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Will life ever get easier? Hope for the weary mom

amy / 11/14/2013

Will life ever get easier???

Those were words that sat at the back of my mind over the last 6 years. For those that do not know our story let me share a bit. My husband and I had 4 children within the first 6 years of marriage. The Lord was gracious and as I had gotten saved, during my 4th pregnancy, he did not allow us any children for 5 years. (we did suffer a miscarriage and our baby, Jordan is in heaven waiting to greet us). That was a good time to grow and learn about Him. Then the Lord said, “Okay you have been praying about children let me give them to you”…and give them to us He did:). We had 6 more babies over the course of 7 years.

My life was a daily cycle of wake up, change diapers, nurse babies, feed toddlers, clean up, change diapers, nurse babies, feed toddlers, clean up, etc, etc. There was NO time for anything extra. Zero mommy time. It was a time for me to have my babies. It was an enjoyable time. I loved being pregnant, loved having babies, loved everything about it, but I was tired. My husband was working a lot at this time and he was not able to relieve me of my duties very often. It was good for me, good to learn how to handle all of these little ones. But it was hard. Only by the grace of God did I get through it.

God is able to do so much more than we can ask or think. I remember on more than one occasion wondering if it would ever get any better???

Do you know what?? It does. It does get better. A whole lot better. We push through the storms of life and when we finally reach the other side, we made it. Sometimes we are a little wet or weather beaten, but we get there. All the sacrifice and time spent pouring into my children is paying off.

I remember the days of shopping for our large family and having to come home and put everything away, it was overwhelming. Do you know that I now have a teenager who loves to organize my pantry? She takes over as soon as we bring the groceries home. It is her domain and I am thankful to relinquish that duty to her.

Putting laundry away is a HUGE chore in our household.

I for the most part have never folded a sock, pair of underwear, or pair of leggings. Who has time to do that when you have 5 baskets of clothing to put away? The above picture is how I just throw all the items into the drawer.

But I am happy to say that my 8 year old, loves to fold and organize the laundry every night while she is watching a video before bedtime. What a blessing it is.

Here are my drawers now:) She loves to even roll the underwear:)

Meal time in our home used to be serve the children and by the time you were done serving, getting drinks, and feeding some children seconds, most were done. You had to wipe faces, hands, start wiping up their messes, there was no time to sit down and eat together. It was a rush, rush situation. It was very loud, and something we got through quickly. But again I am happy to announce that just recently our meal time has become much more quieter, calmer, and easier going. The baby who is now 1, will sit and keep himself occupied while others are eating. The 2 and 3 year old, are learning to feed themselves without much spilling. Our 5,6, and 8 year old are quite the conversation starters in our home. It is nice to be able to sit and have conversations around the table. We use our conversation table starters to begin our dinner meals.

I now can wash diapers every 3 days instead of every day. I only have the baby to change during the day. There was a time I had 3 babies in diapers. Talk about overwhelming.

Laundry in our home can be overwhelming in our home of 12 people! I am happy to say that I have trained my oldest 4 to do their own laundry. I now just take care of my husbands and mine and the 6 little ones. Talk about a WAY easier job. (some of you might be laughing, well from 12 people to 8 people’s laundry is still less.)

The internet was something foreign to me up until about August of this year. Now I am able to do my blog while everyone sleeps for the night. And yes, my children FINALLY for the most part sleep through the night. There was a time I had a infant nursing, a 1 year old up 2-3 times per night and a 2 year old waking me up. I think I had just given up on a full nights sleep. I took what I could get during that time.

I even remember in the summer time, not even going outside by myself because I had so many little ones and they would all scatter to different parts of the yard and it was hard to keep them together. We pretty much stayed indoors until Dad came home and took us to the beach. They would at least all stay by the edge of the water. But nowadays I can even send the little ones outside and I can watch from a large picture window. They know where they can play at and they stay in that area. Amazing how much just a little time will do for you.

I share all of this to let you know, Yes, you will return to normal again, you will sleep more than you currently do, and you will have time for yourself, eventually. Keep staying the course, enjoy those moments with your babies as they will go by so quickly, and you won’t ever get them back.

Managing a large family series part 2

amy / 11/13/2013

This is part 2 of our series –managing a large family.

In part 2 we begin with my realization moment…………………..

As Ma said “Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, Mend on Wednesday, Churn on Thursday, Clean on Friday, Bake on Saturday, Rest on Sunday.”

I started thinking, I knew that there was no way possibly to simply do just one thing each day. For example, on Friday I wouldn’t be able to just do my cleaning on that one day. But I could choose a main focus for each day and focus mainly on that topic. As well as throw in a few miscellaneous chores to fill in the gaps.

