The Worst Blogger Award

 

I totally deserve it! I have not posted at all this year. 

My father passed away in January, and shortly after also my uncle. It was a shock, and it has made me feel so lonely! My dad was the person who I felt would always be there to help me any way he could, without counting the favors. Having now lost both my parents and my marriage, it has been a struggle at times. 

I am happy though about having moved to where my sister and her family live. 
I am happy about having this little house to live in with my sweet daughter and our two fluffball cats. 
The garden has been a source of joy, I was so excited about my little grapevine making tiny little sweet grapes, about the tomatillos that I at first thought were Thai eggplants, about the newly planted apple trees and a cherry tree making fruit the first summer, the many many gorgeous flowers blooming all the way from early spring to late autumn! 

I have occasionally been very frustrated and tired of the renovation, mostly because it is very hard to get anyone to come and help out. Last summer I was sure I would have plenty of time to get everything finished before Indiana's birthday, but now I will be happy if this will be wrapped up before Christmas. It has been going on for over two years, so I am really looking forward to being done with the renovations! Obviously there well be things to do still, but those will not affect our living space and will be so much easier. Some painting outside, and adding insulation and ventilation underneath the roof come to mind... I am dreaming of a greenhouse as well, I have collected lots of old bricks and some old windows, and now I just need to find someone to help me build it. It would have been so nice to have it ready for the next growing season, but I have decided to be content with finishing the interiors, then I will rest, and think about a new project in the spring, Lord willing! 

I have trouble with my joints, it has gotten worse and now I finally went to the doctor. There is some inflammatory condition as my fingers swell up when I do something heavy, like carry bricks or dig  in the garden. I am waiting for the test results, and depending on what is the cause, there may be some relief. But this is another thing I need to consider - my hands are not holding up so well and if I overwork them, I will ruin them faster. Even just holding a book or a phone is painful at times... 

Right now I am finishing up the winter preparations in the garden, I have put up protections around the fruit trees and berry bushes so that the bunnies will not eat them, like they did last winter, and I still need to rake some leaves and put some frost protections to the most vulnerable plants. And clean the front of the house of some garbage that needs to be taken to the garbage recycling center. I have done some trips there already, so thankfully it is not that much that is left! 

Inside the house we are just missing some moldings and baseboards and one door that was supposed to be delivered already but there are machinery problems at the factory. The door will be put in between the cold foyer and the warm entrance hall, to keep the heat from escaping. The current door is super flimsy, and with these electricity prices, the new door is worth the investment. 
Oh, and there are lots of electricals to be installed still. 

I did the wallpapering, some baseboards and trims, clay plaster walls, painting ceilings and trims and some floors, ripping out some of the old materials and three silly narrow inconvenient built-in closets.. oh and helped with installing the lovely antique woodstove. 

I am hoping for a mild winter this year, for sure! My electricity contract expired and I am lucky that I got a business contract, so my electricity "only" doubled as of month ago. I am also glad that our house is small, and that we have a fireplace and now a woodstove in the kitchen as well. I mean, if there is going to be rolling black-outs, I will still be having my morning coffee! 
Our total electricity use has been about 10 000 kWh per year, but I know it can be lower with using more wood for heat, as heating the electric radiators is taking most electricity by far. The difference in electricity use between a summer month and a cold winter month can be five-fold. I have an endless source of free firewood at our woodsy lot, but really not the strength and means to cut down the trees and haul them home. Perhaps I could manage some young, thin trunks, if there was no other way. So far I have bought my firewood and also I took some from my dad's house that we sold this summer, and I need to cut some leftover lumber to firewood size whenever we get a dry, sunny day...  So anyway, I'm good for this winter.  

I will share some pictures of the finished interiors when everything is done and I have managed to organize our belongings as well. Right now there are still so many tools and supplies laying about, and things waiting to be designated a place. I promise though that it won't be a year before I post again!

