Keeping the Laundry under Control

Remember my post about Mastering the Laundry Chaos?

Well, I have a new suggestion to add: music.

I recently added speakers and my old iPod to my laundry room, and it's really kind of funny... but now I love to be in my laundry room, music playing, folding laundry.  It has transformed laundry folding from dreaded chore to "me time".  It's amazing really.

So if, like me, you enjoy good music, May I recommend setting up a mini sound system in your laundry room? It just might make all the difference!

Introducing Titus!

Better late than never, right?

Our fifth child, another precious boy, was born six weeks ago.

Titus Stephen Elliot was born April 3 at 2:41am weighing 8lbs 1oz.

We're all smitten!

And now, 6 weeks later, he's eating well, sleeping well (often going 5hrs straight at night), and has gained close to 5lbs!

Praise the LORD!

Keeping it real

Just in case you thought my life sounded a little too rosy after my thankful post a couple days ago, here is a dose of our unedited daily reality.

We cook a lot over here.  Three meals a day plus baking and snacks. For our six people plus whoever else wanders through our doors.  And so my kitchen usually looks like this.

And yes, guests are always welcome despite the mess - so long as you're willing to take us as we are, messy kitchen and all.

healthy baby, healthy momma

I am now 18 weeks pregnant.  Many of you who have been following my blog for long will know that all of my pregnancies have had fairly significant complications.  The most recent (and continued) concern is regarding the rare antibody that I received via a necessary blood transfusion when our oldest, Micah, was born.  Our last pregnancy was smooth: after only two visits to the perinatalogist he gave me the all clear and told me to stay away from doctors.  I then was able to have a wonderful home birth, free of complications.  (The pregnancy before that involved near monthly ultrasounds and bloodwork - and also resulted in a healthy home birth.)

This pregnancy is my first full pregnancy outside of the big city and with my new midwife.  When my initial bloodwork came back that I still have the antibody, we were concerned over the possibility of having to drive down to the coast to see the perinatalogist, possibly multiple times this winter.  Far from ideal.  I wasn't worried about the outcome of the tests, because all has been well for the last two pregnancies, but more just the stress and cost and safety of multiple long trips in the winter just for a brief appointment.

A couple weeks ago, we heard back from the perinatalogist (where my medical records had been sent), and given my history of healthy babies, they were able to give me the all clear -- without an appointment!  We are so relieved!  And again, praising the LORD!

So for all who may have been wondering - babe and I are healthy and doing well.  We get our first sneak peak into the womb in three weeks!  Looking forward to it.

thankful

Once again, we are growing.  Both in belly size and number of children.  Funny how that goes hand-in-hand.  :)

We are feeling very blessed to be entrusted with another child by our gracious Lord.

At the same time, of course the idea of a fifth child (in six years) is a little bit overwhelming at times.  But God has been so faithful and so gracious and sustained us through all the craziness that has come with having children so far... and so I rest in Him, knowing that He will continue.  Even when the laundry piles up, and the kitchen is so messy you can't find open counter space, and we so badly need to vacuum... God is good!  And sometimes He sends His people to help in amazing ways!  For most of the last school year, I had a lady from our church volunteer to come every week to fold and put away laundry for me.  A few weeks ago my kitchen was the worst mess it has ever been, and two teenage girls came and spent an evening washing dishes and making it sparkle again.  Just to bless us.    We have started paying babysitters to watch our children so we can go out on dates or to do ministry...because someone is anonymously giving us money specifically to pay for babysitting.  I am seriously blown away sometimes by the way God uses His people to bless and serve us.

It's been neat seeing how God supplies all of our needs; how He orchestrates our lives just so.  We live in a community where big families are common, where living is affordable, where our church  congregation is so generous toward us, and where we have extended family (blood relatives and otherwise) to do life with.  And just three years ago I could not have even fathomed this to be a reality for us.  I was stressed, wondering where we would live that could both contain our growing family, and be affordable.  We wanted Stewart to be working full-time in Christian ministry, somewhere, somehow, but didn't know what that should look like for us in this season.  I really wanted him to be around more, and able to be more involved in the family, but commuting to work in a big city took so much time.  We loved the idea of living more intentionally in community with extended family (related or otherwise) more involved in our lives, but again, in the big city this simply wasn't a daily reality.

And now, here we are.  So blessed, and so thankful.

Thank you, Heavenly Father!!  You are so good.  And so good to us.

We're Homeowners!

We've landed.  It's ours.  We moved in to our own home --our own home-- nearly three weeks ago, and it's been a blur.

We've been busy, busy removing decals, mudding, sanding, painting, building, drywalling, uninstalling, spray-painting, re-installing, cleaning, scrubbing, carpet-cleaning, and, oh yes, unpacking.  To me, it feels like it's all taking forever.  Last night Stewart reminded me that it's actually gone pretty much as fast as possible given that we have four small children and he works full time.  Right.  I guess I've just gotten used to our move-in-clean-unpack-hang-pictures in less than 24hrs routine.  But since this place is ours, we're putting some effort in to really make it ours.

And despite how long it feels like it's taking, it's been fun.  I'm loving it, really.

Pictures to come, but not until we're closer to the finished product.  (Are our homes ever really finished?!)

--
And yes, we survived the crazy homeless stage.  Praise the LORD!  But, so glad that's over!

Soon-to-be Homeowners!

Yes, we bought a house!

I guess it's not ours quite yet, but the paperwork is done, and as of June 25 we will be homeowners.

What we ended up buying is not the same as what we set out hoping to buy... but we are satisfied in our purchase.  We hoped for a small acreage with a big(ish) house.  At this time, there are none available in our price range.  So, we "settled" for a big house in town on a double lot.  This means we won't be able to have chickens, a pig, or a cow... but we have lots of space for hosting people, overnight guests, and a big fenced yard for our many small children to enjoy.  And best of all, it will be OURS (or technically the bank's).  And our 10 year plan is to move out of town to a small acreage.  :)

It's already been so much fun planning, pinning decorating ideas, future renovation plans, picking paint colours, and all-around getting excited about our first real home.

We will be out of this house in about three weeks (eek!), and thus homeless for approximately 8 weeks before we can move into our new place.  This unfortunate gap leads to me being repeatedly asked "what are you going to do?"

Riiight.  Four kids.  Two adults.  A lot of stuff.  Eight weeks.  Hmmm.

The answer is still a little tentative.  Some travel.  Some camping.  Some presuming upon family and friends.  And a big dose of adventure.  We're choosing to make this a fun family experience, rather than drudgery.  I might need to be reminded of that about 4 weeks into our "adventure".  Or maybe just a week in.  ;)