The Gift of Giving & my Apartment Altar

So I wanted to announce that tomorrow I will be starting another giveaway! I've only done one other giveaway and it went well so I decided another book of mine needs a new home. It has a twin sister and mama doesn't need two of the same book. The giveaway beings tomorrow where I'll reveal the book title in another post so stay tuned for that! 

I've gone several years without having a permanent altar set up. I've always packed mine away because I have little kids who loves to touch items. I have found a new way to have my altar and kids too.

My MIL brought me this cabinet on wheels. It has a counter top with collapsible sides so I can keep it small or make it a bit larger when needed. The cabinet opens and I have two shelves. I turn it around so it's facing the wall so the kids can't open the doors. When I need it I just expand the sides, turn it around, and set my altar up on the top. It also has wheels so I can roll it anywhere in the house I'd like. It's neat what you can do with a cabinet isn't it?!

What crafty things have you been up to lately?

Leaping Forward & Altars around small children.

I don't want to say things are definite yet, but I see light at the end of the tunnel! If you've been a long time reader of my blog you know that we live with my MIL. She is a nice woman, but living so close is, to put it mildly, a huge irritation. Since my husbands employment with Goodwill we have been saving to move, albeit slowly. I received a call and had a meeting the other day with the apartment manager, and I think we have an apartment that we can afford. To my understanding, they are cleaning up the apartment and doing some repairs. I should hear back from them within a week or two. It sounds like once that's done it is ours, but until I have the keys in hand I'm not calling it mine yet.

The downside is that my daughter would have to change schools, and the school in this district is rated poorly by the state. My options are limited. I could drive her to her current school, which is not the best but is rated better according to state rankings. Or perhaps do the K-12 program. 

Do you have any experience with the K-12 program? I'd love to hear your opinions on enrolling your child.

Of course this chance to have our own space leads to dreaming about how I'm going to decorate it. In the past I've not really "decorated". Our version of home decoration was to allow our daughter to make pictures which ranged from early childhood scribbles to nice pictures and hang them on the wall. They were beautiful to us because it was our daughters artwork, not so beautiful to visitors though.

I'd like to make an extra effort to make sure our home look nice on a low income budget. This is a new beginning after all. I'd also like to keep a few small altars out. In the past I've kept our altar packed away and take out when needed. That was the result of having a small child who liked to get into everything. Of course, I have a toddler son now so that concern has not changed.

My only other option I can think of is hanging altars. I know I'll keep one beside the door. Perhaps a hanging basket you would use for plants would work for my purposes. I don't particularly like to keep altars up high, but I feel the need for permanently set up altars instead of my temporary ones.

If you have small children and have open altars, how do you make it safe for small children? I'd love any more ideas and pictures if you'd like to share.