Hatin' At Walmart

Yesterday, we went to Wal-Mart. And we made some mistakes.


Mistake no 1: we went to Wal-Mart. On a Sunday. After church. Thought it was a good idea. So did half of P West.

Did you know that no one works at Wal-Mart on Sunday?

Mistake no 2: We all went.

Here is how it went down.

We needed to get some things...toothbrushes and a new iron. Toothbrushes because it was just that time, and my oldest son was still using a dinky lil thing in his big boy mouth. He needed and upgrade. And my old iron, as wonderful as it was, has gotten dropped one too many times and now it won't turn on. It's main purpose presently is to freak me out that I've left it on, because the only thing that works on it is the light that tells you it's plugged in. So each time we drive up to the house you can see into my sewing room and a spooky orange light seemingly floating in the air. I think, "What is THAT?" Then I remember. Then I think, "Did I leave the iron on?" And then I realize what a silly thing that is to say because a: I don't iron unless I'm sewing...something I have not done in many weeks and b: It's BROKEN.

Back to the story. So during church I'm thinking of the next thing*(forgive me, God). I was imagining that I would take all the children home, let Dad and DD #1 feed them and go on my own. I COULD send DD #1 or my husband, but they didn't know the iron I wanted. He must have been thinking the same thing because HE suggested we go to WM too, except he was going to let me do lunch while he went and I guess HE could pick out the iron. So I suggested we all go for shock value as we had nine children with us yesterday. He agreed.

All was peaceful, the children had their "place" and "person" to be with. Two strollers and two carts, Mom in the front, Dad in the back. We were all in a straight line. We had to rearrange twice..once when three needed to go potty and another when one was hitting his buddy. Everyone was well behaved (mostly) and we all stayed together.

Until...

We were getting body wash and I noticed out of the corner of my eye and evil stare. A woman at the other end of the isle we were in had a real ugly look on her face. My first thought was, "Oh, poor thing, she must be having a bad day, perhaps our peacefulness will rub off on her." That was until I noticed that she was whispering behind her hand at her son and casting the evil glare at ME!
Ohhh I get it, she's a hatin at US!
After a quick look to see if it was a child doing the offending of this woman and her teen son and seeing that all was well in the family, I cast an innocent look her direction then a beatific smile at my husband and yelled..ok not yelled... that I loved him. Then headed our little wagon train to another isle. As we rounded a corner an employee (who was hiding, I am sure) commented on the fam. I shocked her by telling her that four of them were in the bathroom :D.

It's not the first time this happened. Once, we got into the line at the checkout that sold the cigarettes. It was the only one that had no line ( I tell ya, it must not have been a Sunday). We were doing our thing when some guy got behind us and hemmed and hawed while we checked out. Wasn't our fault something didn't have a bar code. The kids were behaving just fine, so it wasn't them. The checker noticed too and just smiled at us and talked with us.

It's like road rage at Wal Mart. Gettin' crabby at slow people. Cutting them off.

And why do all homeschool families drive white vans? I've taken a count. You'd be surprised.
And why do people thing that white vans drive too slow even if they're already going over the speed limit.

But I digress....

When we finally got all we needed we went to check out and LO AND BEHOLD there were about three checkers in the normal line and ten checkers in the 20 items or less. Do people buy less stuff on Sundays? I had my oldest daughter do a count of both carts (we really didn't get that much stuff, we just had BIG stuff) and we were a bit over 20. Seeing how we had already ticked off one person by our mere presence, I offered to take half the children out to the vans (yes, two) so I could feed the baby.

Why do people hate on big families. I don't know. As I see it, my family is more well behaved than other children at the store. Otherwise they would be. at. home. Our rule is you don't get to go anywhere unless you 1: listen and 2. practice self control.

But truthfully, people have more comments about it than criticism. They have more comments than commendations as well, but it's nice when the children's good behavior is noted.

But truthfully, all the really matters is that we feel and do what is godly and represent. Hopefully we can shine some light into the darkness of some people's hearts.

Oh, and muh new ahrn doesn't have any lights!

