The Deep Dark Basement

When we moved into our house we were excited to have more space. Some of that space being the basement, unfinished with lots of possibility. I grew up with an unfinished basement that lent itself to hours upon hours of imaginary fun. I believe that is where I got my best teacher training, bossing my brother and sister around. It is where I built houses and was mom to my sister and dog owner of my brother. Sometimes as I walk in from the mailbox and look at our "Real" house I think...I am a real mom now. This isn't just pretend. Scary! I had those same feelings when I would walk down the halls of school and glance into a classroom and see a friend teaching...that is me. So when I took time off from teaching and then ended up resigning I brought home all my teaching stuff. We boxed it all up and put it in the basement and in the last two years I have found myself going down to search for the materials to do some off the wall project. Boxes would be ripped open, they would tip over, and let's just say...the pile of boxes became just a pile of crap! Most of the stuff Ed doesn't even understand.

Charley has been going to friends houses where they have gorgeous finished basements. He wants to make our basement like Elly's. No spiders, places to put his toys...etc. We are not going to finish our basement for a long time. However, we do like the idea of having a big room down there where our BOYS can run around, kick a ball, play a little hockey, do some crafts, and have fun. So finishing it enough so that it is safe, clean, and spider free...would be great.

So this weekend I descended into the deep and went through all my school stuff and reboxed it up, trashed some, boxed some to give to teacher friends, and piled some up to sell. I in no way want to get rid of my school stuff because it is precious. OH SO PRECIOUS! I have accumulated it from serious garage sale-ing. I have spent more than my share of personal money on materials that would make my classroom a place children would want to learn. I have invested in books that made me a better teacher. And I WILL GO BACK!

So I write this to the very few people who have journeyed into our basement and witnessed "THE PILE". I write this to my boys! I write this to my husband. I hope by the end of April that my crap will be organized and piled neatly in a different area so that this summer we can work on making that half of our basement a BOYS play area. Nothing fancy...some drywall, a few posters....and maybe some sort of ceiling. And next winter when the MN winter arrives we will have another place to play! Because playing is our life right now!