I'm starting with one that we hear quite often from friends, family and strangers alike.  I was really touched by how much their individual personalities came through in their answers. Believe it or not, these answers are totally uncoached and unrehearsed.  Am I the only one cracking up over Perry Boy's answer?

Do you want a big family when you grow up?  Why or why not?

Deanna (17):

I like big families and I would feel perfectly comfortable having a big family but I don't have my heart set on having a certain number of kids.  I feel equipped to have a big family, but at the same time I wouldn't be hugely heartbroken if I only ended up having 2 or 3 kids.

I don't believe in using any form of birth control - I very strongly believe that because I believe that God won't give me more kids than I can handle and He won't give me any kid in particular that I couldn't handle, like a child with Down's syndrome or autism.  If I couldn't handle a challenge like that, He wouldn't give it to me.

Besides all that, I want to have at least 20 grandbabies. I can't wait to be a totally awesome grandma!

Kaitlyn (15):

Of course! I love kids and wouldn't want to miss out on any of my kids that I might have had . I love being a part of a big family and can't imagine anything else (and I don't want t0).  Lord willing I'll have at least 50 grandkids to love and if I do my job properly I'll have a steady stream of babies for all my life...

I always feel very proud of my parents when we're all together and get complimented and I can't wait for people to see my family! I think having a big family is a great public witness too.

Besides just loving kids the Bible makes it very clear that God wants us to have lots of kids. "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth..." I don't think it gets any clearer than that! God doesn't say "if you want to and if it's convenient for you I'd like you to have some kids".

Lydia (13):

Yes, partly because it would seem very boring to have just 1 or 2 kids.  Also for Biblical reasons: "be fruitful and multiply..." and "children are a blessing from the Lord."  And I like babies!

If God did choose to give me only 2 kids, it would obviously be because He had other things in mind to occupy me.  But right now 2 kids sounds very boring.  I think it would be easy to be content with anything more than 8 kids, because less than that would seem like a small family to me.

Megan (12):

Yes, I want at least 12 so I can say that kids are cheaper by the dozen.  If I go above 12 - heck!  I may as well aim to beat the Duggars!  But why do I want kids?  Growing up in a large family, I think if my parents had had less kids I would probably spend all my life wishing  they'd had more.

Natalie (10):

I do, because kids are very fun and the older ones would be very helpful.  I want my kids to have the same sort of life that I do, but I hope it's even better for them - sometimes my sisters pick on me.  I just want a big family so I can see how hard it is, and it's fun to be loved by everyone in a big family.  I think it would be nice to have between 10 and 20 kids.

Becca (9):

Yes!  I want a big family because it's fun to see babies grow into kids.  Baby toes are so cute, and it's fun to look at all their tiny clothes.  I like it when people say, "Wow!  Your baby is so cute!"  Also, I like to cook for a big family.  I think it would be fun to teach kids how to cook and read.

Rachael (6):

I'm fine with how many kids God wants to give me.  If He gives me a lot, I'll be happy, but if He only gives me a little that's ok too.  But I hope He gives me a lot!  I want 20 kids! - No, wait -  I want as much as God gives me.

Perry (4):

I want a bunch of kids!  I'm gonna have as much as God gives me.  If I stop having kids, then I want to adopt a little bit more.  I'll adopt as many as God gives me, too.  I want to adopt ALL THE ORPHANS IN THE WHOLE WORLD!  And I'll build a huge house, with a lot of bedrooms - no, with just one bedroom like we have, but really huge so all the kids can share it!  And I'll be their dad, and my wife will be their mom.

And I want you to have some more babies.  I want 2 more brothers so we can have 2 teams and 2 people on each team, and we can play good guys getting bad guys.

[slightly condensed because he repeats himself and because nobody can type as fast as that kid talks when he's excited.]

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© KimC (Mom) for Life In a Shoe, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us

If you could ask the children of a mega-family anything you wanted, what would your question be?

Just one question, mind you, answered from the individual perspective of each child.

Indulge me and assume that unlike my own children, these children range from established adults with families and worldviews of their own, down to preteens and young adults still under their parents' roof.

What would you want to know?

