Progress part 2

This week my big job was to get the library/sewing room organized and cleaned up enough that my mom would be able to stay in there. Getting this room done was a low priority as far as organizing the home, but very much worth the effort now for mom to stay here. She is always so helpful when she comes!

Here is the big mess before (I actually took the picture after working in here for an hour! Scary!). A friend came over on Wednesday and in one hour we were able to get most of this cleared out!

Here is the after.

We are having a big garage sale too, so I had to organize for that this week. I got quite a bit done, but it feels like there is not much to show for it in the rest of the house. I'm guessing that I'll have some great "before and after" shots by the end of next week with Mom's help!

Locked out!

We were heading out this morning to run errands. Kids were loading up and I had just put Mr K in the car. I was on my way back into the house to get the keys and diaper bag when a certain young man was being very thoughtful and helpful by locking the door behind himself since he was the last one out the door. Oops! Everyone had done such a good job checking to make sure all of the other doors and windows were locked that there was no way in! The kids got to spend some time playing outside while we waited to be rescued.

Our hero (Daddy) arrived to save the day. With only about a 1/2 hour delay we were able to get on our way to running our errands. Lesson learned by all: Check to make sure someone has keys before locking doors, and to stop and make sure that what you are doing truly is helpful.

*I'm not naming names. This young man felt so bad about what he had done. I explained to him that I appreciated what he was trying to do; he was trying to keep our home safe and help his mommy. Despite that he still felt bad that we were all locked out and that daddy had to come home and rescue us.

A fall, broken plate, cut chin, urgent care, and NO stitches!

This morning Miss C was trying to help set the table and tripped while holing a plate. She had a couple of itty bitty cuts, a fat lip and a small deep cut on her chin. The cut on her chin was in need of attention. I stopped the bleeding, cleaned it; and after holding it closed for a while put a butterfly bandage on it. After talking with Rob we decided that it would be best to at least have it seen to make sure we had done our best to prevent scarring. So after being in town for just over 3 weeks we headed over to Urgent care.

The cut was checked to make sure there were no small pieces of the plate still in there, cleaned and steri-strips were put on. This was about what we had expected would be done. We didn't want stitches since that would leave more scarring, but wanted to make sure the cut would stay closed and heal properly. The steri-strips will stick better and keep her from opening it back up. I'm going to be picking some of those up so that we can avoid further trips to urgent care for this sort of thing.

I'm so proud of my big kids. They did exactly the right things in this situation. Though I was in the room some were closer to Miss C and reminded her to stay still until I could get to her so she would not step on broken glass. They also reminded Miss J to stay away from the glass. Mr M quickly got his shoes on and carefully cleaned up the broken plate with some help from Mr. R. They all remained calm and followed my instructions well so that I could care for Miss C. Miss E even helped keep Miss C calm and still while her cut was being cared for in Urgent care. Mr. K had decided that he needed to be fed RIGHT NOW, so I was caring for him. What a blessing to have such helpful big kids, and it was good practice should we have a real emergency in the future.

progress

This week I set some goals for myself for moving in. Since most of the boxes in the house are unpacked I need to get down to organizing, but there is so much to do (besides the regular everyday mom of 7, homeschooling and housekeeping stuff) it was getting easy to get side tracked or just not know where to start; the goals help me keep focused.

For Monday I tackled the mess in the laundry room. Things had just been dropped off here and needed to be taken to the appropriate places. I grabbed a basket to put a few random things in that just could not find other homes yet. One of the square baskets holds the iron and spray starch. The boys did a great job of removing all of the wallpaper! They are such blessings and faithful workers!

Before After

The laundry room is far from done, but it looks so much better. I'm thinking that in the next week or two we will get it painted and have another shelf in there too.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we had errands and doctors appointments so I knew I needed to keep my expectations very low as far a progress in the house went. Rob asked me to work on the hallway that had become cluttered with "get rid of" stuff or just things needing to be taken somewhere else in the house.

Before After

There are still a few things in the hall that either I can't move or really do belong there. Some of the frames for the hall have been found, and I identified the box that should have the rest of the frames, I just can't get to it.

I had hoped to get to more this weeks, but there were some more important things that needed to be done that got my attention instead. I'm hopeful that next week will be more productive in the house. If not that is ok; I need to remember that we've only been in the house about two weeks (with our stuff) and I have 7 sweet kids to care for too. Moving into the house WILL get done, but it is going to take some time.

I'm linking to Organizing Junkie this week

J.O.Y.

We've been having a few rough days around here; the fun and adrenalin of the move have worn off, we've been running errands, and we are all tired. We are all feeling the need to get back into a routine, but still have quite a bit of work ahead of us. We needed to be reminded of J.O.Y.

Jesus, Others, then Yourselves..... J.O.Y.

