This and That

The last two weeks have been relatively uneventful. A couple of good meetings, homeschooling, and other normal things. We have been parked at Eastside Baptist Church in Mebane, NC, for almost 2 weeks and that is a VERY long time for us to be in one place! In a way, it's nice, because I get comfortable finding the local grocery store and library, and we don't spend hours moving our trailer or driving, but usually we're all ready to "hit the road" when it comes time.

Our new trailer is having some humidity/condensation issues. We have tried all the recommendations for eliminating the issue to no avail, so we will be dropping it off tomorrow at the dealership. This is always an adventure as our "home" is unavailable until it's done being serviced, but thankfully this is supposed to be a one-day job. We will have an entire day to "kill" but Brent did mention the word IKEA so one can hope that it will be a fun day. :)

The day before we leave a place is almost always a very busy day. I need to find a good local Laundromat (and get all the laundry clean!), plan and prepare breakfast for the next day, get everyone showered and dressed before bed (so the morning routine can go quickly and smoothly as smoothly as possible), clean the trailer, and prepare the van for traveling (cleaning it out, organizing backpacks, packing extra diapers and wipes, etc).

Yesterday was spent with our dear friends the Deloziers. Loretta and I have been friends since we were teenagers, and her friendship is one of my sweetest treasures in life. She is my true kindred spirit (to quote Anne of Green Gables).  Their family lives near Mebane, so we have spent EVERY possible minute together these past 2 weeks! Loretta has 5 precious little girls ( Moriah, Charity, Naomi, Chloe, and Lydia) who are a mix between delicate ladies and rough and tumble farm girls. :) Our children have SO much fun together. From BB guns and pocket knives to sheep and cows (and lots of M-U-D), they had a blast. And Loretta and I were able to catch up on some talk-as-fast-as-we-can-between-cooking-and-caring-for-13-children fun.

Mariah, with her sweet smile (and her ever ready BB gun, lol).

Gorgeous, toothless, curly-haired Naomi.

All THIRTEEN children, after a long play day!

Love you, friend, more than words can ever say. God knew I needed YOU.

My wonderful sister-in-law Rhonda bought our older children tablets for Christmas and we are just LOVING the new world of digital books! Last night, I downloaded new audio books (from the library) onto Nathaniel and Noah's tablets and this is what they looked like all morning.....

Such cute boys. :)

Okay, well, I'd love to write more but I'm off to have fun at the local Laundromat this afternoon. Hopefully I can dig myself out of the pile of dirty clothes!

Love and blessings!

Life on the Road, Part 2 (New Trailer Tour)

Here's a virtual "tour" of our new trailer. Even though it's small (and we would all love to be in a real house again!), this is our HOME. It's where memories are made, where children are loved on and educated, where meals are eaten, and where we all feel "comfortable". Is it always easy? No way. But we are SO SO thankful that the Lord has orchestrated events in a way that we can stay together as a family while we raise support.

 

The front door opens to the "living" space:

 

I took out the two tables that came with the trailer and replaced them with one long "craft" table. It can be folded down when we travel, moved at night for bed arrangements, AND it's large enough that we can all scrunch around it for meals and school! :) All day, every day, you will find a child (or 2 or 3) playing around this table.

Above the couch/table is storage for toys, backpacks, craft supplies, puzzles, and games.

 

To the right of the kitchen is the "master bedroom".  My things are on the left and Brent's things are on the right. There is some nice under-bed storage that holds things like extra blankets, important family paperwork, Brent's shoes, etc.

Titus' diapers/wipes/blankets/toys are to the left of the bed. His diaper bag fits nicely there, too.

 

Being transparent here for sure....this is my closet. Yes, this is ALL of my hanging up clothes. LOL. It's amazing what you can learn to live without! Every single item that comes into our home must have a place and a purpose---and it must get USED frequently or this Mama will find it a new home in the trashcan or local donation spot. :)

 

To the left of the kitchen is the "kids bedroom". Johanna, Eliana, Nathaniel, and Noah share this room. They call it the "big kids room" and enjoy staying up later than the little ones, talking, playing, and giggling way too much.

