you know you're a mother when...~

You know you're really a mother when...
~You are totally okay with the five second dropped food rule. Hey, you're totally willing to stretch that rule to the five minute rule, next day rule...whatever....

~You don't think twice about holding out your hands to catch throw up that would otherwise end up on the carpet

~You find yourself bouncing, swaying, and/or pushing your grocery cart back and forth, even if you're alone.

~You think banana peach oatmeal baby food tastes pretty good.

~You say things like "Because I'm the mom...," "If everyone else jumped off a bridge would you jump off as well?"

You know you're the mother of a larger than average size family when...~

~Your mother in law keeps two of the children for the day, leaving you at home with only six and you feel like you have a day off...

~You ask the guy at the grocery store if you can just have the still-shrink wrapped case of vegetables on his cart instead of having to throw 15 individual cans of green beans in your cart...then you get home and your seven year old says "Thanks Mom for getting the case of beans, it's so much easier to bring in and put away than all those cans!"

~Your family likes a certain kind of bread and anytime you are at any store, you buy every single loaf they have...

~You order paper towel and toilet paper coupons in bulk from the coupon clippers...


~You have diapers and wipes as a regular scheduled delivery from Amazon and still you often have to request an early shipment.

~When people see you with only three toddlers in the store and say "Boy, you've got your hands full..." you have to decide if you're going to smile sweetly and keep walking, roll your eyes, or have a 15 minute conversation on how you really have five more, yes we homeschool, but they're in a two day a week co-op, yes we might have more, yes, I know I look young, yes, I'll tell you how old I am, I'm 31 which leads to another conversation about how my husband and I met in high school, married at 17, had our first over a year later, (yes, we did things in the proper order :) not that that is any of their business!), and have been married 14 1/2 years, we afford it because the Lord is gracious and takes care of us and we trust that He always will. I don't do it, I can only be a mom by the grace of God, etc, etc, etc.....great testimony, just have to decide how many times I want to share it in one grocery trip :o)

~You will only buy one kind of sock for each child and each child's socks have their own color-coordinated line.

~You need a new washer and you tell the guy you just want the absolute largest one they make.

~You buy pacifiers in bulk when they're on sale.

~Leftovers....what are leftovers?

~It's way cheaper for you to shop online and pay for shipping than dragging everyone out, paying for gas in your suv/15-passenger van, and buying food for everyone.

~You find yourself constantly counting your children and it takes you five minutes to realize you're holding the one you are frantically searching for.

~Whichever cereal is buy-one-get-one-free is the cereal of the week. If it comes with a toy, you'd better hope they have at least seven boxes. Well, actually that doesn't even matter because you need at least seven boxes.

~You strictly adhere to an extremely detailed plan for whose week it is to sit at the end of the dinner table, pray first, choose the Bible story, sit by the baby, go on errands with mom, and stay up late to play a game after bedtime.

~When someone is sick, you have them cough on everyone immediately so that you can get it over with in one week instead of six :o) (sounds bad, but trust me, one week of chicken pox vs. six weeks of chicken pox...we did the six week version...like I said...trust me)

~It takes a re-arranging of the doctor's schedule to do check ups for all your children, it still takes two weeks in a row of four kids each week, you're there for two and half hours each time, and an extremely coordinated plan for babysitting and keeping school going...but it still throws off your life for an entire month.

~You buy so many bananas someone inevitably says "You must be making a lot of banana bread," and again, you have to decided whether or not to engage them in the above mentioned conversation...

~You only buy mix and match clothing.

~Costco is a bulk buying warehouse?.....Really? It's supposed to last longer than a week?

~When going out of town you can only rent a house, or go to Country Inns and Suites, and then you still have to decide if they really mean the baby and two year old when they ask how many children you're travelling with....does it count if they sleep in a pack and play?

~You have to buy a troop membership (not family, no....a "family" is three kids and two adults) to the Adventure Science Center, and then it's still cheaper than buying tickets for everyone.

~You have enough people to make a reservation anytime you want to go to any restaurant.

~You have perfected the peanut butter and honey assembly line...gee...you're nine year perfected the peanut butter and honey assembly line.

~Your maternity wardrobe is much nicer than your regular wardrobe seeing as how you spend more time wearing it...

~You realize you will be attending the Kdg/1st grade Mother's Tea for at least 16 years in a row.

~You qualify for group discounts!

~You get eight times the laundry, meal prep, meal clean up, baths, toys, etc....and eight times the stories, plays, songs, jokes, secrets, smiles, hugs, kisses, and love notes...


