Hospitality to "strangers"

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.  Hebrews 13:2

While we sure are enjoying this house and are so glad we get to live here, we did not purchase it wholly for our own benefit.  We could have lived in our small house for years to come and our family would have done fine in it.  What we felt we were missing was hospitality.  It was hard to host families/gatherings in that house.  The layout did not lend itself to hospitality and the size was limiting especially in the winter.  We were looking specifically for a house that would allow not only for regular hospitality, but plenty of room for families (or missionaries, pastors etc.) to come and stay.

I smiled at this sight.  So many cups sitting out day after day was a sweet reminder (the few times) the house was quiet that week...all the dear souls that were staying in this home and the fellowship they represented. :) 

Very quickly the opportunity presented itself to host a family that we did not know but was in need of a place to stay for a bit.  How could we pass it up?  They joined us for dinner and family worship after church on Sunday.  We just love sharing that time of worship with other families and it tends to bring a special closeness.

The family had some sight seeing destinations planned during their stay, but it was great to see our kids enjoying some time together as well when they were here at the house.

By the time this sweet family left we were no longer strangers, but friends.  This is why we love this sort of hospitality, we are able to build up and encourage others and we are left encouraged as well.  It is the building up of the Body of Christ.

A quick house tour

I know many of you want to see the inside of the house, but are too far away to just drop in...I'm thinking of many of you as I type and hope you will make it here some time soon.  We're still moving in, but its coming together....

Yes, we tilled up the front yard.  I had plants to transfer from the last house so we started the process of making this into an herb/flower garden.

As you walk up to the house you may find some little ones playing on the front porch.  I love this spot, and they do too!

The house has a Great Room style floor plan, you walk right into the main room and see the great view.

The girls' room.

The Powder Room is right here....incase you need it after your long drive through the country. ;)

I love having the kitchen in our main living area, it allows for better fellowship while preparing meals or cleaning up.

The master bedroom is right next to the dining room.

The stairs are hidden behind the kitchen, they lead to the BIG area that we're using as a family room/school room.

The boys' room is here too.

If you're desperate you could use their bathroom, but I wouldn't recommend it. Boys....

Just past it you'll find what we're calling "the extra room"  It has no purpose, as of yet, but if you are coming to visit as part of a large party it'll be made up as a second guest room.

On the other side of the Family room is the Guest Suite.  It has a private bath and a walk-in closet You know, incase you're staying for a LONG time, or (more likely) brought a large crew with you.

There's the quick not-quite-moved-in tour.  We're still hanging pictures, shelves, hooks etc but it's been feeling like home since our first week here. 

Gloomy rainy days...

We've had gloomy rainy days for most of the last couple of weeks.  Our tiny house was feeling smaller by the day, and then......

The basement seeped and leaked (after a week of steady, heavy rains...the water just had no other place to go) making that part unusable as we pulled up carpet and got it all dried out....

The boy's room.  Yea, they're all packed up for the move!

Then the cat had kittens in the girls room.  We had to block that off to keep the little ones from going in there to mess with them....

....and we're packing up to move to a house that is truly a gift from God (more in another post).

The house was getting smaller by the day.  We were all getting on each other's nerves.  So, when I announced at breakfast that we'd be heading to the library to return books and just get out of the house (taking a break from packing/move prep)...the older kids conspired to plan something else.  Could THEY help pay for build-a-bears for the little kids if we went to the mall instead?

Smart Mr. S brought skipbo to play.  I had fun playing a couple of games with these guys.

Now my house is full of resting littles and contentedly occupied big kids.  Sometimes you just gotta get out of the house and play a bit. :)

Why so little blogging?

You may have noticed that my posts  are becoming few and far between.  If you are like my mom, you've figured out that we're super busy these days and I just have not had much time to write out posts.  I decided to make a point to blog about my day today.  It reflects many of my days, just different appointments/meetings/activities.  Same crazy busy days though.

This morning someone forgot something.  So I needed to run it to them.  Big kids that stayed behind did breakfast clean up and worked on AWANA verses until I got home.  Then we did school for a while.

Next up?  Hair cuts!  The boys were looking a bit fuzzy.  I did 2 haircuts and supervised 2 more.

A couple of little girls were needing baths.  Rub-a-dub-dub time for them to scrub while bigs cleaned up after lunch.

Nap time for littles gives us a bit of quiet time for reading a biography to bigs/middles.  We love to read out loud.

Off to our Azure drop.  We've committed to helping our drop coordinator with set up, passing out the bulk splits, and helping to get boxes out to cars for those that need the help.  This is such a great opportunity for the kids to serve and to learn some of the ins and outs of something like this.  It's not as easy as just taking boxes off of a truck!  We sure enjoy getting to see our friends and meeting new people.

Look at all of those boxes of food!  The kids had fun helping to unload the truck.

Dividing up the bulk splits.  Most of the kids helped with this as well.

Whew!  Time to sit down to a quick dinner (that was cooking in the crock pot all day) as a family.  Then its on too...
Daddy coaching Miss E and her event partner for Science Olympiad while I take care of littles, put away food and work on a Vanilla Bean Cake.

Well, that was my day....and that is why I'm not blogging much.  Everyday seems to be a bit like this one was. :)

Moving day party! Join the live FB fun!

Our movers/packers are coming next week!  Yikes!

I'm hostessing a Thirty-One Gifts virtual party on Facebook where I'll be posting about our day and how I'm using some great Thirty-One products.  I'd love to have you join me!  This is a Mystery Hostess Party which means at least one lucky lady who places an order on this party will be enjoying the hostess benefits!  What fun that will be!

