MOMYS Cookbooks

I have people asking for MOMYS Cookbooks... see here for a review of the greatest cookbook ever printed... at least for large families. Anyway - I have three left. I can sell them for $35 ppd. Less if you want more than one. I know it sounds like a lot for a book, but there are 1600 recipes in it, and it is a beautiful book. So head over there to read about them, and my three will go at a first come, first served basis.

Moms of Lots of Littles

Today, I want to write a specific post to the Mama's of Lots of Littles. Or maybe Only Littles. And by Littles I mean the children too small to really be a helpful member of the family. Once I heard an interesting thought... when children are little (under 7 or so?) they are not a productive member of the family... they cost more to feed than they are able to help out. In the middle years they even out... they can help enough to balance the food they eat. By the time they are bigger, they can help enough to be a positive member of the family's society. I think that was from an Amish or Mennonite background, but I think it has value.

OK- we can argue semantics for a while... I know that a person's value is not just dependent on what they can produce, but go with me on this. I now have Older Children, Middle Children, and Little Children. Things are easier than they used to be. When the baby is fussy, I can sleep in a little. I rarely have to do the dishes. I even split the cooking duties, so if I am in a project the children still get fed.

BUT- I remember when I only had little ones. I remember it well. I still get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think about it. My mind flashes back to that 4th story apartment in Okinawa, Japan, where my husband was deployed or working all the time. I remember the loneliness and isolation. I remember pacing the floor with Anna who cried all the time her first 6 months of life. I remember being so tired I was dizzy. I remember crying as I surveyed the laundry piled over my entire sofa, as high as my neck. Oh do I remember.

Here's my encouragement to you... THIS TOO SHALL PASS. You will survive this. And, surprisingly, so will your children. They will grow up. Althugh the days are very, very long, the years are so very short. As hard as it is at times, enjoy your children.

Here are my suggestions for your sanity in these years:

1) Have a routine. Notice I didn't say schedule. Routine. Go from one thing to another in order so they know what to do, where to be, and what is coming next. This will help you. Have each person have a place to be and something to do.

2) Teach them to play alone. This is hard if there are a lot of them, but it is important.

3) GUARD Naptime. If they don't all sleep, make them read on their beds. Give yourself some quiet time. And use the quiet time for YOU - not to catch up on housework.

4) Teach them to help you. When you are emptying the dishwasher, let them do the silverware. When folding laundry, they can fold kitchen towels and washclothes. When cleaning the bathroom, they can wipe down the sink with a cloth while you do the tub. They can empty the garbages into the kitchen garbage can. Work together, room by room. Before long, they will be able to do the simple things on their own. Then it is just a matter of time before they can do bigger things.

5) Snuggle up on the sofa and read to them. Some of our favorite times were reading aloud together. I rarely do it any more. I wish I did.

Someday you will be past the All Littles Stage, and be able to look back and realize that it's easier. I promise. If not, you can come and cry on my shoulder and accuse me of lying. Until then, enjoy your children, and keep doing the next thing. Don't forget to train them well. Things which are cute at 2 are not so cute at 12. I promise you'll survive this. I did!

And the continuing saga....

After all my complaining about our chickens a couple months ago, I thought I should update you on the current egg output. We are now averaging 10 eggs a day. I think that they are enjoying the cooler weather, along with a healthy dose of realism setting in when about 15 of their compatriots ended up in the stew pot. These mamas are laying quite well, thankyouverymuch. They also DON'T HAVE NAMES. This is important, because no matter how well they are laying, they will be in the pot next year this time when next spring's birds get going.

In other news, we had a lovely Thanksgiving complete with turkey, ham, all the fixin's and some seriously good pies. Yum, yum. We had 23 people (including Bethany who doesn't eat yet) around our table... thankfully the weather was good and the 15 children could play outside. This also made it possible for the flight crew to fly the helicopter in and land in our field to join us for dinner. That's always an exciting event. Children young and old love to see it.

After the weekend, and the extra days off school, we are having a rough start to the school week. Hopefully tomorrow will go better. Bethany has a bit of a cold and was fussy this afternoon. Lucky for me, housework is loyal and will still be there tomorrow.

Keeping Track of Chores and Rewards

Yesterday I started a series on "How I Do It"... in response to people's insatiable curiosity about, well, how I do it! So if you are not a regular reader, go here to read my first installment.

One thing I am not good at is remembering when I assigned a job, if it was done, if it needed to be done again, if someone needed to have another job since they didn't do the first one well, etc. I still can't remember much of it, but I have finally figured out an easy reward / discipline system I thought I would pass on.

We were given a bunch of "Tickets" that the church was getting rid of. You could buy those rolls of tickets, or just cut up paper, whichever works best for you. At the beginning of the week, each child gets 10 tickets. I write their initial on the back of it. If they do not do a job I have asked them to do, they hand me a ticket. I cross out the initial so it can be used again.