Vitamin Water: a rant

This is from the label or the orange flavored vitamin water:

ah, orange juice commercials. funny stuff. mom cheerfully prepares some huge breakfast while the rest of her family sleeps. sure, this could happen but every morning? please. maybe if mom were heavily medicated, in which case, we wouldn't condone operating a stove or any electrical appliance.

for those of use who don't live in an orange juice commercial, there's still a way to get your morning nutrition. this product has calcium and lots of vitamin c, so you can get your day started right, minus the whole stepford mom thing.

vitamin + water - all you need

This label promotes the idea that it is unrealistic to have a mother take care of her family. As if no child could ever hope to have a nurturing mother who sacrifices sleep for her family to make sure they are fed well. This label states that it is such a ludicrous idea, that the mother of the family would have to be medicated in order to make breakfast.

Could it happen? Absolutely. Just ask my children. I strive to be awake before them everyday. To have breakfast ready for them before they have their morning chores done. I strive to offer healthy, filling foods to fuel their bodies and brains. My love language is time and gifts. I take time to gift them with wonderful meals.

No I am not medicated, no I am not crazy. I am called. I embrace my calling as their mom. I am blessed to know and nurture each life.

And besides, a smart mom knows her stuff, does research on the best ways to feed her family. She isn't going to spend money on oranges just to juice them. Orange juice has as much sugar as kool-aide. A smart mom will give them raw milk and a whole orange and some oatmeal sweetened with honey and cinnamon....maximum nutrition. (we don't do raw milk, yet)

And I tasted it: it tastes like Tang....made me yearn for childhood days in Brighton with my grandmother. She always made tang, and homemade bread, and she gardened, canned and was very frugal and took care of her family. I would love to be like her.

Kitchen Day

Today is kitchen day. It is the day we cook as many meals we can to make dinner/breakfasts easier during the week as well as do some cleaning in the kitchen.

I used to do all the baking on Saturdays and clean the kitchen on house cleaning days on Monday, but it was too much to do and do everything else. I like the change.

I alternate kitchen day between Wednesdays and Fridays depending on which week is a pay day/grocery day.

We start with cleaning. We always do the fridge and the microwave only if it needs it. DD #1 does the microwave b/c she has longer arms :D. Then I usually choose one or two cabinets or drawers and assign a child to clean them out. I am still teaching them how to declutter and clean.

Today we did the fridge, tupperware cabinet, oven drawer and pencil drawer. I like to get the cleaning done first so it is out of the way.

We make muffins for Monday's breakfast, granola for Tues and Thurs every kitchen day. I usually bake something nice for Sunday's breakfast and a dessert for Sunday dinner. This week we are making sticky buns for breakfast. I make my grandmother's bread recipe and make rolls out of it. Daddy wants to make Sunday's dessert, so he will do that later in the week. He loves to cook and seldom bakes so this is a rare treat. This Sunday we will have an Apple Brown Betty he found on a website. As always I am making bread for lunches.

We also make salad fixins and wash the fruit and vegetables. DD#2 is getting very good at making salad and the little ones like to help with the fruit.

This week we are making two lasagnes, an enchilada casserole and six ham loaves. We will freeze most of these for other weeks. I assign myself of my oldest daughter and a younger child to cook each meal. They are all learning together as we go. Some are doing dishes, drying dishes, doing prep work. We all learn together how to make some of the dishes.

Today it helped that Daddy had the two littlest ones out of the house for most of the morning. Our foster son had a visit with his parents and he took our youngest son with him to run errands and to the library.

We ate a fast lunch and all went to hang the laundry that had been washing all morning.

As a special treat today, we are trying our hand at strawberry preserves. I got the recipe from the online Farmer's Almanac. I don't think it will make a lot, but that's ok. It's better to start small. I have only canned once in my life so this will be an experience.

Daddy is cooking dinner tonight so I don't have to :D.

Gotta go....ham loaves await.

