Summer Days

 We are on summer break now, and I am soaking up the slower days!  Life with 8 kids is never super restful, but having most schoolwork off my plate (we still do just a little most days) feels amazing!  

Phoebe is almost 2 months old already!

Homemade popsicles are a summer staple!

Ezra celebrated his 10th birthday!

We've had such nice weather that we've been enjoying the pool for a few weeks now!

We have been going to the library every week and devouring stacks of books!  That makes my heart so happy!

Thankfully, we have a number of summer activities planned this year!  Camps, VBS, camping, and some big end-of-summer trips will be filling our days!  

Happy Summer!

Home Tour: Girls' Room

 Up until a year ago, the older 6 kids were in one bedroom, while the baby, Moriah, was still in our room.  When she outgrew her baby bed, we rearranged things to create a girls' room.  The girls were given what had been our bedroom, right off the kitchen.

We moved one set of bunkbeds into the girls' room, even though they didn't need it yet, since we had gotten a triple bunk for the boys.  Joanna uses one bed, and Moriah sleeps in the playpen for now.  

They have a small dresser, with one drawer each for their clothes.  Joanna uses the top drawer for her drawing supplies.  She also has a couple of plastic bins under her bed for her toys and treasures.

This room has two closets, a small one that used to house the water heater and a larger one.  Again, we don't use them for clothes, but rather for more general storage.  The small closet behind the playpen holds infrequently used things, like suitcases, our air conditioning unit, a few baby items, my gift and wrapping supplies, and my bag of fabric. The other closet stores our games, extra blankets and a few sheets, our cloth diapers and supplies, extra toilet paper, winter gloves and scarves, Joanna's stuffed animals, my pictures, and a few other random things.  

And that's it!  This bedroom is fairly small, and again, it isn't used for much besides sleeping and naps.  

Mother's Day 2021

 My favorite people...

And a little real life:

Ha! ;)

Announcing...

 Phoebe Lillian!

Born Friday, April 23, 2021 at 1:40pm

21 1/2 inches long

9 pounds, 6 ounces

She was induced at a week overdue, and I'm so glad we didn't wait any longer, as she was already our biggest by almost a pound!!  Seth joked that she must be an introvert; she heard all the commotion around our house and didn't want to come out and join it!  She may be; so far she is very chill!  =)

Home Tour: Hall, Bathroom, and Boys' Room

 I've been meaning to get to this forever, and it wasn't happening, so I decided to not worry about it being perfect so I could just finish it before baby arrives! :)

Off of the kitchen, there is a small hall (I don't feel that "hall" is the appropriate term, but I'm not sure what else to call it) that leads to the bathroom and boys' room.  This doorway used to have a door that led directly into the bathroom, and the bedroom was accessed through the bathroom.  We changed that when we remodeled the bathroom, so now we have the little "hallway" there.

Off to one side of the hallway is the linen closet, but we use it for a little bit of everything since it is the only closet outside the bedrooms. 

The very bottom contains my sewing machine and supplies, a basket with the heating pad, hot water bottle, and hair trimmer, and a basket of cleaning supplies.  

 The next shelf holds a basket with our bathroom towels, and all of the kids' Lego boxes.  The majority of the Legos are in the boys' room, but they each have a plastic shoebox containing the Legos they can use at any one time.  They are allowed to trade these out with other Legos, and occasionally they can have what we call a "Lego party" and they get all of the Legos out, but a shoebox is the amount they seem to be able to take care of at any one time.  We put the boxes in this closet so they can get them out in the early morning before everyone is up.

The next two shelves are where Seth and I keep our clothes.  We no longer have a bedroom closet, so we keep our clothes here near the bathroom.  We are very minimal with our clothes, so it works for us!

The next shelf holds a basket of first aid/medication, and a basket of extra toiletries.  

The very top shelf is difficult to access, so I keep a few seasonal items and lightbulbs there.

The first door in the hall leads to the bathroom, which is pretty small and basic.

The pedestal sink came with the house, and though I like the look, I don't think it's the most practical with kids.  Since there is no storage there, we added the little drawers which serve as our bathroom storage (deodorant, hairbrushes, Waterpik, etc.) and counter.  On the sides of the sink are the trash can and diaper pail (just a basic plastic trash can with lid).  There is just enough floor space near the toilet for the toddler potty when we need it.  Behind the mirror is a cabinet that has a few more hair and toiletry items.

