Blogging Begets Blogging

I've been busy on my homeschooling blog Bright Minds ... Loving Hearts ... Capable Hands and I find that getting back into the routine of blogging puts me into a blogging frame of mind.  I looked outside this evening, saw the remains of the sunset, and thought of this space, so often neglected.

So much is going on in my life.  There are good changes within the house, and I see the wisdom in some of our choices and I feel the rightness of it.  The spaces are beginning to feel as they should.  The formal dining room is finally gone, replaced with what is our learning space but what also functions as a wonderful family space once the homeschool books and projects are cleared away.

Here it is before:

It looked lovely, but from day one the dining chairs were uncomfortable and the height of the table was wrong.  It was never a place we wanted to be.  I'm a little ashamed to say that we kept it that way for nearly 11 years before doing something about it.  Houses are living entities and this was a dead room for us, a museum to something we thought we wanted or at least thought we had to have because our house is vintage.

Here it is today:

We bought a second hand table and chairs for a song, moved the Persian rug into the living room, got rid of the china cabinet, moved in a pine armoire to hold the computer, and set up the "dining" room as a learning/family space.  It's working out wonderfully.

I'll have more to share in the upcoming weeks ...