Why should kids work?

I promised a few weeks ago, when I shared our fantastic chore system, more writing on kids and work. 

Hopefully, you subscribe to the 'better late than never' philosophy...if not, well, um...I'm moving on.

So, the question today is, 'why should kids do chores?' or 'why should children work?'.

Really, I could simply say to refer to the book of Proverbs.  There are more than a few nuggets on how God created our bodies to work.  But that wouldn't be necessarily super helpful so I suppose I shall expound a bit more.

It has surprised me, over the last few years, to discover how many parents do not think their kids should have to do jobs around their home.  Possibly, these parents felt over-worked as kids, themselves and fear they will do the same to their children.  Maybe they don't want to put in the effort to teach their kids how to do some tasks. And there are even more adults who simply believe 'kids are kids' and shouldn't have to do more than their schoolwork.

We don't believe in any of that. Period.

God made all of us to work.  And parents were given children for many reasons and one of the purposes of childhood is to learn how to be a productive adult and the parents are the teachers in this endeavor.  And last time I checked, productiveness requires a fair amount of effort, or work.

So, I hope my children learn to be comfortable with working their bodies physically in many ways, including with tasks that can feel meaningless and redundant, although necessary, around the house (really...who likes to vacuum up a floor only to see it dirty a few hours later). 

In addition, our daughters need to learn to be good keepers of their future homes and chores are a first step in that direction.

We also believe that required work helps produce a certain amount of character and attitude improvement. 

Ryan works in middle management.  I could write for hours (except that I have work to do) about the stories he comes home with which demonstrate an adult's lack of determination to simply suck it up and go get the job done.  How sad would it be to carelessly develop a worker like that under our own roof? 

I am not saying that by having my children do chores they will turn into future five star employees.  I am simply saying that chores are a beginning step in developing the 'work' part of their character.  And we find that to be Biblical.

"Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth." Proverbs 10:4

"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." Proverbs 14:23

"One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys." Proverbs 18:9

"Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftless man goes hungry." Proverbs 19:15

Everything is good in moderation and with consideration.  Requiring children to work is no exception.  Next time I intend to tackle how we have our children working.

The quickest chore system for the cleanest house!

Do I have you sold by the title? 

Can you tell I really like how we are doing chores lately? 

I had heard of various systems using chore cards, chore charts, lists, etc.  And we had tried a few different kinds, but they always had their drawbacks.  Usually there wasn't enough flexibility built in or not enough variation for the kids. 

For example, Z would have dog poop pick up on every Tuesday and Thursday.  But then what happens when it is pouring buckets on Tuesday morning and then Wed is bright and sunny.  Is he now supposed to do two days chores on Wed, but nothing on Tuesday?  And no, I do not put him in a rain suit and send him outside...that was not one of the options.

Or let's say vacuum the family room was on Friday, but we decide to go somewhere on Friday.  Now the family room ends up super dirty all weekend (not a good plan, if you ask me).

What was I to do, you ask?

Here is my awesome solution (or at least, I think so):
1. Buy different colored magnet clips (one for each of the children you would ask to do chores). For us this is three.  I might be a rather driven mom and all, but no, my one and two year-olds do not have assigned jobs. 

2. Take a stack of 4x6 cards and cut them in half (because I am cheap and didn't need the size of the whole card).  Make a list of all the jobs you have ever had the children do. Be specific: it works better in our house if I break up the rooms for vacuuming.  So I have about five vacuum cards-dining room, school room, upstairs, etc.  And there are cards for the specific bathrooms: upstairs and downstairs. 

Don't forget to help your sanity out by including what I call 'half jobs'.  These are to maintain the cleanliness, but not take as long as a full cleaning.  For example: my older two kids can clean the bathrooms (everything except the showers-those are still my duty).  However, the counters get messy in between once a week cleanings.  So, I have a card labeled for wiping off both bathroom counters.  All three of them can do this job and it keeps things decently clean and allows for J to begin learning how to clean the bathroom.

3. Write these jobs on the cards.  If it was a job that they all do on the same day sometimes (like put away their clean laundry) then write that job out on three cards.