The last door leads to the boys' room.  Six kids shared this room until last year, when we made a switch and gave the girls their own room.  

It is a small room, and hard to photograph very well, but pretty much what you see is what you get!  There is a regular bunk, a triple bunk, a dresser, and the closet is behind the door.

The kids all love stuffed animals, so they all have a number of them, and they keep them on their beds.  Under the regular bunk we store the rest of the Legos, and each of the boys has a plastic container for their personal toys.

We keep kids clothes minimal also, and they each have a drawer for their clothes, and they share an underwear drawer.  One drawer is actually empty right now, and another holds their AWANA stuff.  They use the top to store the Lego creations they want to keep intact.  When it gets full, we clear it off.

The closet is not used for their clothes, but for storage.  

This side holds their shared toys...Duplos, action figures, dress-up, Playmobil, and a few random things! :) Sleeping bags are on the top shelf. 

The other side of the closet holds the rest of the kid sleeping bags, some Nerf guns and the rest is mostly clothes that I have saved for the kids.  I save MUCH less than I used to, but I still keep a few things, especially things that I know we will need, like shorts for summer; pants, since my boys wear them out sooo quickly; a size or two ahead in baby clothes; and a few things for my oldest kids.

And that's it!  Bedrooms are mostly used for sleeping and getting dressed, so while there is not a lot of space, there is enough for those things!  They do occasionally play in there, but not often.  

Favorite Kid's Books Featuring Big Families

 Our family loves books, and I love reading to our kids.  Books are a great way of exploring different perspectives and experiences and learning about the world.  But it is also fun and reassuring to read about people who have similarities to you. So I have made a point the last few years to try to find books about large families, especially since we don't have many big families in our real life.  Books featuring larger-than-normal families can be few and far between, but we have found a number that have become family favorites, so I thought I'd share the ones we have enjoyed. 

Picture books:

The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman (the illustrations are great!)

Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Dubose Heyward

Bears in the Night by Stan and Jan Berenstain 

Chapter Books:

The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (of course!)

The Vanderbeekers series by Karina Yan Glaser 

The Penderwicks Series by Jeanne Birdsall

All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

I'll add more as we discover them! :)

Home Tour...Kitchen Cabinets

 Next up is a peek inside our kitchen drawers and cabinets!  When we redid our kitchen a couple of years ago, we removed at least half of the cabinetry, and we love how it turned out because it really opened up the room.  But, we did drastically reduce our storage, which, aside from food storage, has worked out totally fine since we are really minimal in the kitchen.  Yes, my cupboards are a little fuller than I would prefer, but we have reduced our inventory to only what we use regularly, and it all fits!  (To see how the kitchen looked when we moved in, see here.)

I'll start with this side of the kitchen....

I think of this top drawer as a junk drawer, and it kind of looks like it here, but it's actually a little more purposeful, and it holds our electronic stuff (cameras, cords, walky-talkies, flashlights, batteries, etc.), although a few other things often make their way in!

The second drawer holds our kitchen towels, washclothes, napkins, and bibs.

The third drawer is where I corral all of my lids.  Mason jar lids and all of the lids for my Pyrex dishes are in here.  I like having them all in one spot where they are not falling out of my cupboards. =)

The bottom drawer holds our water bottles and our plastic lunch boxes that we use when we are out and about for the day.

The cupboard under the sink is pretty standard...garbage, recycling, compost, dish soap, as well as our extra paper and plastic bags.

 

Then on to this side of the kitchen...

My teapot stays on the stove...we use it several times a day, so I leave it there.  The knife block lives on the counter, mostly because I haven't found a better place too put it!

The drawer under the oven holds a few pans, my standard cast iron, my pie pan, two glass loaf pans, and all of the lids for my pots.

These shelves are the only upper storage we have now.  The top shelf hold my smaller bowls, the butter, my basket of most frequently used spices (salt, pepper, garlic, cinnamon, and my misto oil sprayer), and a decorative candy dish.  The bottom shelf holds coffee supplies and all of our mugs.

This is a pull-out cutting board, but I use it most frequently when I need a little extra counter space, like for cooling pans on baking day!  =)

The first drawer holds my potholders, three mini waffle makers, and an apron.

The next drawer is our cup drawer...I really like using small mason jars as cups, but they keep getting broken, so I've started switching to stainless steel cups.  We have about 10 cups total, not including the 6 the kids use as water cups.

