The Babies' "New" Room

Considering that one of my "babies" just turned 4-years old, I may need to come up with a new term of endearment...but, naw, he will always be my "baby"!

That is the big girls' door you spy on the other side of the hallway

Our house has 4 bedrooms, and every room currently has 2 people in it.  Each person in our family shares a room with someone else - including Jas and I!

When A was 11 months old and was ready to move out of our master bedroom, we briefly tried her in the big girls' room.  It went ok, and we certainly could make it work, but it quickly occurred to us that it would work better logistically if we had the youngest two share a room. (G had a room all to himself at that point.)  They won't share for forever - but for right now it works great...and we all love it!

Once I realized that this arrangement was going to stick for a while, I wanted to make the room look nicer...but without spending much money (always looking to be frugal!).  

When we first moved Abigail in the room, G was still using the crib (that was setup as a daybed - with the side taken off), and A was using a pack-n-play.  So our first change was to put the crib side back on, and have A start sleeping in the crib.  And Mr. G moved to a precious toddler bed.  

Dr. Kathy gave us this toddler bed several years ago.  We hadn't needed it until now, but it was so cute and I knew we would one day use/need it, so we held on to it...so glad we have this!  I found G some "toddler" bed-sized bedding with a "Mighty Sheen" (aka Might Machine) theme, and was he ever thrilled!

The only other new thing I purchased for the room was movable decals to decorate above each of their beds.  The decals were $9 and $13 each on amazon.  

I found these "Mighty Sheen"/ Construction decals for G:

Placing these decals was like pure torture for this girl.  Good thing they are movable!  I moved, and moved some more...and then tweaked more...and more...for days!

And I found these cute Flower/Bug decals for A's crib:

I ordered the pink satin sheet (to protect A's hair) on Etsy

One funny: The pillowcase on G's bed has this digger on one side....

"Peter" sleeps with G at night, and rests on the bed during the day

...and a different machine (dump truck?) on the other.  I had not even noticed that the sides were different, but one day soon after we got the bedding G became very agitated and asked where his pillow was.  It was right there in front of him, but he said, "No...MY pillow!  With the digger!"  He certainly had noticed that the sides were different, and he much prefers THIS side...thankyouverymuch!

And I almost forgot the last two things I bought for their room:  the letters A and G.  I picked them up at Hobby Lobby for about $3 each.  We already had the correct paint colors (which just made me smile)...and voila!  

Between the window, two closets, and two doors, furniture placement is kind of tricky in this room.  One other furnishing in the room is the "picket fence" bookshelf that Jas built before Elisabeth came home:

G and A love picking books off this bookshelf for us to read to them!

This white chest of drawers is a wonderful hand-me-down from my parents.  It has quite a bit of storage, but it's (very) vertical nature means it doesn't have a big footprint:

And finally, this little wooden cradle holds all manner (and all hues) of precious babies:

One last funny:  As I sat in their room snapping pics, Miss A did laps - through the hall, into the big boys' room, through the Jack-n-Jill bath, into/through her room...and on...and on:

Look at the speeding bullet heading out her door...again

I am so pleased with their precious little room, and so thankful that we 

were able to make it so cute so affordably!

Heart Smiles

My mom had hip replacement surgery on Tuesday.  Everything went well and she is doing good, all things considered.  The children and I were headed to the hospital yesterday to visit Lao Lao (Lao Lao is Chinese for "maternal grandmother").

When we are going "out" I want the children to look nice.  When the children (and I) all look nice and presentable I've found that we get more smiles from everyone around us, and are more likely to hear "What a beautiful family you have!" rather than, "You have your hands full!"(said with a look of consternation).  (Oh, if I only had a dollar for every time someone has uttered those words to me, though, Jas could retire!)

But I digress...

Since the children were looking so cute...I decided to take 20 seconds and snap a picture of them before we loaded up in The Silver Bullet.

I took 7 pictures in those approximately 20 seconds.

In every one of them Gabriel is smiling like this.





He seriously is trying to smile.

He was being obedient and smiling for the camera.  This is just the way he smiles on command right now.  [sigh]












All my children have gone through this awkward smile phase, and I know it will pass.

But in the meantime, these pictures make my heart smile.

I love that G is so exuberant (if misguided) about smiling for the camera.

I love that my 9 and 10-year old boys love and think it is cool to match their 2-year old brother.

I love....these children.  "All" these children.  Yes, they are all mine.

Oh, Lord, how I love these children...and thank you for them!

Links that Deserve a Look - May 16, 2014

As I read and learn new things during the week, I often think to myself, "Oh, I wish my friends could see this also!"  It finally occurred to me I could gather my favorites for the week and share the links here.  I hope you find these articles as helpful as I have!



GOOD READS:

God Doesn't Need You (But He Desperately Wants You) by Amongst Lovely Things - Stuff we know (pointing at head), but need to constantly be reminded of.  (Or is that just me???)

