Our Classroom Tour

When we decided to homeschool our kids, I looked ALL over Pinterest for ideas and asked all of my homeschool friends for insight as we started to prepare. There are just too many choices. In researching what we wanted to do, I realized that everyone's house and family size is different so of course their classroom space will be different. This is one of the wonderful aspects of homeschooling.  Meeting the individualized needs of your family.

However, many suburban type homes have a front room, an office space, etc... this is how we transformed ours.

Our front room is right by the front door of our house and we used it for various things in the last five years. But mostly it was just a sitting room of sorts, although my husband and I would have coffee dates in there, some mornings, while the kids watched cartoons.

I knew that for our family, we needed this to be our "classroom."

Here is our BEFORE and AFTER.

Of course we also planned to do school at the dining room table, on the couches, and even in our kitchen and backyard. But I wanted a place that we could keep all of our supplies and the kids could have a place to call their own. For me to keep any kind of order with a large family, we needed to have a homeschool room.

Here is the tour of our classroom....

It is been too long...

Wow.

It has been a long time since I have had a new post.

Life has been, well, hard. We have been going through some rough seasons and change.

So. Much. Change.

Our foster daughter who we raised since she was just three weeks old, moved out of our family after two and a half years of being in our family.
My husbands job changed, same place, new role.
Our life group came to an end, our church location will be moving this year, still waiting to see God unfold the details.
We started homeschooling all five of our kids this fall.

It is difficult to put it all into words sometimes. Honestly, so many times I wanted to post and felt like I needed to digest my reflections more before I did.

But this year is coming to a close and I hope to start writing on this platform more.
But don't forget to check out my column, Spilled Milk, in the Fostering Families Today magazine.

You can also like my Facebook page, What Led Me to You for more updates.

My husband and I have made some new family goals and we are eager to see what God will be doing  this next year.

Disneyland Road Trip: Large Family Adventure!

I am so excited to share with you all of my tips and tricks as I planned our first family trip to Disneyland! We took 8 days, (2 driving from Oregon, 4 Park Days, 2 driving home).
Our kids were ages 8, 6, 5, 5, 4.

PREP WORK: 

Snacks! 
I made snack containers for each of us!
 I added a variety of snacks that would not go bad like fruit, or get too messy, like applesauce etc...

We included all GF friendly snacks: 
Cheetos, Popcorn, Whole grain chips, fruit snacks, Dry cereal, Pretzels, Larabars and cookies. 

Everyone had their own snacks with their own name on it. The idea was that  they could pick and choose what they were in the mood to eat at the time and eventually make their way through the tub.

The plan was to put them under their seat so they would have them with in reach as we stopped for breaks. However, our suburban was getting the check up for our trip weeks before and it turns out we needed a new engine! WHAT?! Yep that wasn't my favorite piece of news. SO thankfully we had our second 8 passenger vehicle available and squeezed into it. So my plan for room got tight real quick.

What I would do different: Put 7 of the same snacks in each tub, this way we can condense tubs when empty and just pass around one tub as needed. We ended up having to store most of them in the back because of space issues. 

Controlling the Chaos: Traveling with the littles.

Traveling with littles.

Going to the doctor with our group can be a huge adventure! :) The picture below is six of my kiddos while my oldest daughter was still in school. 

My new foster son put a bead up his nose, yep, he did.  Surprisingly, this was a first for me as a parent. It was way up there and we all had to go in, to a new doctor mind you, since he and his sister just came into my care a week earlier. 

Planning so we are early or on time: 

I have learned that the more I am rushing everyone, the more they are bound to meltdown from the stress. So for the sanity of everyone involved, I work hard to keep at a calm pace. This gives me extra time when I suddenly lose my keys while buckling everyone in the car and spend over ten minutes looking under all of their bums and carseats trying to find them; or for the times when the seatbelt has been pulled over and over by one of the kids and completely locks up and won't stretch to the buckle, and it won't retract because it is tangled in the carseat loop; or on the mornings when I hadn't even had time to look outside and I see that my car is completely frozen over. I plan in order to make time for the chaos. :)

Expectations:  

When we arrive at our destination and sometimes even while we are driving to our appointment, I go over all of the rules before we get out of the car. I talk to the kids about walking with a buddy and staying in our group while we cross the parking lot. I remind them we have to have quiet voices in the waiting room with no fighting or fussing. I let them know that I packed a special treat and if they can do these things, then they get a treat when we get back to the car to head home. I usually keep it a surprise so the anticipation keeps them going. Otherwise they sometimes decide that it isn't worth whatever I have. :) 

Controlling the Chaos: Large Family Style

So I love a good organized system. I have lived and learned, the hard way sometimes, how to get rid of  unnecessary chaos. Below are some of our new and improved systems in place since our two new littles joined our family. Right now we have kids ages, 8, 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3. Take a peek below and see how we add a little organization to our lives. :) 

One of the easiest decisions I made was to give each child a day of the week. If it is their assigned day then they get to make special choices, they get to serve snacks and meals to the other kids (one of their favorite things to do), and they get to be the line leader when it is time to go. This completely eliminated arguing over who's turn it was to do something special and fighting over every single time there was a choice to be made. 

