Before and After

Happy New Year!

I hope your 2012 is going great so far!  We spent New Year's Eve like we always do--at our friends Kelly and Lynn's house.  We enjoyed Kelly's famous chili plus lots of other unhealthy but very tasty food.  The mocha punch, homemade pimento and cheese sandwiches and stuffed jalapeno peppers were my favorite!  

I finally finished my three room redo!  Here are some pictures.  I must admit that this was a huge job that I tackled.  It took me until Friday night to finish!  I am so glad to have it all done.

BEFORE

This is the room that Clay and Sam formerly shared.  When we built our house seven years ago, this room was intended to be a playroom.  Well, my children played all over the house, and when Sam was two, we moved him and Clay into this large room together.  The smaller bedroom that used to be Clay's bedroom was transformed into a movie watching/sewing room.

The other side of this room.

It was a big mess because this was the day after Christmas, plus I had already begun moving stuff from the sewing room (all of those games) into this room.

Another view of the mess.

And one more picture of before in this room.

This is the former sewing room, almost all the way emptied out.  I removed the rug, couch and coffee table from this room.

The TV cabinet on the left stayed.  This TV only shows DVDs.  Clay decided to leave his desk in his old room for Sam, and to keep this TV in his room.  This is my only child to have a TV in his room.  He has to ask permission to watch a DVD, and I don't anticipate his watching any more DVDs than normal (infrequently).

AFTER

This is Clay's room now!  

Another view.

Still another view.

And one last picture.  Clay has legos displayed on the window seat and on the shelves.

Sam's room

This is his seating area.  He and Leah are already enjoying playing all kinds of things on the rug.

The other side of Sam's room.  The built in shelves are now holding all of our family games that are not stored in our den.

Since I spent all of last week redoing all of those rooms (I'll share pictures from my new craft/sewing/scrapbooking area later), taking down and storing Christmas decorations, taking Olivia to and from Winter Camp, and dealing with a broken washing machine (I have washed clothes at the local laundromat and last night at Lynn's), I have not had time to decide on my focus word for 2012.  I have a couple of ideas, but I still want to think and pray about it some more.  I also want to make a list of goals for 2012--in several different areas.  I am going to get my thoughts together on beginning a new year as well as starting back to official homeschooling over the next few days.  We will begin part two of this year's school year on Thursday.

Have you set 2012 goals?  Made New Year's resolutions?  Chosen a focus word?  Please share your ideas--they may help me as I make my plans for this new year.