More than Just a Pretty Smell: The Proven Health Benefits of Essential Oils by The Prairie Homestead - I've been using essential oils for years now for all sorts of things (cleaning products, headache remedy, homemade toothpaste, etc.) and it is so nice to see them becoming more mainstream.  EOs have huge benefits!

The Thyroid Sessions "Everything Your Doctor Didn't Tell You about Thyroid Problems" is a set of FREE Online Presentations going on right now.  They will be REplaying the top 4 videos again this weekend!

Summer Reading Lists by Sonlight Curriculum - I'm always on the lookout for reading list recommendations from trusted sources.  How have I not known that Sonlight put this list out every summer???  The lists are divided into boy/girl and into elementary/middle/high school lists.  I've just requested 30+ books through our inter-library loan system...hopefully that will keep our kiddos in some good reading during our annual trip to the beach!

Large Family Crisis Reduction: Getting Ahead  by Sherry at Large Family Mothering - Smart, smart tips (from a mom with 3 times as many children as me) on how to live life without chaos, even in a larger-than-normal family.



GOOD EATS:  

And here are some links to new recipes that we've just recently tried for the first time...and loved:

Banana Bars by Real Food Forager  - these bars (and her Cinnamon version) have created a breakfast revolution at our house!  We like to add walnuts.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread by Finding My Niche - Made these for breakfast this morning...we added walnuts to this also.  Yummy enough to be a dessert, nourishing enough to be part of a healthy breakfast (along with our ever-present eggs, of course!)...winning combination...definitely a keeper.

Peanut Butter Brownies by Health, Home and Happiness - I found this recipe the other day (four ingredients, looked yummy) and I made them to take to my Homeschool moms' meeting Monday night.  Thankfully I doubled the recipe so my family got some also.  A hit all the way around!  I've already been getting requests for more.  (You can use almond butter instead of peanut butter.)

Chicken Fajita Soup by Peace, Love and Low Carb - I love all the flavors in chicken fajitas, so when I found this I thought it sounded like it would be wonderful.  I was right!  It's on the menu again for next week.

How This Family-of-Seven Handles Laundry

Who do I think I am talking about laundry after airing my dirty clean laundry for everyone to see?

It really was clean...I promise!

As I mentioned in that post, I don't have a problem getting the laundry washed...it's just the putting away the clean laundry that trips me up all the time sometimes.

I also mentioned in that post that the children (save G) do their laundry themselves.  I thought I'd share our method of doing laundry - that I learned in a magazine article from a mom-of-4 - that has helped us so much.


First, let me mention a laundry method that does **not** work for me.  In the book, Large Family Logistics, that mom-of-many recommends saving certain days of the week for certain tasks, like women-of-old did. For example, Monday is always bread-baking day, Tuesday is laundry day, etc.   So, do not do any laundry the rest of the week...do it ALL on Tuesday.  I tried this method.  I tried it exactly one week...so one time.  I hated it did not care for it.  I spent ALL! flippin'! day! switching out laundry (14 loads, if I recall).  And then...had a MOUNTAIN of clean laundry to deal with.  In fact, the author refers to laundry as "Mt. Never-rest".  Yuck.  I never tried that particular method again.

Another method I prefer not to use:  Everyone put their dirty laundry into one big basket or pile.  Then it gets sorted a first time, into piles according to white, colors, etc.  Then after going through the washer and dryer, it gets sorted a second time into piles according to who it belongs to.  Blah...too much sorting.


Now that I've dissed other methods, here is the lowdown on the method I **do** like...


I purchased a 5-gallon "bin" for each child.  (Bin sounds nicer than trashcan, which is what these really were intended for....shhh!  don't tell my kiddos!)

I purchased these years ago, and if I were to do it today, I wonder if I would purchase bigger ones.  (But these really work fine still, especially during the summer when they're wearing shorts and short-sleeve shirts that take up less space in the bins than jeans and sweaters.)

The bins live in the childrens' closets, as seen here in the girls' closet:

E's stuff on left, LK's on right, separated by the bookshelf that I mangled repurposed

The four older children each have a designated laundry day:  LK is Monday, D is Tuesday, N is Wednesday and E is Thursday.  

On the morning of their day, the child...

1. Brings his/her bin to the laundry room

2.  The entire contents of the bin gets dumped into the washing machine (GASP!  no sorting by color!)

3.  After washing and drying...

4.  It all gets put back in the bin that has been waiting patiently (again, no need for sorting), and finally...

5.  The child is supposed to put away his/her clean laundry before bed that night.  

Caveats and Further Explanations:

This method works best - I think - with children that are old enough to at least put away their laundry themselves.  Like I mentioned above, I originally purchased these bins (to try this method) years ago.  But it turned out my children (three of them at the time) were not yet old enough to put away their clothes themselves.  (We ended up having a family-closet for several years, which worked great and made my life much simpler for that season of life.)

