Happy New Year 2025!!

Happy New Year friends!!! If you are reading this then this is my Christmas card to you! You’ll get recent pictures and updates on each member of the family. There’s also a few fun questions that I like to use to reflect on the year gone by and look forward to the next! 

Ok, Wow... 2025... how did we get here? I feel like I say that every year, but every year it feels true. The year flew by in a flash. I wrote in my New Year's post last year that I finally felt like through 2023 we were comfortably treading water instead of barely keeping our heads above water not to drown with everything that was going on with having a little baby and Sam going through some challenging health issues in 2021-2022. This year I do feel like we are starting to make some forward motion toward thriving instead of just surviving. There are definitely still a good amount of just surviving days, but I did notice some days that felt more like thriving in there this year too which feels really good. Of course this year came with it's own challenges as every year does. I felt like there were a good amount of events outside of my control that upended some of my plans. Just a few examples, a hurricane power outage changed my Great Homeschool Convention plans from a girls retreat to a quick 24 hour family trip with our super gracious friends hosting us all. It was still wonderful, but definitely different than I imagined. Another example was tummy bug cancelled out Great Wolf Lodge family vacation. I'm very grateful we were able to rebook for February with a much bigger room for only $10 more a night. (really praying we get to go this time) There were a few more times like this sprinkled through the year, but those two really stuck out to me. God knows better than me and yes it's ok to feel the disappointment of changed plans, but we shouldn't stay in that disappointment too long. I try to look for the bright sides. God protecting me in some way, creating a connection that wouldn't have happened if plans had stayed the same, giving up something that seems better to me, but yet what God has for us is way better than I had even planned. It doesn't mean I shouldn't have any plans, it just means that I need to trust God when they need to be changed. 

Thanksgiving family pic

2024 family member updates! Oldest to youngest

Things are pretty close to the same for me this year compared to last year. Still playing the balancing act of being a mom and a wife, working and homeschooling 3 kiddos. Piper is in her 2 year old stage of getting into everything and pulling me around by my finger wanting me to play with her so I have a bit less time for myself, but that’s ok I know the time of her being this little is very short in this journey of motherhood. I bought a puzzle board with my birthday money and added in doing puzzles to my nighttime hobbies. I haven't gotten to enjoy a puzzle since becoming a mom because I had no place to store it while I worked on it. I finished my 1500 piece Christmas puzzle on Christmas Eve. I let the big kids help me when they stay up with me sometimes. When I’m not doing puzzles I still play the occasional video game, (still haven’t finished Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom) read some manga, work on my blog or draw a birthday card for the kids. Also, I am still enjoying reading audiobooks! I stayed in non-fiction but had a focus on WWII history or biographies which I really enjoyed. My favorites this year were The Hiding Place, The School that Escaped the Nazis, The self driven child, How to Think, Teaching from Rest (I've read the physical book and the audio is just as good!) ADHD is Awesome and Soundtracks. I also made time for a few physical books too. Hard is not the same thing as bad (read with together with my dear friend Mindy which made it even better), Reaching for Grace (my sister in law’s 2nd book, so good!) and Made for People which was on my audiobook favorites last year. I think it’s even better as a physical read! You should pick up a copy and tell me what you think! I have been learning a lot about community and human connection in the digital world. In my pursuit of becoming more like Jesus I want to be a better friend and a builder of strong connections. I definitely want it to be a main focus of 2025 for me. Lastly, I have really enjoyed leading our homeschool sports and book club called Brains and Brawn Club this year! Seriously, it is one of the highlights of every week! I love teaching the kids about sports (playing girls vs boys dodgeball is a favorite of mine!) and hearing what they are reading. It fills me up! <3

Drawings for this year!

