Yard Work1

The girls and I spent an hour and half in the front yard trimming hedges while Grant napped this morning. A good way to get the house quiet for his nap and to use our free day. Boy did we work! I didn't realize how HUGE some of our shrubs had gotten until my arms began to ache from so much trimming. The girls (one with a happy heart, two without) scooped up the trimmings and bagged them for me. I was glad to have some helping hands. Many hands make for lighter work...that's for sure. We managed to get all but the tops of two of our largest pieces. I was way too scared to climb any higher on the ladder without adult supervision :) And we need some loppers (I think that's the name of the clippers that cut really thick branches). I bought some new hedge clippers, but I couldn't bring myself to spend the money on the other ones too while I was at Lowe's yesterday. I'm wishing now I'd spent the money. Anyway, our yard looks a little more loved today. Now Matt gets to RoundUp the flower beds this weekend so that we can do some heavy weeding. Planting may come next week. I only wish I enjoyed this stuff. I like to plant pretty flowers, but I could care less about the hedges and whatnot. Honestly, I hope no one with any landscaping knowledge looks at my shrubs because I honestly didn't know how to shape each one. I know that different plants should be shaped differently, but I don't know if I did any of them right. Maybe my neighbors don't know either. Let's hope so!

Multiple Kid Monday...Heaping Mountains of Laundry!

For Multiple Kid Monday, I'm going to share my laundry tips. A conversation with some friends at lunch at MOMS Thursday sparked this entry. Caitlyn (I hope I spelled her name right!) was asking me about how I do laundry, clothes shopping, etc. for a large family. So I thought that'd be good material for this week! Caitlyn, this is for you girl!

Here are some lessons I've learned and some things I do to make laundry easier for a family of six...cause you know we have lots of laundry!

1. First of all, we have SEVEN laundry hampers in our home. Each child has their own hamper. Then Matt and I have one for lights, darks, and towels. We used to combine the girls' clothes into one hamper, but this proved to be disastrous for us! I spent what seemed like forever sorting through socks and panties that all looked the same size. I also match my girls' clothes often, so I had to check the tags on everything to figure out which top belonged to which girl. So about a year ago I decided to give each child their own hamper. This has been fabulous. No more sorting through tiny socks and t-shirts. It also makes it easy to use Dreft just for Grant and no one else...saves money! Having clothes already sorted saves valuable time that I saw my own mom waste as she dumped loads and sorted them. Our kids know which hamper is theirs and they all (except Grant of course) dutifully put their clothes in their hampers on the way to the bath. Ali Kate has been doing this since at least 17 months old!

2. If a child stains an outfit (imagine that happening!), we take that outfit DIRECTLY to the laundry room rather than putting it in the hamper. We stack them on the dryer (not so pretty but very practical). Then I can quickly stain treat (We're addicted to Shout Gel and the Clorox pen) and sort clothes back to their owners. This ensures most of the time that clothes with stains don't get overlooked and that I save time by not having to thoroughly look over each item as I begin a wash load.

3. On the topic of stains, I always buy two bottles of Shout Gel and two Clorox pens when I begin to run low. You never know when you'll need more! Some of the girls at MOMS highly recommended Oxyclean Spray...so I'll be checking that out soon.

4. The girls help! My kids LOVE to help with housework with the exception of picking up their toys. Abby in particular will do laundry FOREVER. Even very young kids (age 2-3) can find all the socks, panties, t-shirts, bibs, etc. and put them in piles. Abby can fold towels and washcloths (a skill acquired at age 4). She enjoys this. While they don't help every day or every load, they usually do help put their clothes away. I let them put their stacks into their drawers and carry their hanging clothes to their beds. I then put them in the closet. Great training time for your kids.

5. Do it every day! I rarely miss a day of laundry, and I usually do at least 3 loads a day. Some days lighter, some heavier. I always made a new rule a while back that I will NOT run more loads until I've folded and put away the loads already clean. I don't always abide by this, but it reduces stress and folding pile-up. Nothing is more discouraging than a huge load of laundry waiting to be folded at bedtime.

6. Make it fun. For psychological encouragement, I alternate baby clothes loads and towel loads. Since it takes forever to fold baby clothes and no time to fold towels, I alternate these to keep me sane. If I have to do 3 kid loads in a row, I get so discouraged...my friend Jaki shares this reasoning. It works for us!

Thanks for joining my second hosted Multiple Kids Monday. I'm so excited about our new share day! For guidelines, click here. Have any tips or stories you'd like to share? Join in. I'll close the polls around 8 p.m. to prevent spamming. Thanks and enjoy!