4.  Assign each color clip to a child. 

5.  The next morning, before chore time, glance around the house and decide what needs to be cleaned.  Is the bathroom beyond presentable?  Are your floors collecting dog hair like crazy (like mine)?  Or is the dust able to be measured?  Pick out those cards.  Decide who should do which job.  Put those cards on the appropriate clip.  Around here there are days when everyone has one large job and there are other days when they may have up to three smaller jobs.  On our homeschool coop/errand day and on Sunday nobody has chores....here in lies the beauty of flexibility.

Note: I am a bit strategic here about a few things.  You learn as you go along.  Each household will vary as to the best strategy, but here are some of mine:
1) I only have one caddy for bathroom cleaning so I will not ask for both bathrooms to be cleaned on one day.
2) Vacuuming upstairs does not go as smoothly when I also have someone trying to clean the upstairs bathroom.
3) I only ask one child to do a chore that I know I will need to assist them with to avoid mass frustration.
4) Think ahead: do you have company coming in the next couple of days?  Are you going to be gone tomorrow? Etc...

6.  When the child has completed their job they bring me their cards and I can check their work at this time if I didn't earlier.  Now the cards go back in my master pile.

During chore time if I am not needed for assistance I may move the laundry along, put away Ryan and my clean clothes, wash the dishes, deep clean the kitchen, make bread, or prep for school that day. 

Although my kids do help with a lot of the cleaning around here (and I am very grateful) there is still plenty for this mom to do!

For more details on how our kids pitch in around here...stay tuned.

Kid Updates

I haven't been posting much here as our family has been getting over stomach issues, preparing for the Christmas season, and simply trying to get our family back on track (read here for the back story.).  In other words, there have been higher priorities lately.  Nonetheless, it has not been boring around here. 

I believe it is time for a few updates on the kid front.

S leads the way in passing milestones at a little over seven months.  She taught herself how to sit from the crawling position in one day!  I saw her beginning to try two days ago and yesterday after a few more attempts, S had it down.  Much to my dismay she has also learned how to pull herself up to standing on many things!  We now find her standing at the couch, at kitchen drawers, on the open dishwasher, pulling on my leg, etc.  But, of course, S has no idea of how to get down so she most often ends up falling back on her head... hopefully she will learn how to lower herself down as fast as she has the other skills.  She talks a ton!  When she is tired or in distress we will hear "Maaa, Maaa"  Other times there is Daa, Baaa, etc.  S also seems to like to wave.  I am not sure about the full level of understanding with that action, but it is funny, anyhow. It is still much too exciting to feed her and she does still insists on waking up once between 3 and 6 am, but we seem to be making some small steps of improvement.  You can read more about our little firecracker here. And yes, her hair stands on end all on its own! Rather appropriate for her, if you ask us.

M has discovered coloring.  This kid is something.  One day he calmly climbed up at the kitchen table where the other kids were coloring and looked very interested.  So I grabbed him some scratch paper and told him the crayons only go on the paper.  He hasn't looked back.  Never have I handed any of our children crayons and let them be much before the age of 3 (otherwise you never knew what would become colored).  Now, M passes most of his late afternoons doing this hobby, taking occasional breaks to come and show me his art! M has also learned the joys (or pains) of having a younger sibling.  The whole family nearly lost it one evening watching his reaction as he was calmly working on figuring out some toy only to have S come over to take it all for her chewing pleasure.  He looked at her with the biggest frown, seriously furrowed brows, and a stern look that said, "You are not supposed to do that!".  Then he stood up and said very demonstratively, "AAAHHHH!"  This was not a cry, not a whine, but a very serious statement and he never touched her. You must picture a very proper looking linebacker.  That is our M.  A widely built gentleman who knows how things should be!

Today T had me absolutely flabbergasted!  She asked to do her phonics together and we did.  Understand that with the two tiny ones I have it really only allows me to do 'school' with the girls about once a week.  Thus, T has not made as much progress reading as I know she is capable of.  However, she is not even in her Kindergarten year so I have not sweated it much.  Well, today we worked on her blend cards and then did two pages in her Kindergarten Phonics book.  The second page challenged her to read a sentence.  She faced it head on with no hesitation.  At her success I informed her she was nearly ready for her first reading book!  T then asked to see it.  I wasn't about to suppress her excitement, but I didn't want this positive to quickly turn negative. 

