Dressing Up

 Because we had this going on almost daily....we have been trying to find and collect boy dress-ups this summer for our little guys.

 After we collected some cowboy/prince/dragon/dinosaur/spiderman costumes, then we had this going on!

And one day the boy and girl dress-ups collided into this!



Great Yard Sale Find

In late July, I happened to find a "yard sale" in a former health food/novelty shop that was going out of business.  Not only did I get some great Wyoming posters for my guest room and some Wyoming t-shirts for $1 each but they had cases of Wyoming-made chokecherry jelly marked down from $5 a jar to 24 for $20.  Needless to say, I bought a case thinking they would make nice Christmas gifts for neighbors and friends.

But these didn't make it to Christmas because I decided they would make excellent "thank you" gifts for all the families that helped us move and clean our new home.  I had planned to do cookie plates or baked good thank-yous for our volunteers, but these were much easier for a tired, pregnant mama and everyone loved them!

Favorites

We have these a few times a week with supper:

Green spinach smoothies made with homemade yogurt and fruit.

Mmmmm!

On a less healthy note, my tastebuds always start longing for a caramel apple when the air turns cooler and the leaves start changing colors!

"Mom, Where Are My Shoes???"

With 3 small children in a large house, shoes can disappear quickly.

We have one child, particularly, who can NEVER find his shoes.

I was so excited when someone gave us this pretty wooden bench, which fits in our entryway and found that it solves our shoe problems nicely.

The kids are told to keep all their shoes in this one spot.  No more stuffing them under beds, in bedroom closets, or random places throughout the living room.  If I see shoes discarded by the door or laying about in the schoolroom they immediately have to carry them down to the shoe bench.  This is the "central shoe spot" and when it's time to go somewhere, we all head down to the entryway and they grab a pair before heading out the door.

We have a lot of extra shoes thanks to good yard sale finds, hand-me-downs from everyone we know at church and from one sibling to the other.  Here, in the guest room closet where I store larger-sized clothing for the kids, I keep the Shoes-To-Grow-Into.  When a child's shoes begin to feel to too tight, we go "shopping" in the closet for a new pair or two. 

Laundry Room Magic

Our laundry room still wouldn't be called a pretty place, but if you had seen it two months ago you would say it is looking amazing these days!  I think we got at least 2 dump loads of filth and garbage out of this room alone.  And the window that was sooooo caked with dirt and cobwebs that you couldn't even see outside is now sparkling clean and I can keep an eye on the kids playing in the yard while I'm folding laundry.

This is the right side of the laundry room. 

Yay for having a deep freeze again for my freezer cooking endeavors!

My drying rack gets used for delicate items and this is also where I hang my ziploc bags with clothespins for drying.  Potatoes go in the tater box and recyclables in the garbage bin. 

After reading this amazing book and being inspired by the super-organized Duggar family's idea of a family closet, I got to thinking that I should try to make a "family closet" in our laundry room. I also enjoyed this vlog from Stephanie on her family closet.

There was a shelf already in this room that wasn't being used, which was a perfect place to start.
 

I got a bunch of washtubs from the Dollar Tree to hold the kids' clothes.  As they grow, their clothing will be too big to fit in these small tubs, but hopefully by then they will also learn to fold and put away their own clothing, eliminating the need for all of their clothes to be in the family closet.

Since Josiah and I have a very nice master bedroom closet upstairs, our "family closet" is just for the 3 little kids downstairs, all of whom have had trouble with scattering clean clothing about their rooms, and have had a hard time keeping their closets and clothing tubs orderly. I was also letting the clean laundry pile up too high on the folding table because of that extra effort required to get the clothing to the appropriate bedroom.  I don't mind washing or folding laundry, it's putting it away that I hate!