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The rest of the story is just this:  it's special to us because it's downright delicious!  It's moist and soft and fluffy, if you don't get in a hurry while it's rising.  It's also just a little bit sweet and tastes a lot like doughnuts.

9yo Becca makes it for us often, and others in our house make it occasionally.  No matter who makes it, there is always great rejoicing.  Tonight we're making the small rolls for egg salad sandwiches at the church fellowship meal tomorrow.  We're using homegrown eggs and homemade mayonnaise.  Mmmm.

Challah Bread

makes 2 braided loaves, 16 large (hamburger sized) buns, or 32 small rolls.

• 2 eggs
• 6 TBSP butter ( cut up, softened)
• 1 1/2 cups very warm water
• 2 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 TBSP sugar
• 4 tsp yeast

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• 6 cups flour

Combine all ingredients except flour.  Let sit for 10 minutes or until yeast is active and bubbling.  Add flour 1 cup at a time, mixing with a dough hook or stirring and kneading by hand, until dough forms a ball.  Cover and let rise until double, about 45 minutes.

Punch down, let rest 10 minutes, and shape as desired.  Let rise until double, 20-40 minutes.  Brush with a mixture of 1 egg yolk plus 1 Tbs water.

Bake braided loaves in preheated the oven at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.  Cover with foil and bake another 15 minutes.  Bake rolls for 15-20 minutes, depending on size.

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© KimC (Mom) for Life In a Shoe, 2010. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Oops!  I guess having missed a poll already calls for a really good excuse, doesn't it?  Try this one,  last weekend our church had it's annual talent show.  The talent show was a real success.  There were hilarious skits some opera singing, juggling of eggs and so much more.  After the talent show was the dance.  The really fun kind of dancing like the Virginia reel" and "Strip the Willow".  And on top of all that the wonderful and sweet Long ladies from Marie Madeline Studio were there.

So there you have it.  That is my excuse.  I think it's a pretty good one.

Now, for the poll.

As promised this week will be how many kids do you want. I think this one will be very interesting in the sense that I will be able to get a glimpse of how like minded our readers are.  I guess it's kind of a spin on the one that Mom did a while back, where she asked something like "how crazy do you think we are?", which by the way I cannot for the life of me find.

Now of course if someone asks me how many kids I want I always tell them "as many as God gives me" but that's not to say I don't have a preference , I hope that I would be able to be content with only a few but at the same time I think it would be wonderful (after praying about the matter and getting wise counsel) to adopt if circumstances allow.

Anyways, I'd love to have at least 10.  How about you?

Feel free to elaborate on your answer in the comments.

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© KimC (Mom) for Life In a Shoe, 2010. | Permalink | 80 comments | Add to del.icio.us

• DeputyHeadmistress @ The Common Room
• Kimberly@Raising Olives
• Connie @ Smockity Frocks

The bedrooms?  The kids' bedroom?  Surely you jest.  That's the door that we always close when companies comes.  That's the door that I close for the sake of my own sanity and the safety of my children.  That's the room where I imagine horrible, unspeakable science experiments growing under the carpet of clothing on the floor.

But it's no worse than my fridge and anyway I need your advice, so we'll open the door, close our eyes, and plunge onward into the fray.

Yes, the rumors are true.  Nine of our children share one moderately sized room.  We have a 3rd bedroom in our house, but they begged us to let them turn it into a dedicated library and we agreed, glad to have clutter-catching bookcases gone from every other room of the house.

Here is their room when it's - get this: Company Clean.

OK, I exaggerated a bit.  It's not always as dirty as I let myself believe.  It gets cleaned almost daily.  It just looks like it's never been cleaned 10 minutes after they finish.

Really, it's a pretty simple set up.  Just 2 dressers, each with 4 drawers and 3 shelves; a few baskets and door hangers to hold the multitude of shoes; 2 mirrors; 2 sets of bunks, and the upholstered bench that recently moved out of the living room.

The big fan provides extra ventilation to the beds on one side of the room at night.  There's an identical fan that spends daytime in the kitchen and ventilates the other set of bunks at night.

Since they each have just one drawer, most of their clothes hang in the closets: 4 children hang their clothes in the closet in this bedroom, 3 in the library closet, and the 3 youngest have their clothes in the closet that Perry and I share.

