OUR COMMON HOURS

Kelli Ann Wilson January 24, 2013

a project // cloffice

I am planning to create a super-amazingly-awesome craft area for me and the kids in the basement but, at the speed that renovations happen around here, the kids will probably be in college before that happens. Enter: the cloffice.

If you’ve spent any time browsing blogs or Pinterest, you probably know what a cloffice is. But, for those of you who don’t, it’s basically a closet that has been transformed into an office area. There are many varieties of cloffices out there, and I’ve decided that I want/need one of my own.

Last year we installed two IKEA Botne wardrobes (weirdly enough, a HUGE amount of the traffic to my blog comes from people searching for info about the Botne). That freed up our regular closet, which has been used to store everything from sewing supplies, to homeschooling materials, to paper towels and the vacuum cleaner. Here it is in its current state:

Wouldn’t it make an excellent cloffice? I think so! All it needs is a little paint, some sturdy shelves, and a desk. I can’t wait to blog, work on homeschool plans, and do some serious research for my last(!) undergraduate course in my own little space.

Here are a few examples of really nice cloffices that I will be referring to for inspiration:

From Shoestring:

From IHeart Organizing:

And, from The Mustard Ceiling Blog:

Kelli Ann Wilson January 23, 2013

waiting

From “Mean Free Path” by Ben Lerner:

I finished the reading and looked up
Changed in the familiar ways. Now for a quiet place
To begin the forgetting. The little delays
Between sensations, the audible absence of rain
Take the place of objects. I have some questions
But they can wait. Waiting is the answer
I was looking for.

When it is so cold outside that you literally cannot take a breath, winter is reduced to…

…waiting for spring.

Kelli Ann Wilson January 18, 2013

right now // lillia

Right now Lillia is working on finding her place in the world, drawing prolifically, enjoying The Lord of the Rings, and pining for winter snow.

Kelli Ann Wilson January 17, 2013

right now // zane

Right now Zane is working on a couple of molars, interacting with new little friends at playgroup, doing a lot of cooking, and perfecting his sister’s name — it’s not easy for a baby to say a name with so many L’s!

Kelli Ann Wilson January 15, 2013

learning to fall asleep

From “The Land of Nod” by Robert Louis Stevenson:

From Breakfast on through all the day
At home among my friends I stay,
But every night I go abroad
Afar into the land of Nod.

All by myself I have to go,
With none to tell me what to do–
All alone beside the streams
And up the mountain-sides of dreams.

“Learning to fall asleep.” I know that’s a weird title for this post, but it’s not about me. It’s about my daughter, Lillia. She’s nine years old and, up until a few days ago, she couldn’t put herself to sleep. Every night I would lay down with her until she fell asleep. As a mama that didn’t really bother me. I love to snuggle with my kids.

Lillia listening to an audiobook of The Hobbit.

However, lately I noticed that it was taking longer and longer for her to fall asleep, and by the time I got out of her bed it was almost 10 o’clock. And, then I still had to put the baby to bed! Between homeschooling and full-time mothering, I don’t get much time to myself. Okay, I get no time to myself. But, neither does my poor husband, who works full-time and then fathers full-time when he gets home. I know it’s hard for him, and with Lillia taking so long to fall asleep it was pushing his “alone time” out. He was staying up later than he wanted to during the week, and then he was tired in the morning.

I knew that Lillia would have to learn to fall asleep…by herself. And, you know what? It’s working! For the past four nights she has fallen asleep by herself. The first three nights were really hard, but we have come to a compromise where I read to her (which I always do anyway) and then I stay in her bed with her for 10 minutes. I scratch her back, get her settled, but then I leave before she falls asleep. Now she is in bed by 9:00, which allows Damian to have down time (a.k.a. sanity) without having to stay up until midnight.

Small victories.