Homeschooling a Houseful

8:38 PM, Apr. 25, 2006 .. Posted in RandomMusings .. 0 comments .. Link

I was so encouraged today by something someone said to me. When mentioning the fact that I have 10 children her jaw didn't drop. Her reply was, "What an awesome minstry you have." She told me that it is a "calling". She said that if ever someone is being negative about our calling that I am just to remember what a great minstry dh and I have. She told me I am blessed beyone imagination (that I already knew). I said that yes, we do feel very strongly that God has called us to have as many children as He chooses.

I think the ministry part is what really encouraged me. The Lord knew that I needed to hear that today and how wonderful is it that HE sent someone to tell me. I have been feeling like I don't do enough...not enough in the church...no enough for friends...just not enough anywhere. I feel that way, but at the same time wonder how in the world can I do anymore. I love being a mom, and when I am trying to do other things I become a .... well a cranky mom, an in a hurry mom. I hate being that way so I have really committed myself to not doing to much. I remember reading in a book once that our children are not to be a distraction from what we are doing...they are our most important ministry. Being a mom of 10 children takes a lot of time. So....having being told today that having a large family is a ministy...a ministry that we are called to, well I feel so encouraged and even challenged to be an even better mom.

Just wanted to share.

Sleep, sleep

9:12 PM, Apr. 24, 2006 .. Posted in RandomMusings .. 1 comments .. Link

Have you ever been so tired you just couldn't keep your eyes open. Every now and then I have a day like that and yesterday was one. Everytime I sat down to nurse Hilarie my eyes just couldn't stay open. So my dh let me go to bed early. I fed Hilarie and off I went to bed. I spent a little time reading and then was asleep by 8 PM. Woke up once to feed Hilarie and then didn't wake up again until 6 AM. The funny thing is that I feel like I could have done the same thing today.

James was so cute today, he brought me dandelions. "Here mommy, flowers for you." Haylee said he walked up the back stairs all by himself with dandelions in both hands. What a sweetie. How is it that a little boy just knows he should bring mommy flowers. I have to remind myself to enjoy all the flowers that the little boys will be bringing me this summer.

Well, The Apprentice is on and I need to concentrate on it.

My favorite kind of Saturday

6:38 PM, Apr. 22, 2006 .. Posted in RandomMusings .. 0 comments .. Link

Today was one of those almost perfect Saturdays. I am the kind of person who likes to get a lot done in the morning. Today by 9AM we had accomplished...

scrubbing the bathroom:Haylee
scrubbing the kitchen: Heide
lasagna made for tonights dinner and taco soup made for Sundays:me
living room and hallway vacuumed: Joseph
3 loads of laundry done:me
nursed the baby twice and rocked her to sleep: that would be me :)

The benefit of being done so early...the rest of the day is almost free. There were still a few things to get done during the rest of the day.
Today was also the day to start lawn mowing again so Joseph did that.
I dusted the living, and vacuumed the basement. Dan rescued me from having to vacuum the stairs and finished that for me.
Dan also did some repairing in the kitchen, fixed up a bunch of bikes. We found that over the winter everyone grew and needed bigger bikes. What a blessing to find we actually had what everyone needed. He moved the old Mercury Cougar to the end of the driveway..we need to sell it.

Yep, it was a good Saturday, enjoyed by all.

Life is normal

9:18 PM, Apr. 18, 2006 .. Posted in RandomMusings .. 0 comments .. Link

I haven't blogged because I don't think I have had anything exciting to share. Life has just been sailing along rather smoothly.

The one thing I can share is that my baby girl is changing so fast. I don't know if I have ever noticed so much changing with my other children. I think that I am watching her and enjoying her so much more because I don't know if she might be our last. On Friday I couldn't believe how different she was from the day before. Where I would try to keep Hilarie up for 2 hours, on Friday she was up for three hours in the morning and again in the afternoon without my even having to work for it. Hilarie is held most of the time. Seems each baby we have is held more and more. At about 3 months old we start giving baby short spurts of floor time and on Friday Hilarie played happily on the floor and I forgot that she was even up. She is so smiley and laughs more easily now. It is so bittersweet. I can't wait to see what she will be like. I look forward to seeing her chubby little legs toddling around, but at the same time I want to hold on to today...forever. I sit here with tears in my eyes because I so loving her baby days. What a precious gift, and I am making every effort to treasure these days in my heart. It is a good thing I scrapbook and I hope to do a good job of getting my heart into her scrapbook.

