Somebody Wants What You Have

It's easy to think the grass is always greener in your neighbor's yard. And perhaps it is. Atleast the part you can see.

But remember...

When you're weary of fixing another meal and doing dishes yet again, somebody wishes they had food to put on the table.

When you've folded and put away another mountain of laundry, somebody wishes their children had proper coats and hats to wear to school.

When you're groaning over the highest heating bill yet this year, somebody wishes they weren't so cold.

When you're losing sleep and gagging over a child's stomach bug episode, somebody is praying for a miracle over her child's hospital bed.

When the exhaustion and nausea of the first trimester are about to do you in, somebody is weeping (yet again) over a negative pregnancy test.

When your headache intensifies over your teen's college financial paperwork, somebody is visiting the site of her teen's fatal wreck.

When you wake up to another cloudy, rainy day, somebody is praying for moisture to end a season of drought.

When you pick up your husband's dirty socks and take out the trash because he forgot, somebody is wishing that for just a moment she didn't have to do it all alone, all the time.

The next time your situation threatens to steal your joy, try to remember...somebody wants what you have.

Give thanks in all circumstances...
1 Thessalonians 5:18

Our last week in pictures

Naomi loves baby dolls! She carries one around most of the day.



Playing with Jacob's blankie that has a huge hole in it.



Friday I had my nephew's and niece, they had a blast playing together!

Nemion is almost always the first to the table...and usually the last.

A little Playdoh creation by Rebecca.

I was doing the dishes and happened to look over and catch this precious moment.

And, Jacob lost two teeth!

Relaxing week

Well, it's back to reality! We just spent 4 1/2 days out at Cherry Valley (Kent Heimer's cabin). Three of those days we enjoyed the company of our friends Ryan & Bethany Donaghy, their youngest daughter, and their assistant, Abby, and six teennage girls. We had so much fun. I wish I had more pictures of our time together, but I don't.



This is there youngest daughter, Aubrey.

And, some much needed family time.

Adam on Lucas' rip stick.

Lucas doing a wheelie on his bike.


And some 4-wheeler riding.

Freedom

Do you remember my post about laundry? It was about a woman who did away with the "normal" way of doing laundry. Well, now that we are into summer and I don't have to worry about clean uniforms...I tried it.

I love it!! Real quick I'll run down how I USED to do laundry, and then tell you how I do laundry now. Every Monday, Wednesday, & Friday I/we would gather all the hampers, lug them downstairs where I would spend 10-15min. sorting everything into piles (darks, lights, towels, & whites). I would wash, dry, fold and put into piles ALL day long! (Literally, I would start at 8:00 and be working on it till 4:00/5:00.) UGH!!

Now, I do one hamper a day. Throw it all into the machine together. That's right, I don't sort my clothes! My mother would think I'd lost my mind, who knows, maybe I have, but I'm not stressed and consumed with laundry anymore! WooHoo! I don't have to start it as soon as I get up, I start it whenever I want! Why didn't I do this years ago?!

Birthday Pictures

Last week I worked on Jacob's (6th) and Naomi's (1st) birthday pictures. As you can see in the photos, Jacob loves to make funny faces, and Naomi doesn't really want to sit still. I will post the rest of the kids as I get them done...they all have fall and winter birthdays so I usually wait till warmer weather to take there's. (Just keep in mind that I do not profess to be a professional photographer).

One of those days?