I have one basket for Katrielle's stuff, which is just a holding pen for it until it is taken upstairs to her dresser in our bedroom.  Each child has a sock bin and an undie bin, there is a swimsuit box where all the kids' swimsuits are kept, and the boys each have a shirts and pants box.  Ali's main clothing boxes are under the folding table and contain skirts, shorts, and pants in one, and shirts in another.  Sweatshirts, dresses, church clothing, etc. hang in their closets in their bedrooms.

Now that all of the kids' regular clothing is in one spot, it is soooo much easier for me to keep on top of the laundry and keep it put away where it belongs.  And it is UNBELIEVABLE how much cleaner their bedrooms are as a result!  It saves me so much time and energy not having to run piles to different rooms and not having to rewash clean clothes that were thrown in the hamper by kids who just assumed they were dirty because they were on the floor.  Now Jer doesn't have to ask if he has any clean underwear (because Mama hasn't gotten around to putting it away in his room) and we don't have to dig through piles and baskets to find clean socks.  Getting the boys dressed each morning is a snap as everything is in one place and Daddy doesn't have to be confused over which socks belong to which boy (since the tubs are now labeled with names).  The kids' laundry is quickly sorted as it goes straight from the dryer, to the table, to the bins.  Pajamas still go in the kids' rooms; Ali has a hanging closet organizer that holds hers and each of the boys have a shallow plastic tub under their beds filled with pajamas (which...like undies...I don't fold =).

The left side of the laundry room.  A shelf near the door holds my iron, dustbuster, laundry soap, Oxiclean, a Stray Socks box, and cleaning rags.  God provided this wonderful washer and dryer set for $200  for us this summer when I happened to mention in front of someone at a yard sale that we were looking for a set.   They work great!

In the future I hope to have Josiah install a hanging bar above the washer and dryer that can be used for hanging dresses and blouses immediately after they are pulled from the dryer.  We will probably also do a lot more cleaning and some painting and freshening up down here, but at least for now, it's a very functional room for our family!

Question from a Reader

I'm not very good about getting back to those of you readers who ask questions!  If you ask 2 or 3 times you are very likely to get an answer, so just be persistant!


One question, asked by Carrie, was how I implement the Melissa and Doug chart featured in this post, for more than one child.


The Responsibility Chart is more of a family-as-a-whole chart at our house so if everyone has brushed their teeth, or all of the kids have been good about clearing their plate, cleaning up toys, etc. they get a magnet put on.  If only one child is doing something, then the kids who need to work on it will be admonished to do better tomorrow and I may put a magnet on just for the kid who did complete the chore.  Often they do chores together anyhow, like cleaning up the living room, all brushing teeth together before bed, etc..  Each day when we do our chore chart time we will review the things we need to work on for the week and I'll ask each of them how they are doing in that area.  For individual rewards, I have a little paper chart hanging on the wall with their name on it above the homeschooling table that contains 25 blank boxes.  Each time they say a memory verse or Ali reads a Beginning Reader book, or they answer me with a "Right away, Yes Ma'm!", do an extra chore, have an extra-cheerful attitude about schoolwork, exhibit a character quality we are working on, etc. I put an X in a box on their chart.  After 25 X's they get to choose a prize from my prize box.  My prize box is a plastic tub full of exciting little plastic toys, something I found in our shed this summer that was left over from my missionary work at Camp Good News as a teenager.



Each family has to find their own groove for chore charts, whether they will be by the individual or by the group.  For our family of very small children, the group method works for now.  If they are making progress on their chart and most of the boxes get filled in with a magnet during the week then they get their allowance, which at this point is 2 cents per week for Justus (just so he can feel big and have some offering like the other kids), 30 cents for Jer, and 50 cents for Ali.  If they completely disregard the chore chart or have a terrible week about doing chores then allowance will not be given out.  At this point in time, I see myself as the main facilitator of the chore chart.  My kids are so little that I am primarily responsible for enforcing the cleaning up of rooms, the morning routines, the reminders to clear their plates off the table after dinner, the brushing of teeth, and so on.  At some point we may move to a system where they take charge of their own list of things to do each day but for now, the responsibility chart is a good reminder for me each day of what I need to lead and train the children in doing.

