Logistics for Large Families

Last week I ordered a book from Vision Forum. It was a new release that I was drawn too because of a need I have in learning how to better manage my day to day life. So I get this very large book in the mail and find a few minutes in the afternoon while the kids were all playing, to peek through the pages. The very first thing I read is a quote. It says....

"Home is Where Each Lives for the Other and All Live for Christ"

wow........I am already feeling like this was a great buy!

What a great start. I am putting this up in my home.

I proceed to read more and find out that this book was started to be more of a handbook on life to bless her children with. The author spent years gleaming wisdom from other mothers and grandmothers on life. Yes, it has a ton of advise for moms, but is also full of wisdom on being a Christian woman and wife. As I am reading this, I am so looking forward to all she has to share. I'm on day 4 of reading and have yet to get to read the whole thing. One problem is lack of time. The only real uninterrupted time is late at night, when the kids are all sleeping, inbetween laundry, planning, and cleaning. So, it is late-night reading or sparatic reading during the day. My second problem is that some of what I read was so relevant and full of wisdom that I would read it a few times and mediate on it for a while. That is more of a blessing then a problem...isn't it?

There is a chapter on Self-Discipline that had a passage that spoke to me. I read it a few times and thought about it often

Slowly but surely, as we fix out eyes on Christ and put aside our selfishness, we will become more kingdom-oriented. Sometimes we will move forward quickly in one area of Christian life while, at the same time, being blind to sins in another area. That is why we must be so gracious with each other;God is working on us all in different ways. None of us have arrived yet. This said, when we keep our eyes on God's goal-godly womanhood-and regularly seek His wisdom, we will gain His character over time. We will also begin to see the people of the world as He does and respond with patience and mercy. Being Christ-like is the goal.

When we have God's Word in our minds and are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, we will gain control over our selfish fleshy desires. We must not give in to our emotions but surrender them to God daily through a life of prayer. God tells us to pray without ceasing for a reason. It is hard to give in to temptation and pray at the same time!

Gaining self-control over emotions is found through the renewing of the mind. When you hide God's Word in your heart, you will replace selfish thoughts with His thoughts.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

-Romans 12:2

The chapter on "Give Your Children a Work Ethic" was also a good one!

The principal cause of boredom is the hatred of work. People are trained from childhood to hate it. Parents often feel guilty about making children do anything but the merest gestures toward work. Perhaps the children are required to make their beds and, in a feeble and half-hearted fashion, tidy up their rooms once a month or so. But take full responsibility to clear the table, load the dishwasher, scrub the pots, wipe the counters? How many have the courage to ask this of a ten-year-old? It would be too much to ask of many ten-year-olds because parents have seriously asked nothing of them when they were two or three. Children quickly pick up the parents' negative attitudes toward work and think of it as something most sedulously to avoided - Elisabeth Elliot

Hard physical work builds character. Once you have done hard work, everything else comes much easier. And what is character? Character is having the ability to see beyond this second in time and to persevere beyond what feels good. It is learning the self-discipline to make your body do more then your feelings want to. It is training the mind to overcome flesh. It is one thing to read about the character in a book and aspire to do hard things. It is another thing to practice it. Practicing character traits happens with work.

So much more I love in the book, but I can't type it all!

My eldest son has seen me reading this book, has heard his parents discussing different topics from the book, and has seen the effect that it was having on his life. He's not as impressed by the book as I am. So un-impressed is he, that he took it upon himself to hide the book from me on Friday night. I had gotten the last child to sleep and was excited to dive into another chapter. After searching the whole house, I realized that he may be behind the missing book. So as any good mother would do.....I woke that little boy up and asked him where my book was. With a grin, he told me it was somewhere in the family room. He honestly did not remember where he hid it, but thankfully I was able to find the book within minutes(behind the tv).

I'm back reading and hoping to gleam more wisdom from a fellow mom :o)

I really think the name should say something like, "The Handbook for Life".

It really has a lot to offer a mom with any amount of kids.

