I Made a Coffee Bar

When you have a large family, any flat surface becomes a catchall for kid's stuff. I've seen everything from the usual papers, pens, and pencils, to stranger things like dirty socks, shredded candy wrappers, and baseball gloves sitting around.

Now that the buffet (as we call it) has been turned into a coffee bar, there is little space for all that "stuff."


I am not a coffee connoisseur. I drink pretty much any kind of coffee. Although, I do try to buy fair trade coffee as often as I can. I do however, like my fancy teas. I love the chai teas, as well as dessert teas. My least favorite teas are the fruit teas. I'd rather eat real fruit thankyouverymuch. The girls love their hot chocolate as well as a variety of teas. Nathanael's tastes run pretty similar to mine. Murray, on the other hand, will drink most hot beverages -- coffee being the exception -- if you hand it to him.

The country crocks are from my mom, as is the biscotti jar on the far right. Sorry! I think there has only been biscotti in it once. I do believe all of them were purchased at thrift stores.

I fell in love with these prints by Melanie of Vision City Paper. I have my eye on a few more that I would like to purchase in the future. Go on and check her out!

This beautiful tray is from Winners and handmade in the Philippines. I couldn't resist not purchasing it a few years ago already. The teas are from Epicure, David's Tea, and Teavana.

My little honey pot is also from Winners. 

 The plant is fake. :o) Really! I found it at the grocery store.

 My Epicure teapot is behind the "glass". (It's actually plexiglass, replaced by my dad after a kid fell and destroyed the original glass and soldering pattern. Thankfully the child was uninjured!)

The first teapot I have ever owned that doesn't leak and keeps our tea hot for quite awhile too! (It apparently makes a great mirror too! Haha!)

My coffee maker is a Cuisinart. I wanted a coffee maker that had a hot water option. This was the only company that had this option -- at least in my price range. I waited until it went on sale at Canadian Tire. There are mixed reviews about it, as with any product, but so far we're very happy with it. The only thing we struggle with is filling the water reservoir for the coffee. It's at an odd angle and inevitably I spill some water almost every time. 

The best part about the coffee bar? There is very little room for junk stuff to collect! They still try, but I'm much quicker to convince them to put it away in the proper place.

 

Re-Mortgaging

We've been doing battle for over a year now with re-mortgaging our home. It hasn't been fun. Last year we failed to get a new mortgage because we went to one of those big banks where everything is done out of Toronto and it's all predone on paper. There's no taking into account the work that has been done on the home, the updates it's had, or the curb appeal that is apparent or non-existent -- depending on the home. It's some random (I'm sure mathematically well thought out) pre-set price, no matter what the real estate value of your home might be. Compared to market value, our home was severely low-balled last year. No assessor even came to look at it.

This year we applied with a different bank. I call it your-average-human-being's- bank. No fancy store front. No pile of tellers -- or employees of any sort for that matter. Just one friendly knowledgeable person. In talking to her, we discovered that they look at the actual market value of your home and base the mortgage on this. Today was appraisal day.

The house was as clean and tidy as I could get it with seven children and two dogs underfoot and a weekend just completed. (Just don't look in my storage room. ;o)) The Engineer stayed home to answer any questions the appraiser might have, and I took the dogs for a long chilly walk (-9C and more with the wind chill). The dogs are such social geeks (aka they act really crazy) it's just a whole lot better if they're not around when business-like people are here. After getting reading for this event, I concluded that there is absolutely no way I am moving until we are empty nesters. What a LOT of work!

All in all though, I was pleased with how things looked when I walked out the door with the dogs. After we returned home and before the dogs and/or kids had a chance to mess things up again, I walked around and took some photographs.

 Our craftroom/classroom

This room gets beautiful afternoon sunshine. Although, truth be told I would rather be in this room in the afternoon simply creating and not supervising school work.

Office

This is where I do all my photo editing and planning. The walls are mostly bare because I am supposed to have photo sessions on the walls. I have a good idea of how it will look, but it's just putting it together. It will take time -- and money of course.