I don't have much of a health update for Sam this year which I guess is sort of a good thing? He's still on blood thinners and wearing a compression sock on his left leg and they are working. He's been back for a couple check ups and the blood clot in his leg is getting smaller slowly. I know we both were wanting him to be off of the blood thinners by now, but we are also grateful that the blood clot doesn't negatively affect his daily life and it's getting better. Hopeful that in my next New Year's update I will be able to say that his blood clot is all the way gone! Sam is still helping me with the dishes most nights which I sooo appreciate. It really helps take some of the pressure off the bedtime routine for me to not have to worry about the dishes. Sam is working hard at his job as a copier shop technician manager and even sold a guitar and did a some extra work with his work buddy at a fireworks stand to earn some more cash to help cover Christmas gifts. Inflation is killer y'all! In his free time he enjoys watching movies, anime and playing video games, currently into Marvel Rivals. He also watches a good amount of youtube videos on the card game Magic the Gathering to gain even more knowledge on the cards and strategy. He goes to a Card shop with his work buddies about once a month to play Magic together. He changed his work schedule a little this year by waking up an hour earlier to get to work early enough to go home an hour early too. That way traffic is better and he's home before 6pm. It's worked out great and he was able to create better sleep habits. He hopes to continue to create healthier habits in the new year, as do I!

Jane is 10 and definitely in the middle of her preteen years! I feel like she has grown up so much this past year! In height, maturity and just in the way she looks. She officially is wearing the same shoe size as I am (7 1/2 womens) and she is sure to pass me up very soon which feels very weird to me. She is a year and a half into her 2 year orthodontic treatment plan. She will more than likely have to continue longer than the original 2 years but hopefully not too much longer. Maybe by this time next year she will be close to done! She finished her first full length middle grade novel this past summer, but that type of reading is not her favorite. I feel like we haven't been able to find something she really loves since she finished all of Raina Telgemeier's graphic novels. But that's alright! Reading can more voracious at times and more mellow at others. At this point of time it's a bit more mellow. She is enjoying the Lunch Lady series of books though. Roblox or watching anime are her favorite leisure activities. She also enjoys playing Minecraft and her new Spy Family game. Animes she's enjoyed lately are Frieren, Campfire cooking in another world with my absurd skill and Mashle. Jane will also draw and write in her free time! She is currently writing a story about Milo and what he does when he escapes out the backdoor. We've taken a break from Super Friday this year, but she is enjoying Brains and Brawn club quite a bit! She has improved in dodgeball so much! She barely used to throw the ball when we started. Now she gets people out all the time and is a formidable player! Last year I wrote that Jane was starting to watch Piper for me to help with my extra work each month and she has done amazing over the past year! It has worked out wonderfully!

Atlas is 8 (almost 9) and can very rarely take a picture without a silly face. In this picture he had just finished Super Mario 64 by getting all of the stars and was pretty excited about it. Video games are definitely Atlas's favorite thing. There was a time just recently that he really got into drawing by watching Art for Kids Hub and voluntarily didn't pick up a video game controller for 3 days. (that's a long time for him) Last year he grew a lot in his reading skills by reading a bunch of branches series books, then he moved on to Bad Guys and read all of those over a month I think. Now he reads Manga. It makes my manga loving heart happy. ;) He finished the Promised Neverland series super fast(one of my favorites) and loved it. He's up to date on Kaiju #8 and now he's reading the My Hero Academia series. He just finished volume 17. There's 42 volumes in all, so he's getting close to half way! He got the My Hero Academia: One's Justice 2 for Christmas and he's been playing it almost non-stop since then. He's also enjoying watching the anime even though he's already read the manga. Other video games he's enjoyed this year are the Untitled Goose game, Mario Sunshine, Super Mario RPG, Among Us and Cuphead. He also enjoys Brains and Brawn club and just last week got me out in dodgeball for the first time. He was pretty proud, I was too. :)

