new house, new rules

As I was typing this, Becca came up and read the title, and inserted her two cents:

"Well, it's not a house, we live in an apartment."
True, but that didn't flow as well. 

"And our rules are not all different, just a little bit."
[I'm rolling my eyes now...] Yes, my literal daughter, let me have a bit of literary freedom here.

Anyway, we are all moved in (except for a few random boxes on the balcony that we won't mention) and we are loving everything about our new place. We love the convenience -- just a few bus/subway stops away from many of our activities. We love the layout. I love having our whole space on one level. We love how warm it is! Not that you really want to know this.... but I haven't worn long underwear or tights under my clothes in weeks. I know that come summer we will miss the pools of our old neighborhood, but we gained so much in our daily life that I am not complaining!

new house

The draped thing is the keyboard.

B's room. WARNING: Random stuff lurking in the background on the balcony.

J's room. And more random stuff. Eventually, the balcony is going to be like an extra room. But for now, it is just storage.

master bedroom

T's room. Lumpiness is what happens when 7 year olds make their own bed. 

And the room that sold me on this place....

our homeschooling room

new rules
A move is always a good time to instill some new disciplines (for everyone, not just the kids). One that we are all adhering to is that we each make our bed every morning. This may seem like a no-brainer, but when you have house help sometimes these things get overlooked and then it is not the kids doing it, but our ayi. We are also being much more disciplined about keeping our rooms in order. I must confess, that at the old house I was guilty of this one. We had a desk in our bedroom that was completely unusable as a desk. In fact, it was unrecognizable as a desk! Papers and just general stuff gathered on top. I stacked clothes on the chair. Andy [rightly] asked me how I could get on the kids about keeping their rooms clean when I had the desk mess. Ouch! But right, so to avoid temptation, there is no desk in our bedroom.

And while some of the pictures are dark, it is really that I was too lazy to get out the real camera. Our house is so sunny and bright, one of the many reasons I was drawn to it. Maybe I be less lazy soon and post better pictures. Maybe, making no promises.