Like the other bedrooms in our house, the floor is unfinished.  It's near the top of our list of things to do.

But the beds - have you heard about our beds?  We love the beds!  Here's a better shot:

...and another...

These are heavy duty pallet racks from Costco.  Each shelf is rated for 2,000 lbs. (that's 8k lbs per unit) and they are the same dimension as navy bunks.  For mattresses, we cut 3" memory foam into strips the width of the beds (a king makes 3 strips), then doubled them and sewed slipcovers out of sheets.  Finally, we cut queen-sized comforters in half to make perfectly sized comforters in fun, coordinating colors.

We're very happy with the beds.

The dressers: not so much.  We need to replace them.  There's a reason you only saw them from a distance.  It was nice of you not to show your shock at how run down they are, but we know they need to go.  We're just not sure we want to replace them with more dressers.  Drawers just don't hold up under heavy use, and they also don't seem to make the best use of wall space.

We're tossing around some alternative ideas, and would love your input.

Here's our favorite idea so far.  The unit below is from IKEA, but we could also build it ourselves.

The kids could use boxes or bins like this in some of the openings to hold underclothes or odds and ends, and keep books in the others.

What do you think?  Will it work, and will it look nice?  Do you have a better idea?

Or do you want to skip ahead to the linky?  I don't blame you.  Join the fun!  Your post this week can be about any or all of the bedrooms in your house.  Just remember to link to a single post (not your homepage) and link back to at least one of the 4 Moms.

Upcoming topics:

• September 9; Laundry Linky
• September 16th: Storage Solutions
• September 23: Questions for the Four Moms, in which we answer questions from our mailbag.
• September 30: How to find individual time with our husbands without spending money

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© KimC (Mom) for Life In a Shoe, 2010. | Permalink | 42 comments | Add to del.icio.us

While we were at the Homeschool conference in Plano a few weekends ago, I lost my iPod touch.  Ouch.  You have no idea how hard it hurt to say that.

I'm going to wait until September 9th to replace it when the newest generation comes out.  That way the price on the old one will drop. Or if the new one is super awesome-er enough I'll buy it.  Though if I decide to buy the new one I'll probably wait a few weeks after the release and buy a refurbished one from Amazon.

But of course I'll need money to carry out this plan.  So, you buy my stuff, I buy iPod and then we're all happy.

All items are new from Vision Forum or from the Vision Forum clearance rack.

One really cool radio:

Solarlink Survival Radio

You  can use the solar panel, a hand crank or AAA batteries in it to power this radio.  It also has a USB port in the back to charge a phone or pretty much anything else in the world.  And an auxiliary port, which lets you use the speakers on the radio to listen to an iPod.

New from Vision Forum. The box is dented at one corner. $35 with free shipping.

One very nice Dictionary:

Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary

A dictionary with Christian perspective. What else is there to say?
There are a few little wrinkles on the bottom corner of the back cover but it's hardly noticeable.  It looks like the paper/vinyl was not carefully applied to the board.  $35 with free shipping.

And Natalie wanted me to add that she is selling a Fidelia doll.

She is selling her for $45 with free shipping.

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© Kittykait for Life In a Shoe, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Becca turned 9 on August 19, and we're just now completing her birthday post.  That's ok - she's been peeking at the draft as we all worked on it, so she knows we didn't forget!

Here are 9 things each of us loves about Becca.

Dad

1. Her impish grin
2. Her friendship with her sister natalie
3. Her hugs
4. And kisses
5. Her sense of fashion
6. The way she is always fast to offer to rub my back
7. Her sense of humor
8. Her self-confidence
9. The way she loves her mama

Mom:

1. She makes the best fried eggs in the state, and loves to do it.
2. She has a servant's heart through and through.
3. Her eyes sparkle when she smiles, and...
4. When she's teasing someone.
5. She once got the best of Grandpa Brown, the world's worst teaser, and lived to tell about it.  She was only a toddler at the time, but she knew exactly what she was doing.
6. She is blissfully unaware of how beautiful she is.
7. She has my husband's eyes.
8. She is sweet and helpful to her sisters.
9. She's not afraid to try or to do something new.