My morning started pretty good...but somewhere, something went wrong. A little before 6:00, my husband lovingly woke me up to tell me he was leaving and it was time for me to get up. (Really, he did) Naomi was still sleeping, what!? Alright, so I'm gonna take advantage of that and do my hair and get dressed. Do you have any idea how nice it is to be getting ready and not have kids constantly barging in on you? If you have kids, I'm sure you do. So, in my mind, all is well today:) I'm doing my hair in peace and quiet.
Just when I get done, Naomi wakes up. Could it be more perfect than that? So, I get her up, kiss her, change her. We throw her diaper away (she likes to do that part). Then, I put her down to get her juice...and I think that is where the down hill slope began. She starts whinning, crying, whinning, crying. This continues for the next 30 minutes! Meanwhile, I'm getting the other kids moving for school. Oh, I see Jacob's book he brought home from school that he is supposed to read. He naturally starts whinning because he doesn't want to read it, he 'hates reading'. So, now I've got two kids whinning, great! 10-15 minutes later we made it through the book, there was more whinning in that time.
Okay, now it's time for breakfast. Finally, Naomi is happy (why didn't I do this in the beginning?) Jacob starts whinning he's cold, where's his coat, can't find his coat. Thankfully, I saw it on the hook downstairs the day before. So, I go down to get it (because he can't reach it, why did someone hang it up where he can't reach it?) As, I'm walking down the stairs I feel my neck go out, sharp pain. UGH! How does that happen?? I'm just walking down the stairs, nothing crazy, just walking. Now, that's a trip to the chiropractor, in Quincy (who's hours today just so happen to be 2:00-5:30). Perfect, because I'll be in town between 10:00-12:00, and I can't wait around in town with a child that needs a nap. Can't get more perfect than that, right?
Back upstairs to feed the rest of the clan. Nemion pulls out a chair and Jacob swoops in to sit down. Nemion starts whinning and then stops and decides to retaliate by 'trying' to pull the chair out from under Jacob. Not so successful. (We have assigned seats for dinner, and it's at this point that I'm asking myself why we don't do the same for breakfast and lunch?) Okay, stop to talk with both the boy's about what they did, and how they could have handled that differently.
Then Adam calls, he needs me to scan his time sheet in and email it to the office because he forgot it. (If you don't turn it in on time, you don't get paid). Okay, no problem, I can do that. Well, my computer decides to not recognize my scanner. What?, how can it not recognize something that's been plugged into it for 2 1/2 years!! I check all the plugs, finally it recognizes it, I get it scanned in. Then, my email won't pull up. UGH!! I'm yelling at the computer, my kids are looking at me llike I'm crazy, then Jacob comes in and says Nemion just kicked me. I ask, what did you do? Of course, he says nothing. RIGHT! So, we talk again. Come to find out they were having a staring contest and Jacob manually closed Nemion's eyes (so then Jacob won), which obviously made Nemion mad, so he kicked Jacob. So, again, we go over how that could have been handled differently. Seriously, can I just get a tape recorder, because I feel like I just had this conversation with the same two children. Oh, wait I did. HAHA.
After all that, the email finally decides to let me in. I get the time sheet sent off, yeah we get a paycheck this week! Then, I get the kids off to school. WHEW! So, then I start thinking back over the morning. Is this really how my day is going to be? Oh, please let me go back to bed if that's the case!! Then, I realized I have the power to change that. I can let my attitude about the morning dictate the rest of my day, or I can move past it and make the rest of the day better. I naturally want to hang onto that bad attitude, especially every time I move my head and feel that sharp stabbing pain in my neck, and knowing that I probably won't make it to the chiropractor today:) But, then that doesn't sound like much fun. So, I'm choosing to change my attitude! Not that I think anyone really cares, but I feel better just getting all of that out, now I can truly move on!

Chore Charts

I really like our new chore chart!! I found it on some website (again, can't remember which one). I really need to write it down or something! This chore chart cost me nothing, I made it with stuff I had at home. Now, don't start panicking...I am not very crafty. So, if I could do this anyone could do this. Here is a picture of it, I have it taped to the side of the fridge.

Okay, here is how I did it. The red is construction paper (you can use whatever color you like). Then I took a large index card (6x4) and folded three sides and glued them to the construction paper. I did that four times on one piece of construction paper, because I have two kids on one piece of paper just to save time and space. So, those index cards are a nice little pocket. On the top two cards I used stickers I had and put a child's name on it. The bottom two 'pockets' say DONE. Then for the chore part...I took 3x5 index cards and wrote out each child's daily chores on them. For Nemion I took pictures and printed them off on regular paper and glued them to the index card.

