Uncategorized

One of my biggest views on this blog is our Large Family Organization series.  I think people are curious as to how others organize and run their life.  I know for myself I enjoy reading about how others do things.  It doesn’t mean that I have figured out what is “perfect”, I have learned and grab bits of tips from here and there and put together what works for our family.  It is just like everything in life, you admire what someone does and you implement it into your life.  I don’t take everything, just what works for us.  I am sure we do things that others would think could be run better and I am ALWAYS up for growth.  That is why I wanted to update this series.  When I first wrote it, I had more little ones, nursing babies, and diapers.  Now my youngest is almost 3 and life has become much easier.  For most of my things, we keep it the same, but some have changed because we have changed homes and moved 700 miles from our last home.

One important thing about having a large family or any size family for that matter is the amount of things you accumulate.  If I kept everything, my home would be in disarray.  If I didn’t find a place to keep everything, than no one would know where it went.  For myself, when I start to feel stressed or realize that something is constantly messed up, I evaluate it.

• I go through the area and decide what is making the mess and weed it out.  If it is something we haven’t used much, I pitch it.
• I try and implement some sort of organization system and put it to use.
• I then evaluate over the next few weeks, in my head, whether or not the organization is working.
• If I find it is too messy, I weed out more or do a better job of organizing.
• If the area stays someone clean and it is easy for a younger one to help pick it up, then I keep it.

My last series began with the hallways, we don’t have many hallways in our current home, so I will bypass that and write first about our living room.

One of the biggest areas of mess, especially in a homeschooling family is the bookshelf.  We have had numerous bookshelves over the years.  We at one time had 3 bookshelves filled with books that we used for homeschooling.  Over the years, I grew tired of trying to keep bookshelves cleaned.  I then learned the wonderful resource called a library that offered many of the books that I had held onto.  I also had many little ones in the home who have destroyed multiple books because there were so many of them and I couldn’t be everywhere all the time.  I got smarter.  We also went through the realization that homeschooling didn’t require the use of so many books.  My husband was laid off one year and I learned the true value of the internet and FREE.  I put my skills to work and wrote all my children’s curriculum and offer it FREE on my blog to others.  You buy paper and folders and print it off.  Everything is there, it won’t cost a cent to use.  Your children will get a good education, mixed with a lot of love and they will be all set.

Another great way to weed out your bookshelf is to move 700 miles to a new home.  That will help you decide which books you truly value and which ones aren’t worth moving.

The things that have changed, is that I don’t have a separate place for schooling supplies.  The bookshelf is now the holder of that.  On the top shelf I keep printer paper and construction paper.  Those are two hot commodities in our home.  I make the children ask for them otherwise we will have crafty hearts all over the house.

The shelf on top holds my reference books that I have enjoyed over the years.  It has a couple of textbooks that we have saved and enjoy using.

The next shelf down holds my current years binders for schooling. I will also use it to hold their folders for the month.  I have some Johnathan Park series audio CDs on this shelf along with a 3 plastic drawer bin.  In these drawers I have my office supplies.  It holds pens, pencils, rulers, staplers, paper hole punch, paper clips, push pins, rubber bands, and scissors.  I don’t keep markers or crayons because I have learned–smile.  The rest of the books are ones we enjoy reading.  I have much empty space but when school time comes, we become weekly regulars at the library and fill them up quickly.

This is the same sturdy bookshelf that I purchased years ago, I spent a little more than the typical cheap “made in China” shelf and I am glad I did.  It has held up for years and made the trip here all in one sturdy piece.

Are your bookshelves too full?  Feel the need to weed out??  I offer tips on my old hallway post and I also wrote a book on decluttering.  You can find it for sale on the right side of this page.

Our office desk is in this room as well.  It is a simple desk that holds our printer and family laptop.   

In our home we have wooden blinds on all the windows.  They were here before we came, they are nice but I am always on the lookout for my children to not touch them.  I usually pull the blinds up and keep the cords up to prevent any accidents.   In our old home we had these word plaques from Christian Bookstore that I purchased on clearance.  I don’t keep many knicknack items, but these were words that give me meaning to life. 

I used to have one that said HOPE,  I would mediate on that word for many of nights as I sat nursing my babies in the living room being exhausted from being a Mom of littles.  It reminded me to be hopeful that things would get better.  As I was packing up to make our move to North Carolina HOPE got broken then I realized, I wasn’t looking for that “hopeful day” when life got easier, because it had come.  The ones that I had were  COURAGE and FAMILY to remind me to pursue what God has for us as a family and do it courageously.  It’s been good.

I have our family photos that I Modge Podge onto wood. Very simple and I will always do this instead of picture frames.

My fireplace mantle is simple.  I did Modge Podge with some family and friends photos and placed them up here.  In time–I finally have:), I want to get into making more decorations for the home, but it seems that life is busy enough without all the crafts—maybe through the winter time. 