 Reading/Games/Play Area

The lights down here are a constant issue. Always burning out. We hope to replace them with the same kind as we have upstairs. They seem to last forever. Yes, we have waaaay too many books! :o)

 Great Room

Also a reading area and conversation room. This is where we host company -- on the rare occasion we have people over.

Kitchen

I am in love with my kitchen. My mom finds it too big, but I don't notice. I still have empty drawers in here, and much to my family's frustration, still like to move things around. I'm thinking of doing some rearranging again this week. :o)

Our home is on the large side -- sometimes too large for my liking, but it does work for us. It is especially wonderful when all the children are home and a multitude of various activities are going on. Everyone has their space to function.

How about you? What is the favourite part of your home?

Edited to add: Once again we didn't qualify. I don't know or understand why. Mathematics -- especially of this sort, has always eluded me.

A Basic Wardrobe for My Girls

Decluttering is really an arduous task, but somehow when I see bag after bag of stuff going to our local Goodwill, to the landfill, or other various appropriate places, I get downright giddy with glee. I really do. With seven (well mostly six now) children and two dogs that insist they must live inside with their hoomans, along with the busy comings and goings of normal family life, I have a real problem keeping our house tidy, let alone CLEAN.

Generally you would never know it, but I really do LOVE a clean house. I just don't even come close these days. Between filling the freezer and cold storage for winter, taxiing children to their extra curricular activities, Bible study, volunteer positions, watching over homework, and keeping us clothed and fed, who has time to clean?!? Not me! So far the cleaning fairies haven't made an appearance either.

However, I firmly believe that the less stuff we have, the less there is to clean. Not to say that I'm going to sell off the brunt of our furniture or anything, but I feel that there can and should be a good limit on what the children have for clothing and footwear -- until they're old enough to properly look after it themselves.

Clothes with the three youngest has been a HUGE battle. The two youngest especially have no concept of appropriate clothing. Red and blue plaid shorts with a pink and yellow polkadot T-shirt and it's 12 degrees Celsius out? Sure! After all it's sunny! Let me just say, I am totally not one of those Duggar family worshippers who think they're so amazing and wonderful, but they havet one thing correct. I totally love the family closet idea! Unfortunately, we have no appropriate place for such a thing, but if we did, I would have one in a heartbeat!

123lbs (in 8 large bags) of clothes and some other items off to the thrift store! Happy Dance!!

So as summer wanes into autumn, I have been purging clothing like crazy! In fact it started even before Labour Day. The Boy was the first to have his closet and drawers emptied. Anything in good condition went into a nice large bag and was given to friends of ours who have a thirteen year old who is very similar in size and build to Bub. Not that he's at Bub's 6'3" yet, but he's working on it. The rest went to Goodwill or the landfill.

Next was Peach. She does hers completely on her own. Whatever she decides doesn't fit or that she doesn't want immediately goes to Beans because Beans is right behind her in size. Then Beans goes through it and gets rid of what she doesn't want or what doesn't fit. I have to keep a bit of an eye on her though because she is far more sentimental and likes to hang on to things because she LIKES it -- even if it doesn't fit any more.

There is a significant size gap between Beans and Squirt, so if anything is kept or wanted by Squirt, it goes into boxes for a year or two. Squirt and Bella are back to back in sizes too. Then there is a huge gap between Bella and Bright Eyes again, so now only the least worn, non trendy, classic and classy stuff is stored, and even then, it might not be worn by the last two girls. Bright Eyes and Peanut are again back to back in sizes.

Purging the two youngest of excess clothing was easy because they both had waaaaay too much! They are horribly hard on their clothes. So anything that was worn out, torn, faded, stained, misshapen, out of style, or just plain ugly was tossed into the appropriate bag and then tossed in the trunk of the van. Oh I'm sorry girls! You no longer have any clothes left! Well, that's not quite true, but I did make a list. Unfortunately in our part of the country, we have very distinct seasons. That means we have about two and a half wardrobes. The half? Well that's because no one it seems has ever really figured out what to wear in the spring and fall.

