J's room

I wanted to brag on hubby a little bit more because he has really outdone himself this summer with building various projects, and making lots of changes to the house. I'm really blessed to have a handy hubby to bring all my ideas to life.

J's room was certainly no exception! The room he was moving into used to be the nursery. Not to sound like a broken record, but like all the other spaces we've redone, it's small! The one thing it has going for it though are vaulted ceilings. I'm telling you, anything's possible with vaulted ceilings :-)

A regular twin bed certainly would've fit in the room, but left very little room to move around once you took into account the dresser that he had to have. So back to the internet I went in search of inspiration. A loft bed was the obvious first thing to come to mind, but it wasn't going to be quite right and didn't take advantage of the height we had in that room.

Finally we found some examples of and idea we had been tossing around and so began... the floating bed. It took a good bit of planning, a lot of lag bolts, and some heavy duty power tools (that I'm sure hubby was so glad he already owned). We had previously planned to have a slide coming off the bed, but room size just didn't allow for that. J was a smidge disappointed, but loved the room so much when it was done that he quickly forgot about that detail :-) Here it is...


The best part of the bed is that I can walk under it without having to bend over or hit my head! I highly recommend that bed, but only if you have a hubby that really knows what he's doing ;-)

J actually planned most of it out himself. He let us know the wall colors, soccer player, and a few other things that he wanted in the room. Sigh, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in that child! Here are some more pictures around the room.

Our big (tiny) nursery reveal!

When we found out we were going to become a family of six our immediate reaction was to put our small house on the market and buy something with more square footage. We went to showings, had our realtor over to discuss changes for our home, and came SO close to listing. We prayed about it a lot and decided that selling was not the direction we should go for now.

So now what? The current nursery is out because J is moving into that for his big boy room, and S is moving out and into the new "girls room" with F. So she could stay in our room with us until we either decide it's time to move or until she's big enough to move into the girls room. That idea didn't seem like a good fit though because we constantly have kids in and out of our bedroom either during the night or first thing in the morning and we really didn't want to have to stress out over the kids waking the baby for who knows how long. So that's when my crazy idea came about...

A closet nursery. Seriously. These are not uncommon in small homes or condos in big cities and with a little planning and a lot of vision I knew we could make this happen. Why not? A baby really doesn't take up that much space, there's a big window in there, it's temperature controlled, and my handy hubby is perfectly capable of renovations and building anything I ask! So before I knew it our master closet became the 4th bedroom in our home. As far as our clothes are concerned that really wasn't a big deal at all. We bought an amazing used armoire that hubby converted to a wardrobe for all our stuff. We did have to pare down our clothes and shoes but you know they say, you only wear about 10% of what you own or something like that. Plus we've always had a dresser so we used that in combination with under bed storage and we are set.

Just like with the Homeschool Room Reveal post, here's your warning about how hard it is to take pictures of a small room. This room is TINY so it was even more difficult! I am no photographer so hopefully the pictures came out good enough :-)

First of all here's the before (I think S was not so sure about all this!)...


Then the construction began. What a mess!


And now the big reveal... TA-DA!!


I definitely wanted a changing table in the nursery but there was just no way that was going to work without it swallowing up the whole room. Finally I found a tutorial on pinterest for a hanging changing table from DIY network. Hubby did an amazing job helping me create that plan I had in my head. Don't worry it's extremely secure, mounted into studs plus with the addition of the added chain I could change my soon to be two year old without a second thought. I love my shelf above for the diapers and wipes, etc. The little storage bin shelf on the floor was a completely lucky find. It will house all the extra diapers, wipes, burp cloths, and so on.


The next thing I had to figure out was the crib. Once again, a full size wouldn't work but a bassinet wouldn't last long enough. After some research I discovered something I had no idea existed. A mini crib! A little smaller than a regular crib and should last until 18-24 months depending on how big your child is. We currently have no intention of having her in here for longer than that anyway so it's perfect. Plus, I read so many reviews of people with almost 2 year olds that said they were still fitting perfectly. We went with a Davinci crib because you could raise and lower the mattress height. We're very pleased with it.


This is going to be H's "closet". The 3 bins will hold tops, bottoms, and pajamas. The bottom is for her hanging clothes and shoes. I might update the blog later with pictures of the inside once I actually get her clothes in there. It's empty for now, as I still need to go through her clothes.


