I am always trying to be creative in ways to deal with tattling. It happens in this house every day. So a few weeks ago, I was reading a magazine and a mom had wrote in how she handled it. She required that the child bring a written paper explaining what happened. Then she would address the problem. I liked her idea, so I implemented it immediately. I called all the children and explained that from now on, if they felt that something needed to be brought to my attention, the older ones would need to write it all down and the younger ones would have to draw a picture and explain it to me. 

So for about two weeks, not a one of them has felt it was worth their time to write or draw anything. When they would come running to me, I would just look at them and say “Go write/draw it for me”. And they would leave and never return. Now of course this does not apply to anything that is an emergency or needs my immediate attention. Like Gabe cutting up one of his good shirts. Or Josh burning matches in the bathroom and then putting them out under the water. But we went over this when I explained the new house rule to them.

So yesterday, I was folding laundry and Maryann came screaming and crying hysterically. I reminded her that she needed to draw Mommy a picture. (She is always very dramatic in whatever the situation. Not sure where she got that from. ) She turned and ran away. A few minutes later, Laura came and asked why Maryann had locked herself in Eric’s office. I made a mental note to check on her as soon as I finished folding the laundry. 

But I never had to. Soon she came back to the laundry room with a piece of paper with a drawing on it. And with the biggest tears and saddest voice she said… 

“This (pointing to the big round shape with jagged teeth and big eyes on top) is Michael. This (pointing to the oval shape with eyes and mouth on the bottom) is me. This is Michael jumping on me. This is me very sad that Michael is jumping on me.”

I try to act mature and grown up at times like this. Because I am the Mommy and she is my little girl. But no matter how hard I tried not to laugh, I just couldn’t help myself. I’m not sure even why. Maybe it was the silly drawing, that was so clearly portrayed. Those scary looking teeth and bugged out eyes. Maybe it was her utter despair and my lack of sleep for the last 15 months. Whatever the combination was, I laughed. Not at her really, but just the whole situation. Here was my 4 year old girl with this fabulous Veggie Tale drawing of how her big brother had pounced on her. The first of my children to feel the need to tattle so bad that she had spent time to draw it all out for me to see. 

I sat her on my lap. We went over the picture a few times. Talked about everything that had happened. I asked about the scary teeth and crazy big eyes. She started laughing a little. Then I called Michael in. Who immediately wanted to know what was on the paper I was looking at. So I explained it to him. Pointed out him in the drawing. And then pointed out Maryann. My mouth was twitching the whole time and Michael and Maryann were soon laughing with me. Michael apologized to Maryann for jumping on her and Maryann assured him it was all ok and that she forgave him. She asked him not to do it anymore and Michael agreed.

And then they were off to play again. I took the picture Maryann drew and after taking a picture of it, I tucked it away. I want to keep it to show her someday when she has children. And we can laugh again at it together.

~cheryl

I have been slowly working away at my kitchen. It is taking me so much longer than I had thought. Isn’t that the way it always goes? Since we have decided to wait to start remodeling, which would incorporate moving the kitchen to the other side of the house, I am just working on making the kitchen a prettier place. Because this is the room that I spend the most time in. And I love looking at the walls and and cabinets, the art and finished touches that makes a room feel warm and inviting.

So the plan for the kitchen is similar to that of the nursery.

1. Repaint cabinets black with leftover paint from nursery and then distress (instead of replacing cabinets)

2. Paint walls (with leftover paint from other rooms downstairs)

3. Paint table, chairs, and bench black (with leftover paint)

4. Paint all trim a bright white (leftover from nursery)

5. Make valances with some fabric I bought on clearance from Joann’s for $1.00/yd.

6. Keep flooring the same. I like the tiles. Except that anything glass breaks when it hits the floor. 

So far I have painted most of the walls. Painted one wall of cabinets and distressed one section. Painted the bay window trim. Designed the valances and then showed Laura how to sew them. She did great finishing up the job for me. Eric and I painted the table and chairs last weekend. Eric made the table for us before he started dental school. A friend gave us a round table and 4 chairs. The table was too small for our family of 6, so Eric bought a piece of plywood with oak on the top and made a huge oval table that clamped to the small round one. We used this all through dental school. Then at our last house, we used a smaller table in the kitchen and the children ate at the island on benches because there was no room for the table he made in the kitchen. Then in this house, we needed the table again, but no longer had the small round table to attach it to because we left it behind when we moved from California. So he found some old chunks of square wood in the shop and cut up table legs out of them and attached them to the table. The chairs that had come with the table had all fallen apart, so this past summer I picked up a couple of chairs at garage sales for $1.00/chair.  Eric had made the benches a few years ago to fit our growing family around the table. 

I am reupholstering 2 of the chairs. They were dirty and old and gross. I had found a bunch of muslin Pottery Barn pillow and chair covers this fall at a yard sale. I really had no clue what I was going to do with them, but they were 10 cents a cover so I bought them and tossed them in my box of fabric. So when I started digging through to see what I would use for the chairs, that fabric looked perfect. I bought some of the thick plastic to protect the near white fabric on a kitchen chair with 7 children using it to climb on, eat on, and maybe sometimes sit on. 

Here are a few pictures of the before and the progress so far. My goal is to be finished by the end of March….

BEFORE

Cutting a hole for my fridge. 

 

 

 

Sanding down chairs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a receipt from some Christmas Clearance I bought at Joann’s.

Everything was 90% off and then an additional 15% on top of that.