Seeing Spots!

On Tuesday, I woke up to a big surprise.  Jer was covered in little red spots!  So last week was one of isolation for our family as we cancelled playdates and stayed home from the park helping Jer get through chicken pox.  So far, the other two have not gotten it although I check them each morning hoping to see spots.  The sooner they catch it, the sooner they can get over it and we can get back to socialization. I don't know where Jer caught it since no one we know has chicken pox, but I am thankful it has hit our home when my kids are very young.  After it's all done with I will have 3 children who are fully immune to the pox for life, without needing to get them booster shots or wonder if their immunity will wear off in adulthood.  For those whom are wondering, we do NOT vaccinate against chicken pox and prefer for our children to gain immunity through having the actual illness. 

I have been amazed at how easy it has been for Jer to deal with.  Calamine lotion and a couple of baths a day in oatmeal water has soothed the itch and I haven't had to tell him not to scratch.  After four days, his spots are mostly gone and no longer itchy.  He has not been extra whiny (which if you know Jer, is a miracle) and has done his schoolwork as normal and has had normal amounts of energy and appetite.  I remember having chicken pox at age 10 and I was utterly miserable and laid on the couch for over a week with chicken pox in my mouth, on my eyelids, and in my hair.  I had at least 5x as many spots as Jeremiah.  It is definitely harder for older kids or adults than for tiny kids!

So, in the meantime....we play a waiting game....hoping Ali catches it soon so she won't have to miss all 2 weeks of homeschool swimming which starts tomorrow, but at the same time being thankful that God allowed this illness to hit our family BEFORE Katrielle's arrival.

Anticipation

7 Months

One day the kids came upstairs looking like this

Ali is on a "no toys" kick right now because she's sick of cleaning her room, so I took her bin to use for her little sister's things in my room. 

A dresser and changing table set up in my bedroom.

One friend gave me this beautiful crib that she no longer wanted and another one gave me this pretty pink crib set.  For now it is in the guest room but it will go upstairs when Katrielle outgrows her bassinet.

A Character Qualities Pageant

Photo credit

A friend and I were talking at a swimming playdate this summer and she mentioned that her husband calls me "Miss Peace Like a River."  I almost laughed out loud.  Boy, if my husband and kids heard that, they would surely set him straight about how impatient and un-peaceful I can be on many a day (esp. when I'm in the family way!)  I appreciated the compliment, but I knew it would be more appropriate to call me "Miss Blows Like a Steam Engine Over The Slightest Thing."   As I thought about that comment I came to the conclusion that I would like to be "Miss Peace Like a River"  and to be patient with my family all of the time, even when outsiders aren't watching.  I have a long way to go, but it is one of my goals to strive for.

Wouldn't it be amazing if we as a society prized character above physical beauty?  Or even if those of us who are Christians spent as much time trying to be kind, gentle, loving, merciful, generous, patient, forgiving as we spend trying to look nice on the outside or trying to earn the approval and admiration of others?

The world is so backwards in its' thinking about what is important in life and oftentimes, those of us in the Church follow its' lead.  The women with the stick figures, big smiles, flashy jewels, and perfect make-up get the crowns and awards, when inside, they may be spiritually bankrupt and empty and treat others contemptuously.  Worldly men lust after those outwardly beautiful women, causing many women to believe their worth truly is in their looks and that they won't be loved by men or have friends unless they meet a certain standard physically.  Read 1 women's magazine off the racks and you'll be bombarded with 100 ads for new beauty products and articles that seek to convince you that you need to have this or that body or wardrobe makeover to look good. 

But, in God's eyes, the women who are the pageant winners are the women who possess inner beauty, "the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." (1 Peter 3:4).  Notice that this kind of beauty is unfading, unlike our physical bodies which will all grow older, more tired, more weak, more saggy and baggy and gray.