So far I have only come up with the winter basics. They are as follows:

3 pairs of jeans
1 pair of black dress pants (needed for various school functions)
1 denim skirt/or jumper
1 black skirt
1 dressy white blouse/shirt
1 pair black leggings
1 pair black tights
1 pair navy leggings/or tights
6 long sleeved shirts
3 sweatshirts -- zip up and/or hoodie style
2 dresses
1 or 2 sweaters

I haven't decided the minimum on footwear. Perhaps because I myself know that I am a bit of a shoe lover. I don't have many, but definitely enough. Some of my girls have far more than others. I have some other ideas on how to make this whole clothing and footwear thing work for the younger girls, but I have to implement it first and see if it works. I'm hoping it's going to save what little sanity I have left. ;o)

If you have any thoughts or suggestions on another way to minimize or simplify the girls' wardrobes, feel free to share it with me because I'm all for simple, and I love to hear what others do to make their lives easier.

 

New Orleans

The Engineer is at a conference this week in N.O. Since he still had free air miles, I had the opportunity to go too. Now that we have a brood of seven children who love to keep us hopping we’re realizing how very important it is to get away just the two of us. Almost three years post adoption, we’re feeling comfortable enough to leave the children in the care of someone else for a week or less. If we don’t have our little “getaways”, we simply fall into bed at night and discuss who, what, and where for the kids schedules and fall asleep. These getaways remind us that there is more to life than just our children. Someday they will all be gone. The house will be (mostly) silent and neither of us wants to discover that we have become strangers to each other.

We are very blessed to be able to have my parents move in for the week and take good care of our kids and critters. I have to admit, I was far more prepared for them than any other time we’ve gone away. I have lots of baking ready and dinners in the freezer ready for the oven or the crock pot. I must have really needed to get away! :o)  It’s still very much winter at home. Dead grass is visible everywhere now and I have seen some very brave tulips poking their heads out, but it still snows almost every day and the temperature barely rises above freezing. That being said, the germs are flying freely in the classrooms and lots of sick children are missing school. Not mine. Yet. I’m praying they all continue to stay healthy while Mom and Dad are there.  They certainly don’t need that added in to the busyness of our brood this week.

Meanwhile, I am in sunny, warm New Orleans enjoying the sights and sounds that are unique to the French Quarter. It’s very unique -- and I’d say, a littlecrazy. For many people, I can understand the popularity of it. The weekends are especially interesting when all the street performers come out (and the alcohol flows freely.) :o/

I especially love the French Market. Sure there are booths and booths of the same thing over and over again, but it’s the booths that carry the unique pieces that get us every time. We fell in love with a photographer’s work, bought masks for each of the girls, a cool tie for the Boy, among some other things for other people. :o)

For the rest of the week, I will read, enjoy the sunshine and heat! Glorious heat! Probably take a nap or two. Walk, walk, and walk some more. Take photos. There is so much photoworthy stuff here!No problem finding things to do. Now if only I could get the internet to work, so that I could load this post. Crazy that in a hotel this size that they don’t even have free internet. Grrr!

Hooray for coffee shops and free internet!

Happy Monday!

Cheaper by the Dozen --or Several Dozen

School doesn't start here until September 3rd, but I'm aiming to get a jump on the dreaded school lunches this year. If I'm blessed to have you on Facebook, you know that school lunches and I are not friends. In January I set a goal to be making lunches the night before and that mostly worked well -- except when I forgot which was at least once or twice a week. Believe me, by April, I was already counting down the lunches. Oooh, so-and-so have a PD Day? Yesss! That's two less lunches to make.

Don't get me wrong! There is much to be thankful for in the fact that I make lunches daily -- such as food and healthy children, but the continual snapping open and closed of 21 containers times two sides at a time really starts to mess with my nerves.

Source: Rona 
As much as I aim to be environmentally friendly when it comes to the packaging, staying mentally sane is important to me too. Enter the bake like a madwomen and wrap everything in individual plastic wrap. I always double recipes anyways, so I had the idea that for now, when I double a batch I will wrap the yummies in individual portions and pop them in the freezer. The hardest part with this is trying to find filling and healthy treats.