Alexandria is 6 years old and is my animal loving girl! She's starting to read simple picture books and loves it. She really wants to read manga like big brother so she looks at the pages but definitely isn't ready to read them yet. I'm hoping to continue to stoke the love of reading fire in her. The rest of school is not as fun as she thought it was in Kindergarten, at the same time, she still doesn't struggle with it much at all. She is very happy to hear when we are taking a day off though! Pretending with her stuffed animals is her favorite activity. She got a couple of puppet stuffies for Christmas and she is in love with them! She enjoys playing Roblox a good amount as well! There's a Godzilla game on there she loves. Dragons and other reptilian creatures/monsters are definitely still number 1 in her eyes. When she's not pretending to be a ferocious dragon she makes friends easily and is tender hearted towards others. This sweet girl tells me I'm the best mom in the world almost daily. She's a heart melter! <3

Flynn is a fresh 5 years old! He's as energetic as ever! His fascination with natural disasters is going strong. He loves to watch videos of tornados, volcanos and tsunamis, but he will get legitimately scared if we talk about a real tornado warning in the area, so he does understand the danger of it. He still loves the weird monster siren head which I don’t love, but we roll with the silly videos and not the scary ones. We don’t do very much structured preschool. When I tried to start this fall he got very frustrated, so I decided to give it more time. We might try again this spring. Writing is what gives him trouble. He’s very good at counting and knowing letters, shapes and colors. I have realized over the last year that Flynn more than likely has ADHD which explains a lot of his behavior. As Penn Holderness says in his book ADHD is awesome, we see ADHD as an explanation, not an excuse! I'm trying to learn more in order to help him better manage the symptoms of ADHD as much as I can. Flynn made his first real friends this year and he is learning to be a good friend.

Piper is 2 and radiates joy! Conversely, She has the loudest scream of anyone I know. When she’s happy (which is the majority of the time) she is plain adorable and makes everyone smile. When she’s upset, she makes sure EVERYONE knows about it. We’re working through the 2 year old tantrums, but I know it’s just a phase. If I stay consistent with responding calmly and communicate clearly in the midst of the screaming, I know it will eventually wind down and she will grow out of it. She loves to dance and run and jump and just be active in general. She also likes to sing and watch nursery rhythm shows like Little Angel and Pinkfong. She remains very capable! I have to constantly remind myself not to underestimate her abilities. Piper’s favorite person other than me is Marmee. In fact she will choose Marmee over me about 50% of the time. I’m glad I have back up! Otherwise she doesn’t let anyone other than Jane and Sam hold her. I lost count a long time ago with how many words she knows. She speaks in complete sentences and we can understand almost everything she says. Piper started to play with other toddlers her age and it’s the cutest to watch them converse. <3

My Mario Trunk won 2nd place!

I have so enjoyed the tradition of asking these 4 questions at the end of each year! I love the reflection and forward thinking it brings. 

1. What are you most grateful for in 2024?

This one was the easiest for me to answer! I am so grateful for Brains and Brawn Club this year! We started in March of 2024 every other week and moved to every week this fall because we enjoyed it so much. We have so much fun together! I look forward to it every week. We've had groups of kids ranging from 15 to 42 and ages ranging from 4 to 14. I am also grateful to my mom for giving me the inspiration for this event and her help with watching my littles while I lead it and for my faithful B&B friends, especially Rachel who helps me almost every week and took both of these pictures. <3

Honorable mentions: Jane's babysitting help, Flynn's potty victory, Electricity & A/C (Beryl made that abundantly clear to me).

2. What was your favorite moment of 2024?

My favorite moment was actually very different than I thought it would be. I was supposed to have a nice 2 day weekend mom getaway to the Great Homeschool Convention with my dear friend, Kae. But hurricane Beryl knocked out power for 9 days and I couldn’t leave everyone behind with no power. James and Kae invited our whole family to stay with them. It was only a 24 hour trip because we kept waiting for the power to come back in time, but it was still amazing! I got quality time with my friend Kae. Got to meet favorite homeschool people, Steve Demme, Andrew Pudewa and Sarah Mackenzie. So yes it was different than I had planned, but definitely my favorite moment this year.

