In Which...: Jeni and Mark Storm Organize

Knowing that we were going to be snowed in on Monday and probably Tuesday as well, I requested we go to IKEA last Saturday to pick up some projects for the boys to put together. Kids ate free. Oh, yeah. We fed our 9 person family for less than $10, and it would have been a rip-roaring good time if we had not lost Sophie. All of Atlanta must have had the same brilliant idea as mine because I have never seen it so busy as it was that day.

Monday came and we were surely off. Our plan was to put together the new desks for the school room and then re-organize it. Desks in, loveseat out; extra shelves in, 4-foot bookcase out. You get the idea.

Tuesday came and Mark worked on lesson plans while I worked on getting my desk and files organized.

The plan for Wednesday should Mark be off was to switch the living room and dining room. So we did.

Thursday was unexpected. Mark organized his office and I walked the kids through a day of school as it will be from now til the end of the school year. And I washed the frappucino off my breakfast room curtains.

Tomorrow Mark is off yet again! But tomorrow we are going to dump the kids at the grandparents’ house for the night and heading out for an early anniversary celebration.

Some of the results of our Storm Organizing can be seen in the pictures below, and pretty much the rest of the blog is written specifically for my friend Jen. Listen in as I write to her or not…

This first picture is taken from the door of the school room. In front of you is my desk. Notice the pile of white on the right side. Those are our Christmas photos, which will be mailed, God-willing, tomorrow. To the left of my desk is Grace’s desk. She wanted to be close to me, sweet girl. Directly behind my desk and our of view from this vantage point is the table the twins use. You’ll see it in a later picture. Against the far wall straight ahead is Bradford’s desk. The chair was chosen by him on Saturday, and he put it together Saturday night. To the left of Bradford’s desk, in front of the window, is Patie’s desk. She hardly ever sits there, much preferring my lap, my pens, and my paper. To the left of Patie’s space is Ben’s desk. New desk, new chair. Also new curtains, made in twenty minutes with a pair of scissors and tacks.

Now I am standing in front of Bradford’s desk, and the next three pictures are of the shelving system. We picked up two taller side pieces on Saturday to give us some more space.

Notes about the picture on the left: the small desk that fits into the shelving system is Nate’s. This is where our filing cabinet used to be, but we asked him which place he wanted to sit and he choose here, so we moved the filing cabinet.

Notes about the picture in the middle: most of the shelves above the printer have miscellaneous plastic containers that are labeled with their contents.

Notes about the picture on the right: this is our community computer space. The box on the shelves to the right is sitting on the books only because IKEA did not have the shelves we needed in stock. We are also thinking of getting taller side pieces so we have the option of storing school supplies and books all the way to the ceiling.

Still standing in front of Bradford’s desk and continuing our journey clockwise around the room we come to a closer picture of Ben’s desk. This is the MICKE workstation from IKEA. Right now he and I share a laptop, which is on his desk in the picture.

Now I’ve moved in front of the community computer and below is the picture of Patie’s desk and Bradford’s desk again. Notice the small picture on the wall by Patie’s desk. It is a picture of “MA” (Grandma) that she found and we hung up for her. In the middle picture you see the Twinkle table, which is directly behind my desk and not seen in the first pictures. Eventually, we will get two more MICKE workstations like Ben’s for Bradford and Nate. Nate will take over the space directly behind my desk, Grace will take Nate’s small desk cubby, the Twinkles will have the small desks (one was mine when I was a child and the other was from the Beisners via Karen Gonzalez), and Patie will get the black table.

Below are two close up pictures of Ben’s desk. The door to the left can house a desktop computer, but in Ben’s is his school basket with all his books.

Handling every single thing in my school room unearthed a box of pictures, and the kids had fun picking some out to put in their workspace. I also gave up some unused picture albums and frames, which they put to good use. I cannot stress enough how wonderful a thing this newly gained personal space has been for the boys and Grace. In a house with 9 people, personal space is rare and precious. They really take pride in how their desk looks, and it is fun to see what they think is important enough to display.

Here is a closer shot of Nate’s desk. This desk was especially chosen because it fits into the space between the shelves of our IVAR shelving system. We will eventually get a hutch for it, but they were out of stock on Saturday.

I instituted a system of peer judging to encourage them to keep their things tidy. Grace was the inaugural judge, and she placed a small pebble on each desk that was clean. The white pebble indicated whose desk she thought the cleanest, and the winner of the white rock become the next judge. The judging takes place in the evening after dinner and worship so they have plenty of time to clean up from the day’s activities. Nate earned the white pebble tonight (the two things on his desk I placed there after the judging).

A quick tour through the rest of the downstairs. We switched the living room and dining room back to what the builder intended. I was getting to be a bit claustrophobic in the small living room with kids piled on me during our family devotions, and Mark was, too. So below is our very couchy/chairy living room. One sofa, two loveseats (you’re looking over the top of one in the picture), one rocking chair, and one club chair. Plus the piano bench, the pouf, and the ottoman. I really wanted new living room furniture when we moved to Georgia, but instead of a new sofa I got Sophie, who was infinitely better than a couch. But now, five years later, we will replace these pieces which others that make more sense for the space as we can afford them.

The breakfast room with completed curtains. The blue piece to the right that is covered with a table cloth needs to be repainted and the front fixed. A summer project, I think.