So, I handed her the book, but wasn't about to have her read it.  She promptly sat down and began to sound out one word after another.  This first 'reader' only contains one sentence, but has them work on sounding out 58 words.  It is about 6 pages long.  As I sat by quietly watching for any mistakes and clarifying 'b' and 'd' she made it through the entire book!  Then said she was ready for the next one.  I couldn't decide if I should fall off the couch or laugh! 

I am very well aware of the differences between boys and girls in regards to reading, but this is not even in the same solar system as my first experience in teaching reading. Her determination combined with a positive attitude in life is going to take her places, I would venture! She was hardly bothered one bit when I would correct her or she would stumble a bit.  It was unbelievable to watch her calmly push through it without one frown. 

I informed her that the way we do these books is that she has to read them twice before we go onto the next one, thinking about how I would like to give her brain a few days to work on the first book.  I learned this my first time around.  Otherwise, they don't get enough practice and end up moving on too quickly.  So, of course (every kid would, right?), she sits down and does the whole book again, even bringing it to me in the basement while I moved laundry along to check if she had something right.  I am still wide eyed about the whole event.  May our path to her reading continue this smoothly! 

The Thanksgiving Diet

I trust you had a pleasant Thanksgiving.  We discovered a new way to not gain any weight during this holiday...at least temporarily.

First, on Wednesday when you are making room in the frig for Thursday's food, which you are making ahead of time, decide to keep some of your leftovers around for Wednesday's dinner.  Even though they are a bit borderline on how long they have been in there for, it will save you money and time, so go for it.  Proceed to finish those off on Wednesday night. 

Now on Wednesday night mom will spend all night with the stomach flu of the likes which she has not had in years...

Thus on Thanksgiving morning with a fever of 100 and exhaustion of catastrophic proportions the family will decide to stay home.  But by noon mom will feel possibly up to going so put her in her cozy PJ pants, hand her a pillow, and all climb in the car.  Twenty minutes down the road she will say that there is no way she will make it in a car for another forty-five minutes so make that U-turn.

As you all re-enter your home with bummed-out kids one of these children will suddenly look ill and say that their stomach hurts.  You send them to the bathroom just in time!  Oh, boy...and you thought only mom was in for it.  Two hours later that same child is back at it. 

Pass out lunch to healthy family members and put the kids down for nap.  As one rises from nap and walks toward you in the kitchen they suddenly join the spewing club.  And have an encore presentation an hour later. Now the basket of rags is staying out on the kitchen counter and Dad has started his second load of laundry for the day.  Mom continues to try to stay awake on the couch with a fever and severe aching.

Thanksgiving evening brings two more episodes courtesy of two different children.  Now the couch is missing two cushions, due to them needing to be cleaned, and the carpet is getting the life scrubbed out of it.  Laundry load #4 is in!

The kids lay around pathetically until 6:30pm at which time Mom deems it bedtime.  They all crash into bed without hardly a peep.

That was our Thanksgiving!! Hope yours was a little less exciting.

I am very thankful Ryan was home for this illness as I would not have made it on my own.  I am thankful we all were feeling well enough to continue our holiday tradition of going to cut down our Christmas tree and decorate on Friday.  I am also thankful for the five pounds I don't miss!

Responsibility

A quick 'thank you Lord' update: our camera is working!!!
Now on to the post...

By the grace of God Ryan and I have been given quite a few children with a large amount of responsibility.  It really helps temper the insanity in our home at times. 

Z likes to be very helpful, even to the point of doing too much.  He is sometimes up doing his school work before I am even awake in the morning; Ryan works 2nd shift so we adults are up unusually late and Z is a morning person. 

T would keep every closet, drawer, and cabinet in alphabetical order, lined up by color and dusted if I let her.  You should see her dresser drawers! I don't let her do this all over the house because she would be driving her siblings nuts by moving all of their things constantly (it has happened many times).  T showers herself, vacuums part of the house, does the dishes, etc....mostly of her own accord. 

It really is kind of ridiculous.  Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining; I just know that it is not normal.  But then again they do have two first born, A-type parents. Poor kids can't hardly help it.

Now I think we may have a new up and coming responsible person.  This evening I called that dinner was ready.  The older ones washed their hands and came to the table.  I called for M specifically and told him it was time to climb into his booster.  I knew he was hungry.  He toddled toward me, went around me, turned the corner and very determinedly headed toward the hall. 

