Category: being a stay-at-home mom

It Pays Off

To declutter.

Start:

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Finish:

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So we can continue to fit like a glove.

garage

Because loading 5 kids in the car while it’s raining is not on my agenda if it doesn’t have to be. 😉 I mean as much as I love the smell of musty, wet dog…. yeah. I love my garage.

Took me 3 hours from start to sweeping finish (keep in mind that it included a trip to the store to get a few more hooks, stopping to care for children, etc).

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Wordless Wednesday: Serving

This morning I was served breakfast in bed.

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And they were even thoughtful enough to bring my morning nurser some love.

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And they didn’t want to disturb Daddy’s shower.

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– Love their little hearts.

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By His Hand

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd9VEgsM2G4]

Foster care is hard. Caring for five children is hard. Caring for two babies six weeks apart in age is hard.

Those three sentences are the understatements of the year.

I would be lying to pretend that this was all easy. Mothering these five came so unnaturally and yet naturally to me.

I was always the one to say “I never want to have twins”.

I can still say that.

I don’t have twins.

I have “harder than twins” because my two are on two different need levels, two different sleep levels, two different skill levels and two different “how I understand love” levels while being so close that they are SUPER dependent.

It is hard. Very hard.

And I am thankful that even in the ugliness of the stripping of myself down to my raw haven’t-showered-for-days self, down to the very depths of my sanity shakings… Grace always finds me there.

I cannot do this.

The schedule is exhausting. The workload is intense. The constant lists, the constant balancing, the constant pouring out of everything that I have and everything that I am…

And yet I am blessed to find a groove. To turn and dry my wrinkled dishwater hands and find them… all five of them… smiling and delighting with large legos spread about. Little Man freshly wrapped in a blanket thanks to my toddler, Lil Red knocking down towers that Big Guy and my Commentator delightedly race to build so she can do likewise. And my dear Lil Blondie mothering Little Man and scooting nearby blocks closer to him so he can mouth them.

I don’t deserve this kind of blessing.

I don’t deserve their little hands in mine.

That’s grace for ya.

By the hand of God, our little mashed family of seven somehow works … even in the chaos.

– Thank you, Jesus.

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Encouraging the Label

This may officially label me a dork, but I just wanted to share…

I love homeschooling. I love seeing how far she’s come. I delight in her hack-job cutting showing signs of control. I thrill at her choppy pencil lines taking on greater form. It excites me to hole-punch her work and flip back through two years of building skill.

It’s breathing hope into our upcoming Kindergarten work,

It’s such a delight to sit down with my little blondie and count animals. Or be blown away when she correctly identifies colors and numbers. Things I’ve never formally taught her. Things she has absorbed with a light in her eyes.

I just love homeschooling. I love sitting beside them when the lightbulb turns on. I love overhearing my preschooler educating my toddler because she just can’t help but share her worksheets while I’m transferring laundry.

I love watching the mastery and encouraging the efforts pre-mastery.

I just love the slow mornings… just the three of us. While the babies nap and Big Guy is gone fulfilling the state’s requirement of public schooling.

I just love it.

I really just love it.

The paste and the rice play and the sharpened pencils and the crayons and the worksheets.

Yes, I’m one of those dorks.

And I won’t have it any other way.

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What a blessing, indeed!

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Domestic Tremblings

We got a new vacuum yesterday evening. Our old one died. Yes, the one with the retractable cord. Hold on, let me go get a tissue.

It’s so hard to let go.

So my wonderful husband did some research. Don’t know why he’d think me busy at home. And came upon a great find – of course it came with a coupon and rave reviews. After a second search he found the store with the lowest price and thus sealed our evening plans.

We loaded the masses for the high-profile outing. Yes, it was the first place I had gone all day. Yes, I had to change out of pajamas and shower for the day. Don’t judge me. It was a cleaning day. I promise.

Fine, so it became a cleaning day.

Once I decided I didn’t want to change out of pajamas and my showering window would have to reopen at nap time.

Anyway, so we stepped into the store, corralling the masses. “Don’t touch anything” came out of my mouth a bit quickly before the older three’s impulses even turned heads. “Put that back” was said a few times. I confess! My children are sinners. And Bed Bath and Beyond has WAY too many brightly colored things in kid reach. It’s a crime really. They’re just inviting reshelving needs.

With a few “mom tones” my crew returned to the double stroller like a boomerang – one of those good ones that actually responds to the circular return pattern. So much to see. Impulses firing. Salivation.

“There ya go, honey,” Matt grinned as he handed the plastic to the cashier.

“Yeah, just what you wanted!” Came the cashier’s sarcasm.

She must not have know how much mess those innocent looking smiles before her can make. She must not have seen the absent toddler climbing between the patio furniture.

I promise we don’t always act like this. … most of the time.

She should have guessed as they practiced their frozen dance moves on our way out of the store.

Things get knocked over. Things spill. Things get crushed into the carpet. And I find little “contributions” and science experiments….

Little did she know when she made her comment. Oh, little did she know…

Shhhhh! Quiet everyone. (Bends down) Look at my new baby:

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…She’s beautiful…

Crushed cereal and dust bunny communities are shivering.

FEEL THE POWER!!!!

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