"Survival" with the Littles Series

There are many days I feel like the old woman who lived in a shoe......but then I found this pictures and counted my blessings!!!  :)  I'm just kidding!

However, having a blog you are able to make your life look great from the outside, when in fact some days it feels very far from wonderful.  And I spend most of my evenings pouring myself into other women's blogs just trying to glean from their wisdom of child-rearing.  When most days I feel disappointed, because alot of these women have older children to help out (not that, this is the answer to all of my problems), but I can see how older children can be such a blessing to a large family.  So I decided to do a series on living in a family with "littles"  And in this season of life, I call it "survival mode".  I currently have 3 under the age of 6 and we babysit an 8 month old (who's name is Leigha, yes it gets very confusing around here!!!) everyday during the week.  So life can get pretty crazy around here most days!  So, hopefully (if I can get it accomplished;), I'm going to share little tid-bits of what does and does not work for us on a daily basis.

This week will be a Christmas special....

Yesterday, I spent most of the day wrapping presents.  I had originally decided not to put the presents under the tree until Christmas Eve, until we had to have a big "family meeting" about behavior (another post, another day), and then decided that yes, I would put the presents out to do some behavior "training" (for the most part, we like the Pearls "To Train Up a Child").  I waited until Quiet Time to wrap all of the children's gifts.  This year, we are doing 3 presents a piece, just like baby Jesus received.  So I wrapped all 9 presents and placed them under the tree and then as the children began to stir I opened my bedroom doors and let them "help" wrap family members' presents.  Leah sat on the bed with me and handed me my needed supplies.  While Derek and Lindsay helped with giving me tape and carrying the presents to the tree.  It went much, much smoother (is that a word?) than expected!!!  And so far, no little fingers have touched or bothered the presents.  However, we have little Leigha back today, so we'll see!!!

Last night, we went to Wal-Mart as a family and spent the entire time hiding from each other buying presents for each other.  It was great!  The kids really liked sneaking around, while Mommy and Daddy was on the phone making sure we didn't run into each other.  In addition to their 3 presents they will be opening from Mommy and Daddy, they both picked out 2 presents to buy for each other (with their own allowance, after a little talking to).  We will be doing more "sneaking" today as we wrap those presents!  Daddy wrapped Mommy's presents in the garage last night, it was quite funny!

A couple of nights ago, I got the bright idea to make these wonderful Gingerbread Stables from Raising Arrows,but we are not really crafty people, so it didn't go so well.  I would upload pictures for you to see, but after spending the past 15 minutes looking for my USB cord for my camera, I guess that's not going to happen this morning!

We ended up just decorating the graham crackers like they were cookies with icing, mm's, gum drops, and candy canes.  It was something very simple for the kids to do and Ronnie and I sat at the table with them and just had a good time spending time together. 

The next day, I baked some sugar cookies and let Derek and Lindsay decorate them with the leftover icing, sprinkles, and mm's and we took a trip to the nursing home (the funeral home as Lindsay calls it) to pass out some Christmas goodies, while Daddy was in the woods hunting.  I made sure to pack the stroller, because I knew there was no way, Leah could handle holding my hand that long.  Thank goodness, I did, because she was not a happy camper for most of the trip!  It was a great trip for the older kids to get into the Christmas spirit, though!  There eyes just lit up giving out their cookies they had made.  And the elderly were wonderful and very thankful to talk and see the kids.  We will definitely be making a trip back!!!

Well here is just a few ideas of what are family has done for Christmas to teach the main idea of giving and Christ.  I will share more of what works and what does not later on when less of the "littles" are awake ;)  

Have a great day!!!
And Remember "All things are possible, through Christ, who gives you strength!!!" 
 Phillipians 4:13