Making our house a home.

This past week Jon and I have been working on moving furniture and things around to make our home work better for us. It seems like we are constantly moving furniture and rooms around in an attempt to make things work. The problem has been that this duplex was designed for a smaller family. Our living room is open to the kitchen and it is meant to be an eat in kitchen. The problem is a table big enough for our family is too big for our kitchen and when we put it in our living room it seems too crowded also. I was going so nuts with the layout in our house that I was ready to move because of it. Which isn't an option because we can't afford much else. So we are stuck for now but I prayed about what to do and have figured out a way to make it work. I have a certificate that I earned in interior decorating and I was able to put it to good use. The first thing that I did was write down what furniture we have. Then I wrote down the rooms and what we needed to use it for. After doing that I realized we were using our living room/ kitchen for too many things. My paper crafting stuff had go back downstairs to my craft room:( The main reason I had it upstairs was because William couldn't play in the playroom because the kids have to many little toys but we decided to convert it to a family room again so now it will be safe for William to play in while I am crafting. We are also moving some storage cupboards back up to the kitchen so I actually will have room in my cupboards to put dishes. Anyways I was able to come up with a furniture arrangement that should work for us. It amazes me at how the Holy Ghost works. Heavenly Father helped me use the knowledge that I already had to answer my prayers. We aren't done getting things changed yet but just planning it and starting on it has really helped me feel a lot better.
Jon has had more arthritis pain this week and unfortunately has had to stay home from work the past two days. He started a new drug for his arthritis a couple of weeks ago but it can take up to six months to kick in. Jon bought a new laptop for "me" last week. Our computer is getting too outdated.
I have been busy working on craft projects for Relief Society this week. I made more appliqued towels since we rescheduled our craft night and the ones I made before were Valentine's Day themed. Yesterday I made the flyers and posters for our craft night. I also made panda Birthday invitations for Grace's Birthday.
Samuel has been doing a lot better in school and has only missed one day this year (in 2012). Tomorrow he gets to go on a ski trip for school.
Joseph is always amazing me with his lego creations. He is so creative. He does well in school. He is great about doing his homework by himself but it has to be at a the time he is used to doing it at.
Elizabeth loves to read but it has to be on her terms. The kids have to read every day and it is like pulling teeth to get her to read when I tell her.
Grace is doing great with writing her letters. She likes to ask me how to spell words but then she needs me to show her what the letter looks like. I haven't worked with her very much on writing her letters so I have been surprised how well she is doing.
William fell down the stairs yesterday. We were all freaking out but he seems to be doing fine. Grace accidently left the door to the stairs open. He is at such a fun stage we all enjoy watching him. He figured  out how to nod yes today. His first real word besides mama and dada was go (he started saying it a little over a month ago). He likes to say go, go, go. What a boy! He also likes to grunt and throw things.