We got a dining table!

We bought a dining table (and chairs)! Who wants to join us for a meal?

My husband hated our previous set and we sold it on Craigslist. Since I didn't post about it, it must have predated this blog, which I started writing mid-October 2012, soooo...

We've lived sans dining furniture for over seven months. We've been utilizing a card table with mismatched folding chairs and outdoor plastic lawn chairs:

Guess what? Totally doable for our family of four. Plastic lawn chairs are surprisingly comfortable.

But the plan has always been to replace with a more permanent solution. Hosting a family of four friends for a visit was only feasible by borrowing a second card table from my folks. (It belonged to my grandparents and smelled like mothballs.) I have been praying (sporadically) that God would provide another. If I'd had a truck and the time to troll listings and quickly trek across town to check out options, Craigslist would have been the way to go. Lacking those, I had to concede shopping at stores was the way to go.

I wanted to avoid new, however. We bought our previous dining table and chairs new seven years ago, and paid too much ($500) for something that wasn't comfortable. Now, I've lived long enough and shopped around enough to know that there are plenty of perfectly good unwanted dining tables in this world waiting to be adopted. With two young boys, we don't care about some wear-and-tear; we're sure to add some of our own post-haste. Our premier priority this time around was comfortable. Second was sturdy.

So we didn't rush. On my second trip to a local estate consignment store, I found they had recently opened a backroom with tables and chairs galore. I felt like Goldilocks.

We finally chose a $150 winner that came with six solid-as-a-rock chairs.

Bringing everything home was an adventure, because the remnants of a tropical storm were blowing through on the morning we had coordinated to borrow a pickup truck from my aunt and uncle. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the transport, shower curtains bungeed around the table and flapping in the wind and rain. Instead, here is me doing my best drowned rat impression after schlepping table and chairs about in monsoons:

It was an answer to prayer that the table fit in the small truck and stayed dry (enough) on the 15 minute journey.

Drum roll...

Old skool.

No less than two leaves should we feel compelled to host extended family dinners. Certain to host copious amounts of homeschooling projects. Already being put to work!

Actually, it's almost TOO nice for the likes of us. According to the shipping label on the box the leaves were stored in, the brand is Thomasville, circa 1980. Which I looked into, of course, and found that a new Thomasville dining set retails for almost five grand.

Which compels me to irrationally insist on coasters and placemats when I know perfectly well that the finish is doomed to a lifetime of watermarks and scratches from our clan. That was, in fact, the whole point of a used table.

Be More With Less ebooks

Courtney Carver is offering her two ebooks, Simple Ways to Be More With Less and Living in the Land of Enough, for free download today, in celebration of reaching the $4400 donation goal for charity: water. If you need some minimalist inspiration, check it out! (and read her post How to Be Fierce and Flexible, and maybe donate to the campaign too!)

Project 333 Summer Session

I started my second round of Project 333 yesterday (June 1) - 33 items of clothing and accessories for the next three months!

1 dress

1 casual button-down shirt for layering

2 skirts

4 pairs of shorts

1 pair capris

10 t-shirts

3 tank tops

1 pair flip-flops

1 pair sneakers

1 pair sandals

1 purse (not shown)

1 rain jacket (not shown)

3 pairs earrings (not shown)

1 necklace (not shown)

1 swimsuit (not shown)

1 TBD (I think a dark brown pair of sandals)

Summer is a simple season for which to prepare - the forecast is HOT! The average monthly highs for June, July, and August in Richmond range from 86 to 90, and the lows from 65 to 69. So notably absent are any pairs of pants. I learned from last time that it's not worth devoting one of my items to a tiny chance of an extreme temperature, and my cold weather contingency will be to wear capris, a tshirt, button-down, and rain jacket, with sneakers.

Not having to worry about the cold and keeping my jewelry and shoes to a minimum (no black!), this round includes a relatively wide rainbow of clothing options, almost too many. But between being sweaty, playing in fountains, and lots of dirt thanks to the boys, having beaucoup spares will probably be a blessing!

Note: I also excluded my sunglasses from this list. I basically never take them off, and view them as a necessity, not an accessory.

Queasy

I gave away a bunch of our baby stuff today. I posted it to a local buy/sell/trade Facebook group and most of it was taken by one couple who showed up within 5 minutes of me sending my address. We never even installed those baby gates.

Yay me?

I'm struggling, glad and sad at the same time. That diaper bag and stroller have been with us since the beginning. The infant car seat (not pictured) brought the boys home from the hospital, and my second slept in it for the first six months. I'm not 100% reconciled to no more kids.

But I know it's the right thing to do. We are reclaiming our guest room for visitors coming at the end of next week. I could have moved the stuff back to the shed... where it would have sat. Instead, another family can be served and items are saved from the trash.

