Before and After: The Living Room

Every weekend seems to fly by without our accomplishing much that is noteworthy around the house. It's a challenge enough to keep the grass cut (Nathan and I together eagerly await the arrival of the feeder calf in spring!) and the children clothed and (relatively) clean. However, with some serious assistance from Nathan's mother-- she sewed the curtains, chose the color, painted half the room, and gave us the cow painting, which I love-- we have basically finished the living room.

Here it is before:

And after:

We love the green. It's called “Alligator Pear,” and it is a nice dark color without feeling gloomy. My favorite parts of the room are 1) the pictures of the mantle-the cows and the silhouette of Constance, which I painted when we was 18 months old and 2) the bookshelf which my father made for me:

The first package I ever received from Amazon.com (when I was in 9^th grade! It was Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis which my friend Ashley and I read together.) included a bookmark with the quotation from Cicero, “A Room without books is like a body without a soul,” and since then I have very much enjoyed having books all around me. Thanks, Dad!