Can't remember why I started thinking about this, but it was kind of fun...Oh yeah, because my mother in law does have two of my children and I do feel like I have a day off :o)

Happy Wednesday! It is Wednesday...right?

something you don't see every day~

I love living in the country. Most people I know say something about how it's so beautiful, but they would never want to have to drive this far out on a daily basis. Well, I don't get out daily, so that obviously helps, but when I do get out, I love the drive. It is beautiful. It is calming, it is relaxing, it is very much downtime for me. Getting all six sweeties out the door can sometimes be frustrating, so it's nice to have time to just relax. I don't want to have to get out of my car five minutes after I get in it :o)

Anyway, that aside, guess what I saw today! I saw a mother cow giving birth in a field right alongside the road! I have never in my life seen an animal giving birth, come to think of it, aside from one of my nieces, I've never seen any birth. I didn't see my own births and I was behind the video camera for Millie's, so I've never really seen a birth. Rats that I pretty much missed the cow's too, but I sort of saw it.

I was driving by and saw a cow lying on her side with a leg stuck up in the air, a very large, bulging stomach, and a partially born calf coming out! I promptly (not promptly enough, apparantly) found a place to turn around and went back. I pulled over, but the mother cow was already standing up, eating(?) the bag and umbilical cord (yuck...), and licking the little cow like crazy. It was squirming around some, but mostly still just lying there all wet. Still....pretty amazing. As it was on a not so busy road, I got Moriah out to look. Since it had really already happened, she wasn't particularly impressed, but oh well.... I was! Now every time I drive by that field and see that little calf with its mother I'm going to feel like that's my little calf :o)

I'm a little bored :o) Not that I don't have piles of things I can do, but I'm fighting off getting some kind of chest infection (again), so under strict orders from the husband of the year, I'm not doing much...

I still think the cow thing was pretty cool, though, just wish I'd been able to see the whole thing...

Kind of weird, too, though, as Glen and I are thinking about getting my grandparents to raise a cow for us this next year (well...for our freezer, if you get my drift...)

pondering in my heart~

"...But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart."
Luke 2:19

I spent a good part of worship at church yesterday morning holding Ethan. For those of you that don't know Ethan, he is my stocky five, almost six-year-old funny man. We always joke that God must have pulled his personality out of the surprise box as he is one of the sweetest, yet uniquely funny kids I've ever met, and honestly, that is a fairly un-biased observation :o)
He is at the sweetest stage of life, mostly big boy, but still in love with me and oblivious to the "mom, my friends are all watching" public display of affection awareness that sadly comes with age... He kisses me, hugs me, holds my hand, rubs my back, all with childish abandonment. His particularly sweet nature and personality just makes it all the more pronounced. As hard as I am trying...there are really no words...

I've mentioned before how my children seem to be more affectionate with me at church, although I've noticed it when we watch movies together or read as well, so I think it is really more of a "mom is sitting down, let's grab her" kind of thing, not specifically related to church. But that is where I tend to notice it most.

So, we're at church, standing up and worshipping. I've been holding Noah, then Moriah, and the next thing I know, Ethan is reaching up for me to hold him. So there I stand, holding my fifty pound sweetie. For a good 15 minutes I stood and just held him, holding the tears at bay. Thanking the Lord for my precious boy who, in that instant I realized, was soon, in the blink of an eye, going to be bigger than me. I treasured up every thought, every feeling of his still small body holding onto my neck, resting his head on my shoulder, rubbing my hair and giving me kisses. Before I know it, this stage of my life will have passed and I will be left aching for small arms to embrace me with pure childish abandon.

Somewhere along the way I crossed the line. You always hear older moms say to treasure it, to not wish it away, yet it is so hard when we are surrounded by laundry and toy squabbles and diapers and dishes and impatient two year olds, to not wish for that next, optimistically easier stage of life. To wish our children into their adulthood. I eagerly anticipate my children being even more self sufficient and the evolving of our friendship that will come with age, but I am beginning to get a taste of what those older, wiser women mean when they caution us to treasure those moments. When I was holding Ethan I had this intense, conscious realization that out of the span of my whole life, the very narrow window of time that I have with him as a boy totally in love with his mommy is almost past, and to savor every minute, to treasure it, to store it up in my heart. So I did. I relished him. And I've begun my week with renewed focus on the important things of life.

People ask why I have so many children...now you know...because it is worth it. Every smile, every slobbery kiss, every shiny rock, every flower, every picture, every hug, pajama feet and freshly scrubbed children running in towels, children piled on the bed with popcorn and a movie complete with 3-D glasses on the two year old, Bible stories told by Dad, Anna teaching Moriah how to write her name, bigger boys explaining to little boys how they're going to teach them to play dinosaurs and shoot arrows, 4 year olds learning to write their name and pictures of stick people with big heads on my refrigerator, silly songs and sleepy baby stretches...I can't resist it. It is the stuff life is made of. It is my life.