This weekend I hung out with some beautiful, unfadingly gorgeous women of character at a ladies' retreat.

Women like:

Mrs. Prays Like a Warrior

Miss Unshakeable Faith

Miss Believes in a Sovereign God

Mrs. Humble and Broken but Healed by Christ

Miss Transformed

Miss Sweet and Gentle Spirit

Mrs. Gracious and Giving

Mrs. Faithful For Many Years

Mrs. Uses Her Gifts for The Glory of God

Miss Joy-full

Mrs. Self-Controlled in the Face of Temptation

These inwardly beautiful people are so encouraging to be around!

They inspire me to be more like Christ.

God prizes character.  He's all about the heart.

Therefore, I want my home to be a place where character is valued above outward appearance. 

"Unofficial Bartering" also known as "Friendship"

A friend admired Ali's haircut I had given her. 

She asked me to trim her daughter's hair.

I did so with fear and trembling, because I really don't know what I'm doing

and the fact that Ali's hair turned out cute was somewhat of a fluke.

After the haircut she gave me a big bag of garden produce

Including these bright cherry tomatoes.

Sharing our gifts with one another...

....the beauty of friendship.

Hands-On Activities

Playing with Moon Sand for one of their hands-on activities.  I bought it from a fellow homeschooling mom's yard sale for $3 and we all love it!  I confess, I love making stuff with them in moon sand, it's got such a cool texture!

Eating "Alphabet Pretzels" that they helped me make on the first day of school.

Each day, I try to provide one hands-on experience for the kids.  Here is a list I made for myself of things we can choose to do:

Puzzles

Games

Cornmeal Tub

Rice Tub

Beans Tub

Moon Sand

Cooking Project

Cuisenaire Rods

Wooden Textiles

Painting

Duplos or Legos

Marbleworks

Beading

Playing with water

Stamps

Cubes

Blocks

Tour of Our Schoolroom

I've shown this before under my new house pics, but thought I'd show it again so you could get a glimpse of my "schoolroom" for homeschooling.  This huge closet in the large living room is one of my favorite things about our new house.

One side of the closet....

......the other side.

Justus standing in front of the school closet.

Our very large school table.  Considering that half of this table was all that would fit in our kitchen in our former home and was used for an eating/sewing/crafts/snacks/school table, it is a wonderful luxury to have a table all for school!

Schedules and Charts

Please don't be intimidated when you see all of these schedules and charts.  I'm not a "live by or die by the schedule" kind of person.  I'm flexible, my house is still not perfectly clean when visitors drop by unexpectedly, and I wasn't always this "detail-oriented."  The more children I have and the more we tackle (like homeschooling and extra-curriculars and moving) the more important having a routine and schedule becomes.

Our My Father's World curriculum and K-Math book from Amazon have not arrived yet as I had hoped.... so for now, this is my school plan.  When it arrives and I look it over and become familiar with it, I will need to tweak this a bit to incorporate MFW.  But for now, this is the plan.  I used two blank-calendar printables off the internet and taped them together above the homeschooling table.  Devo is short for devotions, which is what I call the Bible lesson.  Grat. Journals are the Gratitude Journals we started doing last year, where the kids draw a picture each day in their notebook of something they are thankful for.

My husband was a little shocked by how much I wanted to accomplish in a day until I explained to him that many of the things on here take 2 minutes, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes.  In fact, everything on the schedule can be accomplished in 2 hours on a good day, 3 hours on a day with crafts or a lengthier "hands on" time.  That leaves plenty of time in our day for playing outside, going to the park, visiting friends, doing household chores, etc.

My mom saw this in the Oriental Trading catalog for $13 and asked me if I wanted to buy it.  It's great for teaching the kids the concepts of months, days of the week, etc. 