This may sound like defiance, but there was something about how he carried his wobbly stoutness that made me raise a questioning eyebrow and quietly watch him.  He continued quickly without a look back to S's pitch black room.  M walked right up to the changing table, opened the cabinet door, pulled out a cloth, closed the door, and headed back my way.  When he got in the light he looked down at what was in his hand (a crib sheet), turned around, and went back to the changing table to repeat the process.  This time he came out, passed by me, and went back to the living room with a burp rag in hand and proceeded to clean up S's spit up that I was completely unaware of.  He calmly handed me the rag and went to his booster. I got a really good laugh out of this all the while trying to tell him 'thank you' in some sort of composed way.

Are you serious?  This kid is only 22 months old!!! I'll take it.

The Train is off the Rails

Our family train is officially off the rails.  No if's, and's or but's about it.  We are praying hard for an improvement, but in the meantime it has been absolutely insane.  What does off the rails look like, you ask?  Have you ever had such a day in which crazy things, out of your control, not of the positive sort, keep happening to you and you simply want to go to bed and start over?  Ya, that has been the last seven or eight days around here.

It began with a day in which I tried to take the girls on a bike ride and forgot to tuck my pants in my shoe and thus, ripped them quite grandly and a hundred yards later the girls were cold and I needed to stop and close the cover on the bike trailer.  I was simply trying to get some quick exercise...Then I got home and managed to track dog poop through the family room and into the kitchen, all the while wondering who had "such muddy shoes". I mean, really....it was just supposed to be a bike ride to enjoy one of the last pleasant days.

Later we had the incident of M pulling a carton of cream off of the counter and spilling it down the front of the dishwasher, across the floor, and as we later discovered, also into the otherwise clean and full dishwasher. Seriously, I was just trying to make some soup.

I have had to clean up potty accidents much more than usual this past week.  One of the couch cushion covers is currently hanging up to dry in the basement. You are welcome to come and chat anytime on our comfy couch!

 M spilled an open water bottle on a library book while at Z's swimming lessons.  The book survived, but he was soaked for the afternoon of errands. Not too much harm done there.  Just every person we saw surely thought I was quite the irresponsible mom for not taking care of the poor kid's diaper.

Our family has been working on a very nice 1000 piece puzzle depicting a pleasant fall scene.  We were nearly done.  But, apparently, our older dog, Jax, decided that the table upon which we have been doing the puzzle is suddenly his favorite spot in which to keep an eye on the neighborhood while we are gone.  We came home to 1000 pieces on the floor (at least we hope they all were there). Now, this is getting ridiculous.

Then we had a rather large scare.  M fell down the last two stairs in our house and nearly knocked himself out.  It was a weird fluke thing with something that was left on the stairs and him trying to go around it.  Usually, M is very careful.  Ryan actually came home from work to help me monitor him (keep him awake for a while, watch his eyes, and all that stuff).  He is OK, but it was obviously terrifying.  OK, can I take a vacation now? For those of you wondering: yes we have stair gates, but they don't fit in this home's stairs (we recently moved) and M usually waits for me before venturing onto the stairs (yes he really is that kind of mellow kid).

Oh, ya...and our truck's check engine light just came on.  Seriously????

But wait there is more! This last weekend we went to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday at my parent's home.  We packed up and headed out.  The guys all planned to spend the day attending a college football game.  So, my sister and I decided to spend the afternoon at the outlets and leave the kids with grandma.  In the first store I kept feeling this strange sensation on the outside of my left calf.  I finally looked down and saw water spots all over my lower leg and boot.  I quickly traced it to my purse.  Imagine my horror when I opened the top of my purse and saw a mini swimming pool!!! We quickly paid for what we were holding and went outside with some paper towels that the clerk had given us.

Outside I began trying to fix the situation.  I pulled out items and began handing them to my sister: wallet (not too much harm done), the checkbook (it will dry out), cell phone and keys (those were in an upper pocket),
bags of cheerios (no problem there), a bag of pretzels and raisins (again, no biggie), a container of wipes (whatever), a couple of diapers (why these didn't soak any liquid up I'll never know), a few dripping grocery lists, and THE CAMERA!  You have got to be kidding me! To finish this cleaning effort I then try to dump out the remaining water onto the ground and discover a few rolling pennies, girls clips, and a few bobby pins.  We were such a sight to behold!