After some prayer and consideration I started out with planning out our week. This is what my main focus is for each day:

Monday–Laundry day
Tuesday–Office day
Wednesday–Baking day
Thursday—Errand day
Friday–Cleaning day
Saturday–finish projects, family day
Sunday–rest day

With a day dedicated to a specified task, I am able to get everything done that I need to get done for that day. That allows me free time to do my blog, during the evening while everyone is sleeping, instead of catching up on household work.

Also knowing what our focus is for the day allows the children to know what it is we are going to be doing and then they have a “heads up’ to how they can be a helper for that day.

So lets begin……As stated in part 1 , I mentioned that I recommend Steve and Terry Maxwell chorepack system. I mentioned all of the negatives that we were having as a family, but I did not say that we still use their method, just a little simpler.

I made a list of all of the daily chores that needed to be done in our home each and every morning. For example:

picking up floors
sweeping floors
vacuuming living room
dishes wash
animals fed
bathroom wipe

I then divvied up the chores between the children and then place them in their chore pack holders. I then hook them onto their clipboards and leave them there everyday. I do not switch them out I leave them their. For the most part the children know what jobs they do every morning.

Here is a view of the current daily morning chores:

[gview file=”https://plainandnotsoplain.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/use-this-one.pdf”]

This hangs on our homemade clip boards. These were super easy to make and help with kitchen clutter. If I have a paper for someone, or need to add a special chore for someone, I just write it on a small piece of paper and put it onto their clipboard. It frees up much paper mess in my kitchen area.

My children know that after breakfast they are to do their morning chores first and then get ready.

[gview file=”https://plainandnotsoplain.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Eat-Breakfast.pdf”]

This is what we post on the wall beside the clipboards. Our version has some clipart in it, but I don’t believe I can post that for my blog:) But the children go through this list to make sure that they get all that needs to be done for their morning.

Then after the basic chores are done, personal grooming attended to, we begin school.

For the most part, our schooling is done online. We use allinonehomeschool.com The younger children—-5,6, and 8, do a combined schooling from the online courses. I would like to one day do something similar but make it more multiple child friendly, in time.:) We do our online lesson and then use Phonics Pathways and do a page from that for each child. They are all at different levels of reading and this helps us learn the basics. Afterwards I have the readers, each read me a book. I then have ordered numerous books at the beginning of the month and I grab about 5 and sit down and read to all the younger half of children—ages 8 on down.

The older children, are pretty self sufficient at there school—I have one that I need to check his schooling daily and I do that after lunch –it takes me about 15 minutes of one on one time. The two older high schoolers, come to me with any project or questions that they have. Usually once a week we go over anything that we need to discuss.

We believe that the most important schooling is life learning. We know learning book studies is important but would rather see our children doing hands on life lessons to prepare them for their future. Our oldest was very determined to attend college, most of her days were spent doing book work as she enjoyed learning that way. She is attending college and heading towards her Bachelors Degree. The next son is a hands on man, he is learning many skills to equip him to successfully run a business by helping run our home business. Our daughter is preparing by learning many homemaking skills. She uses our home economics course to learn as many homemaking skills as she can. She is becoming very virtuous by learning many different skills right now in her teen years.

We then break for lunch and make something simple. Then have some dinner prep time, play time with the little ones, and then it is naptime.

During naptime, I get anything I would like to achieve for that day, sometimes it is extra schooling with a child, working on my blog, taking a nap—because I was up with many children, getting some baking done, whatever it is I have focused for my day–more on that in a few.

After naptime around 3, we have a snack. Usually an apple, snack mix, pumpkin chocolate chip muffin, or whatever treat we may have baked.

We then all stop what we are doing, come together and complete our “extra” chores for the day. I have them all printed out, clipped to our clipboards. We then pick and choose based on whoever is available to get them done. Some days my daughter has riding lessons and she is not available so I rely on the other children. It depends on who is there that is why this works for us. Our lives change much and this way allows me to get the work done that needs be done.

We also do a quick pick up of the house, for Daddys’ arrival. We then have dinner and the rest of our night is free to do whatever it is Dad has planned. Sometimes we watch movies and have popcorn, other nights are spent working on the family business. Even the 8 year old is out in the garage using the planer making wood signs!

Having this schedule allows us to get everything done and then when Dad is home, have our time together as a family. I used to work late into the night and be totally exhausted. I would of chosen to do work instead of sitting watching a movie with my family. I have since changed that mentality. Mind you, there are days when I do need to do something other than sitting watching a movie, but I try and accomplish all of “our” work so that when my husband is home, we are free to do whatever it is he wants to do. By the way, he isn’t controlling, he just REALLY enjoys his family:)

Okay, now that I gave a basics of how we schedule out our days, here is a day by day breakdown of how our weeks go……..up next Monday is laundry day