So, each child reads through their cards and does what they say. Once they have completed that chore, they put the chore card in the DONE pocket. So, really it just serves the purpose of reminding them what they are to be doing each morning. As an example, I will tell you what the boy's say, brush teeth, make bed, get dressed, put belongings away, and set table/clear table. This is all stuff that I would have to daily remind both of them to do.

Now, if your wondering what those white dots are above Rachel and Rebecca's, they are just plain black magnets and I took a sticky label and wrote 'wash' and 'dry'. Then weekly they just rotate those so that way they know who is doing what and I don't have to try to remember:)

Decluttering & Organizing: Bedroom Closets

Here are some more before and after shots. I don't know about you, but I love before and after pictures of organization!! I could just look at them all day:) This one is the boy's closet. As you can see, Adam and I store our out of season, or *cough* clothes we don't fit into *cough* in the boy's closet. Take a close look at the shelves and floor. It's kinda hard to tell in this picture, but on the top shelf are a bunch of diapers! Diapers!! Nemion has been potty trained for almost 2 years! Oh, well...you'll notice later that they got moved to Naomi's closet:)


And, this is the after.


This is Naomi's closet, but it is shared with Rachel and Heidi until the basement bedrooms are done.


This is the after. Now, let me expain something...I have all the extra diapers stored on the shelf, but then you see a diaper box on the floor, why?, you ask. Well, you know how when your children are real small (I mean young, Naomi is not small) they are quickly growing out of their clothes. So, I keep the box in her closet and just toss clothes in it as she grows out of it, then when it's full I label it and put it into the storage room. For the record, we do not plan on having more...I'm saving them for my sister who hopefully will have a girl someday (she has 2 boy's).


Well, that's all for today. I need to get cleaning, there is so much dirt in the house from our neighbor discing his fields (yes, I was not smart enough to close my windows). Speaking of cleaning, last month I posted about our "cleaning book", it is working wonderfully! I no longer need to give instruction, that's how I can sit here and post about it:))

Declutter and Organize

Aww, two of my favorite words (I know it's weird). I am in the mood to clear out this entire house of clutter. Now, according to my husband...I'm always in the mood to do that. He says that's why he doesn't sit down for very long, he's afraid I'll box him up and toss him out:)

Yesterday, I started working on our bedroom closet. When I opened it I didn't think it looked all that bad, but I knew there was a bunch of stuff in there, hiding, that we didn't need anymore. This is a before shot.



I started on the top shelf, and pulled everything off and wiped the shelf off. Now, some time back I converted our "linen closet" in to a game closet. So, bed sheets are stored in our bedroom closets (makes sense, right?!) I keep our extra bed sheets on the top shelf, I got rid of some...why did I have so many different sets for one bed?? I hate folding sheets, so when I take them off and wash them, I put them back on. (That is not how my mother did it, we would put a completely different set on the bed each time we washed sheets) UGH! Anyway, I put each set into a gallon size ziploc bag, and labeled it. Then, put it into a box that is labeled (I also love labels if ya haven't noticed). I did this because I don't know how many times short, little me has tried to get something down from the top shelf just to have the whole pile of sheets fall on the floor. Then, I would have to refold them all (did I mention earlier how much I hate folding sheets).

I continued on doing the same for the other two shelves. I happened to have that cute green plastic tub, so I'm using it to store my flip-flops & sandals. Before, I would just toss them on the shelf then I would have to go digging underneath the clothes that are hanging down. Since, that shelf isn't cluttered with my flip-flops I now have a place for my purse (or suitcase as my husband calls it).









I hope to continue this until my entire house is done, and continue to post my progress.

Coupon organizer or Money organizer?

I was recently asked about this, and thought I would share with you what I use it for. As you can see, it's a coupon organizer, but I use it to keep my kids' money organized (not that they have a ton of money).

We teach are kids that any money you get, we first take tithe out, then divide the remaining between saving and spending. They each have a savings account (except Nemion & Naomi b/c I still have not gotten around to opening that up yet:)) that they keep their "savings" in. Their tithe money they give to the collections in Sunday School, and spending money for whatever. I like to keep their tithe money and spending money with me becuase I pass their tithe money out to them on Sunday morning and if we are out shopping and they want something (and I'm in the right mood) they can purchase it. I used to just carry around a bunch of different envelopes to keep it all seperated, but it wasn't as organized as I would have liked it to be.