So, where did all of this water come from?  A water bottle. I was feeling rather dehydrated that day and stuck it in my purse when we got out of the car.  Simple as that.  It somehow came unlatched and whoosh!  I hardly ever keep the camera in my purse, but had quickly put it in my purse on our way out for the weekend.  Currently, it is drying out, but we do not hold much hope for its survival.  After its trauma it turned itself on and had an unresponsive white screen.  So, other than pics that I either had or I receive from my mom (such as below) this blog may be 'pictureless' for quite sometime. 

Life with five very small people is crazy enough on a normal basis.  Lately it has been a nearly too much to handle.  We will appreciate any and all prayers involving our family and peace.

We did have a fun time with family and our kids had a blast with their cousins.  S (blue pants) and her cousin are about 7 months apart.  And J is only 4 months apart from my sister's son.

Oh, the drama of it all

By: Heather
I was always one to run from drama in my school years.  I see it as manipulation.  And if I smell anything even remotely resembling manipulation you can bet your bottom dollar that I am out that door faster than lightning.  Drama isn't quite the same thing from young kids (usually), but that doesn't change my dislike of it.

See, this is one of the reasons Ryan and I always thought for sure God would give us all boys.  Among the other things that He could have considered were the facts that I love sports, never paint my finger nails, and really don't care for pink or purple much.  I even consider it all joy when Ryan attempts to 'solve my problems'.  I know, this does not sound particularly normal.  Either nature or nurture, that is part of me. But seeing as how God does not very often follow our reasoning, here I sit recovering from a rather 'hysteria filled day', courtesy of two particular girly girls.

I think T stubbed her toe twice today.  Now, I am known around here as a rather acomplished 'toe-stubber' so I know this event is not comfortable.  But really, laying on the floor, hollering like she just got walloped by a baseball bat? And twice?  After the second one I remarked that her feet must be growing (I know, real sympathetic).  She suddenly stops, looks up inquisitively, and says with eyebrows perked, "Why?".  After I explain the connection she pops up, sticks a foot in the air and says, very proudly, to everyone within ear shot, "Look, my feet are THAT big!!"  Mom is now rolling her eyes and shaking her head while T bounces off....

T & J love going out to get the mail.  But I really need to remember when it is windy to go with them.  Otherwise it can be rather embarassing.  The sudden wailing and frantic calling of 'Moooooom' that can be heard from inside, with the doors and windows closed, is enough to propel me out the door without any shoes to chase the wayward envelope.  Down the middle of the street I run until I finally catch up to some bloomin' piece of mail offering a free window replacement estimate, addressed to the former owners!  Up until the precise moment that I catch the flying mail J is still in vocal distress.  Then it suddenly ceases.  Wow, hope the neighbors appreciated that exhibition!

Then there was the ladybug flying around the dining room light at dinnertime (Dad works during dinnertime).  They could hardly sit in their chairs; everytime the bug came anywhere above them they ducked like a jumbo jet was coming in to land on their plate.  And they kept squealing, "Moooommmmm, the bug, the bug, get the bug!!". Meanwhile, I am feeding a hungry, thus cranky, baby her solids and am not interested in taking a break for A LADYBUG.  Mom thinking: "Seriously, children"...But wait, now they are insisting, very distressed like, about how I must save the lady bug from getting burned on a lightbulb.  Mom, in her head: "You have got to be kidding me".

In addition, we had the very dramatic exclamations about M needing a diaper change, RIGHT NOW because of the "really bad stinky!!". Or the curling up in a vertical fetal position becasue I said that the baby dolls had to be cleaned up, never mind it is bedtime and they will want their dolls in bed with them, anyhow. On top of it all T also has a scraped up knee which she insists can not be bent, one may not touch with any fabric, wash at all, etc and this injury recieves about a 2 on the 1 to 10 scraped up knee scale from yours truly.

Most days aren't quite this exciting.  And I know it also could be a lot more intense, we have both family and friends with 5 girls.  Really, I don't know how those Moms do it.  On days like today stopping to talk or play with Z or M is a breath of fresh air!

