Boys' room update

Since way back in the spring the three younger boys have been in a room painted "Ballet Pink" with a pretty, shimmery pink and aqua floral wallpapered accent wall. I loved it. But the boys were not huge fans of its blaring femininity.

We had redone the girls' room not long earlier, so it was the boys' turn. While the big kids were at Camp Grandma and Grandpa a couple of weeks ago, Zeke eagerly helped me remove the wallpaper... this was quite a feat and a messy one at that. But he was actually a big help.

Once we had all the wallpaper removed and the wall wiped down, I painted the wall in a shade that Toby had picked out the week prior. I asked him because he has the strongest preferences in matters of aesthetics.

I bought a set of digital Narnia prints off of Etsy and printed them off to put in some frames I scored at Walmart. I pulled the gold from the prints as accent colors.

The boys were thrilled to find they had a more masculinely whimsical room (literary-themed, specifically Lewis's Narnia and The Space Trilogy and Toby's favorite book series- S.D. Smith's The Green Ember) when they returned home.I thought it all came together in there very nicely. And I love how the light, which I'd originally thought might be too feminine in there, looks like a sun, tying with the moon light on their shelf. I also have some glow-in-the-dark planet stickers for our astronomy unit this year to put in there as well.

And I didn't touch their closet, but thought I'd document it- the tidyness in there is thanks to T.

Girls' room update

A few months ago, the kids did a room swap, so the three younger boys had the smallest room (they were all excited about the change, mind you), and Opal and Penny got the largest room. Not long after, the older two girls decided they'd like Abby to have the room they were sleeping in to herself and Iris would move in with the younger girls. For a few months, they lived with the blue room with pink curtains and dingy white curtains that have graced their closet since we moved here almost eleven years ago. But they love change and enjoyed the dreaming and planning what it could be. I gave them an allowance, and they took responsibility for the project while getting a lesson in budgeting, reusing and altering what they could while splurging on the things they could not. And they assured me they'd do everything (they could do) by themselves. So they got to work painting painting three of the walls a subtle pink. I only helped them with final edging.

They decided on one wallpaper accented wall. Peel-and-stick was SO much easier- and less mess!- than the wallpaper glue I did when I put up A's accent wall four years ago.

Accent wall... check!

The girls took apart the beds and moved any furniture being displaced out of or into their room.

Some new curtains that actually span the space of their closet openings (neutral, as they will inevitably switch rooms again).

They pushed two twin beds together to make this king-sized bed, which Iris and Penny share, when P is not in our closet <3

It looks so pretty and peaceful in there now- a room suitable for all three of them.

Back to {Hilltop Schoolhouse} '24-'25

We started year 13 of homeschool on Monday. And Jack started his fourth and final year of Kolbe Academy Online.

My SENIOR!

9th grade

6th grade

5th grade

2nd grade

4K

Penny Lu!

After deciding to leave our homeschool group (Catholic Schoolhouse) and diving head first into Charlotte Mason via the CMEC last year, we found we were lacking in unity as a family- everyone was just kind of doing their own thing (I followed the curriculum recommendations to a T and didn't combine students as I should have for certain subjects. And I missed the accountibility, the speed with which we were forced to go at in CSH, just meeting with people, talking to other moms! We needed to meet a little more in the middle. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that my child who was most vocal about leaving CSH was the same child who approached me about wanting to rejoin this year. And I was secretly (or not so secretly) very joyful about this. It didn't take a whole lot to convince the others to be back on board, too, and I immediately reached out to the director to make sure there would be room for our crew to return. She enthusiastically said yes, they'd love to have us come back.

I agreed to lead the Grammar level art, which I've never done before (I've lead Upper level art), but I'm excited for a change-up in there. I'll have all of our kids in class- O will be the oldest in Grammar 3 (the upper Grammar class), T will be one of the oldest in Grammar 2, Joel will be one of the oldest in Grammar 1, and Zeke and Penny(?) will be coming in for the last 15 minutes of their pre-Grammar class for a mini art lesson. Iris will be helping in the nursery- I'm hopeful she'll be an acceptable replacement for me as far as Penny is concerned.

Our rearranged schoolroom for this year. The big girls suggested individual desks, and so far they are working well.

We finally came up with a name for our homeschool- took us long enough!

Handicrafting

Wishing all of our friends who are also starting back a blessed year of learning and growing!

Felled trees, squirrel kits

For a while now, it's been becoming increasingly evident that we need more parking space near our house. Especially now that we are a five(!) vehicle (+ a trailer) family-- and when I consider the graduation parties that we're likely going to be hosting in the rapidly-approaching years! So, we had some trees cleared last week, which will eventually get chopped up and stacked into firewood and the land graded and turned into more usable space.

The clamoring tree choppers and accompanying vehicles were a spectacle for our younger crew, as you can imagine. They were occupied in (and confined to) the garage for a good chunk of the morning. We gradually saw more and more sunlight out there as the tall trees came down. It looked shockingly different.

A lesson in tree age and why trees have rings.

But the neatest part of the tree-felling day was when one of the workers alerted us to two baby tree squirrels he had found in a nest in one of the trees. Their home was being cut down, so he carefully set them on the ground under some brush. We quickly looked up what to do with baby squirrels and I made a phone call to our local Humane Society's Wildlife Center.

A woman I finally got in touch with told us they were no longer accepting small mammals but she gave me some helpful advice, like putting them in a box with a small blanket and a warmed rice sock to keep them warm, leaving them near where they were found, and she gave me the phone number of Wisconsin Wildlife. I soon got a callback from another helpful lady, Jami, who walked me through the steps of trying to get the mom to return for them. At dusk, I put a bluetooth speaker under the blanket in their box, walked a distance away to watch and played a video of baby squirrel sounds. Apparently the mom returns more often than not and they are known for being good mamas to their young. Despite my many efforts- I tried off and on for an hour and again early in the morning (we brought them inside overnight), the mom sadly did not come back for them.

The kids named the two boys Braidy and Bradley. I did an online search and estimated they were around three weeks old judging by their fur just starting to come in, pink bellies, closed eyes...

We certainly enjoyed them while they were in our care. But after it was clear the mom wasn't returning, I called the local contact for Wisconin Wildlife (right in New Glarus) and dropped them off, where they would be properly cared for. I wasn't up for a nighttime feeding routine with bottles and goat's milk replacer.

She's been updating me on their progress. It's been a week and a half since I dropped them off, and she says they're doing great. Look at how they've grown!