Hard work builds character:o)

I love seeing my baby lay his head on his loving Father

I can't believe that it is November already. What a wonderful month it will be! During the week of Thanksgiving , we will get to spend some quality time with family that we love so much. On Thanksgiving day we will celebrate the birthday of our sweet son who is turning 5!

Below are some pictures from the past 2 weeks.

Our church had a Trunk or Treat last week.

Of course, the kids had a good time playing games and eating way too much candy :o)

During our Botany study, the kids had to pick different leaves throughout the yard.

2 little ones doing their chores.

The small task of laying out the rugs took them more then 5 minutes of fun!

Can you tell that she does not like modeling for me anymore?

We took a feildtrip to a Waste Management Recycling facility.

We learned way a lot about recycling, plastics, and our health. Fun!!!

Our budding photographer!

Sister time......so sweet!

Sibling love....

Look who's turning 5!

Look who's 9 months old!

Apple Pie Play Dough

I've been thinking about making my own play-doh for a while now. This weekend we finally did it. I found this great recipe for Apple Pie Play Dough. This family project was fun to make, and the kids really enjoyed playing with the yummy smelling stuff. A few of them even tasted it, though we would not recommend this.....not too tastey!

I went skating with my lovely daughter this evening.

This lovely daughter had to take a dip afterward to cool down :o)

Henry

Pictures of my 2 little ones enjoying the day

Boys and a full wagon

So in love with him!

Guess who is turning 5 on Thanksgiving Day?!?!

This handsome little man below.

I shot this picture on the left right before he left for Awana's. The picture on the right was taken when he got back home. He was beaming with joy as he told me that he said his Bible verse(John 3:16) and now can get his Cubbies book!

On Thursday, I ran over a nail in my Yukon which could not be patched. I had to leave the truck at the tire store for the day which meant we all got to drive in the wagon. What memories!

After we went shopping we got a laugh when we had to put the bags in the car.

This is why we had to move up to a bigger car.

New

There are some new things going on in our home.

I have a new organizational system for our homeschooling books and supplies. I used to have a dedicated space for homeschooling, but that changed after we rearanged a few rooms in our house around. Now I have the dining room table which is where my curriculum and a few supplies had been sitting. We have to set this up and take it down every day...not the best set-up. So, here is my new portable shelving system. Don't have it all totally set up yet, but it's coming along! So excited!

And a big thank you to my 3 little elves who helped :o)

Here is our new mess that happened after the shelves were put together, and 2 little kids decided to have a little fun with the styrofoam.

Look who has a new skill!

He's pulls himself up on everything

This little girl also has a new skill. She is now an official dog walker!

On Saturday, the kids all built a new creek in the sandbox.

I love to peek at other blogs

A few nights a week, and sometimes more, I go visiting other blogs. They generally are blogs written by other homeschool moms, blogs about the christian life, or blogs about cooking. I have found some great ideas for curriculum, parenting, and teaching from other moms who blog. In fact, I think all my curriculum choices this year came about from reading reviews on blogs. Reading other blogs has also helped me when I have needed a dose of inspiration on my parenting journey. Laughing is always a good thing, and some posts on parenting can really give a person a good chuckle.

Sometimes a simple post on a blog can be such a comfort on a day when I don't feel like I am juggling it all well enough. I have 5 kids with me 24/7, I'm homeschooling 3 of them. I also have the normal daily tasks of caring for a household of 7 people, 2 dogs, and 2 hens. Throw in some remodeling to the mix too. The past few years have been my hardest. I don't get everything done, although I do try. I've had to put things on a list in order of importance, and I tackle things in that order. I've had to learn to say no to others requests or my own desires and concentrate more on my kids and my home. And that is not a bad thing at all. I love staying home, I love homeschooling, and I love being with my kids all day. I would not change a thing :o) I just need to let go of the guilt I sometimes feel when I can't help out at church, or I can't make it to an outing, or I can't volunteer for something that I desire to do. I also need to give myself a little grace when I don't get to all my emails in a timely manner(or even worse...forget about them) and when I don't have perfectly organized,clean home(those who know me well know this has always been a struggle).