I have a theme going with these ones. Zucchini cheese and corn muffins, zucchini brownies, and zucchini corn bread. It's not individually wrapped yet as I'm hoping that freezing it first will enable nice slices later. The one we ate with last night's spicy fish soup preferred to crumble everywhere.

I'm thinking that baking by the several dozen and freezing it will save me some sanity this year. Now the trick will be to keep ahead of the demand. Life would be so simple if we didn't have to eat! ;o)

Tubing is Great Winter Fun!

Finding fun and reasonably affordable winter things to do for a large family is to say the least difficult if not virtually impossible.

Skating tends to get boring after awhile. Tobogganing gets tiring continually running up the hill, and sometimes just feels a little dangerous. Cross country skiing is one we haven't tried as a family, but I seem to have balance issues. (Funny to watch.) I'm also guessing that to outfit the nine of us would be a little astronomical in price.

Skiing although loved by those of us who have had the pleasure of being able to go, is very fun, but there is an eleven year age span between our oldest and youngest children and there is the fact that renting, let alone, purchasing equipment is very pricey for seven growing children. Add into that traveling (because there is nothing really worth skiing less than about five hours away), food, and accommodations, and we have a recipe for financial disaster.

Last weekend however, we discovered that tubing is pretty affordable. It's still not cheap, but it can be affordable. It's close enough that we don't even have to eat out. We just have to bring lots of food or the teenagers will start gnawing on the seat backs of the van they're so hungry!  It encompasses all ages -- even us old farts ;o) and the little ones because there is a magic carpet to ride to the top of the hill for when our old(er) legs or their short little legs don't want to make the trek to the top of the hill.

 Bub's friend riding off into the sunset.

 

Bub's turn! 

 

 Friend's of ours waiting patiently in line. The other hill was being groomed because the speeds were getting too fast, so the lines were rather long for a little while.

 

Four of the Fantastic Five and they are called by those of us who know them well.

 

 Another friend keeping some of the Littles entertained while we wait.

 

Still more friends!

 

 Some of the kids racing down.

 

The Dynamic Duo. Yes, that's the chicken hat!

 

 I said the one hill was fast, right?

 

 They're even open until 10:00 pm!

We didn't take our two youngest on this trip (just lots of our older children's friends), but we will know for next time that even our two youngest will be happy to go with us too.

What do you like to do for affordable winter fun?

Six Girls, One Bathroom

We do have more than one bathroom, but the truth of the matter is that our six daughters share one bathroom. So far it's working well, but then again, we only have one in high school. It's funny how in grade school she didn't worry about her hair or even wear make up, but now, now she's up on her own bright and early every morning. She primps and preens and looks so pretty heading off to school. I love the fact that they wear uniforms. It keeps decision making to a minimum.

Okay,  I digress, this is supposed to be a post about how we manage six girls in one bathroom. When we had our addition done in 2009-2010, we also did a few renovations to existing rooms. The girl's bathroom was one of them. Flooring, cupboards, and fixtures were replaced -- with the exception of the toilet because it was only a year or two old (and one of those new not-so-wonderful-because-they-clog-more-often-especially-on-a-septic-bed-low-flow-type-toilets).  Knowing that we we're going to have three more daughters helped us decide the logistics of the new vanity. We had lots of drawers put in.

This allows each girl to have her own drawer and leaves two drawers and a middle section for other girly stuff that does not necessarily belong to one girl in particular. What is in the drawers depends on the girl and their age. I'll give you a peek into two of them.

They are responsible for keeping track of their own stuff. Now if you scroll back up to the top photo, you will see that the counter top is pretty cleared off. Don't let that fool you into thinking they're neat and tidy girls because they are NOT. I often have to clean off that counter top before it drives me crazy. The only difference now is that I don't find two dozen or more hair elastics lying around. Problem solved by those handy dandy carabiner clips (Pinterest again). Santa (smart guy that he is ;oD) gave every girl two carabiner clips (you can just make one out in the drawer photo above) with assorted hair elastics on them. The new rule is: I find a hair elastic lying around, it becomes mine. Eventually I hope to have a drawer full and host an auction, hehehe!