So, that's when I started looking at my coupon organizer (which I wasn't using for my coupons b/c I didn't like the way it worked) and decided to try it out for their money. I LOVED IT!! As you can see in the photo...each child has a church and a spending category that I keep their money in. It's so handy, no more digging in my purse for 6-12 different envelopes!

Laundry

I just came across a post (can't remember which one) about how people do laundry. I was surprised...I had never considered that people do laundry differently. I guess that's because most of the people I know all do it the same way. So, I'll start by telling you how I do my laundry, and then the post I read.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the kids take the hampers downstairs and I sort out all the clothes, wash them, dry them, fold them, and put them into piles for them to put away when they get home. It takes all day!!

Okay, now for what I read...this woman said that's how she used to do it. NOW, she does one hamper a day. Just throws all of it in the machine, no sorting! DONE!

My mother stressed the importance of sorting! All the time I've wasted with the sorting! Is that okay...can it really be that simple?!

So, I'm very curious...how do you do laundry?

Coupon Organizer

I have been searching for a good way to organize my coupons. I wanted something small so it would fit in my bag, anyone who has seen my bag is probably laughing because there is nothing small about my bag. I also wanted to be able to see all of my coupons so that I wouldn't be shuffling through a pile of coupons in the store. I found it and love it!! It's actually a photo album ($1 at Walmart). I also bought some sticky tabs ($3.?? at Walmart). I created the categories I wanted and wrote them on the sticky tabs, and I also made each section as big as I wanted.

Spring Break, Part 4

Grocery shopping and meal planning. I want to start off by saying, I don't meal plan! HAHA. It sounds so organized, but for some reason I have never been able to master this. For those that truly know me and how OCD I can be about organization...meal planning is just not for me. In this area I'm almost always winging it, many days out of the week it's late afternoon and I realize I have not thought about dinner at all. It seems to be working fine, because none of us are starving!

I guess I kinda plan, atleast one night a week we have some kind of breakfast. It's typically Wednesday night, but not always. I'm trying to continue with the tradition of Gateway Woods in that every Friday night is pizza night. (It doesn't always happen.)

Grocery shopping...I'm still trying to figure this one out!:) For the two years we were at GW I did not have to grocery shop, it was done for me! How awesome is that!! But while I was there I longed for the days that I could by my own groceries, food we wanted. HA. What was I thinking!? Anyway, enough of that. I have a list on the side of my fridge and whenever I notice I'm running low or out of something I right it down. I go to the store once a week. I don't buy for any specific meal in mind, I just stock my pantry with certain things I use. Of course if I need something special I'll get it (as long as it's in the budget). For example, canned goods...I like to always have it, so when my supply gets lower I buy a couple more to replenish. I used to deplete it, then have to buy 4 or so at a time which would then take away from other things I needed to buy that week. Is this making sense? It does in my head:) Another bonus to doing it this way is if we decided to spur of the moment have company, I have food. I guess what I'm saying is I used to wait till everything was depeleted then go to the store. By doing that you will have a much larger grovery bill, and as you near the end it's hard to find things to eat or make becuase you don't have much of anything left.

I've been wanting to get back into couponing. So, I've been working on that this week. There is a wonderful website called moneysavingmom.com and there I discovered that I could sign up for email store deal alerts. I pick the stores I go to and then when the weekly ad comes out or some other sale, I get an email. On this website it will also break deals down for me, say crest is on sale, then if you use a coupon (and sometimes there's a link to print that off), it will only cost this much. So, I've checked the ads and made a list for HyVee and attached those coupons to the list, and so on for whatever other stores. I have not gone to the store yet, I typically go at the begining of the week and at night with NO kids.