This weekend has been a very exhausting time for me. My baby caught the stomach flu on Saturday. He was up the entire night moaning and groaning with a high fever and a lot of bodly fluids going on. I slept about 2 hours as I spent most the night rocking him and cuddling with him. Yesterday morning he finally fell into a good sleep, and after a few hours woke up with no fever. Yeah! So, yesterday was a very tiring day for me. I did not get to take a nap. I had a lot I needed to get done, and kids who still needed me. So by the time evening came, I was really low on gas. We got the older kids to bed, and then I got to do some blog reading while my baby was playing next to me. I read a blog written by a homeschool mom of 4 who wrote about struggles that she was having. It really hit home for me! I so related to most of what she said.

Here's a few excerts.

"A definite cause of my struggles, though not the root problem, has been the struggle to adjust to four children. This has been a tough adjustment for me, though admittedly, the first year of each child’s life contained a difficult period of adjustment.

Life has been redefined. Some things will change for a short time period and others will have to change for good. I have to accept my new limitations and try to rediscover what I need to do, what I can do, and what I want to do. And I have been finding it tough when my desires conflict with what I can or need to do.

I used to organize activities for groups, remember important dates like birthdays, keep up with blogging or scrapbooking, find information out for friends, and balance a million other activities and involvements. In the midst of that I was always good about keeping up with folks, checking in with them, and meeting new people.

I just can’t anymore.

Chances are that someone reading this has been the victim of this new “me”. I have probably forgotten their birthday or couldn’t follow through on my desire to get together sometime, stopped reading/commenting on their blog, or mentioned that I would call and never did.

This new version of me has seriously caused a shock to my system. It has been quite an adjustment to realize how much I can’t do any longer. I just don’t have the time, energy, or even the desire to keep up in all the areas that I used to.

So I have let a lot of things go......

........So God has been working on my heart. Pulling me back to Him and reminding me to abide in Him. When I abide there, my life is naturally more purposed. I am not distracted by all of the things I “ought” to do so that I can keep up. He’s reminding me that it should be about Him, not about me.

And these days, I find myself more peaceful and more restful.

I let some of the demands slip away. I don’t need to perform. I don’t need to keep up appearances.

The house remains dirty.
The blog remains untouched, except on Tuesdays mostly.
Cards I wanted to send are forgotten.
Phone calls aren’t promptly returned.
The scrapbooking materials get stored in the corner of the basement.
Someone else steps up to organize playdates.
Another person takes on the task of coordinator.
I can't volunteer to help where I might like to.
I pass on nights out when I know I need more nights in.

And I attempt to rest in Him.

Right now, I can’t keep up with everything. Though, I suspect I need to keep up with some of the things…like the house. But some of the other things God will take care of using other folks. And in some of the areas, I often feel like I have failed or let someone down. I admit that I have had to offer up more than one apology.

But I pray for wisdom as I focus on my priorities. And I pray that I will abide in Him more deeply each day. I want it to be more about Him and less about me"

It is a comfort to know that I am not alone. Not that I thought I was the only mom who struggles, but it was something I needed last night. I was struggling with the fact that I had not gotten my list of things done. My home was not very clean(and my room is even worse) , nor did not get the lesson plans done that I needed too, and I have a few people whom I have been wanting/neeeding to email. I also did not make lunch or dinner on Sunday which really bothered me becasue I had just bought enough groceries to fill up 2 shopping carts. But all is well. I am at peace and I love my life. I got to hold my kids, read with them, and play with them. I am thankful that a new day has started with all healthy kids. I am thankful that I have the opportunity to let God lead me in all my endevours. I am thankful for friends and family who show me a lot of patience and grace. Lastly, I am so thankful for fellow moms who take the time to share their lives via blogs(and Facebook too).

:o)

Football.......shocking isn't it :o)

Say Cheese!

He's getting around.

The girls and their cosuin found these matching shirts at Walmart.

We're in trouble! She'a already taking pictures of herself. Reminds me of my lil's sis :o)