A little peek to our little house

 

 

So there you go, some photos of our home! I see I'm missing overall pictures of most areas, because it just hasn't been tidy enough to take sweeping pictures of the living room and so on! There always seems to be some pile of random misplaced stuff or another - and huge piles during renovation projects - so I need to make and effort to finally organize the rest of it! If you look carefully you will see some wallpaper remnants on the log walls and there will continue to be things to do in the house. I'm not aiming for "perfection" in that sense - an old house should look like an old house, and it's okay to have small projects waiting and obviously so. It's the disorganized things that get on my nerves.

I've used old things in the renovation, kitchen cabinets from the 50's and the cast iron bathtub. They were cheap and they look like they belong here. I don't mind having things from different decades, it's how houses sort of evolve organically. I have original floor planks, windows from the 80's, kitchen from the 50's, some antique furniture and our couch is 70's design. I don't want to live in a museum, and I also don't like all modern everything. Cost and aesthetics are both important but functionality is above all. The kitchen now finally has the moldings.

I'll post more pictures later when I get around taking some.

I will also make a separate post about the garden as I have tons of pictures. I think the garden, especially flowers, are my weak spot! I'm already looking at flowers to plant in the spring. I still have lots of space left in the garden! 

I am very thankful for this blessing of a house that is now our home. 
When we moved in and lived in the middle of a chaos on multiple fronts, Indiana said that this is the most cozy home she has ever lived in. And that she doesn't want to have white walls ever again 😄 I personally have nothing against white walls, but as it is, there are no white walls in the house, though most are light. The clay and stucco walls are tinted with natural pigments and then there are the old wallpapers and now some bare logs visible.

The chimney is going to be cleaned today and I will ask about installing a wood stove in the kitchen, which I would like to do.
I think I will paint this old ladder today and do finishing work on the sweater I knit and finally got done yesterday. 

Then there is organizing the upstairs sewing room that is waiting to be done and two large paintings need a storage place but the larger one doesn't really fit anywhere. It's too large to go up the stairs even. The persistent bronchitis I have has been slowing down my effort to get everything in order for Christmas, but there is still plenty of time. Which reminds me that I still haven't put the lights on our little cone shaped outdoor Christmas tree. Maybe I can do that today as well.

***

And here are some before-photos taken before we moved in. The house was built in 1935 and the kitchen was from the 70's and the bathroom addition was built in 1991. There was some smelly plastic (toilet freshener, yuck!) and water damaged particle board and broken tiles and so on. The kitchen window would not open because it was blocked by a too-long low cabinet. The bathroom did not have modern water sealing, the electric floor heating broke after we'd just moved in and burned the plastic flooring on top and the bathroom was really cold last winter.. The water heater broke, and when a new one was installed, the guy broke the toilet. So yeah, there were some things that needed fixing 😅 All in all the house had been taken good care of, it's just that things break when they get old.
Well, the electrical work was really weird. It's been replaced in the kitchen and the bathroom addition now, but still needs replacing elsewhere as it's not that safe. The radiators are new but made after old models. 

I got rid of the indoor electric sauna and turned it into a walk-in closet with the washing machine there as well. I decided to also get a dish washer. 

The living room floor planks were in a really rough condition underneath the layers, but I love them so much now! 

Homeschool starts

Today is the official first day of our homeschool for the 7th grade. We homeschooled the 6th grade, and are now returning to it.
My homeschool philosophy acknowledges that children naturally love to learn. They will learn anything they are interested in learning and have motivation for.
Different learning methods suit different children. In homeschool we can use many methods and try different things. We can concentrate on English this month, and math and chemistry the next, if we so choose. So I don't want to have strict schedules to follow. We will spend more time on things that Indiana is interested in, and go through quicker the ones that she doesn't care about so much.
I think that it's sensible to emphasize learning languages and basic math, and other skills that useful in life like tech, finances, renovation and gardening. The things that you can easily look up from the internet nowadays, are not going to be memorized for a test. We'll read though history, religion, geology and biology etc. and discuss things and Indy can do some of the workbook exercises. In general, I think discussing things are a better way to internalize things.
We will not do tests, as I don't think they are useful. They are a way in state school for the teacher to give grades, but I don't think there is a benefit to the student, quite the opposite. Children start to study for tests, not in order to learn. This often reduces motivation and makes children dislike school. Again, all children are different learners and have different skills and interests, but homeschool makes it possible to facilitate learning that suits my child and her particular situation.

