Capitol Tour {Day 21}

This is the Capitol Building in Lincoln, Nebraska. On a beautiful, warm Sunday in September while my mom was visiting, we had the opportunity to attend a little health fair happening around the capitol building. There were samples of healthy activities, you could tour a city bus, there were coupons for health stores, live music, a library bus, comfort dogs the children could "meet", and other things like that.

Jonathan got to do this:

While he did that, Mom and I noticed a sign advertising Capitol tours! We'd been on three sides of the building and had wondered all afternoon if we could go inside but had assumed it was closed on a Sunday, so when we saw the sign we rushed around to the far side (naturally) and got our tour, complete with a very knowledgeable guide.

I should have taken notes because just a month later I can't remember most of what he said. But the capitol is beautiful, has been built and re-built three times, I think, and has been around since the pioneers.

At the end of the tour, the guide said that was all he had to say, but if we wanted to go to the top, there were the elevators! That's what my boys had been waiting for!

The highlight of the tour for my boys was the pigeon that had come inside one of the rooms at the top of the building. Of course!

So if you're ever in Lincoln and have a chance to tour the Capitol Building, do it! Or take the time to go tour your state's capitol!

That's "The Sower" on top of the building, representing Nebraska's farm country.

Jonathan's Room, Revisited

One good thing about moving frequently is that you get to a place where you just unpack a room's (or person's) belongings in the new place and it looks pretty familiar.

Such is the case with Jonathan's room in this house. Other than trying out a million configurations to make his furniture fit comfortably, this room is virtually the same as his last room.

This room will double as the guest room in this house like it did at the last house, and it's another case of using what we have. I like Jonathan's room, I love the furniture and the bright blue is one of his favorite colors, but if I were to design a room just for him, this wouldn't be it. I'm sure most of us living in reality face situations like that quite often!

The quilt on this antique double bed is from the Better Homes & Gardens collection at Walmart. I refinished the bed about 5 years ago and it just so happens to be the most comfortable bed in the house!

I keep the extra sheets and blankets for this bed in the top half of the dresser and Jonathan's clothes in the bottom half. The dresser and vanity are something I refinished--rescued, I like to call it, as they were freebies destined for the dump! I love how they turned out, but they've gotten more dings and scratches than I like to see from our recent moves.

I changed a few things on the top of the dresser. Now his CD player is safe from little brothers! Jonathan loves to listen to Bible stories during his quiet time every day, and sometimes during play time too.

The vanity is virtually empty for now. I used my sewing table in our classroom for my desk things, and just stacked the rest of my scrapbook supplies in the closet. Future organizational project!

I think this desk, as it's being used for a 6-year-old boy, looks funny crammed in the corner, but there was no where else for it to go.

Between the closet (not pictured) and the door to the hall is a small wall where I put this display.

Under it is a small white bookshelf with a few of Jonathan's trinkets mingled with my book collection and some old children's books.

On top is a special parking lot for emergency response vehicles. Jonathan loves these, especially because most have sirens!

Jonathan's room at this house is right beside the classroom and right down the hall from the living room and kitchen. The boys all play in there a lot, as the Lego bin lives under the bed!

On this day, they were just getting started--see only a few Legos scattered around? You should see the amazing cars, planes, helicopters,  houses, prisons, and castles these boys make!

I love to look down the hall and see all three boys playing together, usually quite nicely.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

Our Living Room {Tour}

Of all the places we've lived, this living room is my favorite. I like the paint color--though I don't know what it is--and I like the hardwood floors. Every time we move we downsize a bit more, so nothing is crowded either.

Always having the same furniture in the four main places we've lived makes things familiar, but every time there are tweaks in the arrangement. I think it's fun making it all fit, be functional and seem comfortable.

My black ladder shelves flank our entertainment cabinet. We don't have a TV, by the way, so the top half is used for more book storage while the bottom half is where the printer and all of that "office" stuff goes. Gary's favorite chair presides in front.

I've mixed books with some family pictures, decorative lanterns and our memento jars from different places we've visited.

On top of the cabinet is a birdhouse, plant in a basket, an old fashioned lamp (whose globe was broken in the latest move) and our family rules subway-esque sign.

The other side of the room holds the couch, centered under the window and flanked by side tables and lamps that almost match. I've had a dusty gray-blue color in the living room at the last two houses, but because of the green undertones in the paint, blue just didn't work here! Thankfully, this rug--the only one that I didn't donate before leaving the last house--matches perfectly!

"The rules" in home design say the rug should be a jump bigger, but it works for us. The pillows... not so much! I pulled the pretty blue-flowered covers off of the purple pillows, and while purple and red are both undertones in the rug and play nicely with the sagey-gray green in the rug and walls, it screams 1993 to me! I will be sewing new covers from some dropcloths or something soon!

Another part of this living room that worked out perfectly is the white curtains. I left the curtains in the last living room, but brought the sheers from the dining room in Ohio. I had added a ruffle at the bottom to make them long enough for that house. But in typical fashion, I had only half-finished that project! The pair with the ruffle are the perfect length for the window by Gary's chair. The pair that I didn't finish are the perfect length for the window behind the couch because of that funny bump-out in the wall. Yay!

Moral of the story: It's ok not to finish projects. Ha! (Sheers work here because there are wood blinds on the windows. Kinda important!)

The left side table has a lamp and a plant. I removed my laptop for pictures, but it's usually hanging out there too. This is where I blog. :)

There's another lamp on the right side, along with a memento from Gary's dad's missionary trip to Africa in the 60s and a wooden bowl that belonged to my parents but now holds treasures. You know, the little boy kind. Rocks, feathers, acorns... There was a worm in there today that must have crawled out of an acorn.

This half wall is at the top of the stairs. We're in a split-level ranch style home, and this is kind of the welcome-to-our-home table. The door behind the half-wall is our coat closet.

The big white bowl and watering can, the wood used in the monogram sign, as well as the old window (below) are all from our barn on our property in Iowa. This is also where the boys' blocks are kept--which are currently being used several times a day to make Jericho or castles or jails.

We read together on the couch after lunch and before rest time. I find that these bins of books get put away more neatly than books on a shelf. The boys also "read" quietly after they've bathed in the evening while waiting for their brothers to be done and worship to start.

For art on the walls, we're still using these pictures I took on my last trip to Europe in 2003. I printed these shots at home in 8 X 10 and stuck them down on freshly-painted canvasses. I painted a border around the prints, then put stickers under the pictures. Black paint on the outside edge frames the canvasses. I got the canvases on sale at Michael's and the paint was a friend's leftovers after she painted her living room, so the whole project was pretty inexpensive for the impact. Minus the trip to Europe, of course.

I hope you've enjoyed this peek into our home! I wish I could invite you over for a meal and a chat and maybe some fun games. We like Apples to Apples!

For those of you who have visited us in the past, does this living room feel familiar? Does anything surprise you?

Have a great week!