For which I am exceedingly and overwhelmingly thankful...

the homeschool guinea pig~

A little bragging is in order around here. I just want to let everyone know how proud I am of my sweet Anna! She tested into Saxon 7/6 Math which is a sixth/seventh grade math! As Anna is only in the fourth grade, and often gets down on herself about math, I just had to brag on her a little!

I have decided, mid year of course, to switch math curriculums for Anna. I did very well in math, but I am very much a "just tell me how to do it and I'll do" kind of person. I don't really care that much why it works, just show me how. The math curriculum that I have been using with Anna since we started homeschooling is called Singapore Math. It has a tremendous track record and is very effective, but it is slightly unconventional. It focuses a lot on mental math and then moves to concrete "how to" kind of stuff. I really have liked it and it hasn't been too difficult for me to teach, I've just had to shift my brain from what is my normal way of thinking. This year, though, has been more challenging as Anna moves into slightly more advanced math. I was spending way too much time figuring out how to explain it to her. I knew how to do the problems, but they were presenting things in a way that was not conducive to how I thought about them. Make sense? Instead of being able to just teach her the way I understand, I was having to first teach myself how to teach her the way they were presenting concepts.

I have always planned on switching to Saxon Math as that is what I used from seventh grade on and liked it very much. I just wasn't sure when I would switch. I really believe the verses in the Bible that talk about asking for wisdom and that the Lord will give wisdom when one asks for it, so I have developed a habit of just asking the Lord for specific wisdom in different aspects of parenting, homeschooling included, and just watching for His direction and answers. He promises to give it, and He has never failed me. It has always been quite interesting, actually, for me to be actively watching for His leading and seeing how He sends it!

So anyway, I decided to switch, gave her the placement test, and was blown away when she tested to be able to skip two Saxon books and move directly into the 7/6 book!

The other side of this is that I am feeling a great sense of relief and very settled regarding math right now. I feel my decision to use Singapore at the beginning has proved successful, and I have a renewed sense of confidence in my ability to teach my children. I think the concern lurks somewhere in the back of the minds of many homeschool moms if they are really doing a good job, if their kids are really getting it, if they are really on track, etc... Vindication... Such a wonderful feeling...

And not only am I at peace, Anna also now has a sense of pride and accomplishment that I could not give her without it just coming across as "mom being encouraging", she has been able to see it for herself, and to a homeschooling mom, that is priceless...a little self confidence can do wonders for a nine year old girl :o)

add on post to in defense of noah~

I've had several of my real life friends leave me comments on my post about nursing Noah (thanks, guys!). I just wanted to clarify a little that I was feeling particuarly frustrated that day. None of you guys have ever made me feel weird. I did respond to Lori's comment, but wanted to just add on here to make sure everyone saw it.

Mostly my frustration has just come from people thinking its gross or that he is just too old for it to be socially acceptable, and I feel that is due, largely in part, to our overly se~ualized culture. My passion is my mothering and encouraging young moms (or even older-than-me moms with little ones), so I am glad to answer real questions from moms who are purely curious to people wanting to genuinely know more about it. It just makes me mad that our culture "tends" to make me feel like there is something wrong with either Noah or me for wanting to continue nursing into toddlerhood.

On a side note, preterm labor is a valid concern for some women nursing throughout a pregnancy. My home-birth supporting back-up doctor even advised me to wean Noah once I got to twenty weeks, but after five previous pregnancies and doing online research, I felt confident that I could watch my own body and would be able to tell if I needed to be concerned. It ended up being quite funny that I actually had significantly fewer braxton hicks contractions that my other pregnancies, and after having five early babies, Haven decided to be 13 days late!

One other piece of info I meant to say too was that when a woman tandem nurses (which only means nursing more than one child, not necessarily nursing them simultaneously, I had to learn that. I have only nursed simultaneously maybe three times.), her body resets itself as soon as she gives birth to the infant. The milk becomes geared specifically for the newborn's needs, the older child just benefits from that. Amazing...

frugal fridays~ ebay of course!

So I haven't really done the Frugal Fridays thing in awhile, but I absolutely love ebay, so I thought I'd do a quick post on it.

Ebay is an awesome resource for several different things actually. First, of course, it is a great place to find things for cheap. Secondly, it is a great way to make some extra money. Some people make an excellent living just from selling things on ebay. And third, it is a great place to find particular, rare, or hard to find items.