Truthfully, the only girl who actually does her hair in the bathroom is Peach because she does her own. The rest still all get their hair done by Yours Truly. Enter, The Chair again. They come to me with their bush, comb (if needed) and their hair elastics and accessories of choice and I attempt do the requested hair style. Usually it's pretty basic -- a pony, two ponies, a French braid, Katniss braid, but once in awhile, I'm in trouble ;o). Therefore bathroom time is pretty uncluttered at this point as the four youngest are really only in there for some hair brushing and teeth brushing and Peach is waiting for the bus already -- that leaves one who can have some extended bathroom time if desired.

Now, if you have an abundance of females like we do, and not a lot of drawers, don't despair. If you have a linen closet, you can give each girl their own basket and spot on a shelf. (If need be, find a different spot to store those extra linens {many are just seasonal anyways}, or have another shelf built up high in the closet for the linens.) Or, have them transport their basket to and from their room each day. Okay, it's not as ideal, but to keep the squabbling down it's worth it in my humble opinion.

Here's a photo of two usable shelves in the girls' linen closet.

Yes, they're a mess. I think I need to purchase a couple more baskets from the dollar store and that problem will be solved. The brunt of that top stuff is hair product for Peanut's hair, but that's a post for another day. Apparently we also still have way too much hair accessories...

One more thing about six girls in one bathroom. What to do with all those towels. I'm not a fan of them storing their towels in their bedroom because I know where they end up. On the floor!

We zigzagged six hooks down one wall. Each towel has each girl's name on it and they are hung from oldest to youngest. While this isn't ideal as they can get a little stinky in the summer months from hanging so close together, it helps me keep better track of the towels so they can be washed regularly and to know whose is missing -- because if a wet towel is discovered on their bedroom floor, they get to face my wrath ;o). The one thing I want to do with their towels, which hasn't happened yet, is to sew a little loop of bias tape on each towel to make hanging them easier, because with the younger girls especially, the towel often tumbles to the floor the second they turn their back on it to leave the bathroom.

So, in a nutshell, that's how we manage six girls in one bathroom. If you have any other ideas for me, I'd love to hear them -- or questions. Let me know in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them.

Living in a Large Family

Or perhaps more accurately, surviving in a large family. I'm speaking more from the mother perspective than anything, but I thought I might do some posts on how to survive as the mother of a large family. I really only have just over a year under my belt, so I am certainly no expert on this at all, but I'm learning -- and really some days I still wonder if I'm surviving ;o).

Here's a few simple things I learned very quickly:

-- When you cook or bake, always double the recipe at the very least.

-- Keep each kid's things separate as much as possible. For example, colour code towels. The same child always gets the same colour towel. Each child has their own laundry bag, laundry basket, drawer in the bathroom, coat hook, back pack hook. You name it. If I can separate it, I will. It just makes life simpler when there is stuff lying around. For example, I can pretty much guarantee you if there is a towel lying around, it is Peach's. She is famous for it. The nice part is, I don't have to go asking each child if it is their towel. (I'll show pics and more ideas of how this works in a future post).

-- Now I'm going to contradict myself by saying, group like things. We are big time book people, and there are several of us who read more than one book at a time (sadly it's hereditary :o)), so I have a basket in our great room that holds any stray books lying around. Right now that basket is a complete disaster, but everyone knows where to find their books.

 We also have a basket for flip flops. Everyone in the house, but the Engineer has flip flops and some of them have more than one pair. So to keep the closet neat(er), they go in a basket, and really it's no tougher finding them in the basket than digging through the pile on the closet floor that would have an even greater area to spread.

-- Label the female crowd's socks and undies. There are just waaaay too many of those things to be thinking, "now, who is it that wears the pink with purple polk-a-dots?" (Please note: that fabric choice is made up to protect the innocent. How dare I mention their unmentionables on the blog!)

I know this is only four things, but if you look at the top of this post I did say, these are the few things I learned very quickly.