Spent $20.24 and SAVED $ 192.08.

This is how I decorate for Christmas on a budget!!

It’s been a work in progress for a few months now. After moving into this house, we decided to make the little area off the side of our bedroom into a nursery. I have never had a designated spot for a nursery before. The last 4 babies slept in a pack and play next to our bed because there just was not room in our house. But now I have lots of space and creating a nursery was top of my list. Mostly because babies seem to grow so fast!

My goals were simple

1. Keep my budget low

2. Make it as girly as possible

3. Be creative in using what I already had

The walls were originally white. The carpet was a light blue with stains everywhere. Since we want to redo all the flooring in the house, but are not ready to start on that project yet, I decided to just rip out the blue carpet and paint the floor white with porch floor paint.  There was a huge ridge in the middle of the room, so we sanded it down and leveled it with fix-all. I found some material that I liked that was a black and white damask with light pink accents, so I picked the paint colors to match. The walls are pink, the trim white, and the furniture black. 

The crib was a gift from Eric’s Grandparents. The chair was from Eric’s sister when they redid their living room and it no longer matched. The changing table was free and originally white. And the armoire Eric made for me when Maryann was born. 

I spray painted the changing table black. It seemed the easiest and fastest way to do it. I bought the rug on sale at Target and hand painted the armoire black. The floor took 3 coats of kilz primer and 2 coats of porch paint. There were big water stains on the floor that just kept creeping thru each coat of paint. (Another reason for the rug)

My favorite thing in the whole room is the wreath of flowers. I saw a picture of one in Pottery Barn and and loved it. So I dug through all my silk flowers and pulled out the ones I liked. I found a grapevine wreath at the dollar store and wrapped it in some ribbon that I had. then I hot glued the flowers on. Last I attached the ribbons to hang it with. 

I still need to hang some curtain rods that I will get the next time I am at IKEA. I have some black fabric for curtains that will just hang down to the floor on each side of the window. I also am going to paint the saying “The first man a girl falls in love with is her Daddy” above the changing table. And hang some more pictures and put a shelf on that wall too. I am also on the look out for some more baskets to put on the changing table shelves.

My total costs for the whole room were right at $300.00

the before…pulling op the carpet

we pulled the ironing board out of the wall and this is the armoire before paint

The children all came into paint their rocks while I painted the walls.

 

And the finished room…

 

 

 

On our way home from Costco, Josh announced to Maryann that he was hungry. She answered him that she was more hungry than he was. His answeer to her was..

“Maryann, I am SO HUNGRY that I could EAT DIRT!!”

At this point I laughed to myself. 

 

It has only been 2 1/2 hours since I made him pancakes for breakfast. Which he ate three.

It has only been one hour since we got in the car to drive to Costco and he announced he was starving and I gave him a Lara Bar.

It has only been about 10 minutes since we left Costco and he had sampled everything that looked good to him. Somethings twice.

 

And then as I am running through my mind all the things the boy has eaten in the last few hours, Michael calls me and says…

 

“Mom, my cousins are here and we are all just about starving to death!”

It’s no wonder all I ever think about is feeding people in this house. As soon as I finish clean up from one meal, my mind is already thinking/planning the next!

And I have been told that this is nothing compared to the teenage years….

~cheryl

 

 

Christmas this year was fun and busy. We had Grandma’s, Aunt’s and Uncle’s, and cousins over to our house for a couple of days. When we set the table for Christmas dinner, we had 30 place settings. We ate lots of food, played lots of games, and laughed and laughed together. Even exercised together. Well, some of us did. There were multiple Nerf wars, involving just about every child and male adult in the house. We got the children Nerf guns last Christmas and they had so much fun with them all year long that Eric thought it would be a good idea to add some more ammunition and guns. And fun it was! I think we have 9 guns now and 50 balls. Makes for a very big and loud fight!

Paintball games were also a highlight. Eric and the boys have been talking and dreaming about this for a long time. And now that we have our own property that is big enough to do this on, it made the perfect Christmas gift for the older children. Eric brought out all his old Army clothes and everyone got dressed up to play. They spent all afternoon playing until dark. I see many paintball games in the future here.  

The day after Christmas, everybody decided that it was time to get in some exercise. Even the little children got in on it. I looked out my kitchen window and it looked like there was a 5K race going past my house. Some running, some walking, it was quite a site. After they finished, the P90X was put in and my living room turned into an exercise room. The children were the most entertaining. Watching Michael with his incredible bursts of energy made me think I need to have the children do this everyday.  

 

Christmas breakfast quiche and apple pie I made.

Let the games begin!

Trying out his new wheels before Eric finished building it.

Jules loves the paper.

 

Maryann loves to be a princess

 

This was the most original and creative gift given. Josh collected a bag full of dirt and found an old piece of wood and gave it to Eric.

“I thought you really needed this Dad.”

Setting the tables for Christmas Dinner

Eric’s parents

Eric’s Aunt and cousin

 

The only way to eat olives in this house!

 

The cousins table for Christmas Dinner

 

I found a fun pack of festive paper plates and napkins at Costco. They also had this shiny silver plastic spoons and forks that looked real. 

So clean up was real easy. 

 

Flux…the favorite game of the weekend.

Eric’s sister and her husband

The after run workout

Me taking pictures on my new camera. thanks Eric!

 

Paintball games in the cold and rain. But definitely very fun.

Laura was a real trooper. She was the only girl out there and she held her own. And had fun doing it!