I buy things on ebay all the time. I do quite a bit of my children's clothing shopping on ebay. Here are a few of the good deals I've gotton lately...

**new American Eagle jeans for Glen $.99

**new American Eagle jeans for Glen $5

(Glen is built with a long torso and shorter legs and has found that these particular jeans fit

him the best. I used to have to watch for sales and make a trip out to the mall, while still

spending at least $20, and that was only if I found them on the clearance rack. On sale, they

were still usually $30! So these were very good deals for us!)

**new baby Gap sparkle courduroy pants for Moriah $7.00

**3 new kids Gap tshirts for Caleb $1.50 each

**new chocolate brown mary jane crocs $19 (while that seems pricey, they are sold out in stores and online, and i've been watching for some for months. the childrens' sizes are rare, and when they do have them, they can sell upwards of $50. i just happened to catch someone who listed a buy it now and got them before anyone else did!)

**new baby gap lined jeans and baseball shirt for noah $8 total

**2 Gap shirts and Limited Too skirt for Anna $8

**new in pkg schikk intuition razor blades bought in bulk for $1.33 each ($3.33 at Target)

and those are just a few of the things!

As you can probably tell, though, I tend to like name brand stuff. I have fun dressing my kids, maybe it's a hobby, maybe I don't like dressing myself (the whole post baby body thing) so I put extra effort into dressing them, I don't know, but I have great fun watching for good deals on ebay.

Here is my method...shhh :o)

You can "save" searches on ebay, and you get daily emails everyday when things are listed. For example, Ethan had this baseball type shirt that was pretty cute last year. It was my favorite shirt. I did buy it new. So I thought, there will probably be some on ebay this year. So I saved a search for it, and in true Shyla fashion (my sisters tease me about this endlessly), I have now managed to find one in just about every boy size from 6 months to 5t! Some of them were even new with tags. And cheaper than buying new shirts at the store. Of course, you have to figure in shipping, but I include that factor when deciding to buy/bid on something or not.

You can save general searches, such as "jeans 5t" or get as specific as you want "baby gap button jeans 5t" (this was a particular jean I had wanted for Moriah). I do tend to like Gap jeans/pants as I have noticed through the years that they do hold up well. So I have searches saved "gap jeans 8", "gap jeans 10", etc. and have found some really great deals. I have searches saved in most of the sizes my children are currently in, as well as sizes coming up for next season.

So, most of the emails I skim and pass up, but if there is an item I am interested in, I click on the link over to ebay, and then click "watch this item." I don't usually bid until almost the end of the auction time. A day or so before the auction ends, I get an email saying this item is going to end soon. That is when I decided whether or not to bid. If it has already been bid up to the amount I'm willing to pay, then I just ignore it. What I typically watch for, as in the case of the American Eagle jeans for Glen and t-shirts for Caleb, are items that have not been bid on, with very low starting prices, often $.99. I then bid on them. Sometimes things go really high, sometimes things just get passed up for some reason, and I get great deals. The trick seems to really be the saved searches and just watching for things that are low.

I've also sold quite a few things on ebay as well. Either my children's extra and/or old stuff that I know is worth my time to list or great deals I've found at the store that I know will sell (I don't do this very often, but I think it is how some people really get into selling and making money). Most of my children's outgrown stuff I just give to various friends, but there are a few things that are worth taking picture of and selling. One thing I had some fun with this summer were Hannah Montana folders and notebooks.

For anyone that has a girl over the age of, say 5, and is out in public at all, has probably heard of Hannah Montana. We are actually in the process of learning some important life lessons about culture and idols through Hannah Montana, but that is a different story (I say that a lot...sorry.)

Anyway, Anna wanted to see if there were Hannah Montana folders on ebay that she could use for New Song. When I checked, I saw that people were selling these sets of folders and notebooks for like $10 plus! I just waited. I then happened to see in the Target flyer that weekend, that they had Hannah Montana school supplies (I didn't know that when I was looking for them on ebay), and that particular week, they were on sale 50% off! So, I purchased a bunch, knowing I could return what I didn't sell. So....guess what happened! I listed these sets of 2 folders/1 spiral notebook for approximately $8 each. I sold all of them, and they only cost me $2! I think I had like 16 sets. It was a lot of fun, but that's really the only like that I've done.

So, that's my Frugal Fridays tip of the week....ebay! Have fun!

**And a special thank you to my sweet friend Rachel for all the wonderful girls clothes! My girls spend a good week going through all of the great stuff you gave us, they felt like they were getting to play dress up every day. Moriah was hunting around for that pink vest jacket she's convinced is her size just last night...so she could sleep in it :o)