For a while, I tried index cards for household management, and after that daily to-do lists and a home management binder.  Then, for the last year it was a bit of just doing what had to be done and cleaning where it was needed.  However, after moving to a huge house, I realized it would be good to have a chart just to glance at daily or at least a few times a week to make sure that things were getting done.  We used to have 1 laundry hamper which we all shared, now there are 5, with another to come when baby joins us.  So, it's nice to have this chart, reminding me what needs to get done to manage the chores at home.  A lot of it is just habit, like making the bed each day or bathing the kids on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday night but some of it is new for me, like having a guest room bathroom to clean and an entryway to vacuum, etc.

This Melissa and Doug Responsibility Chart is awesome for teaching kids to do their chores.  We've had it for a couple of years now and it's been a wonderful tool.  From 7:00-8:30 a.m. we work on eating breakfast, getting dressed, getting morning chores done, and then at 8:30 a.m. we start school.  When we do our chart, we are usually looking back a day.  So, on Monday we will talk about whether or not they whined on Sunday, made their bed yesterday, or used their manners all day, etc.

My weekly menu plan is just a magnetic pad I got at Walgreens for $1 last year.  Once a week, as I'm planning my weekly shopping trip, I'll write down 7 dinner ideas and then shop for ingredients for those meals as needed.  Lunches are usually leftovers or sandwiches so I don't even plan those out unless I have a special event and breakfasts are usually cereal, since my husband prefers it over a hot breakfast.  I try to always keep pretzels, popcorn, crackers, or fruit and cheese on hand for the kids' twice daily snacks and I don't usually plan out side dishes as we usually have frozen veggies, bread, salad, or fruit as dinner sides.  Each day I choose which of the 7 meals fits my schedule and mood/cravings and make it.  Menu planning at it's simplest!  As you can see, this week I had tuna sandwiches planned for one meal and then realized we had frozen hamburger patties in the freezer and decided those sounded better!

This planner, $1 in the Target dollar section, is where I manage all other areas of life.  Again, I'm not someone who lives for my schedule and checks it constantly.  Many a day will go by without me needing to look at it.  But for family and friends' birthday reminders, lists of people I need to write thank-you notes to, financial notes, dental and prenatal appointments, reminders of which pregnancy week I am on, extra-curriculars like homeschool swimming, AWANAS, or just super busy days where I have 10 things to do and need a place to write them down, this is the spot!  Some people use a wall calendar for this kind of stuff, but I prefer to have mine portable so I can take it on planning trips to the library or wherever I happen to be doing some month-at-a-glance planning in the house.

1st Day of School at Home

More to come this week on our homeschool curriculum, schedule, classroom, etc.........

Confessions of a Tired Mom

Many of my friends assume I'm a "supermom." In fact, one of the first things I hear out of people's mouths when they ask where Ali is going to school and I tell them she'll be homeschooled is, "I could never do that!" or "You are amazing!"  I then feel obligated to launch into a defensive discourse on how I actually enjoy teaching, like the whole organizing and choosing curriculum stuff, and find this area to be a gifting while mentioning that they have many gifts that I don't have in order to try to dispell the "I'm More of a SuperMom Than You" myth. 

In spite of the fact that I am a homeschooling mom and happen to enjoy bulk cooking, baking, sewing, and keeping a blog, I'm the furthest thing from "supermom."  Being a mom of three has never been harder for me.  Pregnancy has always been the most tiring condition I have found myself in and especially in the last trimester;  this time around is no exception, made worse by low iron levels.  Naps?  The very idea is a joke for anyone with more than one or two kids!  My in-laws' just left after a 5 day visit and though they got tons of projects done on our house, it's not easy having company and keeping them fed many times a day, especially when you are hot and tired.  Justus, my only child who takes naps, just started cutting his naps in half for no apparent reason and also seems to be coming down with a cold,  my husband has been consumed with projects on the house in addition to working his regular physically-draining job, and I have found myself doing more than ever before with our move this summer, which has left me feeling like a single parent much of the time. 
 
