 5th Annual Trashion/Refashion Show! I have to process my thoughts AND my photos and videos later, but I'll just say that it was, once again, a wonderful experience for us, and the show was the most splendidly produced that it's ever been. Syd had a wonderful time and did an amazing job--seriously, that kid has great stage presence. Right this minute, she's just finished sleeping off our late night (culminating in an honest-to-gawd parade led by a local, indie, honest-to-gawd marching band), and then we're going to make yet another attempt to wash off all that hairspray and mascara before we head over to our volunteer gig.

And that brings us to this week's work plans! We're still on an alternate school schedule, although we should get the answers that we need this week to decide whether or not we'll actually be moving next month. Daily work this week will consist of Kumon math drill workbooks (got to use up those consumables if we're moving!), journaling, and A-Z Mystery Flags:

Even though I got Will's buy-in before I bought this, she still doesn't *really* like it, nor did getting her buy-in reduce the complaining as I'd hoped, BUT I can't deny that it's great cursive writing practice, which is why I bought it. After completing this, there's surely no way that the kids won't be proficient at cursive...

Surely?

Special projects this week include prep for the kids' Iceland project for next week's International Fair; a Girl Scouts anti-bullying program for Will, as well as work for both kids on their various Girl Scout badges; a social event at the place where we volunteer; a ballet performance to attend; math class and horseback riding class and nature class; more study of American government (I think I'll have them make this branches of government lapbook, for starters); and wildflower botany--I want to make wild violet jelly!

And don't worry--when I no longer have a spiky ball of anxiety in my belly (house buying is so anxiety-making! And did I tell you that Grumpy Neighbor, whose complaints to Animal Control about us are never heeded on account of they're all false, has now apparently taken to complaining to Housing and Neighborhood Development about invisible trash in our yard? And someone from HAND actually came out and left a warning on our front door to remove the trash that doesn't exist, because... I don't even know why? And then Matt took photos of our yard, and I sent them to HAND and asked them to tell us what specifically about our yard is not in compliance so that we can fix it, even though there's no freakin' way that there's anything in our yard that's not in compliance? And I'm anxiously/eagerly waiting to see what exactly they're going to have to say for themselves? And wondering what Grumpy Neighbor is going to do to us next? And wishing that someone offered anti-bullying seminars for grown-ups?), I'll have a little celebration for myself.

Okay, a big celebration. 

With balloons. 

And brownies.

And crazy dancing, although that's pretty much a given daily, celebration or not.

My Latest: Bookmarks and Societal Corruption

a discussion of the morality tale that is World War Z

a comic book bookmark tutorial

and a favorite quote bookmark tutorial

For the last couple of weeks, and for the next few, we are in the midst of a we-are, we-aren't, we-might-be mess of perhaps buying a house that frankly makes me wish that someone in charge would just sedate me until a final decision has been made (and ideally a decision that doesn't require me to pit four acres and a creek against a settling foundation and gappy roof joists), and it's this, along with the usual end-of-spring-semester craziness, that's calling me to craft lightly, and from my stash, and only for projects that would be useful in this house or the other one that we may or may not buy depending on whether or not we can get a couple of contractors to look at it before the closing date and, if so, how much they think repairing crawl space and roof might cost us.

So... bookmarks. Slipcover for the couch. Fabric storage bins. 

And no, no, NO gluing things to the walls!

Easy Dyed Wooden Easter Eggs

The little kid and I fell out of the mood for Easter crafting early this season. We didn't even make the toilet paper tube Resurrection scene that I had SUPER wanted to make, if only for my partner's absolute "WTF?!?" look when I showed him the project.

Ah, well... I never did score an empty tissue box for Jesus' tomb, anyway.

But last week on Good Friday (we should at least have done the toilet paper tube Jesus on the cross! Shoot!), while the big kid spent the whole entire solid afternoon at the library, the little kid did finally put down her horse and Barbie fashion design work for long enough that we could make one last Easter craft that we'd been wanting to do, and fortunately it was a super quick and easy one.

You will need wooden eggs, liquid watercolors, and small Ziplock bags.

Just as we do to dye other unfinished wooden objects, the little kid popped a wooden egg into a Ziplock bag, added in a couple of squirts of color, and squidged the color all around the egg, all safe and tidy inside the bag: 

As she always does with color mixing, the kid had a ball with this project. She experimented with design and color, ending up, of course, with lots of brown-that-we're-choosing-to-call-golden eggs:

For extra shine, you could rub some homemade beeswax wood polish into them, but we usually like them just fine just the way they are (well, those "golden" ones might get redecorated next year...). 

The egg hunt was EPIC this year--52 eggs hidden for these two kids!

So there was an epic egg hunt, the Easter bunny brought us candy and books, and my partner baked lamb for dinner.

Festive enough, I'd say, even without TP Jesus...

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!