Well, I don't know about you, but I have enjoyed boring you all with my crazy organizing disorder/blessing:)) This also marks the end of our spring break, kinda sad that I'm gonna have to get up earlier again:(

Spring Break, Part 3

Today I had planned on talking about grocery shopping/meal planning, but my head is swimming with thoughts of clothes. Why clothes? Because today the kids and I are doing the dreaded chore of going through spring/summer clothes. So, tomorrow I will talk about grocery shopping.

This job really isn't that bad, it's just once I start I can't stop till it's completed becuase I don't want my house to be taken over by piles of clothes everywhere (and Naomi would just scatter them all over the house). I store all the clothes in beautiful plastic containers (I love containers of any kind) with labels. The label is just an index card taped to the container, I right the child's name with a Sharpie. If need be, I have seperate containers for summer and winter. That way you avoid dragging out every piece of clothing they own! Yesterday we went through the closets (the girl's dresses) and pulled out what didn't fit, they didn't like, etc. I had a goodwill pile, too big pile (which I would then place in their container for when they grow into it), or too small pile (which I would put into the next child's container).

In the past I would have every child come into the living room at the same time and try on their clothes and sort it out into piles, just for the sake of time. I have learned that I can not handle this and I have to do one child at a time. To do otherwise makes me want to cover my ears and run out of the room screaming! Nothing frazzles me more than 5 kids talking to me at the same time about different things! So, one at a time.

Just this year I discovered what a perfect time to do this. It's spring break, so they are all home and we have all day! It's also right before the S.S. Easter Program (they want to wear springy stuff)and the older girl's choir concert. Funny story about that...for choir they have to wear black pants/skirt and their shirt is provided. As Rachel and I were going through her closet yesterday she pulls out her black pants that don't fit anymore (she has had them for a couple years, it's amazing they lasted that long). I start to panic, the concert is Sunday and she doesn't have black pants. Which means I'm gonna have to drag the kids all over Quincy in search of black pants. How easy do you think it is to find black pants at the begining of spring!? Then, I remembered I had a black skirt in my closet (ya know, the one that hasn't fit me in years, but I hang onto it just in case). It fit her! Yeah, no shopping trip!! That also put into perspective for me that I will probably never fit into that skirt again:( I try to tell myself that I am blessed that I could carry these children and deliver them because so many are not able to, but it's so hard to remember that EVERY day when I get dressed. I should probably just let go of those clothes, maybe. Funny how I started talking about the kids clothes which led into mine, HAHA.

Well, the kids are hungry so I guess it's time to head to the kitchen for breakfast. That makes me smile...we were just talking about clothes not fitting, and now...let's eat! Who's hungry??

Spring Break, Part 2

Oops, I just about forgot I was doing this. (HEHE) Well, I don't know about you, but I have absolutely no idea what I did today! Oh well, the sun is out and it's warm...that's all that matters.

Today I thought I would talk about after school chaos:) Honestly, I think that the time the kids get home from school till they go to bed is the absolute craziest. So, I've been working on different ways to make that less stressful, and I think I have it about as close as it will ever be...or atleast until I have a personal assistant that does everything for me. (I'm still waiting for that one).
The first thing I had to change was my to-do list. Whatever I didn't get done before they came home would have to wait till another day. I do not try to work on anything I want to during after school hours (unless of course they are all being angels and everything is going smoothly).

When they get home they have a snack first thing. They are always very hungry when they get home!

Those that have homework start it, and those that don't get to play. This continues on through dinner prep time. For some reason, this is when my living room turns into Bonker's (for those that don't know, that's an indoor fun center in Quincy). When I'm in the right mood I can let this go, but sometimes in order for me to stay sane I have Rachel read a book to the other kids.

After dinner, the kids clean up! Jacob clears the table, Heidi takes out trash, Rachel and Becca alternate weekly washing and drying the dishes and sweeping the floor. Don't worry, Nemion has a job too...he sets the table. So, during this time Adam and I sit in the living room and talk and play with the little ones. Now, it hasn't always been this way. When they were too little to wash dishes I would wash them (we don't have a dishwasher:)). I enjoyed this time because Adam would take all the kids out of the kitchen and play with them elsewhere. Ahh, quiteness:)

After dish jobs the kids pack their lunches for school. The older two help the younger two.