Here is our entry way closet.  It holds the coats that we wear out.  We haven’t worn them since March, but they are here–smile.  On top are my bags for going out.  I always am packing up clothing for after swimming, towels for the entire family, and bags of supplies for picnics.  I keep our sunscreen and bug spray here, as it is at the door on the way out.  I have a container for hats.  I keep my younger ones sun hats plus my husband’s baseball caps, so he knows where they are.  To the left is the pantry on the other side of our kitchen.  I keep our extra paper supplies here.  That is why the take out containers is here.  We use those for our tailgate markets that we make dinners for each week.

I don’t keep any shoes in here.  I have everyone leave their shoes in their rooms.  I keep a pair of flip flops on the deck outside for most everyone.  The sun gets hot here and we have had our croc shoes  melt because of the high temps these last few weeks.  My last post, I talked about my cheap vacuum that was awesome, well I still have it and it works great!!

One thing we don’t have anymore is our homeschooling shelves, so I had to be creative with out things.  My little ones don’t get into things like they used to so I am able to keep games under our entertainment stand and they go untouched.  We had to weed out when we moved, but I kept the games that we use frequently:

• Sorry
• Large floor puzzles
• Chess
• Checkers
• Mancala
• Connect Four
• Go fish/Old Maid/Uno
• Rummikube
• playdough toys

Everything else had to be passed along, but we don’t miss them.  We have so much to do here as a family all year long, we don’t have as much need to make Family Game Nights.

The entertainment center in the center holds the same equipment as before.  I keep all miscellaneous remotes in here when not in use.  On the right and left are the DVD and videos that we decided to keep.  We have Netflix so we really have no need for many DVD’s.  We held onto the ones that we really enjoyed, but separated from the ones we didn’t watch much.  Living here, we don’t spend as much time watching TV like we used to.  Daddy likes to go, go, go.  Not much time to sit around and watch television—that is a good thing.

We have the same couch, it fits our family nicely, I assume we will have it for a long time.

All of our items that we have in our home as far as furniture usually has to pass the test of being durable.  I need commercial quality items.  When you have 11 people climbing on things, opening and closing doors, and yes I hate to admit, but coloring on things—you need durable. I need items that are going to last a long time.  In the beginning we did not do that, but as we got older, we got tired of rebuying things.  It is ALWAYS better to save a little bit more and get that better quality item then settle for something just to have it.

Another thing that I have come to LOVE about this home is that there are wood floors all throughout.  The best thing when you have lots of people running here and there.  It is so much easier to just sweep and swiffer the floors each day.

Up next…..the kitchen

It has been a very fun summer for our family here in North Carolina.  I originally was just taking time away from my blog to write all my curriculum for this coming fall for my children, but then life got busy and I started neglecting it.  Well I am thankful that I at LEAST took pictures so that I could share with you what we have been doing.

My daughter, Lauren and I enjoyed a nice  night out for a ladies meeting at our Hendersonville Church of God.  We had a powerful service and was very blessed by all that God had revealed to us.    We really are enjoying all that He has been doing through our church and excited for the coming future.  Lauren plays keyboard on the church’s worship band and is enjoying being part of the youth group.  I recently started doing Sunday School for the toddler/preschool class before service.  I am blessed by that time with my little ones.

Another thing that has kept us busy every Thursday is the Tuxedo Tailgate Market. It is basically where people pull up in their vehicles and sell items out of their trunk. We load up our wood items and sell them along with homemade bread and cinnamon rolls.  Jadyn and Brooklyn have started selling lemonade and sweet tea. Only 50 cents a glass if you are out in the area on Thursdays from 4-7 pm.

This has been one of our favorite times of the week.  We are enjoying getting to know other people in our community.  Something about belonging somewhere and making an impact.  I enjoy it.  Collin brings his guitar along and plays and sings music for us each week.  That has been enjoyable.  My children love “market” day.  We load up their bikes along with our supplies and enjoy dinner down at the park.

We make caramel frosting topped cinnamon rolls.  Yummy!!Here Jadyn is helping make the market’s worth of baking.

Yummy….

Here is Sadie.  Back in Michigan, Sadie was our country, cat chasing dog.  She was usually  found with those picky things all in her fur from running through the weeds and chasing some animal.  Here she has lost a ton of weight and enjoys regular shaves from the local dog groomer.  She comes back with this bandanna on her neck–she is becoming our “yuppy” puppy.  She enjoys her days hiking up the mountain and playing with the neighborhood dog.  A total change of lifestyle for her as well.

We have been enjoying going places weekly in our area.  There is so much to do and so many things to go see.  Here the children were petting the baby goats at Carl Sandburg National Home.            

Our business has been progressing well in this area.  Here we were attending a ribbon cutting ceremony for The Painted Home in Hendersonville.      This store sells some of our items.  It is a great store with lots of local homemade things.

We have a few other stores that we made this display to showcase our plaques with.

