a little shake up

We are moving around the house again. A couple weeks ago I had a meeting with Elijah's speech therapist and the psychologist that has been part of his evaluation team since he was 3 years old. The good news is that he is no longer considered developmentally delayed!! (He made amazing progress this year at home with me. I almost wish I would have never sent him to that public preschool program, but I guess if I didn't, I wouldn't know that homeschooling was a better choice for him at this point in his life) He is still considered to have a communication delay, so he will continue to get speech services at the school around the corner. At our meeting though they suggested minimizing distractions as much as possible in his learning environment, so once again we are doing a shuffle. The children now live in "kids paradise", which was formerly known as the master bedroom. Isaac was staying in the previous kid bedroom, but he graduated himself to "kids paradise". I suppose a room full of toys, TV, and all his siblings was much more enticing than a quiet nursery. Jeremy and I took the playroom as our bedroom, which is also where little Nahshon is staying. Next week however, Nahshon is moving into the nursery (right now the crib is full of Bella's toys since she partially moved in when Isaac moved out). We got rid of our living room TV, but moved the computer in so they kids will be able to work at it. I'm going to order the bulk of our curriculum next week, so I also need to clean out our school shelves to make room for it all. (next week I'll probably post about our curriculum once I place the order) I'm also creating a "learning area" in the living room with a white board and floor pillows. We need to reorganize the shed so we can move all the sports equipment out there, and we are also going to paint everything. (white walls + 5 kids = MESS!) We are also planning/saving for a new couch since the children have loved ours a little too much. (we're either going with microfiber or some sort of leather next time around, no more cotton!) I'd like to get something a little bigger that we can all fit on when we sit together to read. Basically the kitchen, living room, and dining room is going to be our nourishment center where we can nourish our bodies and minds without distraction from TV or toys.

The problem however, when a large family shuffles around in a small house, it makes a HUGE MESS. There is laundry everywhere, stuff everywhere, and too many people around to get it done! It seems every time I sit quietly and do nothing, the children happily entertain themselves. The moment I get up to do laundry, dishes, or any work around the house, all the kids need something. Jeremy is working all day everyday right now (which I am not complaining about at all, having work is a blessing!), but that leaves me to do crowd control on my own. It'll be nice when it's all finished though since we are planning to be here for another 2-3 years, so we want to make it nice. I'm exhausted though!