little BIG Family

I will be linking up with  Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling  today.  GO and check her sweet blog out!

Our Homeschooling Schedule varies...Wake up, make breakfast and lunch and iron my husband's shirt.  He leaves for work and I sit and pray, read the Bible and check emails.  The children begin to awaken and one by one are greeted by the family pup.  Each one heats their homemade bagels or toast, get coffee or tea.  They read their Bibles and I do a little phonics and math with the twin 8 year olds.  The olders do math and the oldest does S.O.S. Switched On Schoolhouse.  


Lunch is around noon or so.  Usually "so".


And we resume our unit study with 5 out of 6 children at the square table.  Care Rooms at around 3:30pm.
And Daddy arrives at around 4pm.


Here is our Chore Chart...

I am not sure if you can really see the little family members, but there they are on the left.

I use to be a very overwhelmed mommy for a long while.  4 years ago I found a site called Flylady.net.    And it helped a lot!  Anyway, I don’t like to admit it but…

When I was young and married and only had two children, I actually called my mom and asked her to come over to sit on my couch and tell me what to do!  I would start my day off with, standing in the middle of my living room and not know where to start.  Really.  And that is why I called her.

Well, that didn’t last long.  


Then I was to have a set of twin boys.  Now what was I to do?  Four children!  I was completely overwhelmed and my husband sold our home and we had to move in with my parents and then in with his all before the boys were 6 months old! Yikes!  It was crazy!  I couldn’t see which end was up much less keep anything clean or organized!  When the boys turned four, I was pregnant with our last set of twins.  Now what?  I can only say that contentment is such a gift from the Lord!  Because that is what got me through…Now the girls are 8 and about 4 years ago, I sat down in a creative mood and ended up with the chore chart pictured above.  I assigned everyone a "care room" except Daddy.  He helps out where ever.  But the children and I have a care room a week.  I want them to CARE for the room they have been assigned and every time they go through it during the course of the day it would be nice if they look for things out of place.  I change their Care Rooms every Monday.


  The care rooms are:  The Living Room, the School Room, the Circle Table Room(parlor), the Guest Bathroom, Wash Room, and the Kitchen.

I get the Kitchen every week and have our son who has asthma help out in their more because he really shouldn't do dusting and vacuuming....yes, it's that bad.

Every morning after the morning routine(wash,comb, brush teeth, eat breakfast) I tell the children to do their care rooms.  It usually only takes 5 minutes to go look and straighten pillows, throw trash away, put away stray  toys, sweep, or vacuum, depending on what room is given.  And then every afternoon before Daddy comes home they do the care rooms again.

Now, you may have noticed the Shared Chores on the top right of the picture.  That has to do with after dinner chores.  It is called Shared Chores because they "share" in doing them.  They do complain about it from time to time.  But Daddy is on the lookout for that.  While they put away leftovers, clear the plates, cups, forks, and glasses, and also load the dishwasher, Daddy and I have our little date time in the corner of our living room.   Share Chairs is what we call them.

The kitchen is just to the right of this photo...But we have since moved the chairs to a better corner.  I might try to share that photo soon.
 So this is our little BIG family!!

Christmas and Crazyness...

Okay...  Christmas snuck up on us this year!  Maybe it is because I am getting older, or maybe because time is actually moving faster!

 I shared a booth with http://www.etsy.com/people/faithintoart Blair!  Just love her!

 She has some really neat art that she hand draws and colors with some amazing markers, and of course her amazing talent!

 I made(sewed) some covered dish carriers, and aprons in a jar and some other odds and ends.

This is supposed to be an apron in a jar.

 Here is my table...Decked with my Ninja clips and other fun stuff.  I sold just enough to cover my part in the festival and buy a Mcdonald's Big Mac!  Yikes!

 This large box came from a sweet girl in Texas!  Can you ever guess what was in it?  A real life Tumbleweed!

 Here are our stockings that I made about 10 years ago!  

 Not the best picture of me and my honey, but it will do for now.

 My husband always reads the Christmas story from Luke before we do gifts.  Even if we have heard it 5 times during the season...I think the birth of Christ the Lord should be read year round!  Praise the Lord for His Holy Word!

 We finally got a tree from Mr. Jones' Tree Farm a week before Christmas.

 Here are some of the boys playing their new Trouble game with R2 D2.  Dad is trying to be Obi-Wan Kenobi.  Funny.

The girls are playing with their new jeep and Target Dolls!


So the next week I was to make a wedding cake for a very sweet couple in our church.  And my friend and I did get the cakes made with fondant and ready for the big day, when one of my children got a bad cold that sent him to the hospital by ambulance.

 So glad he is finally home and better...getting better!   He has asthma. So, the cold attacked his lungs.  Praise the Lord he is home now and doing well.  The rest of us caught the cold.  My husband stayed in the hospital with our little froggy man until they released him on Monday!

 While I was being a "Mom" and staying home to take care of the little ones who were sick, I started preparing the Boy's room so when little Froggy man came home it would be allergen free and easy to maintain.  So off came his top bunk...

 There is less room now, but it will be easier to change sheets and vacuum the lint and dust!  I even sewed new curtains!  Later that night I came down with the cold...eeek.  I felt like someone was sitting on my chest!  Cough, cough, wheeze, wheeze.

My dear friend Becky(who taught me how to make wedding cakes) and her husband finished the cake for the sweet couple in our church and I was able to continue with what the Lord had lined up for our family at this time.

Red velvet cake with homemade butter cream frosting and homemade fondant.  Thank you Becky and Chuck!


So here is to a very Happy New Year in the Lord Jesus, who has brought us through all things and guided, provided, and supplied all our needs.