Here are a couple things I made. Once again a couple pinterest inspirations that I put my own spin on. The mobile had no instructions so I really had to get creative with that one. The pictures weren't as big of an undertaking as the mobile. I just fell in love with some prints on Etsy but there was no way I was paying what they wanted. No offense to those sellers, it just wasn't in the budget with everything else we needed. So I printed a few images, created a document or two on Word, used frames I already had and some scrapbook paper, and it was nearly a free project :-)


And finally the cherry on the sundae... the light fixture. We found this little gem at... wait for it... Home Depot! I couldn't believe it either, but we fell in love the minute we saw it.


So there you have it! Hope you enjoyed our cozy little nursery. I know we're thrilled about it and can't wait for little H to let us know what she thinks :-) Now time to get J's room and the girls room started!

A New Baby Means A New Name

With a new little one on the way My Three Little Birds and Me was clearly no longer going to apply! So I have been mulling over this for a while now and finally settled into a new name. After much prayer and contemplation I decided to rename our blog "Our Faith Filled Life".

It's truly fitting. Every aspect of our life has been just that, filled with faith. Through the ups and downs of the recession, through the trials we went through with our son J, and through the various diagnosis that F received all at the same time, to our sudden decision to homeschool. Truly you can't live this life without having a spirit that is filled with faith. Now I find myself back to that same familiar place of having faith that God will get me through this pregnancy and through my 4th C-section. In case you're wondering we're having another sweet little girl. We couldn't be more excited. My mom had one boy and three girls and so will I!!

I promise I will make an attempt to not have posts so few and far between as we navigate this crazy road ahead. It's my goal to keep family updated on all the wonderful times ahead for the family. I'm also going to link up with some other great moms I've met through homeschooling and share what's going on in our homeschool life. I'm also going to try and give you a look into life with a large family (ok, well I don't really consider it large, but where we live our family is considered large). We have some great (kinda unconventional) projects going on in the house right now to get ready for having 4 children in our smallish house. I can't wait to show you all that we're working on when it gets finished!

Finally, I want to give a special shout out to all the people who are going above and beyond to help me with the kids as I'm dealing with this challenging pregnancy. We couldn't do this without the support of our family, friends, and most importantly our God who gives us all the strength we need on a daily basis. We love you all!

My Three Little Birds and Me :-)


The blog changer :-)


And just for fun...

Easter 2014-better late than never!

I have to say, Easter is one of my favorite times of the year. There's new life to nature around us. Everything feels fresh and full of possibilities. What a perfect time to reflect on all that Jesus did for us when he died on the cross and paid the price for our sins. The true reason we celebrate Easter after all.

Of course I love all the other fun things that come along with the holiday as well. Who doesn't?? I love new Easter clothes, a big lunch with family, egg hunts, and of course the anticipation of Easter baskets first thing in the morning when the kids wake us up at the crack of dawn. Tradition. In all this excitement over the newness in the world around us, it's wonderful to be grounded by tradition. There's so much to be said about counting on time honored traditions that we can all look forward to every year. I hope you find as much joy and peace in your heart as we do over this wonderful holiday. Here's a little peak into our Easter this year...

Our new year surprise

Well, to say it's been a while since my last post is an understatement. I do have a good reason actually and although most of you know this already, I know there's a few that don't. We found out a couple months ago that we're expecting our 4th child! What a surprise and blessing this was as we were sure we were finished having kids. Really good example of how even though you think you may have things figured out, you never know what God's plan for your life is.

It is pretty funny actually. The number of things we are doing that we never planned for, but are very happy about, never ceases to amaze me. One of the very first things someone asked me when they found out about our new addition was "and your going to homeschool all 4 of them??". I've thought of some very humorous responses to that question in my head, but I settled on a simple "yes" :-) I won't lie, it was hard to homeschool during the first trimester. We took a lot of breaks. That's the beauty of homeschool though. We adjusted course, came up with a new plan, and are going from there.

About our little blessing though... this baby is going to have so much love. It has actually been a really neat experience with the older two. They are so involved with this baby. They ask all sorts of questions, talk about what gender they're hoping the baby is (another girl is what they both want), and give the baby hugs and kisses goodnight around my tummy.