I would love for you to use my banner. To do so, just copy the following HTML code into your post:


<a href="http://mommytimesfour.blogspot.com/2009/03/multiple-kid-mondayheaping-mountains-of.html"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 193px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH_htQhyRReBEXXE_U24ZLmf-AfUy9iaQoyrJG243yqxApI75qS5br_yYVccU-ErvBtpaBbFSjPwftm2H-uWaiX5nGv5VkBAx211j-nC_BzTeqSvadK-T68i32RbB6mqREbZHN4no5mZM/s320/finalmultiplekids.BMP" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313541221227467826" /></a>


Uh Oh

Uh oh! I went to close down the polls for Multiple Kid Mondays, and somehow I deleted the links to both Jean and Ashley's posts. Girls, I'm sorry. I'm figuring out how to moderate this, and I obviously don't know 100% what I'm doing yet. I may have to ask a major blogger rather than novice me! Anyway, for everyone else....I won't delete your links next Monday. I promise!

Works For Me Wednesday

So I thought I'd share an idea we've used off and on over the years for Scripture memory for our family. When a verse hits me during a quiet time that I think our whole family should learn, I have made "place cards" for the dinner table. When Abby was tiny, I included pictures (if applicable) and shortened the verse to an age-appropriate level. We kept them at the kitchen table for several days and would recite them. This is great if you are working on teaching on a specific topic (love, kindness, etc.) and also during holidays to keep the focus on Christ. It's been a while since we've done this...I may just have to start again. You just need sturdy cardstock, pens (or print them), a verse, and place card holders. (You can just fold the cardstock in half so that it stands on its own).

Multiple Kids Mondays....Be flexible!

This picture just sums up what I wanted to share today....be flexible! While I was sending some email a few days ago, the girls were playing with Grant in his room (which is right next to the playroom where I was working). Anyway, they began to giggle wildly, and I got up to see what was so funny. This is what I saw. I almost began to lecture them, but then I had to remind myself how funny this was. He does have 3 older sisters after all (who are all ages 5 and under), so we kind of expect this type of thing from time to time. It's only natural. Anyway, I made a mad dash downstairs to grab the camera. After shooting a couple of pics, I de-feminized my little man. Back to the very male striped outfit that he began in!

With four children, I have learned how to truly be flexible. We oftentimes begin our days with Plan A and end up on Plan D by 9:30 in the morning. My days are constantly "thrown off" by potty accidents, spilled milks, hair pulling, toy dumping, blood sugar drops, and other craziness. And I just roll with the punches. You have to. I make the choice each day and several times throughout the day to be flexible. That means oftentimes being a few minutes late to preschool or church. It means sometimes reading a book while we really need to be getting dressed. If I were inflexible, I would miss so many meaningful moments. I would also stay stressed out and frazzled, neither of which really suit! So on this afternoon instead of lecturing them about how their brother was a boy and that boys don't dress up like girls do, I rolled with the punches...laughed with them...took some fun pictures...and then hid the evidence before Matt got home! :)

Thanks for joining my first hosted Multiple Kids Monday. I'm so excited about our new share day! For guidelines, click here. Have any tips or stories you'd like to share? Join in. I'll close the polls around 8 p.m. to prevent spamming. Thanks and enjoy!

SNOW!

 

So this is what Isabella looked like only 4 days after the picture in the previous post. Yes, we have crazy weather. It was above 70 on Wednesday, and it snowed all afternoon Saturday and into the night. This picture was taken today in our backyard. With Grant inside napping, the rest of us headed outdoors to enjoy several inches of snow. Big deal here! We threw snowballs, built a snow girl, and attempted to sled down the hill on a used computer monitor box. That's what Isabella is doing here. We played outside for about an hour and had a blast! Finally I had to go indoors because Ali Kate had tired of the snow. She wanted to eat. Imagine that. We then all shed our wet clothes and wore PJs the rest of the day as we played and did household projects! Matt got tons done on my website for my stationery company, and I did tons of household laundry and organizing. The snow was beautiful and lots of fun. We needed a day like today!

My Darling Bella

 

Would you ever have guessed that this sweet girl had just come home from preschool on a day when she'd been sent to the director TWICE in one day? I mean, look at that sweet face. Isabella had a very rough day at preschool. So rough in fact that when I picked her up, she immediately looked into my eyes and said, "I had a bad day at school." Oh, my heart broke. I thought it'd be years before I heard words like that! Poor thing just can't stop talking during learning time and nap time. I totally understand. Sometimes Matt tells me to be quiet when it's midnight and I won't stop talking. Her problem is genetic. I don't think she can help it! Oh, I have to find the humor in it or I'll just go crazy! Anyway, I had to have a good excuse to post this picture of Isabella. I bought this outfit last spring and was so excited to put her in it for school Wednesday. Now you'll have to see in the next post what she wore a few days later! Something a bit warmer.