Deanna:

1. She has the most natural supply of ready wit of anyone I've ever seen.
2. She doesn't tend to be bashful.
3. She's the original Crazy Legs.
4. She has amazing eyes.
5. She is good with little kids.
6. She likes to help.
7. She likes to cook.
8. She has a talent for making the most mismatched outfit look awesome.
9. She shares her new toys a lot more nicely than I do.

Kaitlyn:

1. She's extremely sarcastic.
2. She loves to take good care of her hair.  And boy is it silky!
3. She dresses very quickly.  She was the one who started our obsession with crazy socks.
4. She's almost always happy!
5. She's very creative.
6. She's generous.  She does us all favors all the time, happily.
7. She loves to help with Parker.  Not just the fun stuff; she volunteers for diapers a lot.
8. She loves to read aloud to the other kids.
9. She makes great challah bread!

Lydia:

1. She's quirky
2. She's always happy
3. She's a dilligent worker
4. She loves helping with the little kids
5. She has a contagous laugh
6. She's good at reading aloud
7. She volunteers for a lot of extra work
8. She's very creative
9. She loves crazy socks

Megan:

1. She's one of the most witty kids in our family.
2. She's very helpful when she's second in command.
3. She's got gorgeous hair...
4. ...and a beautiful smile.
5. She's pretty tough when she scrapes an elbow or knee.
6. She wears crazy socks.
7. She knows how to take a joke.
8. She's very photogenic.
9. She loves her little siblings.

Natalie:

1. She plays with me the most.
2. She's hilarious.
3. She's very pretty.
4. She shares her toys with me and the younger kids.
5. She's my best friend in the whole family.
6. It's really fun to play games with her.
7. It's very fun to go out in the woods and makes stuff with her.
8. It's very fun to play tag with her in the yard.
9. She is good at decorating cakes.

Rachael:

1. She's good at drawing monkeys out of my book.
2. I like the dresses she wears.
3. Her challah bread is really good.
4. I like the dinners she makes.
5. I like it when she plays in the pool with me.
6. It's really fun when we play hard games together, like Go Fish.
7. She's nice when she makes movies with me.
8. She's as pretty as the moon.
9. She plays good on the trampoline.

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© KimC (Mom) for Life In a Shoe, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Parker is different.  He hates his car seat.  He finds nothing soothing about a ride to town.  He yells as soon as we strap him in, cries himself to sleep if he has time, and wakes up ready for more.

No, I'm not putting him in a hot seat that has been left baking in the van.  No, the problem is not insufficient padding.  And the problem really isn't that we expect a young baby to spend hours entertaining himself while we ignore him.  Hah.  I mock you.  I laugh you to scorn.

He really just hates being in the car seat.  He wants to be held, plain and simple.  The boy has us wrapped around his little finger and he knows it.

I'm reasonably sure this is because we have stayed home far more with him than with any of the others.  We're living an hour from town and our 2nd car has been dead since some time before he arrived so he just hasn't been forced to get used to the car seat.  The poor boy has become a homebody.  He's my homeboy, mah homey.  He's tense and unpleasant if we are away from home for more than a few hours, and he visibly relaxes when we get home again.

I'm sure the fact that he has 9 older siblings is also a factor.  When I had only little ones, the babies had to be set down frequently, and the car seat was my tool of choice.  The car seat made it easy to rock the baby with one foot when a toddler needed some attention; easy to move a sleeping baby from room to room with me so that the preschooler couldn't practice her creativity upon the baby unsupervised; easy to set the seat up on a table top so the baby could watch the rest of the family doing school.

Now that we have so many sets of arms in the house, the baby need never be set down.  It seems easy to pass a demanding baby from one set of arms to another, but eventually it creates problems.  We're learning this the hard way.

I have also moved away from the habit of putting our babies down for naps in their car seat.  Our first 9 babies took nearly all their naps in the car seat whether we were at home or abroad.  Most of them even spent the night in their car seat, next to our bed.  They took to it very quickly and seemed to find comfort in the semi-fetal position, surrounded by padding on 3 sides.  For some reason I didn't start that habit with Parker, and now we're reaping the consequences.

But I'm going to try to change that this week.  He's going to spend a lot of short periods in his car seat this week, sometimes being entertained and other times being left to entertain himself.  He's also going to be taking most or all of his naps this week in his car seat.

