Although my family is blessed to live on a big, beautiful farm--our actual living space is pretty small for a family of five. Sometimes I get a little nutty and have to change things up, or put a bunch of things away to simplify the spaces I'm always looking at. But as my husband says, "it's good practice". It's good to learn to live with less--less space, less stuff. And although I sometimes miss that "house of my own" feeling, I love being here and I love the things we're all learning from living together in our tight-knit quarters.

So this morning started out with making beds and picking up yesterday's messes, and quickly grew into a quick rearrange. A simple rearrange. Our living room is an open space that we've turned into two spaces by separating it with a sofa. So today, I simply made a switch. I moved the rug behind the sofa, in front of the sofa, and vice versa.

And I took two minutes to have a conversation with Emma about our toys:
Which do you really want to play with these days--the doll house or the barn? the barn.
Why haven't you been playing with the basket of blocks and train tracks? the basket is too heavy for me to get out from under the table.
Would you rather I moved the blocks to an open space? yes, please.
Can we put this basket of toys away for a few weeks and get some other things out? yes, I like that idea.

Well, you'd think it was Christmas morning around this place. Everyone is completely engrossed in play. Emma surrounded by wooden fences and horses, Mary setting up a jungle of animals, and Elizabeth scootching around between the two and causing trouble.

Who knew moving two rugs and two minute conversation could encourage such hard-working play in our home?