My Pregnancy/Baby Statistics

*A post I wrote a few months ago but didn't publish.

It is hard to believe we are coming quickly to the end of this pregnancy and Lord willing meeting our new little man.  This week marks 33 weeks.  This has to be my fastest pregnancy yet.  I am at the my body is achy, uncomfortable and tired stage.  As I told a friend this morning at church, this was so much easier when I was 23 (the age I was with my first child).

This made me think of writing down some statistics mainly out of my own curiosity.

So in the past 14 years ...

*I have been pregnant for 81 months which equals 6.75 years.  That is almost 7 years people...pregnant for 7 years.  Holy cow!  Steve and I have been married for 15 years this past August (good thing he likes it when I am pregnant.)

*I have been nursing one of our babies for a total of around 7 years as well.  So in other words, I have been either been pregnant or nursing the last 14 years.

*Conservatively, we have changed around 25,000 diapers.  I don't even want to calculate how much money that has cost us (but Steve did and says it's around $8,000).  We should have started using cloth diapers with our first baby.

*We've celebrated 58 birthdays with our kids.  All of our birthdays range between December and August.  We celebrate three birthdays in one month, two birthdays in one month, and a single birthday in three separate months.

*I've given birth in two countries, but also only two cities and in only two hospitals.

*The same doctor has delivered seven of our children and a midwife delivered one.

*I have completed one sprint triathlon...while pregnant.

*We have always struggled picking boys names, and joke that this baby boy will be named "Steve Jr."

Sickness in Large Families

As most of you can guess, having sickness in a large family looks a bit different than it does when you have just a couple of kids.  It tends to last a lot longer and show itself differently depending on the child.  It is a very trying time and the sickness no matter what it is keeps getting passed from person to person.  Some moments and days I cry in discouragement and at other moments I laugh because all of this is so ridiculous.

Right now we have the stomach flu going through the children.  This isn't your normal stomach bug either.  It is long lasting with each of the children and its been making the youngest ones miserable.  You know, lay on the couch moaning, groaning and whining, miserable?  The kind of sickness that makes you cry because you can't take away their pain and discomfort.  Today we are on day ten of this flu.  As of this morning, five of the kids have had some sort of it.  It is hitting the youngest ones the hardest.  Nate has had it since Saturday and he is still moaning and groaning.

All I can do to survive this is every morning as I wake up I cry out to God, "Help me today!"  I remind myself many times throughout the day that "His Grace is sufficient for me...His power is made perfect in my weakness."  Man, am I weak right now.  That is perfect because that is when He steps in to work, if I let Him.

Two scriptures I have been leaning on today are:

"Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because he always lives to intercede for them." Hebrews 7:25

"Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.  Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."  Psalm 37:3&4

Today the desires of my heart are wellness for my family and protection for me and Steve so we don't get it.  I am so thankful to have Jesus interceding for me.  I get so exhausted I don't even know what to pray or how to pray.  I looked back in my blog archives from a couple of years ago and found two other posts on sickness in large families if you are interested.  Go here and here.

This is Our Life...

Right now!

Isaiah 40:31

...but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

I have to admit,

I am WEARY.

I am tired.

I am overwhelmed.

I am helpless.

But, My God is NOT!

Because of His great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

Lamentations 3:22

Another day proves another visit to the doctor's office. This time for Zoe. She came down with a fever in the middle of the night. Since she has been exposed to Strep, I needed to take her in for a test since she is just a baby. Thankfully, her Strep test came back negative. The doctor gave her a good look over though and it turns our she has an ear infection.

Since we were in the doctors office and I had Nate with me, I asked her to check him too. He hasn't had the Strep yet. He hasn't been sick, sick, but he just hasn't felt well. She looked in his ears and he, too, has an ear infection. I'm so glad that I took them both in.

More antibiotics for our family.

Let's see that officially makes it, four on antibiotics for Strep, one on antibiotics for Pink-eye, two taking eye drops for Pink-eye, and two on antibiotics for ear infections. That just leaves Steve and Anna, but Anna finished antibiotics for an ear infection just last week.

I need rest.

I need to fill myself with the promises of God.

I need his strength to get through this, because on my own I can't!

I am so thankful that I have a God who LOVES me!

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.

Psalm 62:5

One Of the, I'm Sure, Many Things...

(this photo is from back in the Spring when the entire family minus Steve and Z were treated for Strep Throat)

...no one ever told me about having a large family.

Sickness

You see in a large family when one person gets sick with something contagious, like let's say Strep Throat, a cold, or the stomach flu, it gets passed from one person, to the next person, to the next, and so on. By the time everyone has had the sickness and been treated for it, the cycle begins once again. It then makes its way back through the family again. Sometimes, it changes from Strep, to the stomach flu, and then on to Pink Eye. It is even conceivable to think that we could have everyone sick with a different kind of bug all at once. God, have MERCY, please!

We had Strep throat go through just before Christmas. All of the boys were treated and the girls made it out safely. This week already, I have had one daughter in to the doctors for a nasty ear infection on Saturday. The other daughter had a fever last Thursday and Friday and stayed home from school. She was fine over the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, morning she kept saying she was cold. I thought she was just trying to get out of going to school. After I helped get her dressed, I took her temperature...101.4 degrees F. She got to stay home. After a while of her laying on the couch, she threw up. It was then that I knew she had Strep Throat. I called the doctors and got her in later that morning. She tested positive for Strep. If my doctor had not been a man, I probably would have cried. All I could think is here we go again. My mind then begins to fill with the steps we have to take to keep this from spreading and to get rid of this bug.

Number 1 - Stop at Walmart on the way home from doctors. Pick up prescription, Tylenol, Ibuprofen (lots of it). Recently I decided that when I buy Tylenol to always buy at least two bottles at a time. We go through it rather quickly.

