I am still taking suggestions for topics you would like me to write about next. You can add a comment below or email me directly by using the link on the right.
February 26, 2006
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About me
- Mom of thirteen
- Oregon, United States
- I am blessed to be the wife of my best friend, David. We have been married for 38 years. I am also blessed to be the mother of thirteen children, 4 daughter-in-laws and 2 son-in-laws and Gigi to 2 grand girlies. We have eight boys and five girls, ages 13 years old to 36 years old. We home educate and attend an age integrated church.
Family 2009
November 2009
My Family ~ Aug. 2008
My Family Sept. 2007
26 comments:
I pray you will heal quickly.
Hey Mom, hope you get well soon. We will pray for you.
But you should write about how all the chores get done and how you enforce it all..
Just a thought.
Much love,
Chris
Yeah, what she said...
Actually anything would be good on the home front!
I wait in anticipation eagerly.
Hugs,
Christi
Hope you're feeling better soon. B. infections are beastly.
:-(
Wow! What a great blog. Hope you feel better soon. Praying.
Ooh. Mastitis. Yuck. Praying for ya.
Evidently it is spread through blogs since I am fighting either a blocked duct or mastitis myself.
Meg
How do you handle your kids ownership issues and shareing. I have a three year old and a year and a half old. When the three year old takes a toy from her sister the yonger one usually whines about it. The three year old gets repramanded for taking from her sister and the one year old gets told not to whine. Do you have any creative solutions on how to handle the situation. We don't want our three year old to get away with being a bully and at the same time we don't want our one year old to be a whiner.
Jer,
Hope you are healing! I too have had my share of b. infections and I know that they are the pits! As for a subject . . . how about discussing how you get a newborn baby to fit in with your hectic household? I have a friend who is a new mother of a baby boy. I have her reading "babywise" and I am trying to answer her questions when she comes up with them, but how about YOU write about how you deal with a newborn? It's been over two years for me since I've had one around here, so it's hard for me to remember what I did and how I did it. YOU know newborns like the back of your hand by now, and I'm sure could be a terrific help to many new mothers! Just a thought!! :-)
I second Nicole's request-I have two boys each about 5 months younger than her girls, and they are the same way. I know that it is sin nature but here's my question about it...my sister and I grew up being complete enemies (granted so were my parents, so we have a far greater advantage there), we hated each other and I always vowed that my children would get along, so when I see them talking harshly to one another it really frightens me, and I think one of the reasons I was fearful of having a girl myself, let alone two! I'm about to birth our first little girl and the apprehention is still there, any suggestions on training your children to adore one another?
So glad to hear you are doing better, we dealt with thrush for 5 months with my last baby and I am praying that we wont repeat that this time around, it is NO fun! :)
Blessings!
Great suggestions and questions everyone!
I am thinking I will do chores for little people next and have several ideas from all the suggestion of what I will do after that.
Blessings,
jerri
Jenni,
My sister and I were best friends. Closer friends than anyone we had outside of the family.
My dad tells a story that the worst punishment he could give us was to confine us to our own rooms. We could do anything we wanted there, but not with each other. With rooms full of books, dolls, and other toys, we would sit in the doorway and look mournfully at each other.
Love your site, Jerri! Great to get to see pictures of my grandchildren and their parents!
where/how do you get quiet time with the Lord? and how do you get away with your dh without breaking the bank? maybe your children are old enough to watch the others, mine aren't yet, so babysitter, dinner, etc $$? thanks Lisa
Lisa,
On my other blog, The Davenport Dozen (http://davendozen.blogspot.com/) I have a post called "Love Is In The Air - Making Special Time" where I share some of the creative and inexpensive date nights I have come up with for hubby and I.
My quiet time consists of reading my bible and praying during baby's first morning nursing. =)
~jerri
I love reading your blogs! I have a 3yo, 2yo and baby on the way (w/in 2 weeks).
I've recently simplified my children's wordrobe similiar to what you've decribed and found it to be very helpful!
I'd love to hear any suggestions you have on toys-organization, etc. What do your children play with? Which toys are worth buying and which aren't?
Thank you!
One more suggestion:
Food! Menu plans, grocery shopping, pantry stocking-anything related to food :)
Mandy,
Thanks for the suggestions! Not sure I am the best person to do anything about food. Sure, no one is starving at my house, and I do know how to cook for a crowd, but cooking isn't my "gift". LOL! There are a few things that do help me in planning and shopping, so I'll let my brain chew on this a while and see what I come up with. Might be a very short post! LOL!
