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.

Too Fast

As our last little baby is growing and developing and we prapare for his impending arrival, I am reminded that my "little boy", Joshua isn't so little anymore and is growing up so quickly. I know now what my parents mean when they say that they hold dear the times when I was little and that even though I thought growing up took forever it really goes by quickly in the eyes of a parent.

We had to buy Josh some new shoes today for school. Summer is great because you can just wear flip-flops and get away with them being slightly too small. Josh started out spring at a size 7 (toddler) and we had to buy size 9 (toddler)! I no longer get to pick out his shoes in the baby department - he's now into the boys department. I knew this day would come...him transitioning from toddler to big kid, but I didn't think it would happen so quickly.

As we prepare for Jayden, I've been sorting through Joshie's old baby clothes and it seems so long ago that he wore them! Below are the very first pair of shoes he wore. He was two weeks old when I put them on him and he wore them until he was about six months old.

So tiny in comparison to the new shoes he just got for school! Where, or where did that time go? I am so thankful that he is my "cuddlebug" and that at least I can still hold him in my lap. When he's outgrown that, I can hold his hand. When he's decided he's "too cool" to hold mommy's hand, at least he and I will always know that I will be holding his heart and praying for the paths ahead of him.