Completing Projects

We are half-way through January already, and I am glad to be in a new year.

Our humble little homeschool is going well.

It certainly feels like the Lord is moving us along and blessing our family.

Having all my children home with me - eating, laughing, chatting, reading, and working through our lessons together, feels like the most luxurious life any mother could have.

Our snowy winter scenes from just a few weeks ago have melted into mild, wet weather, reminiscent more of mid-March than January.

As I stirred raw honey into my tea and glanced outside at a rainy afternoon, I became aware that I am long overdue for a project completion post. Several posts ago I mentioned adding a half bath upstairs, and the paint color the kids selected is called Rainy Afternoon.

We are thrilled to have another bathroom in the house! It has proven quite useful.

 It's tiny, so it's tricky to get a good photo...

(The "before" photos...)

Can you believe this is the same space?

Micah built the bathroom around this small window, and moved some of the cabinets further down the wall.

The biggest headache of this renovation was just clearing the room out! It was an "out of sight, out of mind" junk room for many years.

But once everything was either sold or hauled to the dump, the remainder of the space was turned into an activity room for the kids.

We use the room for art, crafts, and science experiments. The TV is for looking up YouTube tutorials to help us in our creative pursuits. (But I like listening to a "coffee shop jazz" channel while I fiddle with watercolor.)

There are still a few purchases I'd like to make for the room, such as a wall clock and dry erase board for this blank wall.

Even though the activity room and bathroom have technically been complete for several months now, they are already well used and loved, and feel as though they have been with us all along. 

You may remember (many posts ago!) that I was in the process of getting illustrations done for a children's book that I had written.

After a patient process, my illustrator completed the pictures this past fall. I was thrilled, but the binder sat, almost forgotten, in a back corner of my closet until I could find the time to do something with it.

 

I figured I'd get through the holidays first, then find a way to publish my long-awaited book.

But to my complete shock, the gift I had opened Christmas morning, in my living room with my family, contained a printed hardcopy of my book!

(I may or may not have burst into tears, making everyone uncomfortable!)

Roman and Micah had snuck around behind my back, submitted my manuscript and illustrations to a self-publishing website, and printed my book, Big Girl Helper.

It's probably been around 3 or 4 years since the idea for the book hit me like a lightening bolt, and I sat down with a notebook and pencil and wrote the entire manuscript in one sitting by hand.

From that time on I have always fantasized about what it might feel like to hold the finished, printed copy in my hands. I was stunned Christmas morning at the fruition of that dream.

I am grateful to my illustrator for making my little book come to life. The book's beautiful, glossy pages, and colorful pictures perfectly achieved the homey, cheery vibe I was going for.

I am hoping I can find a way to print out more so I can give them away as gifts and possibly even sell them. (Although I realize I will never make any money from this. Haha. But I guess that wasn't really the point.)

After many years of reading countless children's books to my children, I knew the inspiring value and wholesome influence of worthy books on a growing child's mind. Books that represent real, human characters demonstrating attributes like loyalty to home and family. 

If you share those ideals, and have children or grandchildren around the ages of three through five, you may enjoy my book. 

Let me know if you'd like a copy, as one of my New Year's goals is to print more!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today, friends.

I hope to be back in Blogland more often in 2023...

💐

~ Courtney