I'm going to leave the FB party "open" for a while so that anyone can join.  If you're curious about how a moving day goes for us (large family/military life), just want to see what we're up to, want to shop, or are curious about Thirty-One's great bags then come join in the fun!  You can always shop at https://www.mythirtyone.com/ShopHarder  For this party you will want to click on the "My Parties" tab and shop through the "On the Move/Mystery Hostess" party.

I do hope you will join me, it will make moving/packing day so much more fun!  This party will close on June 9th.

*I am an Independent Consultant for Thirty-One gifts.

Moving with kids series

We're preparing for yet another move.  I've been working up several posts on moving with a large family over at my other blog..... Large Family Living in a Small Family World....Head on over and check it out if you are getting ready for a move as well, or if your just curious.  This is what we are/have been up to lately (and will be up to for some time)!

Preparing for a move

6 weeks to 1 month before the move

Kids and Moving

More to come....

HELP!!!!

A few of weeks ago I realized that I had about two months left to do our school planning for next year AND get our house ready for our move.  Oh yea, I also needed to keep up with our basic home life with 8 kids.  Yea, there was some panic there for a bit.  Then I remembered God's faithfulness in the past and that He will be faithful to provide.  Provide, he has!  I've taken a deep breath and rested in His faithfulness.

*This is what my bedroom was looking like a couple of weeks ago.  Stacks of school books covered the floor as I planed out our next school year.  I've been working on job charts as well.   Now I'm really getting into move prep.

This sweet young woman is preparing for a Mission Trip in June.  We count her family among our treasured friends here.  I needed help, and she has a gift with little kids/babies.  We are a great match!  She is sweetly coming over once a week to play with littles so I can work uninterrupted.

"Babysitter J" who goes way above and beyond the title babysitter; is coming over regularly to knock out some jobs for me.  While I'd LOVE to get to work on the embroidery on the kid's new towels; J is more than able to do this job.  Miss E loves helping her.  She is freeing me up to spend time with kids OR get other jobs done that no one else can do.

*Oh, I've also been blessed to have a dear friend down the street offer to take the kids once a week (when needed) in the afternoons so I could get some work done.  What a treasure she is!

A special and VERY productive trip!

We've been "baby-sitting" my brother-in-law's truck while he is stationed overseas.  For our move we have 2 drivers, but 3 vehicles that need to be transported (one towing the camping trailer).  The math was not adding up.  We quickly figured out that we would need another driver or trip.  Rob headed up to Colorado this past week to solve this little math problem and while there take care of some stuff with the house (we're moving back into our house we own there, we had been renting it out).

Mr. M was excited to get to go along with Daddy.

They had fun together camping out at the house; and it looks like they had some great quality time as well.

My, it looks COLD there!

They managed to get some work done in the house as well.  Paint colors are chosen and marked on walls.  Arrangements have been made for new flooring in the house.  Some shelving has been made/put in.  I got tons of pictures and measurements so that I can get as much done on this end as I possibly can.

Yes, that is snow.  As my sweet husband said "It looks like Easter!"  Easter in Colorado, that is.  Its a bit late in the spring for this.  Layers, I need to pack layers for our move.  We're gonna freeze.  It's already in the 80's and 90's here.

This was a perfect trip for Mr. M to take with Daddy.  He loves these sorts of projects, and he is good at them too.

I just love this picture of these two hansom guys!

Thirty-one gifts virtual party

I'm in an organizing mood as we prepare for our move in June.  I need good tools for my home, van and for when we out and about.  I'm finding some of those tools at Thirty-one Gifts; while I'm shopping I thought I'd host a virtual party on my other blog.  Go take a look at the goodies I've found, and do some shopping of your own!  Let me know what you find, I'd love to hear what others find useful for their families.  Make sure you get your orders in by March 24th, and that you have your goodies shipped to your address not mine.

*I love this Large Utility Tote.  In this bag it is all packed up for Jump Rope camp.  It's got to be a great bag if it can hold everything I need for 8 kids!

Three weeks and back on my own

Miss A is now 3 weeks old.  She is chunking up well; I'm putting away the 0-3 month clothes.  We spent this past week resting and I observing her routine a bit closer in hopes of getting a better handle on how our days would go.  Today was my first day on my own with all 8 kids.  It went well, especially since I thought it would be fun to take everyone in to the chili cook off in Rob's office.  Then we dropped off our Operation Christmas Child boxes.  Whew!  We were back home early enough to get naps in for those that needed them (including me).

Rob had the week after Miss A off of work (paternity leave), then my mom came to help for a week.  Rob had another week off (regular leave) allowing me a full three weeks of rest and recovery.  We've found that when I get that good recovery time in that the whole family benefits.  We've also been incredibly blessed to have meals delivered by friends for nearly the whole three weeks!

 

Now it's time to get back to normal.  Daddy kept things in order around the house, so everyone is ready for me to jump in without needing too much re-ordering.  My freezer is full of meals, so I should not have to make dinner again for a while (Miss E is going to help me with getting things started in the crock pot and the finishing touches for the meals).  I'm also thankful that we are coming up on Thanksgiving and Christmas; times of school breaks and extra time off for Daddy!  We will be keeping the holidays low key and just enjoy the family time.

School Supplies are on sale (shopping for Operation Christmas Child)

Its back to school time, and all the school supplies are on sale.  Not only can you find great bargains on things you need for your own family, but its a great time to stock up for Operation Christmas Child.

Our children love to put together these boxes, and they save up all year to help pay for them.  However I love helping them out by picking up some of the basics throughout the year.  This is a great time to pick up crayons, pencils, pencil sharpeners, markers etc to put into your boxes at a fraction of the cost had you picked these things up in November when you need to deliver your boxes.