We talked about glorifying God and keeping his commandments; about God's grace through Jesus and needing the Holy Spirit to work in us. We talked about ways we can be showing love to others, and how some behaviors we have been seeing the past days (quite a bit) have not been loving. We talked about where we get the J.O.Y. rule.... God's word; specifically Matthew 22 36-39.

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself.'

I sat the kids down at our school table and they colored a banner for us to hang on a wall and be reminded of this.

No, the irony of one of the kids coloring in "yourself" darker than "Jesus" or "others" was not lost on me.

When life gets busy it is easy for us to forget this (or even when life is not busy), when we forget life gets even harder. Sometimes the most important thing we can do as moms is to set all of the "important" things aside and refocus our children on what is most important... To bring J.O.Y. back into our homes!

Two months!

Mr. K is two months old now and recently we made it in to meet our new doctor for his two month well baby. He is just over 11 pounds now, which means he has slowed down a bit as far as weight gain, but thats not a bad thing. He is right where he should be as far as weight and height.

Mr. K has been giving us more smiles and recently started trying to engage us in conversations. We love hearing his coos and the little girls just love it when I translate for him! He seems to be partial to Mr. R and Miss J, which is funny to see happening so early on. His little arms and legs are going more and more; from time to time he even manages to kick a toy or grab some hair!

Mr. K has some tummy problems, it seems his little body just can't handle any dairy even just passed through his mommy. That means I'm on a no dairy diet, which is truly and act of love for me to him! I love dairy, but I love my little guy more! ;) With the tummy problems napping during the day has been a bit rough for him too, but he sleeps 9+ hours at night so I can't complain too much about the day time sleeping habits.

Fire pit!

One of the big things we were looking for this time when looking for a home was a large yard. One that would give our boys plenty of room to run and explore and also provide plenty of opportunities for work. So far this seems to be exactly what we got!

This week-end Mr. M asked if he could make a fire pit in the back yard. He did a good job picking a spot and setting up a ring of rocks. Then he set up the fire wood too!

We enjoyed a quick fire one evening in our back yard among the cactuses and Mr. M is looking forward to setting it up again. Next time he plans to have us better prepared with things like hot dogs and marshmallows (maybe even some chocolate and crackers?).

The baby whisperer

Mr. R has recently acquired a new nick name, one he is very proud of. I'm calling him the "baby whisperer." He has always been good with Mr. K, getting him to take the pacifier even when I could not, and calming him with some sweet pats, but now he is even putting him to sleep! I think he got that from my Papa, who seemed to be able to calm any baby.

Would you believe this little guy was REALY crying just a couple minutes before this picture was taken? Then big brother came along and rescued him and everything was wonderful!

Moments later I took this picture!

Maybe he just likes red heads? Miss J kept him happy for quite some time just playing in his view and talking with him. He also seems to be extra generous with his smilles when she is around.

Finding time for fun too!

While we are spending the majority of our time stripping wallpaper, unpacking boxes, and making this house a home we are still finding time for fun!

After spending mornings working on Friday and Saturday we spent the afternoons running errands for things needed around the house. On Friday we went out for dinner since we were already out. What luck! There was a lady there doing "balloon animals" though these were some of the best we'd ever seen and simply calling them balloon animals hardly seems right.

Miss J loved her orange princess that she had requested.

Mr. R requested an orange monkey.

The next day we pulled into a store parking lot to find that there were pony rides set up there! The big kids all got to go for rides!

We've been faithful to set our Sunday's aside as a day of rest which has been such a blessing too! We've met quiet a few new people and have enjoyed getting to know them. We are so thankful to God for providing friends, fellowship and help with the move right away! Meeting new friends sure makes a move easier!

the movers came!

The movers came yesterday and unloaded all of our stuff. This is what was waiting for me this morning in the kitchen....

I'm so glad they do some of the unpacking. This would be an even bigger job if I had to take it all out of the boxes too!

This is what was waiting for Rob to tackle in the garage.

I need to balance my time between unpacking and this little guy (and his siblings too, of course). He is enjoying his little baby gym and also likes to look at his sweet little face in the mirror. I almost caught a smile in this picture!

removing wall paper

We have quite a bit of wallpaper to remove in our new house. Our movers will not be delivering our household goods until Thursday, so we are spending our days removing that wall paper.

Kids are removing the loose and easy sections, and wallpaper remover goop is being sprayed on walls.

We purchased plastic putty knives for the four oldest kids, and they are making good use of them.

There are jobs for everyone! The little girls are helping to pick up the paper that everyone is pulling off. I purchased a little hand brush and dust pan that are a big hit with Miss J!

Even Mr. K has a job...

..to sleep! He is good at this job and is allowing me to help out around here as well as get sleep at night!