Category Archives: My DIY Projects

What a week! When you believe that Jesus Christ is the living Son of God, and want to impress these truths upon your children, the week before Easter is a busy one. Praise the Lord above that their salvation is not based up my works, but on His grace, but the thought of eternity for your children is a heavy yoke to bear. My constant prayers and never-ending character building means nothing if I don’t take the time to teach. To impress the truth on their hearts. I can not wait for a youth pastor in 10 years to do it, or a Sunday school teacher once a week to do it; it all begins at home, and it all begins now. Yesterday, actually. Or really, 6 years ago when my first child entered this fallen world.

So, what did we do?

I found an amazing, interactive Holy Week calendar on Pinterest a few months ago that a Christian homeschooling Mama called The Domestic Notebook had posted. I pinned it, and luckily had come across it again a few weeks ago. I got everything together, which took about an hour on my part, and had everything ready to go starting the Sunday before Easter, otherwise known as Palm Sunday.

The kids LOVED it! Most of the symbols I made ahead of time, and then they glued them onto our calendar after we studied the scripture and talked about the story. Some of the crafts they made themselves, like the palm leaves, their “watchful eyes” faces, and their praying hands. You will have to forgive my artwork, lol! This was an amazing way to make the events that happened almost 2,000 years ago come alive and real for my children. Jackson asked to do it again next year, so I am going to work on a more permanent version that we can use again and again.

I am also going to change some things up on our permanent calendar, and add newer songs and maybe symbolic snacks to go along with our stories. Thank goodness I have a whole year to work on it!  For the complete list of symbols, scripture, and the original post of this great idea, check out the Domestic Notebook. She no longer blogs anymore, but she has some terrific things in her archives!

I’m about to tell you a secret that may shock you.

I am absolutely, over the top, anal, OCDish about my toy bins.

That feels so good to get off my chest.

When I revamped my playroom/schoolroom last August, we purchased this shelf/bin system from IKEA. I loved it from the beginning, as before all the toys were shoved into two huge buckets that made me twitch every time I walked in the room.

The only problem was that I was the only one in the world who knew what toy went into what bucket. My children and my husband, bless their souls, would just throw toys in the buckets. When we’d have friends over to play, their well intentioned little hands and mothers would try so hard to clean up the category 4 hurricane that had hit the playroom as I tried to manage the ticks and twitches of a maniacal, organizational beast who just needed.to.calm.down.

Enter into my life: chalkboard paint.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I tried going  a different route with a labeling system before I busted out the permanent fixture of paint. I saw this adorably clever system on Pinterest using paint chips as labels. Cute as it was, Brooklyn could not keep her paws off the shiny, colorful labels and made it her

ABSOLUTE GOAL

to peel every single label off. Every single day. *twitch

Dear Brooklyn,
I love you. But you will never, ever beat Mama. Like, ever.
Love, Me.

Here is a toot on my horn: This was brilliant! I was a little afraid that the kids would get all eraser happy and continually rub off the chalk, but nope. It has stayed this way all day! Plus, this beats out the label idea I was using because I can easily change what is in a bucket, which I have a tendency to do after an influx of new toys come in for birthdays or Christmas.

But I couldn’t stop there. Oh no. Chalkboard paint+brush+me=nothing is safe.

Next came the kids table.

Formerly just a white laminate tabletop from IKEA, this table has been transformed to a chalkboard surface for my children to scrawl to their hearts content on. I love that there is now a piece of furniture in my house that I’m begging the children to draw on!

If I didn’t have textured walls, I’d do a whole wall in the stuff! I’m going to head out to Goodwill and find a huge, hideous glass frame that I can transform into an amazingly awesome chalkboard for my kitchen.

Seriously, I may need an intervention soon.