Evicted!!!

I prop this ruler at the entrance to my sewing room. It has been in many of my sewing room/areas over the years. It says "A Quilter Lives Here" Some of you may remember my blog post from last summer describing my life long dream of the perfect sewing room. Several times, I actually had it, only to lose it to another purpose...no complaints here. I did not have a problem giving up my beautiful sewing rooms to those who needed the space more. HOWEVER, I do have a problem with giving my space over to 2 very ungrateful little children who have the audacity to actually use the words "I don't care" when told that their school area was not being taken care of properly (at least a dozen times in the last month). Might I add that their school area is IN my sewing room!!! Now only about 10% of the mess is mine, and I am willing to pick it up. I would not even have a problem if THEY made their mess, but PLEASE clean it up when you are done. This is what I found this morning, before school started!What started out to be a table and a bookcase has become the entire room. If you notice, my sewing machine is on the desk and my sewing area has all but disappeared. The entire room has somehow become THEIRS!! Now, like I said, I have NO problem sharing my space, but after consistent battles and feelings of entitlement within my children building to the point of no return, I sat them both down, looked them both in the eyes and said "YOU ARE EVICTED!!!" Charlotte looked shocked and Zach looked puzzled. That is right kiddos! You are kicked out. I told them they had 1/2 hour to collect their things and meet me at the kitchen table. I waited patiently and when they came down we had a lesson on "caring". I explained that caring about something is a choice! It does not just happen and it is not a one time choice. We get out of bed everyday and choose to either care, or not care. I gave examples in my own life of things I have chose to care about and how they effect those around me, namely my own children. We talked about how life would be around here if I got up tomorrow and made the choice NOT to care. Well my children have not cared for far too long. Zachary will verbally say "I don't care"...for example:

"Zach, your shirt is on backwards, buddy. You need to fix that."

"I don't care."

"Zach, you just spilled that juice on the floor"

"I don't care."

Now, I NEVER let him get away with that talk. Somehow, he feels he has the right to not care...and he is correct. His life will be wonderful or miserable, depending on his choice to care. Time to step up the parenting...hence the eviction!

Now Charlotte is not that, (what is a nice way of putting it??) dense...no, maybe a better word is...ok, dense is good. She will not SAY the words, but she sure acts them out. She recently lost all her Barbies because they were never cared for. After a while she got them back with a warning that they need to be taken care of. "I WILL Mommy. I promise!" Less than 24 hours later, they are all over the place and this is after she has cleaned up. Charlotte is my child who works very hard at not working. A good chunk of the mess you see above is hers.

So enough is enough. This Mama took back her sewing room. Not because I am unwilling to share it or even give it up to a person who needs the room. I am not willing to share it with those who "don't care"! I still need to organize the closet, which was filled with more school supplies, and though I did straighten the hutch, it could use a real cleaning out also. The desk drawers will get a reorganize and the kids heritage library will be moved to the living room. We will do school work at the kitchen table just like many other home school families, and just like we did the last couple of years. For now, I feel like I was a good parent. I am not all "happy dancing" because I have my sewing room back, though I am not unhappy about that, but I am more content with the eviction as an important lesson that I hope will be remembered for a long time to come.

I am feeling the inspiration of quilt making washing over me again!!!! Mmmmmm, it feels good.