We are in our mud pie days. Today, the boys, particularly Jacob did a fabulous job of making some very tidy mud pies. By the time I was shown the creations it was dark, tomorrow I will be taking photos for the album. Little boys are so fun, especially when they come in fours. The little boys have been playing outside most of day and I will admit I am feeling much more relaxed as a result of having a quieter house.

Hollie is in driver's education and I can't believe I will soon have another child that is driving. I think I am not as nervous about it this time, I suppose the second child is easier since the first one broke us in. Hollie is getting registered for college in the fall. She will be attending Moody Northwest Bible college where her older sister Heather is graduation from on May 6th.

Think about that, I have a child graduating from college, little boys making mud pies and a nursing baby in my arms. Ahhh...could life be any better.

I am really surprised at how keeping a blog is helping me to look back and reflect on my day and my family. This is a good thing for me to be doing. I hope to keep more consistent, to take the time to do this because I feel I appreciate my family more when I sit down and take the time to think about the blessings...big and small.

Well, good night for now.
Liz

11:29 PM, Apr. 8, 2006 .. Posted in RandomMusings .. 1 comments .. Link

Today was a nice Saturday. By 8 am the little boys were asking to go outside. I let them go and I am glad they did because it was soon raining and rained most of the rest of the day.
Dan and Haylee and Joseph went into work today. Dan works for the local police dept and today they were cleaning the patrol cars. The children worked hard and were tired when they came home. A good kind of tired and they felt good about what they accomplished. When they got home Dan started packing up one of the computers. He and Tom are going up to the lake to play icky computer games. You know, war kind of stuff that I just can't stand. Renee' (Tom's wife) is coming over tonight and we are going to scrapbook. In the past the four of us have gone to the lake together for a couples weekend. On these weekends the boys set up their computers in one room, we ladies set up our scrapbooking supplies in another room and we see our spouses at meal time. With a baby, I just didn't feel it would work for me and Renee and I thought the boys would really be able to relax if we weren't their. That and the fact that they like to eat food that...well chili and beans and the like. Do you know what I am saying.

We figure we will give the cabin time to air out and then take our turn.

Our good friend Jackie came over tonight also to scrapbook. It was a nice night of sitting around the table, looking at photos and just visiting.

Well, looking at the time I realize I should get some sleep. It is almost midnight. Hilarie will be up in a couple hours and the children arise early no matter what day it is.

DD is heading to GHANA

9:12 PM, Mar. 18, 2006 .. Posted in RandomMusings .. 0 comments .. Link

Well, today we still have a houseful of runny noses, coughs and fevers. Looks like no one is going to church tomorrow. I went to the Christian bookstore to purchase the newest Veggie Tales, Sheer Luck Holmes. We watched it tonight before the children went to bed. The children enjoyed it and now they are all in bed and I am sitting here on the couch with my hubby watching the Hallmark channel mystery movie...Mystery Woman. We love these shows along with Jane Doe. While at the store I also picked up books 2 and 3 of the Mitford Years. A good friend recommened these books. Bummer that they didn't have book one. I went ahead and had them order one for me, now the question is will I wait until it comes in or will I start book 2 before it gets here.

For my time in God's word beside reading scripture I am reading Nancy Leigh DeMoss's book "Brokenness." I love being challenged by Nancy's books. God has taught me so much through her books. This book has been particularly painful as it deals with PRIDE. Our heart...if our heart is not right then we are not right. If our heart is sick, then our whole body is sick.

I don't think I have mentioned that our oldest daughter is going to Ghana this summer on a 7 week mission trip with Wyclife. Heather has felt for years that God had for her a place in the mission field. Her heart has been in Africa for a long time. We are very excited for her and excited to see what God does through our daughter.

Good night, blessings to each of you.

10:25 PM, Mar. 17, 2006 .. Posted in RandomMusings .. 0 comments .. Link

The children are seeming to feel better today. Looks like my aggressive attack with herbal remedies was beneficial. At least the children are not worse today. They seem awful tired today though. My 17 year old had to work and she was just wiped out when she got off of work. I had my scrapbook club tonight, and since all the older children were so tired I decided just to go and take the orders, collect the money and come back home. Stopped at the store to buy ice cream for my daughter as a thank you for babysitting.

This morning we were able to clean another bedroom. Heide and Haylee are so pleased with what we did. We rearranged, which is a big challenge in a house that was not designed to hold 12 people. It was fun to watch them the rest of the day loving their room.

I really want to scrapbook tonight, but my head hurts and I know that I should be heading off to get some sleep. I need to get up early to take my dh to work and then I need to spend some time getting our schedule re-organized for next week. We have a good schedule, I just feel it needs some tweaking..

I found a fun website. It is on-this-day.com You can find all kinds of interested historical facts here. Like this one: On March 17, 1959 - U.S. President Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill.

Okay, that is all for now, I am really tired. Off to bed.

So many sick children

8:35 PM, Mar. 16, 2006 .. Posted in RandomMusings .. 2 comments .. Link

Yep, we have a lot of children. I don't often feel that way, but when they all get sick, it can get tricky to manage. Reminds me of this past summer when we had to put our dog down. She had been with us for 8 years and the children took it hard, even though we had been preparing them for about 6 months. Fortunately we were smart enough to tell them in groups. We told the older children first, helped them through the initial grieving, then told the middle children, helped them with their grieving then told the little ones that Sarah would be leaving us. By the time it was all done, I was emotionally exhausted.

Anyway, sometime during the night it seems that all the children conspired together and they all woke up sick. James, pretty sure he has an ear infection, he has received ear drops, some elderberry and ibuprophen. Haylee, sore ear, garlic, ear drops, Kings echinecea, elderberry, Heide sore throat so same meds as Haylee, Jonathan he started being sick yesterday and Jacob did too. Coughs and runny noses. Hilarie also woke up with the runniest little nose.

I did manage to get the boys room cleaned out this mornning. One thing I have noticed about boys. They collect things. Things, mild bottle caps, wire, batteries, just stuff. I didn't want them to get rid of their treasures so we just did some organizing. We moved furniture and did a real good vacuuming. Their room looks great. I am hoping to work with Heide and Haylee in their room tomorrow, but I better not get myself too locked into that idea.

I have begun my homeschool planning for next year. For Math we are going to go back to Saxon. I have used it before and we are ready for a change. I had the children take the placement tests today and they all tested exactly how I expected them to. Haylee will be in Saxon 6/5 and both Heide and Joseph will be in 8/7.

We are going to try a new History program that is literature based. This is something I have never tried before. For Science I am thinking it might be fun to do a unit on First Aid and then to do a unit on Nutrition.

Well, I suppose I should try to get some sleep. I don't know what the night is going to look like.

My verse for this evening and tomorrow is:
Isaiah 41:10
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

So tonight if I am up with little ones and tomorrow when I am managing a home while meeting the needs of my little ones I will remember that God is MY GOD, He will give me every ounce of strength that I need, God will help me to do all the HE INTENDS for me to do. He will uphold me.

Thank you Jesus.

My day today

7:55 PM, Mar. 15, 2006 .. Posted in RandomMusings .. 0 comments .. Link

Today we spent the day at our homeschool co-op. We drive about 1 hour to the location and I have really found myself looking forward to Wednesdays. When we joined the co-op in September, I wondered what I was doing. I like to stay home, I need to stay home. The best way to get things done is to stay home. But at the same time I knew that our family needed something. The children just weren't having any fun and neither was I. I tend to be a bit of a task-master. I am very goal oriented and like to see things run smoothly and get done. I had been seeking the Lord for what His will would be for the children regarding the sense of burn-out I was feeling. I was feeling like they needed some schooling that was fun. He provided this wonderful group for us to join. The children are enjoying their co-op classes. Our classes include a pottery class, weight lifting, jewelry making, grossology, and more.

I have found a couple new friends that I have grown to treasure. What a blessing for me as I really need to have some fellowship with other ladies, even though I wouldn't have thought that I did. Today I received so much encouragement from our converstation. I feel revived a bit and ready to tackle a new day and get some things back on track for our family. Things seem to go by the wayside during pregnancy and about this time (when baby is 2 months old) I start to get a little cranky because things are not running the way they should be.

New Furniture and more

7:51 PM, Feb. 18, 2006 .. Posted in RandomMusings .. 0 comments .. Link

We got new furniture yesterday. I am so excited. Dan and I are approaching our 22nd wedding anniversary and this is the first time we have bought new furniture. We have been blessed all these years by hand-me-down furniture. We bought a leather couch and loveseat and a micro-fiber recliner.

This month I went back to "work". I am a Creative Memories Consultant. I don't do a lot of activities outside the home. I have two scrapbook clubs that meet once a month and the last two Fridays were the nights. Hilarie did super coming out with me and meeting all my friends.

Hilarie is cooing now. She is cooing a lot. She will sit for a half an hour and coo at me or her daddy or her brothers and sisters. I so enjoy watching my little ones enjoy her. I love how the youngest of children knows how special a little baby is. The little boys just adore her.

Well, gonna go and scrapbook now. Tonight it is Christmas 2005.