So what is the plan for the rest of the fall (and beyond, as I have quite many projects in my mind!)?

ART - this is her thing. I'm a painter, visual artist and print designer by profession and I could see by the time she was 8 years old that she is more talented than I am. Her drawing skills are awe inspiring and she has an ability to make stick figures convey emotion.She has taught herself to animate and make and edit videos, and she has a sense of rhythm and drama. So my job here is mainly to get her supplies, and recently she has also started to paint small paintings on canvases as well using acrylic paints.

MUSIC - Singing at church, finding music to fit her animations and videos, going to a homeschooling friend's place to play instruments (the mother is a musician). Later making her own song with the help of my brother, who makes electronic music.

SPORTS - BMX biking and regular biking, walking, stretching exercises. Swimming in the summer. Horseback riding. Playing games.

CRAFTS - Technical crafts and woodworking will be doing small renovation and building projects with me. How to make traditional stucco plastering, tiling, wall painting? What are differences between natural materials and non-natural materials? Building a leaf compost, painting a storage shed, building a small greenhouse and so on. Sewing an oversized hoodie and other clothing for herself, and knitting something that she wants to knit in textile crafts.

HOME ECONOMICS - We will cook and bake together at least once a week, she can do laundry and be in charge of cleaning her own room and help out in other things. She will practise lighting the fireplace properly, how to store food properly and do dishes. Regular house work.

MATH, CHEMISTRY, PHYSICS - Her father will be in charge of these and we have the school books for these. I'm thinking that we should schedule a ste time for these. During sixth grade Indy mostly just didi the math by herself, as it was still quite easy. Chemisty and Physics are new subjects.

SWEDISH - Indy likes to learn using an app called Duolingo. Her cousins and a new homeschooling friend family are Swedish speaking, so that is good practice. Last year she read two comics books as well and we will try to find something interesting for her to read now too. We also have the school book and exercise book for her to use.

ENGLISH - Indiana learned English by herself by watching kids' programs in English, mainly Pokémon. She now reads whole novels in English and speaks and writes very well. She doesn't need teaching on this really, she can just continue learning the way she has been learning it all along. I will buy her books and she can write about them. She speaks English with some friends who do not speak Finnish.

FINNISH - Native language. We have school books for these, and reading and writing will be part of the Finnish language studies.

BIOLOGY, GEOLOGY, HISTORY, RELIGION, SOCIAL STUDIES - We will read books and watch videos, go to church and Bible study group and discuss things. We will learn gardening, about plants and planting, wild edible plants, forestry, different composting methods, and whatever we learn by reading the school books. I want to give Indiana basic financial education as well, so we will watch some videos about money and how the financial world works. What is money and how does it come into being? Few people actually know that!

It seems likely that Indy will work in the art and media field when she grows up, as that is where her talent and interest is. She can spend a lot of time on drawing, animating and making videos. For work practice she can do pattern design for my company, for example.
She has also started to to study HEBREW with the Duolingo app, so we will continue that.

I will post pictures and write about our homeschool here with the proper tag so the homeschooling posts are easy to find.

To sum it up, our homeschool is a mix of unschooling or freeschooling and traditional homeschooling, as fits us. Subjects are learned in different ways.I will make an effort to regularly meet with other homeschooling families and have enough social activity with people of different ages.

Here is an article that I gave for her to read for English and Religion. After she has read it, we will discuss it. Today we will also visit the police station to get her a new passport, and then open a bank account, for which she needs the passport. We'll go first to her dad's, have pizza there for lunch, and then go together to the police station. We can tie these things to social /civic studies and talk about the function of the police, and I have plans to teach her about finances and the monetary system. This is something that I think is sorely missing from the state school.