Of course hubby is over the moon. He always wanted another but I wasn't comfortable having anymore because I deliver via C-section. All of my babies have been born C-section deliveries so this will be my 4th. Yes, I'm a little nervous but I will be delivering at a great hospital and have a great doctor. I am putting my faith in God that we will both do just fine. I appreciate any prayers you can give us though :-)

I do realize this is going to cause a necessary change in my blog name. I am going to have to give that more thought!

Here's our newest addition. Isn't he/she cute?!? :-)

Homeschool Room Reveal

After much deliberation we decided to turn our dining room into a homeschool room! The closet we've been using has been working fine, but as very little as the dining room gets used we decided to just go for it and create our own homeschool room. Honestly it was just the best decision for us. Knowing J's personality I knew he would love to have that dedicated space to go to where the distractions of the house were away from us and we could just focus on our school work. The kids were thrilled from the moment we told them we were doing it, to watching the whole process unfold, to finally seeing the end result. The room is in full swing now and being used daily. So here it goes, our big homeschool reveal...

Let me tell you about how I hate trying to photograph a small room. I did the best I could so I hope you enjoy!!

View from one entry into the room.


View from the other entry into the room.


I wanted to keep our dining room table but decided to switch out the chairs for barstools that could slide right underneath. I didn't want to take up any more space in our small room and I really didn't want anything getting spilled on my nice chairs!! :-) I sewed the tablecloth to be fitted so the little ones wouldn't just pull the cloth off the table. I love the United States map as well. We have family in various states so I knew I wanted a really big map that the kids could easily point to and learn all of the different states.


I felt the urge to be "official" and had an extra shelf and picture frame laying around so I created this little set up with our school name. A LOT of things used to decorate the room were things I had laying around the house or in the attic. I often find myself wanting a fresh look for our little home and consider myself a professional clearance shopper (hahaha), so I tend to hang on to all household decorations for a later use such as this.


I knew I definitely wanted cubeicals. I've had one for a while and love it so I knew it would be a good fit. Fortunately one day I was shopping at Home Depot and low and behold there were two of these in the store. I think they were bought online and returned to the store because I couldn't find any more anywhere in this area. I got the third online and we were ready to go. They even came with the 4 fabric bins per cubical. I still have a lot of room to be filled but I don't think that's going to be hard ;)


Had to show you this little gem. Once again this was just repurposing things laying around the house. This little crate was my grandmothers and used to hold a small Christmas tree. When I was "shopping" my attic I took one look at it and knew it would be perfect for the table. So glad to have a little piece of my grandmother in our homeschool room.


Just had to show off a few more of my supplies and toys. A wall pencil sharpener is a MUST. I loathed sharpening pencils all the time and the little sharpener we had kept busting open and getting little pencil shavings everywhere.


This shelf of toys make me happy. They are what the kids play with the most and there is so much learning that can happen from these toys. They can be pricey so I got all of mine second hand, on clearance, and when stores like AC Moore have their good sales or coupons.


Calendar time is something that my kids love. Up until now I've been using one that I created, but I found this one on a good sale (plus I was motivated by the fact that I hated mine) so I got this. I highly recommend this wall calendar. It's really good quality and comes with a ton of cards to be used on various holidays and more throughout the year.


My dedicated space to show off the kids artwork during the week. The amount of art and crafts the kids produce during the week can get overwhelming so this helps reign it in.


Here's the whole wall. I love having a dedicated space for their backpacks that they use for a co-op they're in one day a week. No more searching as we're rushing out the door!


We've been using the workbox system (in our own way) and this is what we use for our system. Normally there are little labels on the front of each drawer but little S wouldn't leave them alone today so they're off! All three kids are huge fans of Pottery Barn Anywhere Chairs. The green one I got second hand for $25!!! The pink one F just got for Christmas. I see another pink or purple in S's future :)


Another freebie project with a frame I wasn't using and scrapbook paper. I always have scrapbook paper on hand in this house!!


I also recommend a stash of supplies just for mom. Keeps my sanity having my own stuff to work with and always knowing where my good stuff is.


I really believe the most important thing about having a school room is keeping the "home" in homeschool. For me, the room should bring the best of both worlds together. The fun and wonder of a school room and the comfort and love of home. I hope you enjoyed the room, we certainly do!