But most days I really do cherish having girls.  They can't wait for the days in which I paint their finger and toe nails, count the days until Sunday when they can wear their fancy dresses, and dance around the house on tiptoes many times a day.  Both enjoy me doing up their hair nice and like playing with my hair.  It is fun and rewarding to be able to teach them the tasks of cooking, cleaning, etc.  And really, they are helping me enjoy being feminine, just a little bit more. 

We are getting used to the girl thing, slowly.  Why, just last Saturday Ryan actually stopped to browse the 'pink pages' of the first Christmas toy catalog to grace our mailbox!

So, it has begun...

Here in the midwest fall is a definite season! Leaves turn and fall, nights are cool and the humidity is gone.

This fall also brought additions to our schedule.  A few weeks ago both Z and T were excitedly telling their grandparents about their upcoming classes.  Z was about to begin swimming and T a dance class.  My dad looked knowingly at Ryan and I and said with a barely detectable smirk, "And so it begins...". 

There are many schools of thought regarding homeschool families and time spent outside of the home.  For that matter there are many philosophies about today's kids and busyness in general.  I tend to reside half way between a homebody and the "I need to get out every day" type.  Currently I slide a little more towards the homebody type because of how incredibly awkward 'going out' can be with five little people in tow.  Really, the first dance class is still nearly a nightmare in my mind. Just picture a mom carrying a toddler and a baby carrier into a packed room while trying not to lose three other kids and attempting to find T some used tap shoes in her size before her class begins.  Oh, and I have no clue about how to tie tap shoes or how they should fit.  But I digress... So no matter what my desires or inconveniences are they really are not the determining factors when deciding what we should do outside of our home.

I recently read somewhere that it is absurd of parents to run their children around constantly from class to event to shopping and finally back home again all of their childhood years and then expect them to be content housewives or involved fathers at home.  I think this makes a lot of sense.  Of course, God has given each of us different personalities or tendencies, but styles of living are also somewhat learned.  Staying at home requires that members of a family learn to get along more often, build deeper relationships with each other (provided they are not in front of the TV constantly), and learn from one another.  In addition, home is where the most basic of adult tasks are learned: laundry, mowing the lawn, cooking, etc.

On the other hand, there are those that believe that we must 'socialize' our children and introduce them to as many extracurricular activities as possible.  Socialization is necessary, but this can take place in many settings, including one's home (just live one day in our house and you will see many a social learning situations arise).  And having a broad range of knowledge regarding sports, music, etc are helpful in the adult world.

When it comes to choosing electives I come at this from primarily one standpoint.  What is the child's primary interest that lines up with a good life skill and their God given abilities?  Obviously, as children get older they gradually need to be more of the decision maker, but we are not at that point.  When children find their niche it builds their confidence and self esteem.  In other words, we are looking for what helps us achieve one of our ultimate goals: enabling our children to be productive and confident adults.

So, we are trying out one elective per child at this point.  Obviously this could become rather chaotic in a few years, but there will be adjustments along the way.  I will continue to attempt to balance a peaceful schedule with some quality time spent out for the kids to explore their interests beyond basic academics. 

As for Z, he has had three swimming lessons and that boy can swim!  As a lot of you know, we have moved A LOT in the past few years so getting the children into swimming lessons really hasn't happened much on a consistent basis.  But now he is taking off.  And by the way, Ryan and I were wrong! Gasp! Goggles do help kids swim.  We both came from the "they need to learn how to swim without them" camp.  But Z kept stopping to wipe off his eyes anytime he went under water.  I asked his teacher what she thought and a few days later Ryan and I decided to give up our commitment to this ever-so-life-changing issue.  Now he is doing a front crawl and working very hard on his back and front floats.

Where to begin with T????  About a year or two ago T was somehow introduced to ballet.  I am still trying to remember when and what the catalyst was, but frankly I can hardly remember a time in which she was walking and not interested in dancing ballet.  She has exhausted the collection of every children's ballet book at two libraries now and is working on a third, has watched the New York Ballet perform The Nutcraker on video, and has listened to me read the entire full story of the ballet (I was shocked).  And she doesn't just look at these books, oh no, they are textbooks to be learned from!  So, the local rec department offers these insanely low priced dance classes taught by a Christian woman.  The class is both tap and ballet.  The teacher is using the tap to try to teach rhythm, but T calls it her ballet class.  We will see where this goes.  She applies herself with a tangible amount of determination....and cuteness. (She is in the black leotard in the bottom pic).