 

That's reading/sticker/coloring books on the top shelf, and school books on the bottom two shelves. Library books are on the floor. We can't usually utilize the local library, but a friend graciously shared her card last week with us. We LOVE books!

 

More toy totes, couch and dinette by day and Johanna and Noah's beds by night. :) I'll need to do a nighttime post to show you how everyone sleeps.

Much of the children's bedding gets stored on Eliana's bed during the day and brought out at night. Believe it or not, they got rid of most of their stuffed animals!

Nathaniel's bed fold up during the day and folds down at night. This table is SO useful, not only for school but also for Rook tournaments.

 

Gabbey and Lyssie have a doll tote shown here. The green tote is for tablets/headphones/Leap games, etc.

All 7 older children have their "hanging up" clothing in this closet. They each have a drawer or cabinet for all of their folded clothing as well.  Boys socks are held in that large laundry bag. (Does anyone else have a love/hate relationship with boys socks??)

And there you have it! Life in our trailer. I did forget to take pictures of the bathroom (although it's quite unexciting!) but I will try to get to that when I answer any questions from the previous post.

Blessings on you and your day---This is the day the LORD hath made, so REJOICE in whatever circumstances HE brings your way....even if that means living in a 35 ft travel trailer. :) He is always, always, good!

Life on the Road, Part 1

I cleared all the pictures off my memory card today and came across never before seen footage a bunch of pictures of life in our trailer. Since I frequently get asked about HOW we have managed to live on the road for 19 months now, I thought it would be fun to share them below. :)

Also, I'm opening this post up to questions from you, my sweet friends. If you're curious about how life works during this stage of our lives and ministry, please drop me a quick note. I will do my best to photograph and blog about the answers to your questions!

(Side note: Two weeks ago, we traded in our first trailer for a different model. We had been having serious manufacturing problems, and although the company claimed responsibility and covered the too frequent repairs, we felt safer working with a new company. So these pictures are from this past fall and our "old" trailer. I've already taken a "photo tour" of our new trailer, which I'll post soon.)

**Early morning, showing sleeping arrangements for all the children except Johanna, who was gone at the time these were taken.

Noah on the couch and Ethan on the couch/dinette. Our laundry is normally stored in the bathtub, so anytime someone needs a shower, we have to move it to the living room. Hence the turquoise laundry baskets seen below!

Nathaniel on the top bunk and Gabbey and Lyssie on the bottom.

 Nursing Titus, while attempting to wake up sleeping children. This was a Sunday morning and it was EARLY. :)

Titus, playing on my bed. He wasn't rolling over or scooting yet. :)

Eating breakfast. The box fan was for white noise at night---but we've upgraded to 2 noise makers now and they work SO well!

Sorting socks with Lyssie. The top bunk folded up during the day and was part of our morning routine. Making beds and cleaning up blankets and pillows always takes a good amount of time, and I've had to adjust to the fact that nothing happens "quickly" in the trailer. I find myself repeating, "Take it slow and don't panic" throughout the day. LOL.

Working on the little girl's Sunday hair. There's not enough room in the bathroom to do this (and someone else is always needing it anyway!)

We rotate morning chores---this day, Gabbey organized the shoe shelf, Lyssie vacuumed the floors and couches, and Nathaniel worked on dishes.

(Notice the TINY kitchen space! This presented quite a challenge for me at times. Our new trailer has a much more functional kitchen space and I'm SO grateful!)

Ethan and Noah reading and playing quietly before church. Once the little ones are in their church clothes, they can't go outside and play, so we assign quiet play until we leave for church. :)

All dressed and ready, trailer cleaned up--time to leave for church!

Sunday afternoon nap time.

Outside play is a large part of our life! Because we are always parked somewhere "new", the children get to constantly explore their surroundings. Sometimes we are at a church, and sometimes (like these pictures), we are at a campground.

I keep totes of various toys and rotate them in and out of the trailer for variety. We have a storage unit in our hometown so I can keep these things organized and available as needed.

I never thought I would bring a newborn "home" to a travel trailer, with no nursery, no crib, no swing, no bouncy seat, etc----but Titus hasn't lacked for a single thing! He has been the sweetest, easiest little guy and I stressed about all of that "stuff" for nothing---he couldn't be happier!