 
In reality, many days I find the weight of motherhood to be CRUSHING.
I hover in a strange state between adoring my kids and feeling so blessed to be a mommy and savoring cuddle-time with them and yet being so sick of them and feeling like I am not able to have 30 seconds in my day where someone isn't calling, "Mommy!!!" or needing wiped, or a drink, or their hands washed, etc.  Sometimes I hide from them in my big house and let them wander around the house looking for me for a few minutes just so I can have a moment's peace.  Sometimes I turn the baby monitor off upstairs because I can't bear to hear any more screaming or whining from one of the boys and don't know how to make him stop and just go to sleep.  Even though I am firm in my reasons for homeschooling, I am often envious of my friends, most of whom have chosen public school this year, as they get a break from their active children while they are at school all day.  If I had the money, I would definitely hire a nanny to watch the kids for at least a couple hours every day during this stage of life! 
 
 
I know that a huge part of my frustration with motherhood and my kids is pregnancy fatigue and hormones, but that doesn't make the days of whining, fighting, crying, messes, etc. any less difficult to handle in the meantime as I await my body's return to normalcy.  I empathize with and understand why some of my mom friends are tempted to drink alcohol, cry uncontrollably and drown in depression, or enroll their kids in as many programs as possible to survive this thing called "being a mom."  I often look for an escape from the kids too, whether in a book, surfing facebook, in a sewing or photography project, in a TV series on Hulu, etc. 


So often I think moms are afraid to admit how they really feel because they don't want to give the impression that children are a burden to the world around them and they feel the need to hide behind their joys and successes so that they can "measure up" to others who seem to be incredible moms instead of admitting that this is the hardest job they've ever had.  But we need each other and the depth of friendship that comes when two people realize that they're in the same boat!  Which is why, amidst the tips and recipes and homeschooling ideas I share on this blog, I feel the need to periodically remind you, my readers, that I'm human and going through a lot of the same frustrated feelings that you are dealing with!


I'm selfish, I'm sinful, and I desperately need God's strength to mother well.
I'm weary, worn-out, and lack the wisdom I need to lead these little ones.
But He is faithful, even though I rarely am!
And our Lord provides the strength and grace we need to get through the most difficult stages of mothering...and life.
 

If you, too, are in a difficult season of mothering, know that He cares and wants to carry that burden for you and lead you as you lead your little ones.

A Disciple's Renewal

One of my favorite prayer/devotional books is called "The Valley of Vision."

I love these lines, taken from the prayer, "A Disciple's Renewal"

O my Savior,
Help me.
I am so slow to learn,
so prone to forget,
so weak to climb;
I am in the foothills when I should be on the heights,
I am pained by my graceless heart,
my prayerless days,
my poverty of love,
my sloth in the heavenly race,
my sullied conscience,
my wasted hours,
my unspent opportunities.

Make it my chiefest joy to study Thee,
mediate on Thee
gaze on Thee.

Give me increase and progress in grace
so that there may be
more decision in my character,
more vigour in my purposes,
more elevation in my life,
more fervour in my devotion,
more constancy in my zeal.

Justus is Two!

Yard Sale Bargains!

25 cents for a beautiful skirt and top in my size!  Will be perfect for next Easter!

50 cents for these wooden blocks for our homeschooling resource closet!

I was only going to buy a few of these but then got to thinking they would make amazing gifts for grandmas and grandpas this Christmas if I filled them with pics of our new baby!  I also thought they would be a great craft thing for us to do at my Pregnant Moms Party I'm having this fall.  We can write notes to our baby and put pregnancy pics in them, etc.  I got 13 (all still new and in their original packaging) for $4.

A brand-new little picture frame for Katrielle.  I'm going to hang it above the changing table in our "nursery nook" area of our bedroom.

Our bedroom walls are bare.  This beautiful find will display a wedding pic nicely.

$2 for this wall-hanging for our dining room

25 cents for this lovely vase!  If you know me well, you know I'm a sucker for pottery, it's so pretty!

25 cents for this cute little dress for Ali!