But now that the children are old enough, this system works great for us.

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The children bring their clothes out and take them back and put them away, but it is usually me who actually gets the washing/drying part done.  I keep meaning to **make** them do all of this also (and sometimes they do), but this part is just so not a big deal, that I just do it myself.  Our laundry room is right off the kitchen and I'm in and out (and in and out) approximately 100 times every day, so I just switch out laundry while I'm in there.  The switching out part is easy peasy...just don't ask me to put away laundry....ACCCHHH!  (refer to top picture)

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Contrary to popular belief, the world does not stop turning if you don't separate your whites and colors. I was shocked to discover this.  If there is a new piece of red clothing, or brand new jeans, it would likely be wise to wash them separately at first...but after that, throwing all the clothes in together works just fine!

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I am responsible for the laundry for Jason, Gabriel and I.  We don't have a designated laundry day...just whenever our laundry baskets are full, I take them to the laundry room and get them washed/dried (no problem), and then put away (big problem).  

Gabriel is 10 Months Old

Mr. Gabriel is now 10 months old. 

It has been so amazing - for all six of us - to see the stages and progress that a baby goes through.

Gabriel is such a pure delight for all of us.  I knew our older children would be good with him...and love him.  But I really had no idea the extent that would reach.  They are each - every one of the four of them - fascinated by him, so sweet to him, and seek out time with him.  

When we were taking pictures of Noah on his 7th "Noah Day"...he asked for a picture with his lil bro

And while I didn't think the children would get bored with Gabriel, I did expect the "newness" to wear off after a while.  Well, it hasn't.  

We joke that every morning is like Christmas morning at our house.  The children expectantly and not-so-patiently keep asking if Gabriel is awake yet...and (mostly Noah) keep tip-toeing into our room to look at him in his pack-n-play.

Then...finally....Mr. G wakes up (anywhere between 8:30 and 10 a.m.) and then you here delightful squeals and choruses of "Gabriel is AWAKE!"  "Yay!  Gabriel is up!" 

And with this kind of treatment by his big brothers and sisters, I guess it isn't any wonder that Gabriel loves them all BIG, right back.

He gets plenty of attention from our friends and extended family also.

Playing with Mrs. Shan on a recent homeschool fieldtrip

Gabriel has not started having any stranger anxiety yet...maybe he never will.  

Gabriel has become much more interested in toys.




We keep a little covered basket of G's toys in the family room (pictured here), and one in mine and Jason's bedroom.  The older children like to drag the contents of the basket out for him to play with...but he has gotten good at pulling them out himself also.

Ummm...I think maybe he was pleased with himself.

And...he is still sticking anything and everything he can get his hands on straight into his mouth.

Gabriel enjoys the little balls and blocks that are in his baskets...but he is still really enjoying the kitchen tools also.

He happily bangs away with the metal measuring spoons on the big bowls for quite a while.  And - of course - sticks the measuring spoons into his mouth.

Something else that Gabriel is enjoying sticking in his mouth....smoothie!

He is totally digging our smoothies.  We have them (as our drink) with supper most nights.  In the picture above I had grabbed a straw and put it into my smoothie that Gabriel was expressing interest in. Now we've started giving him his own little cup of smoothie because he was drinking about half of mine!

Another new thing we learned about Gabriel this month: He apparently (surprisingly) has opinions and preferences all his own.  And he will let you know if you are not in compliance with his opinions and preferences.  I know...shocking.  A baby born with a sin nature alive and kicking.  

It is hard to be too terribly upset by his antics, though...because they are so funny...and cute.  He scrunches his eyes shut, wrinkles his nose up, waves his head back and forth...and makes this loud ugly fake-crying noise.  There are no tears anywhere...and he shuts it off just as quickly as he starts it.  Thankfully we caught a few good pictures of it:

The above pictures of G's little fits were taken 2-3 weeks ago...and now that I think about it, he actually hasn't been doing this anymore the past week or so.  Thankfully.



Gabriel is still not quite crawling.

He will get up on all fours, rock back and forth...

...and then flop down on his belly, and usually end up pushing himself backward a little.

So it is not unusual to find him stuck up under some miscellaneous piece of furniture.

And - thankfully - he doesn't mind all this.

Usually.

Now that it is colder, we're having to keep socks and shoes on our little buddy.  Well, we try to keep them on him anyway.  Given the opportunity, he will have them off...and quick!