The first cupboard is where most of our dishes reside.

The top shelf holds our silverware caddy, our plates, bowls, mixing bowls, cast iron dutch oven, and cutting boards.  We have enough silverware, plates and bowls to usually last us a day.  Occasionally we use extra and run the dishwasher again or wash a few by hand to get us through the day, but most days we just run the dishwasher once.  We have two cutting boards, a large stainless steel bowl, a large glass bowl, and two slightly smaller glass bowls that we use for mixing and storage.

The bottom shelf holds all of our pans.  I have a cast iron griddle and a pizza stone, both of which I also use as baking sheets.  I have a large cast iron pan, then a set of 6 stainless steel pans.  They have to stack just so to fit in the cupboard, which is not my favorite, but we use them all frequently.  For glass baking pans, I have an 11x14, two 9x13s, an 11x7, an 8x8, plus two smaller pans that we typically just use for storing and reheating leftovers.  They all stack together on the left side.  There's one cookie rack down there, too.

This cupboard can be a little annoying, too, but I have arranged everything based on what gets used the most.  These are my kitchen appliances, and the food storage starts here.

In the very back corner to the left, which is difficult to get into, I keep a few plastic storage containers that I use when taking food to someone.  Then I have a stainless steel colander, a toaster, a crock pot, a rubbermaid container that holds our homemade bread, and a wheat grinder.

Tucked in the very back corner of the bottom shelf is a set of plates that we use on holidays, and our popsicle molds.  The rest of the shelf holds our Vitamix, an air popcorn popper (behind), some food storage in jars, and some extra food storage for things like chips and almond milk.  Our food storage space is a bit limited, so I kind of just put things wherever they'll fit, but I know where everything is, so it works out! ;)

The first drawer above this cupboard holds our cooking utensils; wooden spoons, spatulas, ladle, potato masher, peeler, whisk, garlic press, can opener, etc.

The next drawer holds our rolling pins (the smaller one is for the kids), grater, and measuring spoons and cups.  I have one set of measuring cups, and a couple sets of spoons.  We try to always measure dry things before wet so we don't have to wash measuring cups out while we're baking, but sometimes we do and it's not a big deal.  This drawer also holds the spices that I use frequently, but not daily. ;)

Turning the corner, this drawer holds ziplock bags, our cloth snack bags that we use in the car, and tea.

The last drawer is kind of "my" junk drawer.  I keep some of my paperwork and random things in here; things that I don't want people just to take without asking.

The last cupboard is where a lot of our food goes.

The top shelf holds open bags and food that we're going to be eating soon.  Some canned goods that we'll be using in the next week or two, open jars and bottles of honey, vinegar, things like that, and crackers, cereal, nuts, etc., that are open.  I also have small bags of beans and extra tea and a few random things at the back of the shelf.

The bottom shelf is my baking shelf.  Extra flour and sugar are at the back of the shelf, along with the aluminum foil and extra ziplock bags that I use only occasionally.  Towards the front are all of the baking supplies that I use frequently; flour, sugar, oats, oil, salt, etc.  I also have a small bin of spices that I use only occasionally.

I have a few things on the counter above...a basket of more fragile fruits, a few cookbooks, a basket that holds our vitamins, and my weekly planner.

The crate on top of the fridge holds paper (the kids go through sooo much paper, that I have to limit it a bit), and the basket holds treats and some special snacks that I keep on hand for my kids with allergies.

Some of our fruit goes in the fridge, but it can't hold a lot, so I also use this basket for the overflow.

I thought I'd give another look at the shelf in our laundry room, since this kind of serves as our "pantry".

The bottom shelves holds most of the food that I buy in bulk.  The buckets hold wheat, oats, beans, and rice.  I also keep our potatoes here.

The top two shelves hold the dry goods...cans of food, extra jam and honey, crackers, pasta, chips, etc.  I have onions here as well.  My stockpot also lives here, and since I only use it once a month or so, in between times it also holds all of my mason jars.

We do also have small deep freezer in our laundry room, and I primarily use it for overflow.  I keep open packages, small items, and things we'll be using soon in the freezer above the fridge.

Just a note...I can fit about a month's worth of dry goods/freezer food in our house.  I try to do the majority of my grocery shopping once a month, then do a quick stop every 7-10 days to restock dairy and produce.

And, I think that's it!  =)