So, it has begun...

Baby Food

When Z was just born my aunt recommended the book, Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.  It has been an invaluable resource.  The book has everything that a new mom needs to know about feeding their baby.  But more importantly it provides guidelines for saving money by making your own food, feeding your baby what is appropriate at certain ages, and providing the healthiest and most natural foods for your little one.  I have never purchased a jar of baby food and don't ever expect that I will, especially now.  However, I have been tempted.

Pureeing cooked vegetables has always been very time consuming and seems to make a hundred dirty dishes with all of the food processor parts, etc.  The blade would not evenly puree, I would have to do about eight batches, and it was too loud for the kids.

Well, last fall my parents asked what I would like for Christmas and later blessed me with one of my items that I really didn't expect them to.  I had asked for an immersion blender from Kitchen Aid, specifically the KHB300.  I enjoy making soups over the winter and was very tired of the "ladle the soup into the blender, puree, and pour back into pot" routine.  Also, I am forever wearing out blenders with fruit smoothies. 

It is a wonderful tool with soups!!! I can puree the whole soup or leave some chunks.  It also helped Ryan and I make about ten jars of salsa in one afternoon! Onions, tomatoes, peppers...you name it and it is chopped in about three seconds flat.  Obviously, I have enjoyed this small appliance.

But I did not realize it would also turn baby food making into a speedy, clean process.  I pulled out the beaker, popped in the cooked sweet potato, turned it on, added some water, and about one minute later I had over two weeks of baby food done with only two dirty parts.  No blade was in the way of scooping out the food, it was fairly quiet, and the motor isn't smelling like smoke after a year's use (this was my experience with my last two blenders).  It was glorious!!!

Five weeks of sweet potato cubes are in the freezer!

Watch out world!

By: Heather
When M entered our world almost two years ago it felt comfortable.  He went with the flow, he loved the people around him, slept through almost any noise, and he ate what was given to him.  It took him a little extra time (by our standards) to figure out sleeping well through the night, but by 3 months he was doing quite well in that department.  His naps were long and consistent.  His feeding times were predictable.  We knew all along he was very mellow, especially when he didn't walk until 17 months!  But it was all OK.  Ryan and I felt like we had kind of figured out the baby thing, generally speaking.

THEN CAME S!

I have been trying for the life of me to schedule this one.  For those of you who know me, you know life is a schedule for me.  Everything must get done and the way for it all to happen is to schedule it all in.  Well, try teaching S that things should happen around the same time each day.  I think I would even find the flexibility to feed her at different times and put her down for naps at varying times if at least it would help her sleep through the night (then of course I would have the energy to complete my schedule)! And she is 5 months old! 

Now for our previous four children we were nearly the poster family for night sleepers.  I have been asked for advice on this subject many times. I have suggested, "work on the daytime, and the night will follow".  Then there is the "feed her closer together during the day" idea.  And many, many more.  However, none of these are working.  I keep her up until 9pm, I wake her up at generally the same time in the morning, I wake her up from naps, and on and on....

It is very clear to us that she has a super fast metabolism like Z does.  We could feed Z all day and he would still have his ribs sticking up a good two inches above the rest of his body when he does a back float in swimming lessons.  He really does look nearly mal-nourished sometimes.  But both he and S come by it honestly: my grandma used to put a cookie jar on my dad's desk to try and put 'some meat on him'. 

So, I am now tackling her food needs with serious determination.  We are feeding her cereal in the evening and now adding in bananas with cereal after lunch.  And sweet potatoes are out waiting to be cooked and pureed. She has been eating cereal for about 10 days and the bananas for about 4 days.  We did have one glorious night, but we have a ways to go.  But the real story here is her style of eating. 

Of course, I have fed four other children their first solids.  It is never neat or tidy or even somewhat smooth.  But never have I felt like I just stepped off of a roller coaster after every feeding like I do with this one.  She has no objection to her food at all, no sirree!  In fact, she is often trying to shove the spoon into her mouth and down the throat.  But the coordination of a 5 month old is not very fine-tuned.  Her arms are flailing happily, she is talking up a storm, she is moving her head forward and back, all the while her eyes are dancing in fast forward speed. It is exhausting, hilarious and ridiculously messy. My hands and wrists are pasted, her whole face is spattered, her neck is dripping and oh, never mind the bib.