Honorable mentions: Tejas family trip and watching cousins become besties, slip and slide with the whole family during the hurricane power outage, girls beat boys in dodgeball, Mario Trunk or Treat.

3. What are you looking forward to in 2025?

Our packing for GWL is in the background here.

This one is pretty simple. Our trip to Great Wolf Lodge got cancelled in December by sickness and we rescheduled for February. We've never been! So that is what we are all looking forward to!

Honorable mentions: Potentially, no more diapers! Also related to Piper getting older, Travel being easier and having a bit more freedom because it's becoming easier to leave the kids with Sam or my parents, reading chronologically through the Bible with Sam.

4. What goals do you hope to accomplish/habits to form in 2025?

I still did my work out in the rain!

Once again I feel like I accomplished half of my goals from last year. I did not prioritize my blog like I wanted, but I stayed consistent from previous years. I did make better health choices! I worked out more this year than I have since Flynn was born and enjoyed it. I still need to make better meal choices though and be even more consistent with work outs. I did slow down a bit to spend quality time with the kids. I journaled daily and spent more time outside with the kids and we implemented picture books into our school for more connection. I can continue to work on all of these for this year and I have new habits to form that relate to each new goal!

Goal: Going to bed at a good time consistently to get at least 7 hours of sleep a night. This is my top goal! I feel like a lot of other habits and routines will fall into place if I prioritize this goal. - Habits: getting ready for bed when the older kids go to bed and having dinner done before 7pm to have the younger kids in bed at a better time. Sticking to a nighttime routine for myself that includes putting my phone to bed at 10:30pm.

Goal: Working out more consistently - Habit: (This builds on the last goal) getting up on time and working out as soon as I finish work in the morning.

Goal: Prioritize building a strong community group. Habit: Continue reading about community and praying each day for wisdom for God to guide me.

Goal: Teaching Piper to swim. Habit: Getting in the pool with Piper at least 3 times a week during swim season to work on swimming skills!

Kids answers 2024

Moments?

J: Montgomery County Fair rides

A: Got mom out in Dodgeball

X: Family nights

F: Special nights with mom

All: Christmas, Tejas Labor Day weekend

Grateful?

J: Lamby

A: Video games and tv

X: Cambria/Animals

F: My birthday

All: Technology

Looking forward to?

All: Great Wolf Lodge Trip

Goal?

J: Work on her Minecraft world

A: Finish Cuphead

X: Be more brave (specifically about Fireworks)

F: Get better at building Legos

The Pets are still doing well! Milo tries to get out the back door as often as possible and Cambria loves to try to eat fireworks. ;)

Just for funzies.

Most said phrases by me this year: 

No.

Go to bed

Good Job

Do your school

Get your clothes/Jammies on.

Word for 2025:

Last year my word for the year and it was Growth. Yep! Definitely experienced lots of growth! For example I feel like just this December I had to grow a lot in dealing with disappointment and trusting God. We had a few exciting things cancelled by sickness and weather. I tried to lean into the serenity prayer. "God, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." For 2025, the word I've been thinking on a lot lately is:

Connection

                       Goodbye 2024!!!!! Hello 2025! Happy New Year Everybody!

Philemon 1:4-7

I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

Family of 7!

Family of 7?? Is that really the number used to describe my family? Truly, it still doesn’t feel real some days. I didn’t have 5 kids as a number in my head when I would consider the size of our family early on in our marriage, but I don’t think I had any specific number at all really. If I remember correctly, Sam and I had settled on taking it one by one and wanted to have more than 2 if possible. By the time we got to 4 kids, I was very happy with that number and thought that was all for us. Of course God knew best and decided to give us another precious baby. So here we are with 5 amazing kiddos and I wouldn’t have it any other way. After Piper was born, we made the permanent decision and scheduled the subsequent surgery to stay a family of 7. That said, God is sovereign and can still make miracles happen and I will never say never about our family size. It’s not all up to me. Also if God so chooses to lead our family down the road to adoption one day I will do my best to follow Him. So yes, we are a family of 7 and we plan to continue to be, but as the Bible verse states “a man plans his way but the Lord directs his steps.”

I usually try to write this post pretty soon after adding a new member to our family(like within the first few months) to list the biggest changes or the new dynamic that our newest member of the family brings. That said, because I am always fighting to keep my to do list from drowning me, I have been super duper behind on my blog for a long time now. Accordingly, Piper has now been apart of our family for over 2 years and I have just now started writing this post. I do have some old notes in here from the first year that will help me remember that time somewhat, but for the most part I’ll share what our life is like in the here and now. 

In previous "Family of…" posts, I compare the difficulty level of transition of going from our previous number of kids to our current number of kids. I have mentioned in other posts that 0 to 1 kid was the hardest, then 1 to 2 was easier, but not as easy as going from 2 to 3. A huge part of that 2 to 3 ease was due to Xan being my easiest baby by far. 3 to 4 was pretty tough because I had a good amount of kids by then and Flynn was a higher maintenance baby, but still probably easier than the first two transitions. I think going from 4 to 5 was very similar to 3 to 4, with two big differences. Firstly, the first few weeks of Piper was very smooth. The smoothest of any transition so far! My mom helped me out a lot with the other 4 kids and I made a ton of Freezer meals for myself. Piper reminded me more of Xan in that first month than anyone. Plus it was still summer time and we weren’t concerned with school for that first month. Then we did start school and Piper stopped seeming so much like Xan and started seeming a lot more like Jane! I was definitely very overwhelmed. Secondly, It was the first time having a newborn and having a kid doing school older than Kindergarten. It took us a while to find our groove. But we did it eventually! During one of my most overwhelming days I yelled at the kids louder than I ever had, sent them all to their rooms and then cried a literal puddle. (It was very small puddle, but it was a puddle nonetheless) Not my finest moment. All the kids came back to the dining/school table slowly and we all apologized and moved on. I’m going to just have to believe that it’s healthy for them to know it’s ok to not be ok sometimes. Not even mom always picks the right reaction. Ask for forgiveness. Make the change and move past it! As difficult as each transition has been I do believe it has made me a better person each time. The way motherhood helps sanctify me is unlike anything else I’ve experienced. In a nut shell, going from 4 to 5 was easier than 3 to 4 at the beginning and then harder once school was thrown back in the mix. That’s why I call it even.

Piper’s Temperament, which I briefly mentioned in the paragraph before, was very chill her first month or so. Especially the first 2 weeks, then she sort of woke up to the world around her more and more each month she grew older. I would say she was a cross between both girls temperament before she could move. Very personable and smiley like Xan, but then always wanted to stand and keep her eyes open like Jane. Once she got moving she was hard to stop!! She was such a happy girl until I told her she couldn’t do something: draw on everything with markers, eat glue or sit on the table, the list goes on. So yes, once she could move she probably reminded me the most of Flynn! Happy and independent exploring until someone gets in the way of their exploration. When that happens the tantrums start. That’s part of the reason I gave in to some things with Piper that I would have never done with the others. I ended up letting her sit on the kitchen table and draw with markers because it was the only way we could get school done without screaming. I felt validated in this decision when my grandma told me a story about my aunt wanting so badly to sit on the table as a toddler and my grandma being very determined not to let her. She told me she looks back and thinks now, "I should have just let her sit on the table. There would have been a lot less fighting." I am happy to report that at age 2 Piper no longer sits on the kitchen table and will sit happily in her own chair. It was worth it!

Another aspect of adding a baby to the family is how it affects our activities! Park day with 5 kids is just about the same as with 4 except with one more to count. When I was still nursing Piper, I enlisted some help from my trusted park moms to help me keep eyes on Flynn and it worked out great. I also wore Piper a lot! Discovery crew co-op was able to continue as usual as well because I had the support of the other moms to hold Piper when it was my turn to lead. My mom was able to pick the kids up from Super Friday while we were participating which made it so much easier to handle since I only had to drop them off. If I did have to pick them up it would mess with Piper’s nap or she would scream the whole time. So grateful for my mom’s help. Now that I’m doing Brains and Brawn club my mom takes care of the younger two, sometimes three for me during that time. I wouldn’t be able to do it without her! I have used her help with many other activities that would have been much harder to do with 5 of them or just wasn’t something easy to do with kids younger than 6 years old. I know how blessed I am to have such amazing help! When Piper wasn’t walking yet, I would take her with me to Mom’s Night Out and she did so well! Once Piper got busy and wasn't willing to sit for long, I started leaving the girls with my mom and the boys with Sam. Now Sam does great taking care of all 5 on his own. Although he doesn’t offer to watch all of them much. Haha! It’s a lot, especially since they all want me. Neighborhood walks with 5 have gotten harder and don’t happen nearly as often. Half of it is that it’s harder to keep them all close and out of the way of cars and the other side is that the older 3 would rather stay home and I’m not ready to leave them home. I have changed my workout to the backyard and I do track drills! I also try to do some stretching and core work outs when everyone is in bed. I just still haven’t gotten back to being as consistent as I would like yet, but I’m working on it! My grocery routine hasn’t changed much, but I am even less likely to go inside the store now than ever. I ONLY do curbside groceries unless we are getting 5 items or less and even then I will ask Sam to go by the store for an item or two on the way home to avoid going in the store with all of them. With Piper we have a VAN FULL! When Sam’s not with us we have one extra seat for a friend or grandparent. So grateful for my van! The two biggest things that took a hit with adding our 5th was 1. my own hobbies. I don’t draw except for birthday cards at this time. I don’t blog as much as I’d like and it has been harder to find time for walks and working out. But I know they won’t be little forever and I will get more time for hobbies eventually. I know time invested in them is precious and worth it. The 2nd hit was with 5 kids I realized that I stopped being able to support relationships that relied solely on me to keep it going. My time is limited and I don't have the capacity to keep up if I don't have someone keeping up with me too. So if you’re reading this and I’ve seemed distant in the last 2 years it’s not because I want to be distant it’s because my brain is full and my time is jam packed with kids needs. Send me a text or a message, I’d love to hear from you! <3

SO MUCH PIPER LOVE. Even before Piper was born the 3 older kiddos were absolutely in love with her. Always hugging my belly. Once she was born the love only grew!! Always huddled around her and asking to hold her. Oooing and awing over how cute and sweet she was! There was no jealousy or discontent at all. With Flynn, there was some growing pains to adjusting to having a little sister instead of being the youngest. He never seemed mad at Piper or jealous of her, but he became louder and easier to upset about most things. I think because I had treated him like the last born for the longest, the attention swing was big when Piper entered the family and that was really hard for Flynn. We have adjusted and Flynn loves Piper, but he still doesn’t want her playing with his toys. ;) Shortly after Piper was born, I asked the kids if they were content with the amount of siblings they had and the consensus was a resounding yes! Thank goodness! Because I sure felt the same way. It's 2 years later and everyone is still very happy with the size of our family. 

Piper was a super night owl! Staying up until 12am most nights until she was around 9-10 months or so? I remember starting to let the older two kids stay up and entertain her for me so I could get a little time to do something I wanted to do to recharge for the next day. I played a lot of Zelda on those nights. Piper was a fair sleeper. Not great, but definitely not bad. She and Atlas remind me the most of each other about their sleeping habits. Both night owls and both slept moderately well at night. 3-4 hour stretches most nights only waking up once or twice a night in the first year after the first month or two. The bedtime routine the first year of having 5 kids was a juggling act. Especially because Piper wouldn’t really go to sleep until late, but we got it done and everyone did sleep pretty well. Once Piper was sleep trained I would take her to bed first and after about 30 minutes of books and me walking her around her room, she was ready to sleep! With the big kids we used to do picture books at bed time, but everyone kept fighting over my lap and who was close to me. So we switched to chapter book read alouds at bed time with everyone in their own bed and it worked so much better for us! Xan and Flynn could fall asleep to the sound of me reading and the big kids could really enjoy the story without interruptions. I started really looking forward to our bed time read alouds and still do!

Right before Piper was born, I switched job priorities. I had been working for my current Oil and Gas company for almost 2 years already about 2 hours a day and had started working for my brother at the beginning of 2022 for about maybe 30 extra minutes a day. Well, my Oil and Gas job was going to be hard to work with a little baby because I sometimes had to wait on other people to start my work and some weeks I had less work and others I had much more. I knew with having 5 kids I would need more flexibility for myself and consistency in the work available. Scott offered that flexibility and stability! I could work whenever was convenient for me and didn't have to wait on anyone. So I switched from working 2 hours a day for the Oil and Gas company to working 2 hours for Scott at Rundle. It was the perfect solution. My brother is the best boss! I still have an amazing boss at my Oil and Gas company that allowed me to reduce my hours and still work for them too! I work only 15 to 30 minutes for them on a normal day. The first 4 days of the month I work 2-3 hours. So my work load on those day is very heavy. 4 to 5 hours. I made it work with Piper's nice naps and reducing our homeschooling load on those day as well. But when Piper stopped napping as much when she turned 1, I started stressing and dreading those few day a month. The solution was Jane working for me! She became my babysitter between the hours of 8am-12pm on the first 4 days of the month. She makes $10 a day and she is very happy with her extra cash! Piper loves Jane and is happy with the extra attention from her. It's been almost a year now since Jane started this responsibility and it's still working well! 

I've talked about school a bit already, but people often ask me how I do school with 5 kids and so many different ages. Well the answer is by God's grace and strength! At least that's how we survive and even thrive day to day. The logistical answer is that I only school 3 so far (I don't even know what 5 will look like but I'm trusting God will show me the way!) and we do NOT have a rigorous schedule. I don't do grades and we combine as many subjects as possible. We follow a school schedule that I create on excel, but if it doesn't work out for us to get to a subject, we skip it that day and I don't stress about it. I strictly protect our activity/event schedule to keep from being overcommitted and to keep me from getting burned out from taking people from place to place all day. I also am very protective of our evenings and family dinners. I follow a rule that every extra activity starts as a No, and I have to be convinced it will be beneficial to our family and not take away from school at home and family connection to become a yes. We start school around 10:30am usually and it really depends on if we have another event that day and how focused/motivated they are on how fast we get it done. Some days we are done by 2pm other days we're not done until 4pm. I do Bible, history, science, social studies, our read aloud, cultures/geography and vocabulary all together with my now 1st, 3rd and 5th graders. (not all on one day do we do all of these things, some subjects are on a one day off one day on schedule) On their own they do Math, Grammar/writing, their personal reading, typing, spelling, penmanship and Explode the Code. I take the wisdom filled guidance of Sarah Mackenzie and try to focus on "Doing" and not "getting done". I also try not to fall prey to the stress of feeling "behind". I try to think of what I learned in school and what was important and helpful for my life and focus on those things. It's ok if we're still working on last year's math book.(which it always seems like we are) Andrew Pudewa from IEW won't ask you what grade the student is in if you ask for advice, instead he will ask where they are in their writing skills and where they should be next. Once he knows those two things, he can give you steps to see growth in the coming months. I try to think that way too. Instead of thinking, "Are we getting through all the pages?" I try to think, "Am I seeing growth in them academically and are we having at least a moderately good time doing it?" If the answer is yes, then we continue on! If the answer is no then I will try to start narrowing down what it is we need to change. I LOVE talking about homeschooling. If you ever want to know more about our homeschooling journey please ask me! :D I might have to expand on our day to day homeschooling life in another post.

