The Key

Four kids is not for everyone...Four kids four and under is definately not for everyone...But it is for us, and we are blessed to have our sweet munchkins in our lives. Sure there's moments of chaos, but there's so many more moments of hugs, cuddles, and sweetness that it far out weighs those tough moments.

I get asked a lot how we do it. "How do you manage with three toddlers and one more quickly approaching arrival?" "How do you manage keeping up with teaching three days a week, and still finding time to spend time with your kids the other four?" "How do you NOT go crazy at the end of the day when three kids are tired, whining, and hungry?"....Well, there's a couple keys to our success, and I'd like to let you in on our little secrets....

#1 - Organization...With three toddlers and two working parents, you HAVE to be organized. At least in your daily routine. My house may not be the most organized, but our days certainly are - especially our "school days". We have one vehicle for the time being (which is paid off! YAY!) so we have to get up early to take Jason to work in order to then drive up to school and then after school we drive back to his work to drive home. It works for us for right now, but does make for a long day - usually about 12 hour days....so organization is a vital key.

I usually get up at 5:15am and make lunches for everyone. With a family of five, that's a lot of sandwiches and getting ready. Below is a picture of the sandwich line. I think of it as like a car assembly...LOL....We shop at Costco on a monthly basis as we use a half loaf of bread on school days.

After the sandwiches are made and lunches put together, I stack them on the counter in order and then get the kids up and ready for school. I get them up at 6:00am and thankfully I have a wonderful husband who tag teams with me to get all three ready, teeth brushed, and hair combed in 15 minutes.
Once everyone is ready, we head down stairs where backpacks are waiting in line from oldest to youngest. Then its time to head out to the truck to go to work and school!

Julianna is too little to carry her backpack, but she LOVES carrying her lunchbox.

And Josh is a "big boy" now and helps make sure that everyone else is also ready to go. He's mommy's big helper and is so proud of it!

Jenna also does really well with getting ready and helping carry out Julianna's backpack for me.

Next time I will share one more "secret" with you as to how we make a family of five work and seem easy at times.