This girl is going to give us a really good run for our money, if I had my guess.  She does crunches while laying on her back, has been trying to crawl for two months, will scoot for something she wants, has been rolling for two months, and doesn't hardly make a peep when used as a stool this morning by M.  Then there are her vocal abilities.  S is not big on crying or screaming, except at night when she is hungry, but she can talk in paragraphs with up to possibly a hundred fluctuations. We are not talking about little baby 'cooing' here, people.  She has things to say!  She is BUSY and INTENSE about life! But don't get me wrong: she is a very happy little person within it all. 

I realize that God is teaching me about ten different things with this little firecracker right now and they are all fairly evident in this post.  But I have to admit that I am a little scared of the lessons He has in store for us later on down the road with her.  Hopefully we will be able to teach her to use her vibrant and chaotic way of living life for His glory.

Light at the end of the tunnel!

By: Heather
I don't know how many times we have been informed, "It all goes so fast..enjoy it".  For us, I think we receive those comments primarily as we are trying to herd our brood through some sort of retail line or simply attempting to shuffle everyone through a parking lot without any catastrophes. I am fairly sure that we attract these comments at those particular times because our eyes are darting in five directions at once, we are having three conversations, and usually carrying much more than your average luggage cart. Thus, it appears that we aren't enjoying ourselves. 

Well, often we aren't!  Don't get me wrong, it can be fun, sometimes, to all go out places.  But there are times, despite the best preparations, that Ryan and I can leave what was to be a delightful excursion wishing only for a hot tub on a quiet island. 

One such time was cherry picking.  Cherry picking sounds like fun, doesn't it?  We thought so!  Understand, we are nearly pros at the 'pick-your-own-fruit' thing, or at least we thought we were.  We pick about two hundred pounds of apples a year and often a third of that amount in plums, and sometimes some berries.  But we had never harvested cherries.  We did our research, I knew how I was going to store the fruit, had a jam recipe ready in the kitchen, etc.

Well, in case you weren't aware, cherries are A LOT smaller than apples, or even plums.  However, we never contemplated this obvious fact.  So, I happily told the farmer we would take him up on his "pick 7 pails, receive the 8th free" deal. 

I'll never forget picking for a few minutes, looking down..... looking at Ryan....and then slowly muttering about how it was going to take a lot of cherries to fill up a pail. To which Ryan raised his eyebrows and knowingly said, "um, ya, they are kind of small". 

Three and a half hours later in the hot sun, with bites all over us, Ryan and I with serious neck cramps, and juice running down 10 arms (way past the elbows) we had our 8 pails of cherries!  See, about 15 minutes into the picking M decided he was tired, needed a nap, and would not just wander around the trees as usual.  So, back to the car I trudged carrying a crying S, who was also hot and tired, to get a backpack for Ryan to put M in and a front pack to put S in on me. We had planned on just leaving her in her carrying seat while we picked the fruit- recall our miscalculation.  So, for the remaining part of the picking Ryan repeatedly reached up high for cherries with 30 pounds on his back (M is nearly 100% muscle) while I awkwardly picked and moved ladders around for the kids with S in a front pack.  What an absurd sight we all were!

Our older three were great troopers and enjoyed the day for the most part.  But you can see how sometimes us adults just might not be having a blast.  It can feel like a really long haul anticipating the days of a little more independence on the part of our children. Yesterday, though, I witnessed a beautiful beacon of hope. 

As we walked out of the grocery store yesterday with our two carts (the extra for the purpose of carrying our littlest ones) Z and I parked them near the trunk and I began placing and buckling the younger children into their appropriate car seats.   I turned around to unload the groceries and put the carts back only to see a gleaming smile on Z's face as he asked if he could take the carts back.  He had placed all of the groceries into the trunk, including the milk, very neatly.  I astoundedly said, "Wow, of course!". 

This may seem small, but it was a very happy moment to realize that at least one of them is getting old enough to not just want to help with everyday things, but able to recognize a need and take care of it!

Yeah!!! There is a light at the end of tunnel.  By the way, we have all enjoyed the jam, crisps, and syrup from our more than 100 CUPS of cherries.