I would insert a nice little list of G's schedule here. Except...I can't.  Because...he doesn't have a nice, set little schedule.  I know if he were our first child, it wouldn't be this way (I was very consistent with E's nap/bed times when she came home, and then with N & E when he came home and they were 1- and 2-years old.)  But he is not our first or only child.   There are 7 of us, and we live joyfully full lives with many (but not too many!) activities.  Some nights he is in bed at 8...some nights at 9.  Last night he was out with me at our Love the Least service on Human Trafficking until 9:30 p.m.  The night that E and Jas killed the deer, he was out with us (and awake the entire time!) until midnight.  He is just always happy.  If he gets tired, he falls asleep on my should or in the ergo.  And I don't know if G was just born flexible, if God just had mercy on us...or if he has just learned to be flexible. 

Some days (like today) he takes two naps (shorter one in the late morning...and one in the afternoon).  But that actually happens very seldom now.  More often than not, he takes one longer nap (2-3 hours).  And it usually starts in the mid-afternoon.  But then weekends our family schedule is different, and then church really throws a wrench in our normal schedule...but G just always goes with the flow.  And ***I*** am learning how to go with the flow (much to my family and friends' surprise and delight), although it has been painful for me at times.  I would personally be much more comfortable with a nice pat black-and-white, typed-up schedule.  Instead the Lord is teaching me to follow my (Spirit-led) instincts, watch my baby...and give up trying to control e-ver-y-thing!  

I'm trying to learn this - and all the lessons you have for me, Lord!  Thank you for never giving up on me!  Oh...and thank you for these 6 precious family members of mine that you've used to teach me the majority of your lessons!  Amen

What "Rest Time" Looks Like at Our House

We gradually and very naturally transitioned from naptime to rest-time here at our house, as the children got older and changed from needing a daily nap, to not needing a daily nap.

I am not over exaggerating when I say this:  I do NOT know what I would do without our daily rest time.

I have many friends who do daily rest times with their children...and many friends who do not do rest times.  I simply don't know how moms who don't do them function in the late afternoons and evenings.  Anytime we do need to skip rest time for some reason, I feel absolutely fried by about 5 or 6 p.m.  I am - at heart - an introvert...so maybe that explains why I feel such a need for that quiet time.  I need that time to be quiet and be still and recharge before we head into the last part of our afternoon and evening.


A dear friend recently sent me a question about rest time via e-mail.  She has recently adopted two younger children, and she was wondering what rest time looked like here at our house. I thought I would share my answer here too (along with some pictures I snapped of the children during rest time):

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"Our rest time is always 1 1/2 hours.  Sometimes I read of families who have 2 hours...sometimes I read of families that have 1 hour.  I think this is a happy medium for us.  Long enough...but not too long.  

We used to call it "naptime" when the children actually napped.  And at that point, it lasted as long as they were asleep...over 1 1/2 hours if they were still asleep.  But since they've started not needing naps, we set a timer so they know when it's over.  And we now call it "rest time" instead of "naptime".  

I was more consistent about what time it started when the children were younger, but now they are totally flexible and that is helpful.  So, one day they may not start rest time until 3...and the next day (if we have other plans/appts outside the house), they may start rest time at 1:30...or even 12:30.  The children are extremely flexible and that is wonderful.  

And a few months ago we switched from just laying down reading books the whole time to now they read books for the first 45 minutes, and then a timer goes off and they switch to doing a quiet activity for the last 45 minutes.  They are in different rooms.  They get to pick where they want to be everyday.  We use every room in the house: bedrooms, dining room, family room, hallway, kitchen...even my room with me (if they promise to be quiet and not TALK!).  They have to have everything they need for their quiet activity when we start rest time, no roaming around.  (It only takes them one time of not being ready to make sure they're ready from now on!  Aaaaah, the joys of natural consequences.)  Quiet activities: legos (of course!), cars, coloring, puzzles, craft at dining room table, etc.  As soon as the timer signals that rest time is over, they are supposed to clean everything up (put away books, clean up activity) before they come to the kitchen for snack time.  

I fully believe this time is very good for the children...helps them to realize it's ok to be quiet and by themselves and entertain themselves for a while.  (It's not normally quiet around here...and we have to institute this time for any of us to have "alone" time!)  I believe this time is good for them to recharge for the afternoon and evening ahead...and I KNOW this time is good (and much needed) for me.  I need to be quiet and not have to talk (or listen to anyone else) for a while.  I might do a little work (a very little bit) during rest time...but normally I just work on the computer (e-mail, blog, read blogs, etc.) or read...and sometimes (more frequently in the past 8 months) I will nap for part of the time.  

I know I don't have to tell you this, but if you want to start your kiddos having a rest time, you'll likely need to start with a much shorter time (maybe even just 10 or 15 minutes) and work up to whatever your goal is.  But, OH...it will be worth it, friend!

I pray wisdom for you as you look at the schedules and routines at your house and school.  He knows exactly what it's supposed to look like at {your} house and He will guide you!

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Those may just look like blocks...but let me assure you, with Daniel's imagination they were not "just" blocks

And sometimes...they actually do sleep:

And sometimes, it is in very unusual places: