Did you realize that sending just one child to a Christian school (even if it's not a terribly expensive one) costs more than buying homeschool curriculum (which all of the children will be able to use), hiring babysitting help, AND hiring a housecleaning service, too?!  So, keeping all that in mind to give us perspective on the cost, along with realizing how stretched we are for time and energy at this season of life, we have hired help!   

For years I was a serious control freak (compared to being a little bit less serious control freak these days).  I did not WANT anyone coming into my home to clean because I had a certain way of doing things.  I remember the days (years ago) that my towels had to be folded a certain way or I would get upset.  I would rather have done things myself than had help doing them.    After the birth of our fifth baby some family members gave me the baby gift of money to hire a housecleaner.  I was very specific about  how I wanted things cleaned and I would go behind her and do it the "right" way once she left.  (Oh my.  Those days are so far gone!) 

A few months before baby number six arrived I finally realized that I had to let some things go.  My weakness and complete inability to manage everything finally made me pray for help and gladly accept it when it was available.   We found a Christian housecleaning service and now I just say "thank you" and don't worry about the petty details.   We also put word out that we needed teen helpers for babysitting, laundry, and yard work.  It has been such a blessing to have teens from Christian families helping us and I hope we have been a blessing to them as well.

So I didn't always truly need or even want help from anyone, but when I really needed it, God provided for us in the form of hired help.  I had to come to the point where I was willing to accept it and then we had to be willing to rearrange our budget to make it work.  This meant rearranging our priorities to place hiring help in the necessity list!  I do look forward to the days when I can manage it all on my own or maybe 'hire' my own children to help out rather than bring in people from outside our family.  But for now, when our lives are so full and our children so young, having household help is a great blessing and I am very, very thankful for it.

Because of how often I have to refill the kids' soap dispensers, I suspect we save nearly $100 per year on hand soap by following this recipe from Thrifty Fun:

http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf29957105.tip.html

Buy one foaming hand soap dispenser per sink but DON'T buy the "foaming hand soap refills".  You're paying way more than necessary for foaming hand soap if you do that!  Instead refill an empty foaming soap dispenser with just two tablespoons of regular liquid hand soap (store brand works) and then add 1 cup of water.  Same stuff... a fraction of the price.  It works!

It took three years and three children before I mustered the courage to hire a teen to babysit.  She came highly recommended (from a very close friend) but I had never seen her.  I opened the door to an adorable blonde girl who looked all of 12 years old.  But she drove herself, her car was in my driveway, and I knew she was almost 17.  We had waited until the 3 and 2 year old were asleep to go out, so she was only left really having to care for our 9 month old and all went well.  But that was the fastest Cracker Barrel meal I've ever eaten!

Since then we've hired several homeschooled teen girls to babysit the children, sometimes with me at home doing chores and other times where we've left them and gone out to eat.  I've learned a few things and made some mistakes.

1.  Advertising in a homeschool newsletter, subdivision newsletter, and church bulletin boards (even for churches you are not a member of) can help you find a good sitter.

2.  It is vital to be very clear about what is allowed and is not allowed.  I now post a list on my fridge with many details and try to go over as many things as I can as to what I prefer be done.  A big mistake once was not thinking to say "Don't let the children run up and down the very steep hill of our concrete driveway."  My daughter has two good sized scars from such an experience with a babysitter.  Better yet, "Don't let the children run up and down the very steep hill of our concrete driveway while you are inside the garage and unable to see them."  I know.  Not something you'd think you'd have to tell someone.  But there it is.  Now I say more specifically "Please keep up with the younger children.  Don't let any of the children out of the back yard!"

3.  Teen siblings can be a blessing or  . . . not so much.  I'll call for one teen and they'll sometimes send her sister without letting me know in advance that the one I called wouldn't be available.  I now won't call families with close-in-age siblings unless I know that all the girls all good sitters!

4.  A great babysitter is a gift from God!  The best sitter we've ever had brings a canvas bag full of games, markers, crafts, and spends the entire time entertaining our children even though we tell sitters they are welcome to use videos as much as they need to for maintaining order and sanity.

5.  I like to pay them as much as we can reasonably afford (which ends up not being very much for them when you break it down per child/per hour considering we have six children!) and if possible give gifts for Christmas, graduation, etc..  They work hard and are taking care of the most precious little  souls in our world and I want them to know how much we appreciate their help.

A vacation (including just a weekend away) for our family takes several days of planning/preparation and then several days of "recovery" once we get back home.  One thing that makes our Vacation Recovery much better is coming home to a clean house.   It's always nice to come home, but walking into a clean, tidy home is SO very nice!  Coming home to piles of dirty laundry and dishes which will immediately be doubled or tripled once we unpack is something I work hard to avoid.  

Our vacation planning includes lists of clothes needed for each day away, lists for foods for each meal and snack (due to food allergies), and lists of stuff we can't do without.  I keep a running master list on file for reference and tweak it with each trip.  I spend several days before vacation trying to get all the laundry done (and I fold and leave much of it out for packing as it comes out of the dryer.  I'm less likely to forget to pack items of clothing if all the clothes we needed during the past few days are sitting in front of me.).  I also start baking "safe" foods the children can eat and freezing  it so it will be fresh for the journey.  Ideally, before we walk out the door the children help tidy up all the rooms in the house and the dishes are put away.

One way or the other we will be coming home to "clean."  The goal is for that to be the adjective rather than the verb!

What's worse than having to rip wallpaper off the wall?  Having to rip a layer of wallpaper, followed by a layer of paint, followed by another layer of wallpaper off the wall!  AAGGHH! 

I am determined to never put up wallpaper.  It's not that I don't like the way it looks.  What I despise is its removal.  I am tempted to paint over the 80s floral papered walls in our bathroom but I just can't bring myself to do that to any future owners of this house.  I've been there before...too many times!  Too many times I have spent hours peeling and scraping borders and wallpapers that have been plastered for 20+ years.  And one day, some new owner is going to want to change the look of this bathroom and I don't want her (whoever she may be) to have to struggle even harder due to the passage of time to start afresh with nice clean walls.   AAGGHH!  Why can't people just PAINT?

Want to give stuff away or find things that are free?  www.freecycle.org may have a group in your area which lists posts for free stuff.  You can post for something you are wanting to find or for something you'd like to give away.  Items range from coupons to large appliances.

A hospital room is such a dreary place (even when celebrating the birth of a new baby) and it helps so much to have something cheery in the drab surroundings.   But ordering flowers and paying delivery charges from a florist costs too much for our budget.

When someone is staying in the hospital (and I am able) I like to buy flowers from the grocery store (about $4) and put them in a vase from the dollar store ($1) and take them to the hospital.  As I often can't get out to run those errands (and some people prefer not to have visitors while in the hospital) I have found that calling the hospital gift shop can be a surprisingly affordable alternative.  Hospitals don't charge for delivery and you can order a bouquet of fun balloons (around $3 each)  to be sent to the patient's room.  Isn't that great?  Just $3 can brighten someone's day and let them know you are thinking about them during their hospital stay!

Some hospitals have "Email a Patient" on their websites and they will print out an email note and put it in a decorated envelope to give to the patient.  

When I'm in a rush and want a super-fast "mini makeover" I reach for the following items:

1.  {Mary Kay} Cream to Powder Foundation

2.  Tinted lip gloss and/or lip liner

3.  Blush

4.  Earrings

5.  Eye liner and/or mascara

This takes less than five minutes and makes me feel (and hopefully look) much better.  :o)