Each ticket is worth $.25. Or they can trade some for extra computer time. Or staying up late. Or extra toppings on ice cream sundae night. (I even said that 100 tickets can be turned in for a day off school.)

If they do after meal chores exceptionally quickly the whole family earns an extra ticket each. If they go exceptionally slowly they all lose one. Set a successful mousetrap? Ticket. Change a poopy diaper? Ticket.

This is an easy way for us all to keep track of things. They keep their tickets, and I am no longer responsible for remembering everything. Which is a win win situation all around. They way outnumber me, you know.

It's something that Works for Me!

Reality Check

Another Funny... I was just correcting school for Emma (Grade 2) , and came across this letter (written exactly as she wrote it) to some missionary friends we write to every month.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Mr. Mrs. _____________ . Haw are you? I ame Good I ame riting Fast cus I want to be don whith school Frome emma Joy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lest I actually feel like I am doing a good job or something.

A little humor to brighten the day...

I've been relatively serious lately, so here are a few funnies which happened recently:

Me: Phew, Nate. Your hair smells like a sweaty boy. You need a bath.
Nate: Does your hair smell like a sweaty boy?
Me: Nope. I took a shower. My hair smells pretty. Smell it.
Nate: It smells like DEAD FISH.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emma: I'm playing the song Om-pa-pa for my piano this week.
Sara: I'm playing Om-ma-ma!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And no- these are not my children, nor do they play them on the web, but it's a pretty funny homeschool song. Just so we don't take ourselves too seriously. [Editor's note: I am pulling the video link since it is not working...]

Well, Here we are...

I finally did it. I have been trying to move over to my own website (and am slowly moving my entries from homeschoolblogger over here...), but have finally gotten my own domain registered and working. Thanks bunches to my brother for all his working with my ineptitude. Feel free to subscribe to the feed... it won't be long before I am here permanently.

Not only are we moving around on the web, we are moving around in my house also. See, when we moved here, we had 6 children ages 11 to 8 months. They were pretty small. Fast forward four years, and I have 9 children ages 15 (almost 16) to 4 months. There are more of them, they are bigger, and they are noisier. I have never been able to handle the noise very well. (Ironic God gave me 9 children and sensitive ears, isn't it?!) They also stay up later, so I have people around me from the minute I wake up in the morning until the minute I go to sleep at night. We were needing some serious re-visiting of where everyone is in the house. For the sake of my sanity, you know. Those in patient treatment facilities are way out of the budget.

Sometimes it just works that you need to re-think the flow of your day, and how you are going to run everything. Where will everyone be? Will there be traffic jams? Can you anticipate trouble areas? Thinking fresh sometimes finds a solution you didn't see before.

Anyone who knows me at all knows I LOVE to move around furniture. Every few months I get this gleam in my eye, and anyone who can be found is trapped into hauling furniture from one place to another. They all roll their eyes and humor me. For I AM my mother's daughter after all. She does the same thing. I come by it honestly.

Eric always lets the boys know that they are getting plenty of practice for when they are married, and their wives ask them to do this very same thing. He also spends much time reminding them that many times their wives will ask them to do things which don't make sense, but men just do them so they can love their wives. He begs Angela to remember this when SHE is married and wanting a change of living room arrangement. She smiles while rubbing her shoulder muscles. The boys groan when I ask for things to be moved in yet another arrangement. I pretend not to hear a bit of it since I am mentally trying to figure out how to get our current furniture to work better in a room which still has the same awkward dimensions.

I was in desperate need of figuring out new places for everyone. I have 5 independent scholars, a kindergartner, and the three and under crowd. (Three of them.) Having them all in the same area was just too chaotic. So we rearranged. Now the three girls are in the rooms upstairs, each in their own spaces so they don't bother each other. The two boys are each in their rooms. The kindergartner is at the table with me, and I am able to work on keeping the three and under crown under control, which is not as easy as it sounds.

This has really helped the last two weeks. I have not felt I am ready to lose my mind even once recently. So here's my take home tidbit for you... find a place for everyone. Train them to STAY THERE! Train them to work without you watching them every minute of the day.

Keep posted this week... this post is one of at least 3 "How do you do it?" I posts I am planning for the next few days. Upcoming topics will include Children and Chores, and Keeping Track of It All...

I often get asked how I "Do It All". Anyone who knows me in real life knows I don't even TRY to "Do It All", and much of what I DO try fails miserably. And what works in MY family won't necessarily work in yours. So rather than specifics, I hope to share principles which will help you.

1) Everyone have a place...
2) Everyone stay there unless called by Mama.

Let me know if this works for you! I'd love to hear from you either via e-mail OR comments! Happy planning!