Lord, please help me untie those stomach knots.

(Incidentally, used baby stuff is the hardest to get rid of! Full of memories, and not accepted by most charities because of safety/liability concerns. I would have preferred it go to a friend, but don't know any first-time new parents right now.)

Favorite things

Lorilee asked "What are your favorite things?" (Here are her top ten) 

Here's what I jotted down...

 Utilitarian faves - Get used a lot and they just work
1. Smartphone - iPhone 4S - Not so much for phone calls or communication, go figure, but it serves as my map, weatherman, cookbook, and internet access as I chase the boys. It has replaced my digital SLR as my camera. Also use Instagram and a few kids games
2. Laptop - Macbook Air - For anything not practical on my iPhone, like blogging
3. Car - Honda CR-V - Comfortable and reliable and just the right size
4. Jeans - for three seasons out of the year. Totally practical for my lifestyle and go with everything. I still have too many pairs because I haven't found a perfect fit, but like my Bodens the best

Enjoyment faves 
5. Kindle/Kindle app - Love Kindle books, it has really gotten me back into reading. 75% of my reading is done on my iPhone Kindle app - not as great user experience, but I always have it with me. No need to lug a Bible either
6. Photobooks - I make one to cover every six months, plus for special events, and I love being able to flip through them and see highlights of our lives since I have way too many digital photos to easily browse
7. Harmonica - I'm trying to learn this summer. Simple instrument and purse-friendly
8. Wine - anything but sweet

Book recommendation: One-World Schoolhouse

I read The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined by Salman Khan last month and loved it. Khan is the guy behind, you guessed it, the wildly popular Khan Academy videos on YouTube. This book (which is only $2.99 on Kindle) chronicles some of the story of how he went from hedge fund analyst to education reformer, and more importantly, his vision for reforming education.

Khan begins by addressing some of what he believes are widely-acknowledged current flaws in the education system and their origins, and then proceeds with his theories for improvement. In a nutshell, he advocates technology-enabled, self-paced learning on a global scale. Teachers operate as facilitators as kids work through lessons and problems using computer software, and all this is much more efficient, leaving more time to foster group projects and pursuit of individual creativity. Toward the end, Khan also advocates the pursuit of continual mental growth throughout adulthood.

The unbalances I would mention are that his experience is skewed to math and engineering fields, he wholeheartedly champions the wonders of computer-based learning, and he emphasizes discovering the kids who have world-changing creative potential.

Many of his ideas echo my concerns about the drawbacks of current education and some of the primary reasons we are currently pursuing homeschooling - freedom and flexibility to learn at one's own pace and interest level! (Khan interestingly makes no mention of homeschooling)

Denim is the new black

The "get rid of" closet...

In my wardrobe, black is history.

To an ever-expanding list of things that would have sounded crazy to me a year or two ago, I have added the elimination of my black and black-matching clothes.

And here's why that's happening:

My first session of Project333 is winding down. I was just dipping my toe in the ocean of wardrobe minimalism; I didn't actually get rid of anything I owned as part of the project, just packed it away. Now I'm looking ahead to making Project333, or some variation of it, a lifestyle.

And one inescapable reality of small closets that must be reckoned with is that everything needs to match just about everything else. That's not really possible when you have brown, blue, AND black colors schemes happening.

Gotta make some tough choices, faced with overstuffed closets and drawers that still fit fine and look at least acceptable. (One downside to wearing the same size since high school)

I wasn't really comfortable with the traditional "big three" basic colors - black/navy/brown - and then I realized

Denim.

OK, that's a bit of a cop-out because denim actually does go with just about everything. But it's also what I wear all the time. Softer than navy or black, more flattering to my coloring than brown, denim is the theme I'm looking to build a wardrobe around.

Not long ago, I would have rejected jeans as a legitimate choice; I assumed I had to have something black because jeans were too casual, right? Wrong, at least for me and the modern day of stylish jeans.

I've made it through a winter of Project333 with only jeans and a denim skirt. I've been to church and a fancy-schmancy marketing luncheon. And I haven't felt uncomfortable.

Obviously, working professionals still have dress codes to contend with, but I'm a soon-to-be officially homeschooling mom, and a blogger. There are no rules.

In addition to denim, I have chosen to stick with earth colors: brown/beige, green, and blue, with occasional rose thrown in for variety.

On the chopping block: Black, gray, purple, yellow, red

::Poof:: half my closet automatically disqualified.

That was easy.

Confession: Hoarding habits die hard. I am not 100% abandoning all my black. I've selected half-a-dozen of my favorite classic black pieces - t-shirt, long-sleeve shirt, cardigan, skirt, capris, pants that would be a major pain to replace - to pack away for a year or so in case I go off the deep-end wearing only hippie earth mama colors.