That's Parker's part of the deal.  The rest of us will work very hard at not pitching him, ourselves or each other over the rail of the deck.  OK, I'm exaggerating.  But we all know that stress levels can rise when there's a cranky baby in the house.

So far, he has done surprisingly well.  I wish I had worked on this weeks ago.  He cries for much shorter times than in the van, quickly settling down to watch his toys and swat at them.  His naps are much shorter than usual, but at least he's sleeping in his car seat.  That's not usually on his list of  Things to Do on Road Trips.  Of course the real test will be our next outing.

And don't worry - we're taking him out for plenty of loving!  This little boy has 11 pairs of arms to love him.  His problem isn't that he spends too much time alone.  He doesn't know the meaning of the word.

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© KimC (Mom) for Life In a Shoe, 2010. | Permalink | 23 comments | Add to del.icio.us

I couldn't help but giggle just a little at her request that recipes be large enough to feed at least 8, since that wouldn't even go once around our table, but she is in the same boat so I know she won't take exception at my snickering.  When we cook for potlucks, we generally aim for 15-20 servings.

We love potlucks and have hosted them nearly weekly for years.  Our church also has a potluck meal after the worship service every week.  We love the additional fellowship and I believe our church body is exceptionally close because of this tradition.

Since there is often some confusion about how much to bring or how many dishes, let me just share my own rule of thumb: regardless of how many dishes we bring, we try to bring enough food so that our entire family could make a meal of it and still have leftovers.

This means that if we're only bringing a main dish or a vegetable or a dessert, we need to bring enough that our family could fill up on nothing but our main dish or creamed corn or dessert and still have some left to share.  If we bring 2 or 3 dishes, we will bring quantities closer to what we normally prepare at home since that would be enough for us to fill up and still have leftovers.

We also try to bring "normal" foods.  These are not necessarily common foods, but are foods that we think will have wide appeal.  Potluck is not the time to try out your new Lebanese casserole.  We find that Mexican food goes over very well and we love it, so it's very nearly a staple for us at potlucks.   Mexican casserole, taco salad, and enchiladas all go over well.  Last Sunday, we took the electric griddle and Deanna cooked fresh hot bean-and-cheese quesadillas.  She was everyone's hero.  :)

Creamed Corn (20 servings)

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 cups milk (heavy cream or half & half is better, but we rarely have these on hand)
• 2 Tbs. sugar
• 6 cans corn, drained
• salt and pepper to taste

First make a thick white sauce: melt butter over medium heat in a 4 quart saucepan.  Stir in flour to form a thick paste.  Cook and stir briefly to ensure that all flour is thoroughly moistened.  Whisk in milk.  Cook and stir until thickened.

Combine sauce, sugar, corn, and salt and pepper and heat thoroughly.  You can also heat or keep warm on low in a slow cooker.

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© KimC (Mom) for Life In a Shoe, 2010. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Natalie: Mom, she's been in the bathroom for AN HOUR!

Older daughter who would prefer to remain anonymous, emerging from the bathroom:  I wasn't in there an hour.  She always exaggerates!

Mom:  You just exaggerated, too.

Anon: But not nearly as much as Natalie.  Everyone exaggerates, Mom!

Mom, stifling laughter: You just exaggerated again.

Anon is not amused.

_____________________________

27mo Bethany: Mom, can I hold Parker?
Mom: No, honey.  I'm nursing him right now.
Bethany: Can I nurse Parker on my boobies? I have milk!

_____________________________

Perry Boy: I like Parker when he doesn't cry, but I don't like him when he does. I still love him when he cries, though. I just don't *like* him.

_____________________________

Perry Boy: Look! Parker has Mr. Potato Head ears!

_____________________________

Natalie:  Mom, I can tell when you're driving instead of Dad because you're a very calm driver. I mean, the engine sounds so *calm* when you drive.

_____________________________

Perry Boy: "Why are minutes so LONG?"

_____________________________

Perry Boy: "Dad bought this for me. It's a booger that you eat, not in your nose." He's talking about a ham-booger.

What have your little ones said recently?

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© KimC (Mom) for Life In a Shoe, 2010. | Permalink | 20 comments | Add to del.icio.us