Number 2 - We have to make sure no one shares cups. Everyone uses their designated color.

Number 3- New tooth brushes all around, but we can't open them for 24 hours.

Number 4 - No sharing chap stick.

All of these are hard when you have a three year old running around drinking from everyone's cups and chewing on everyone's tooth brushes.

When they/we get sick, I have to switch into survival mode. I need to do what comes next. I need to love on my sickies and show them I care. I can't be worried about tomorrow or who will or won't get sick. Heaven forbid it be me, although, secretly I do sometimes wish I would be the sick one so I can hibernate to my bedroom for a whole day. Not sick enough to be paralyzed, but just enough to nap and read ALL DAY LONG.

I do have to say that I love Winter, but due to the fact that our family is sick ALL winter long, I'm having second thoughts. Everyday, I need to remind myself that my God is Healer and my God is Protector. My prayers are filled with those cries this winter.

Everyone's bottle labeled with their initial so we can keep them straight

My Laundry Philosophy

I've never been one who likes to do laundry every day. Doing a load or two a day would kill me. It wouldn't be from the washing part, or even folding for that matter. I feel like I would always have baskets or piles of clothes lying around that need to be put away. That would drive me mad. Because of this, I have days planned out for each set of laundry. This way I am not doing laundry every day of the week. Now mind you, as my family has grown, so have the number of days it takes to get the laundry done.

I guess you could say that my laundry schedule starts on Sunday night after the kids are in bed. I grab the towels, as well as the garbage, since Monday morning is garbage day, out of the kids bathroom. I bring them down and throw them in the washer. They take a couple of hours since I wash them on sanitary wash with extremely hot water. Monday then leaves me to the rest of the towels in the house and sometimes a set or two of sheets.

On Monday night, I sort all the kids clothes. This ranges from 4 to 6 loads depending on the season. In the winter it is more, I have a whole load and sometimes two of just jeans. I love the summer loads...shorts, dresses...a lot less clothes to wash, fold and put away. After the kids clothes are sorted, I bring them down and throw in the first load. This is usually jeans, because I know they are easy and quick to fold first thing in the morning when so much is going on. On Monday night, I sometimes have time to switch loads too. This really helps to stay on top of it all on Tuesday.

These photos are of my laundry room on Tuesday, toward the end of the day. I just have the girls load left to fold.

Tuesday I continue to work on the kids clothes. The order of the laundry goes from jeans, to dark, to medium, to whites and then finally on to the girls clothes. I leave theirs for last so I have all the boys done and put into baskets by that point. This way I have room to fold theirs. After the clothes are in the baskets are done, they placed at the bottom of the stairs for Steve to carry up for me. The older three boys all put their own laundry away on Wednesday. I am working on the girls putting their own away. I put the younger one's away on Wednesday morning.

A side-note on the laundry, when each load is done, I stand and fold it right then and there. I don't save it until later, having 6 loads to fold in the evening would stress me out. I used to do it that way, but that has changed as our family and our laundry has grown.

Wednesday and Thursday are my off days, unless it is sheet week. I hope you are not too surprised or grossed out, but I only wash sheets every two weeks. I do ours a bit more often than the kids. I just don't have the time to keep up on it more regularly. Getting two cribs, three twins and one double and one queen made again in the evening takes a good bit of time.

On Friday morning, I sort Steve and my clothes. We usually have two loads, one dark and one medium. I wash our whites with the kids whites on Tuesday. We put our clothes away sometime over the weekend.

And once again, I take the weekends off from laundry unless something like towels, rags or rugs needs to be washed.

You may be wondering about ironing. Well, I iron about once a month or so. I just hang whatever needs to be ironed in the laundry room closet and wait until there is enough in there to make it worth the effort. I buy wrinkle free shirts and pants/trousers for Steve and pull them right out of the dryer when they are done. It is very rare that they need to be ironed.

Well, I think that is my laundry schedule in a nutshell. I hope this is helpful to someone out there.

Our Weekly Schedule

Well, this is at least my schedule for keeping house. I've pretty much run on the same schedule for years. Running a household of a large family is a lot of work, therefore for my sanity I need to have a plan. Some weeks don't go as planned and wrenches are thrown into them (ex. sick kids, doctors appointments, long weekends, etc.) These weeks tend to throw me off, and I get a bit frazzled and stressed. Life does happen and wrenches are thrown in quite often, so I need to remember that the plan is a tool and not my master. God is my master and He will give me the strength and motivation to face whatever challenges the weeks bring. What helps me to get back into the groove is knowing the plan for the rest of the week and catching back up. As soon as I am back to the plan, I am a much calmer momma.

Monday - laundry (I'll post my laundry story in the next blog.), cleaning main floor of the house for small group on Monday night (vacuuming, dusting, mopping, and cleaning the main floor bathroom, also a quick pick up of the basement if time is allowed), sorting the kids clothes (This happens after small group and after the kids are in bed. I throw in the first load too!)

Tuesday - Kids laundry (more next post), this takes up most of my day

Wednesday - upstairs cleaning, bathrooms, vacuuming (main floor again too)

Thursday - things that didn't get done earlier in the week

Friday - Laundry (mine and Steve's clothes), vacuuming main floor and a quick wet mop to be ready for the weekend

Saturday - the weekends are for projects around the house and the yard (mowing, weeding, organizing, cleaning kids bedrooms, etc.) and for running errands (For the most part, during the week I am at home. I do run out and get groceries, but don't do any other shopping. There just isn't time in the day.)

Sunday - Day of REST (nap for momma)

I think I could probably do a couple more posts on dinner and on getting groceries. I think I'll save those for another day. Next up, I'll work on our laundry routine.