~jerri
I have one more suggestion-mine will usually relate to little ones. In regards to chores, how did you transition chores from one little one to the next? For example, my oldest (3 years) is doing consistently the "chores" and more, that he did at my younger son's age (16 months). Picking up garbage, throwing diapers in the garbage, taking laundry to the basket, etc. They both can do most of them but would you suggest giving the little one a permanent "job" like he always puts the garbage in the garbage can or just continue letting them both do all of it? If find that I rely way more on the older since he does it so much quicker and I end up leaving the little one out of the chore time. Thanks:)
Mandy, I have a few suggestions about food on my homemaking blog if you are interested. I have a few things about bulk food prep/grocery lists/menus/whole food recipes and such. If you click on the categories on the side bar you can search through. http://chrisandjenni.com/kitchen/
I have a small laundry suggestion.
I only have 4 children--each child has their own dirty sock bag (a lingerie washing bag--.99 @ a local dollar store) with their name on it on a hook. Laundry day I just throw the whole bag in the wash--after they have turned out the socks of course! They come out great and no missing sock mysteries. Now there are only toys and shoes all over the floor instead of socks too.
Wow! You guys are really amazing! I have only one child, and I don't know how many more I will have, but I enjoy reading all the tips you give about laundry, as well as anything other moms of large families have to say. One thing I would like to see is something more basic for women who might think about having a large family, anything that could get us started on the right foot. I am an only child, so I am totally clueless when it comes to the realities of haveing a real family... What to expect, how to manage to cut on expenses to stay within a budget, etc. Anything would be helpful, really. And I have an other question: why does it seem that every mother of large families talk a lot more about god than the others? I am really curious!
Keep up your good work! Who knows, maybe I'll be there one day!
could you comment on how you deal with everyone trying to tell you their jokes, stories, daily happenings all at once when your busy.
I love reading your blogs. You're such an inspiration to me. I'm a stay-at-home mommy of two (so far . . . open to as many as God will give us). As a new mommy, I've found that parenting "methods" are what everyone is telling me about. To co-sleep or not to co-sleep. Carrying a baby in a sling . . . is this even possible in a large family? Swings, pacifiers, etc. All the general attachment parenting stuff. I never knew women could get so emotional on these topics, but boy was I wrong. So, I'm wondering how life is for the infant in a large family. The people who are most eager to share their advice with me more often than not only have two or three children.
Great questions! Thanks for posting them. I'll try to get to as many as I can, eventually! LOL!
Have to make a quick comment about the questions about life for an infant in a large family. I can only share what it has been like for our family, as every family is different. We have used less and less "gadgets" as our family has grown. More hands to hold a baby and less room for the gadgets! LOL! I think the baby's have it great - so many adoring siblings and parents who pretty much know what they are doing by now. I have to say that the first 3 months after having a new baby are the hardest as mom recovers and spends a lot of time nursing and caring for the baby. Things get better quickly after that. Everyone helps out at our house and we always have time for a snuggle with the little ones. So, all in all, I believe the infant in a large family has it great!
~jerri
Jerri,
Do you iron? Do you have any suggestions for ironing?
Thanks!
Ironing? I know this question has been here awhile, sorry for not answering sooner.
I don't do much ironing. Try my hardest to get things out of the dryer before they wrinkle or spritz with water as I hang them up. I found the easiest care button up shirts for hubby at Target. I think they are Cherokee brand. Sell for under $10 each, and are on sale every so often. They are very lightweight (which is great for him because he works in a clean room fab, fully dressed inside a clean room suit, so he gets pretty warm inside all that) and come out of the dryer looking great!
Pretty much anything that would need constant ironing isn't going to get worn at my house much. Hubby doesn't need fancy dress clothes for work or such and I try to stay away from materials that need ironing or dry cleaning for my and the girls clothing.
Other than that, if I did have weekly ironing I think I would do it on my laundry day and take the item from the dryer straight to the ironing board and get it all done right away. The longer it sits the longer till I would get back to it. I know this because I have a basket of mending that piles up till I force myself to set aside time to work on it. In a perfect world/house, I would do the mending on laundry day too. =)
~jerri
I would love to see pictures of how to organize each room child-friendly and clutterfree (especially playroom/schoolroom, family room and kitchen). I find that no matter how often I declutter, the play areas get overwhelming. I've started to store and rotate toys, but need to get rid of them I suppose. Most are very good toys for learning.
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