More from the master builder

For months--maybe even years--I had been complaining about Matt's nightstand. It was an old piece of Target or Walmart do-it-yourself furniture, and it looked awful next to the rest of our bedroom furniture. He must've gotten tired of listening to me complain, because he built the most beautiful piece of furniture in our home:

And it's already right at home, complete with a laptop, textbook, and all sorts of other things cluttering it.

Master builder

The newest, most beautiful piece of furniture in my high school is the gorgeous podium my talented husband made for me. Who would have thought that this:

would lead to this:

and finally this?

Honestly, I don't really need a podium in my room. Rarely do I lecture my kids. And if I need to lecture, I walk around, up and down the rows. But my dad always had a podium in his room. He filled it with pictures of our family, and it became one of the (many) trademarks of his classroom. It's nice to have that spirit in my classroom, too.

And, talented as Matt is, he did have a little help from his apprentice, shown here, working hard in our laundry room/workroom:

Idle hands

Fortunately, my hands have not been the devil's playground this summer. I was worried that I'd get bored with so much free time on my hands. Little did I realize how a teacher's summer is filled with lesson planning and tweaking, class taking and general organizing to get one prepared for the upcoming year. I've slowly been unpacking, sorting and organizing my last-day-of-school car all summer:

I've also tried to keep myself busy with projects around the house. Hence, the great pickling experiment of aught nine. The staff at the local craft store also knows me by name now. I've been decoupaging, flower arranging and painting to my heart's content. These pots are one of my favorite creations:

I would say that any of these things could be recreated for the right price, but school is right around the corner, and my idle hands will have plenty of other things to do.