Turning Lemons into Lemon Aid

This board is an example of how a person can turn lemons into lemonade. When we first added on this room we were completely finished (we thought) so we called the building inspector for our final inspection. He was very surprised that we had called him because we had no railings on our stairs. No one had told us that we needed railings so we figured we were done. I was quite upset as the cost of railings on both sides would take care of a few hundred bucks which we didn't want to spend. The building inspector told us that we could put a short wall up which would be a lot cheaper than railings. After checking, we decided that he was right the wall would be cheaper. So here it is.
Now I have just found out about magnetic paint (my daughter just mentioned it in conversation) I had never heard of such a thing. Right away I could see a use for that on this "wall" My husband did a great job of painting this for me and it works great for decoding phonics words. As I used it this morning I sometimes wished that I could write on it as well....my husband had gone to the hardware store to buy white board paint to paint on top of my magnetic paint! Wow, what a benefit this wall has become to me.

The evolution of a chair

I have gone from having 4 to 5 children at a time. I have known that I would need another chair for some time but I kept putting it off. I wanted a chair to match and at $50.00 per chair I was delaying.
Now all of the sudden I needed a chair this afternoon. I walked around the house looking for a stool or anything that might be about the right height. I spotted a filing box, measured it and if it wasn't the perfect height. I remembered that I had an empty file box in storage under the house that was the same size, so I got that out, turned it over and put a pillow on. I now had a chair but the wheels were turning; all this space inside that I could use for filing if it was the right side up. My husband and I talked over different ideas, like slats held on with velcro, a piece of plywood with hinges. We just kept stalling, nothing seemed quite right.
Last Saturday I got some more shelving. I had 2 extra pieces, well you can see from the picture how it turned out when we put wire ties on one edge. I can now lift up the lid and do filing, put the pillow on and it is the favourite chair that I have now. I have to keep the kids from fighting to sit on it.

Gentle Care Books

I am ready for something new to do by about this time of the year. I came up with the idea of this little book. I had to use my sewing machine to attach the pages as my stapler wasn't big enough. On the left side of each page I typed the words from each section. e.g. ce: face, space, dance. gy: gym
The right side I left blank. The children read the words, decide what to draw and then when they have finished their drawing they print the corresponding word.
I must say it has been a huge hit. They are very pound of their "Gentle Care Books"