Here was a plaque that we made for The Carl Sandburg National Home.  You can buy it in the store at the home.  Lots of good business things.  Keeps my boys busy and motivated to want to have that entrepreneurial mindset.

Each week, we visit Table Rock State Park in South Carolina.  It has been our favorite place to swim at the lake and enjoy the park for a picnic.  Well one day we went up in the mini waterfalls to play in and for the most part it was covered in sand, but my son said for me to come and feel this waterfall.  It was knee high and felt wonderful, but it was on this smooth boulder.  I took one step away from the waterfall and slipped.  It was so quick that there was no time to catch myself and I  smashed the side of my face on the boulder.  My glasses hit and helped make this big gouge by my eye.  Needed 3 stitches.  Word of wisdom—AVOID SMOOTH FLAT WATERFALLS!  I was very thankful that it was not worse.  I literally had a swollen eye for about 2 days and then it went down.  I had a small bruise on my cheekbone and one on my hip.  Within a week all you could see was the scar from the stitches.

The weather has been wonderful, lots of sunshine and heat.  We have been enjoying playing out in the kiddie pool pretty much everyday.  Collin and Lauren have ventured out and work at the local cafe.  Lauren waitresses and serves ice cream and Collin plays his guitar on the weekend nights.  If you need a good place to eat the best burgers in town—The Good Times Cafe in Zirconia–lots of good friendly service.

We also invested in fishing poles upon moving here.  Back during the winter time they were like $7 a pole at Walmart for a set.  Now they are up to $28.  We take these each weekend and the children love to try and catch a fish.  Jadyn was the first one to catch one here in NC.  About 3 inches long–smile.

We also invested in inner tubes.  They cost $5 a tube and are a staple when going anywhere swimming.  We bought 2 hand pumps and fill up 9 tubes every place we go.

Here Lauren is pumping………………..

Oh wait, still pumping……………. Thinking we need a solar powered pump–smile.

This is what they are good for.  Whenever we goto a beach, as soon as we have our 9 tubes in the water we take it over.  These have been great for the Lake as well as the rivers.  We then had our friends come and stay with us for a whole week!!

We had an extra 10 people, thats 21 people in one household together!!!  It was so much fun.  Here we took the ONLY group photo in Table Rock South Carolina.

Our days were spent playing together.  It was kind of cute because we had all these little ones crammed in this pool and they were having so much fun-splashing and squirting each other.  No one complained that they had only a small area to play in.  They were just having a good time. 

Lots of game playing, memory making, and fun time of fellowshipping.

We almost fit around the table all together.  The children all smooshed together and we ate as we could. This was our first meal together.

Eating homemade popsicles—a must when you have lots of children.  Check out all the recipes that we make on our frozen treats page.

The older ones, spent much of their time out on the front porch–away from all the little ones.  Much quieter–smile.

Here were those tubes put into action at Hookers Falls.  They enjoyed swimming and touching the waterfalls and a slow move down the river.

Lots more water play—if you didn’t want to get wet–don’t come on the porch.  It was record breaking temperatures when they came.  We had 105 degree days almost everyday, it was HOT!

Here is what the clothesline looked like almost every morning.  Lots of towels used for swimming and then baths—I love it!!

Here the girls enjoyed a night out at Asiana restaurant.  They all tried frog legs—it didn’t go over well.

Here is my friend Crystal—we grew up together and have enjoyed being friends for all these years.  She is expecting baby number 9 in a few months.  What a blessing!  Lots more fun.  Now they can say that they actually have played in a waterfall.

Boys with their water gun fights.

Making meals and clean up was so fast with all those extra helpers.  Lots of girls to help get things done. 

Here were some of the fish that the boys caught when we went to the park.  I think they had 4.  They each got to have more of a fish nugget–but it was good to scale the fish themselves and cut them up. Good memories.

Another attempt at a group photo—-I think it’s impossible to get everyone to look the same place at one time. 

After a wonderful week of staying, they left.  We will be sad that they go but we really enjoyed the visit and will remember all the fun things we did.

We then had our oldest daughter, Ashlyn come visit us for a week as well.  She is finishing up her teaching degree back in Michigan and hasn’t been able to come down for a visit yet.  We really had a great time.

We did lots of hiking.  Here the boys–Stephen and Jentzen were taking a break from hiking.

Stephen found himself a walking stick—something you need when you hike.

Here were the views from Caesers Head in South Carolina.  Very pretty.

The family photo—I think I will use it for Christmas this year—-BUT wait, we are still missing a child.  Lauren had just gotten back from church camp this day and was exhausted beyond exhaustion.  She stayed home to sleep and missed out on the photo.  I am thinking I will hone in on my photoshop skills and stick her in somewhere.  It will work.

This takes us up to the present time.  I am thinking life is going to slow down a bit now and I am excited to become a regular blogger again.  Keep watching for some more series this week.  Be blessed.