Wednesday nights can be hectic trying to make it to church on time. So, I moved the kids' bath nights around to make it sooo much easier. They now bath/shower on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday (unless needed some other time). Alot less stressful that way.

I have also learned that if I want the kids in bed by 8:00p., then we need to start getting ready at 7:30.

Once the kids are in bed, this is mine and Adam's time together! We look forward to this time everyday. With 6 kids it is challenging trying to get away often for a date, but thankfully we have this time together every night!!

Spring Break

This week my kids are off of school, due to 'spring break'. I am so excited to not have to get kids ready and off to school in the morning for a full week!! So, I thought I would take this week to post a special series. I absolutely love to organize...my house, our schedules, ANYTHING! So, everyday this week I'm going to post what/how I do things. Not at all to sound as if I have everything figured out, but just to share how I do things and maybe someone will be inspired by an idea. I have gotten some ideas from people that have helped me alot. So, I hope to be able to do the same for someone else.

Cleaning will be the first subject to tackle. Weekly cleaning (such as dusting, vacuuming, etc.) is done every Friday. I picked that day because my kids don't have school on that day and they are here to help. (If your children are still too young to help, I feel your pain.) I also created a 'cleaning book' which I've posted about before. It has worked wonderfully!

I do not spring clean, the thought of it totally stresses me out! So, I took an idea from flylady.com. She broke her house down into zones. Each week she works on a different zone for 15 minutes a day. You start off by decluttering, once that's done you can start on the cleaning. I just printed her lists off of her website then tweeked it where needed. There are 5 different zones, so this goes over the course of 5 weeks and whatever you don't get done in that week you can tackle the next time it comes around. If you are easily distracted or get caught up in a task and lose track of time (like me) then you can set a timer.

The bathroom is a stresser for me. With many little ones in there everyday getting ready it always looks as if the tube of toothpaste exploded in the sink. So, whenever it looks gross and bothers me (which is every morning after they are off to school)...i just do a quick wipe down. This is where those very handy cleaning wipes are wonderful. Aww, much better:)

I will also, usual on Wednesday, dust and vacuum the living room. Nothing major just a little something to make it look better. I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but a couple days after cleaning everything is really dusty again! I will also, wash my floors. Okay, I'll be honest...I don't do it every week. There I said it:)

Okay, so to recap...it sounds like alot but really it's not. Each day I wipe down the bathroom (and I'm talking sinks and mirrors, nothing else) it takes me a couple minutes, I spend 15 minutes working on a zone, and on Friday's we clean. Well, there's my cleaning in a nutshell, I hope it's been helpful.

Spring Forward

Oh, the wonderful time change!! "Spring forward" sounds so exciting, energetic. The long awaited word "spring" enters our vocabulary, we start thinking spring, hearing the birds chirping outside, visions of flip-flops dance in our heads. Then, Monday after the time change...what is this?? Where's the energy, the excitement of spring? I am so tired I'm walking on my treadmill with my eyes closed and hanging on for dear life! I feel as if I'm dragging myself through the day, where is the "spring" in my step?
I had every intention of posting this yesterday, but my computer was just as tired as I was. It decided to take a nap yesterday...maybe I should of as well.

Weekly House Cleaning

As a mother of six, weekly house cleaning can be a chore! Once a week, my older three children clean certain rooms in the house while I clean the bathroom and kitchen, or bake, or do laundry, or take care of the smaller children...okay, you get the idea! Well, I was finding that just giving the children instructions on "how to" clean each room (don't ask me how they forget week to week) was taking more time than I had. So, I took an idea from our years as houseparents and created a cleaning book. I went room by room and typed out detailed instructions on how to clean each room, slid them into clear sheet protectors, then placed them into a 3-ring binder. Now, the children can find the sheet for the room they are cleaning and take it out of the binder and take it with them. Since it's in a sheet protector they can mark each item with a dry erase marker as they complete it (so nothing is missed). It can then be wiped off before returning to the binder. Awww, I love organization!