Tubs Day

Last Thursday was tubs day. That is the day we do our twice yearly clothing tub go through. This is when we go through all the clothes for the children and swap out cold weather clothes for warm weather clothes. It tells us what we need to buy for each child. With God's provision, we seldom have to buy any items for the children.

Tubs day is a nostalgic day. We reminisce about clothes this child or that child wore when they were small. It shows how much they are growing in what they choose to wear or not to wear. I remember when dd#2 was little and new to our family. Grandma brought over a whole bunch of sun dresses. Now the baby can wear them.

Tubs day is purging day. We go through and get rid of clothes we know no one will wear (I have an aversion to muscle shirts and turtlenecks...they are usually the first to go). We bag these up and take them to the Cooperative Care Center, a food and clothing ministry of a church in town.
We also get rid of stained or torn up clothes. We turn them into rags for Daddy's rag collection, turn torn up pants into cutoffs (no, son you cannot wear cutoffs to church). This year I have taken an idea from a dear friend. I am collecting t-shirts to make into a rag rug, a long time project wish of mine. We might also put some clothing into their "special stuff" tubs. This might be a shirt they got from someone special, but it too small or beat up to wear anymore.

Tubs day makes me feel good. It's a good feeling to see my children in clothes they love. Clean clothes, fresh clothes, play clothes, nice clothes for church, weather appropriate clothes. The children are happy to have new clothes in their drawers and are excited to put outifts together. We also go through closets and drawers. So all the cold is put away and all the warm is brought out. Closets are straightened, drawers are neat (for a day at least), everyone has matching shoes :).

Tubs day, though, is hard work. We pick a day when no one has to be anywhere. As our family has grown, so has the amount of time it takes to do tubs. But this is how we do it:

All year long, God provides clothing for our children. We have a saying that we never say no to clothes donations. We stow them in the sewing room (the catchall room...my santuary) until we have time to go through them. When we get to it, we go through and chose what we feel appropriate for the children to wear. Modest for the girls, gentlemanlike for the boys. The rest we donate or keep for other purposes. We stow away what we want to keep down in the furnace room...or...the TUBS room.

Then in October and April of each year we take a day. A whole day to go through each piece of clothing in their rooms and in the tubs. We start with a hearty breakfast. Full bellies = happy babies = cooperativeness. We begin in their rooms. We get baskets and go through what is out of season from their drawers and closets....take out warm clothes in spring, cold clothes in fall. We always keep one or two outfits that are out of season. This IS Colorado after all and it has been known to snow in July. I. Kid. You. Not. We also go through shoes and coats.

We pile all the old stuff in the baskets and go downstairs. DD #1 and I do the girls and Daddy does the boys (boys are easier I guess....they have less clothes). We get the Summer or Winter tubs and go through each item that might fit and try them on. This is where having the big breakfast comes in, because it takes a while. What fits we put in one pile. What doesn't we give to the next person down or put it back in the tub or get rid of it. Once we have done that, the are allowed to make outfits. This year we did things a bit differently. We usually allowed them to have 10 outfits not including dresses or church clothes. This is so their clothes actually FIT in their drawers. This year, however, we had them chose "visiting" outfits and "outside" outfits. Visiting outfits can double as church outfits depending on it's condition. We did this because here at the new house, the backyard is WILD....weeds, dirt, mud, you name it. We want them to go out and play hard without worrying about getting their clothes ruined. We want them to also look presentable when they go into town. So we took a marker and wrote their initials and O on the tag. So when they are getting their clothes ready for the next day, they ask what is going on and I tell them to get visiting or outside clothes on. Some days we do both. I know it's a lot of laundry if we do both, but they help with that. I have noticed they have a sense of pride in their appearance, having the two sets of clothes. We did the same with shoes. They have a set of shoes they keep for visiting and a set for outside. The outside ones are the most washable :).

When all the outfits are made, mom and dad approve they put them in the drawers and the rest go back in the tubs.

This past Thursday it took us all day and I still wasn't done with the baby. I said ENOUGH and I did it the next morning.

We look forward to tub day with excitement and dread. I'm glad it's over.

BTW....mom and dad do not have tubs of clothes.