Now they all ask, "Who's day is it?" And problem solved! With five kids we did the weekdays and my husband and I got to make choices or it was a free-for-all on the weekends, but now we have seven kids to fill seven days a week! 

Lining up to go out the door for school can be chaotic when you have tired kids. So to eliminate the pushing and shoving I created line up spots that give each kid their own bubble space. I started after the door mat so I have the space to unlock the door before everyone piles out. The rule is that if it is their special helper day as mentioned above, then they get to be the line leader that day. The rest of the spots are free choice.  When the kids are ready with their shoes, coat, and backpack they get to go line up and I know they are ready to go. They love it and it has worked so well! This is one of my favorite ways we control the unneeded chaos. No more crowding each other, knocking each other over, there is a perfect amount of bubble space marked with painters tape on the floor.

Entryway Closet Makeover!!!

I am so excited about this make over I can hardly stand it! 

I have been day dreaming about a solution to our closet mess for quite a while now. 

Not everyone has a garage or a large mud room. So many of us have these little hallway closets that we barely fit in.  We have lived in three houses with all five of our kids and I have tried several ideas. We have had a big shoe bin outside the closet, in the entry way. We have had individual baskets for each of us on the bottom of the shoe closet. All of which resulted in big piles of shoes messed up on the floor. 

The kids would dig through their shoe baskets and it would end up mixed up, messed up and spread all around our entry way. Every day we did this...then I would throw everything back in just so I could barely close the door. Oh and the next pair of shoes I needed, they were of course, on the bottom of the pile. :) 

Here is the BEFORE picture. I am sorry to say I should have taken a better picture. I was so excited to get started on my project and I wish you could have seen it at its worst.

DIY Laundry Soap Recipe:

Here are all the ingredients. Pretty simple. All of them were on the laundry isle except the Baking Soda was on the baking isle. 

There are tons of recipes on pinterest and I found one I like. Here it is and how it all comes together.

With five kids we do a ton of laundry. I started this a year ago and love it. We save so much money. I bought these at my local Winco, even the a five gallon bucket.

The ingredients cost a total of $24.91 It lasts our family a little bit more than 7 months. Who doesn't love that! Even if it was a conservative six months that is still less than $50. per year! HUGE savings.

This recipe fills my five gallon bucket 2/3 of the way full. I only use about 2-3 tbs at a time. In fact I use the scoop that comes with the oxi clean and only scoop it half full....I pour it in first so it mixes with the water and then dump in my clothes.

I got smart and finally wrote the recipe on the gallon bucket  so I won't lose it. Since I am only making this about every 6 months or so I don't want to have to search for it.

I also write on the bucket the date I make a new batch. It helps me keep an eye on how long it lasts for our family!

I grate the bars on the smaller side of the cheese grater. In fact this brand is yellow, some are pink, and it looks like grated cheese. So make sure to do this at nap time and keep it away from the kids.  

I put all four bars in a big bowl so once I start dumping I can add it in as I go. 

Here it is all mixed up. I dump a little at a time from each box and some of the grated soap and stir with a wooden spoon I keep just for this process.

I would suggest doing this outside...as you pour the dust comes up and it is less mess outside. 

Here is the cute little jar I got to keep on top of my dryer. The five gallon bucket is too big and I keep it up high on a shelf in my laundry room, away from the kids. 

Public: I wish you knew...

I get frustrated that I allow other people and their responses, looks, etc... dictate how I feel about my family. Why can't I can't just keep my eyes on the Lord and His will for my life?

I have been thinking a lot about why the comment, "You have your hands full" bothers me so much.

Organization...a word that gives me goosebumps.

I get asked a lot about organization or running a house with five little kids. Well, our house is far from a perfect oiled machine but we have some things that certainly help! Here are some of our fun projects that make life go smoother so we have less chaos.

We started making our own laundry soap. There are so many recipes on Pinterest and we found one that works for us. Such a money saver and works great! I fill more than a 5 gallon bucket and it lasts us about 6 months. We have a TON of laundry. The whole thing to mix up is about 20. and so worth it. I put a batch in this smaller container and keep in my laundry room so I don't have to reach into the 5 gallon bucket every day. 

Article: "The Busy Life" Continues...

Many of you may have read my recent article "The Busy Life" published in Fostering Families Today magazine March/April 2013. In the article I gave some tips to help get through the busy routine of being a Foster Parent. Here are some more helpful tools that could help you as you fight the battle with the calendar.

5 Little Monkeys...Jumping on the bed

Oh where to begin? I have been putting off writing this post because I don't know where it will lead but the fact of the matter is, life is happening and I don't want to forget being in this place.

The nutshell: My husband and I are pursuing adoption of our previous foster daughter and her brother.  

The story:  We have watched adoptive families drop out of the race, back out last minute and even family resources change their mind after starting transitions. It breaks my heart to watch. She has been in a foster home with good friends of ours and we have been able to see her often. So much so, that she still calls us Mommy and Daddy.