I would consider the size of our family as a midrange-big family. Because people with 3 or more kids than me don’t really consider my family very big. But we’re still a bigger family than the average American family. Most of the time when I meet someone and I start listing the names and ages of my kids, they are surprised when I keep listing names after the third name. Of course this is only the case when they themselves have less than 5. ;) So the word "big" is definitely relative. I would say the vast majority does consider our family big. I still get, “You’ve got your hands full!” comments. I have also gotten some stares and head shakes. Thankfully, more than the negative comments I get the sweet ones. “You have such a beautiful family!”, “You’re doing great!”, “I remember when mine were that old! It’s a precious and hard time, you’re going to make it!”. Those comments are the best! Those kinds of comments are such a lovely pick me up in my day to day life. I was called a seasoned mom for the first time in my life just a few months ago. So I guess having 5 kids and your oldest being at least 10 years old grants you seasoned mom status? Haha! Maybe not exactly that, I’ll take it though! I hope it means I truly have gained some wisdom over the last decade!

Here are a few things I have learned through my motherhood journey. Focus on balance not perfection. Rely on God through it all! Accept help from others. God isn’t expecting you to do motherhood alone. I used to say no when someone would ask to help me, but since having 5 kids I almost NEVER reject help anymore! It makes a difference! Here’s another RAR(read aloud revival) podcast gem for you that I always try to remember. When talking about being a mother: Having problems is not the problem, it's the work of motherhood. It’s not the fun part, but it’s still an important part and everyone has problems to fix in their everyday lives parenting their kids. You’re not doing a bad job of parenting if you have problems to figure out, you are doing the work! Realizing having "problems" didn't make me bad mom was really freeing and alleviated a lot of stress I was carrying. I listened to a good amount of great audiobooks and podcasts that gave me lots of encouragement to continue on my motherhood journey. If you want a rec, ask me sometime! This tip came from the book Take Back Your family. Highly recommend! The author encourages parents as the coaches of your family to work on something or add something new for a week, then look back the week at the end figure out what worked and what didn't. Then tweak as needed and try again the next week! Rinse and repeat. That helped me to find the little things to make our weekly schedule run smoother and not be so overwhelmed with trying to “fix” everything at once. It made everything feel a little less insurmountable. 

 

One thing I’m always working on tweaking/crafting each week to improve upon is Family nights and a Sabbath day. On Saturday evening it feels like sabbath begins because I stop my to do list, we have take out for dinner and do something fun as a family afterward instead of cleaning up the kitchen and house. We rotate between, board games/charades night, movie night and video game night. I love it! On Sunday we take it really slow and get up late and go to my parents for a late lunch. I go out to eat with my dad and which ever older kids want to come while my mom stays with the little ones. We go back to my parents afterwards to swim in the summer months and maybe do a fire pit fire in the cooler months. It’s great family time. We end the sabbath day with ice cream for dinner on Sunday. 

With each child added to our family, time has felt like it started going even faster than the last time our family grew. With 5, I feel like we are moving at warp speed. I wake up and it feels like a couple hours goes by and it’s time to get them ready for bed! Every moment is filled to the brim. Each day I feel so blessed by the 5 children I have been given to raise and love. But at the same time, I feel a little inadequate to give them what they need with the waking hours of the day. The good news is I don’t have to be enough. To quote Sarah Mackenzie (Yes, I'm a big fan! I have been told a few times that I should start a homeschooling podcast, but I tell them almost everything I would say is what Sarah Mackenzie says on the RAR podcast, so there’s really no need for me to do one!) All I am asked to do is to bring what I have and God will make it enough! I am not in control of how my kids turn out, as much as I wish I was!! So I will continue to give my best and let God take care of the miracle of their growth. Thankfully God has them in his hands always. I am so overwhelmingly grateful for the family God has blessed me with. <3

Can't leave out our sweet pets!

Colossians 3:12-17

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Psalm 133:1

Behold, how good and pleasant it is

    when brothers dwell in unity!