Coming up next: Trailer Tour! I'll walk you through each room and space in our home and show you how it works for us.

(Remember to post your questions on this post!)

Blessings!

Family Update

I blogged on our ministry blog this week. You can find a recap of ALL of 2014 and LOTS of pictures of our family and our survey trip over there!

Click Here for Little Fish Ministries Blog!

Christmas Picture and a BLESSING, 2014

Notice anything different from my last post about Johanna?

She is HOME. After 5 months in residential treatment, and some horrible events (which I plan to write about soon), she is doing A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

While I believed in the power of prayer before, after this experience---I am even more convinced. We saw a definite turn of events when we openly shared about the struggles Johanna was facing and asked for an outpouring of PRAYER on her behalf.

I love the sparkle in her eyes. :)

The Mama Bear Technique

(Click HERE for the rest of my Grace Parenting posts.)

In my post Embracing Boyhood: Finding Joy in Little Boys, I talked about ways to find joy while parenting busy little boys.

Today I'm going to add to that topic by sharing one of my favorite "boy" techniques. It's simple, really, but it might seem a bit unnatural for the more feminine/prim and proper/perfectionist type Mamas. (like me, lol)

The Mama Bear Technique: Physical Interaction with Little Boys

 

Little boys are, by nature, quite physical.

 

They run.

 

They jump.

 

They climb.

 

They struggle with sitting still for long periods of time.

 

They laugh loudly (and at things that we girls don't even find slightly funny, like body noises).

 

They throw things (hopefully like footballs and baseballs).

 

They love to wiggle and tickle and wrestle and tackle each other.

 

And often, these very things are what get them into T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

 

The Mama Bear Technique is simply a way we mamas can get on our boys' level and, essentially, get physical.

 

Sometimes it can be used to CONNECT with our boys in the language they understand:

 

--Instead of sending them outside to "run off their energy", play a game of tag instead. Shout out "Mommy's 'it' and coming to get you! Better run!"

 

--Play jumping or running games WITH them.

 

--The next time someone burps (and you're tempted to reprimand for poor manners), catch their eye and giggle a bit. Really shock them and announce a burping contest after dinner. :)

 

--When you're folding laundry and get to the sock pile (which is never-ending in our home), fold up the socks into little balls and throw them as hard as you can at your little guys. Start a sock war and watch their eyes light up with joy.

 

--Call a pillow fight or a tickle battle.

 

The Mama Bear Technique can also be used to RECONNECT with our boys when they are struggling. This is my favorite use of this technique:

 

--When your little guy is having a rough time respecting or obeying you, call them over to you, get good eye contact, then give an appropriate rebuke for the misbehavior. Then, when they least expect it, scoop them up and GET PHYSICAL. If they are still little, throw them in the air. Drop them roughly on the couch and tickle them firmly. Chase them to another room. Crawl with them like an animal. If they are older, start wrestling with them. Knock them gently to the ground and get on their level. Have a "who can punch the hardest" contest (prepare to lose, lol).

 

EVERY time I use this technique, it helps my boys have a more respectful attitude towards me. It's as if I'm speaking their language and THEY LOVE IT. 

 

Now, I realize that for some mamas, this technique comes natural. But for others, who might struggle with a little more authoritarian, no-nonsense attitude with their children, this technique takes purposeful thought and planning. I know for me, with my older boys (who are getting too big to hold, rock, or snuggle comfortably), I have to REMEMBER to give them that physical interaction they crave.

 

If you've not been physical with your boys lately, pull this tool out of your Parenting Toolbox and try it today!

 

*Speaking for myself, after two very long days riding in the van to get from Illinois to South Carolina for our meetings this weekend, I see a game of tag with my little boys in my very near future. :)

 

 





One Month Old

You are one month old already.

You are staying awake a little more each week---oh, how we love your bright eyes!

You've gained 3 whole pounds since you were born! You love to nurse and are following in your 3 brother's footsteps and gaining quickly. :)

Your favorite place to sleep is on Mommy. In a pinch, Sissy or Daddy will do. :) Thankfully, you do like your carseat--a blessing for all of the traveling in your future.

Happy One Month Birthday, Titus Alexander! You are loved, so so much. :)