I have to agree with Molly. I definitely smell Fall. The smells of freshly sharpened #2 pencils and new backpacks. Daily discussions slowly evolving from "where's my super soaker?" to "it says I need a solar calulator".
Another summer is coming to an end. I even changed my blog banner. Well, I realize its not quite Fall, but pretend it is. I'm ready.
I have been getting the family organized and ready to jump into a little more routine around here. I admit that this kind self-imposed preparing for Fall ritual seems to suit me, if no one else in the family. I mean, we would probably all get to where we needed to be even if I hadn't taken the time to pull out the ratty old hats and mittens that don't fit anymore, and lovingly wash and lay out to dry the ones that do. A solar calculator would certainly surface somewhere in this house. Garage sales don't have to happen. But, still, I like to give it all just a little helping hand. That's what we moms do.
For a long time now, I have been writing the family's weekly schedule on a piece of wood that I painted with chalkboard paint and hung on a small angled part of the wall between our living room and the kitchen. As with many of my projects, Peter shook his head the day I nailed it up, not understanding why I had to change yet another element of his orderly surroundings. He would get the kids to write anonymous messages on it for me, like "why do we have this chalkboard here", things like that. But I pshaw'ed them and continued to write our activities on it. I mean, it certainly helped me to keep track, if no one else.
Soon enough though, I realized the kids had started to rely on it. I would see them stumble in to breakfast and look over at it with a sleepy stare each morning. They were actually reading and relying on it. Peter almost once said something like "but it wasn't written down...?". uh-huh...
I haven't filled it out all summer and have been reprimanded several times by Ian. Words are quite powerful to that one. "I like to see it blank sometimes" I would say, but that didn't appease him. Plus, I had started to resent the size of that board. It was a little small for our seemingly busy little lives, and I was thankful not to have to cram words like "soccer game at 2:00, birthday party at 4:00, do homework sheet, find empty shoebox for school", all on Sunday's little space on the board.
So, with impending Fall and back to school, last weekend I decided to paint the entire area of wall in chalkboard paint, and get rid of the small chalkboard all together.
Imagine the shock and awe.
Now there is plenty of room, there's even chalkboard area we can't reach. I ordered one of Shanna's wall decals to go around the cuckoo clock at the top. That clock never worked, and, well, you know me and spray paint, we are a good match. I like it better green. And I like the chalkboard bigger. And I like that me writing our days on it is such a good tool for my kids.
And because I can never leave a surface untouched around our house, I added a little color to the eraser by gluing a piece of fabric on it (not quite dry here in this photo). The eraser sits on the corner of our mantle, so I felt it needed to be presentable.
