:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

Yep...we have the same problem! Plus I started collecting more hand me downs to store in bins for our friends who get little ones last minute. One of the reasons I so desperately want to work towards minimalism however, is that I can't seem to keep up with my house! I know that if I have less to clean, clean up, clean over, clean under ;), then I'll be able to keep things more organized. My fear is a social worker popping in unannounced and seeing my house in all it's glory....:001_huh: it's not pretty!

I think this is all relative to the individual family (which is what I think you're saying?) I am constantly doing laundry anyway so the more clothes we have, the faster they pile up, and the faster I'm behind on laundry. It sort of forces me to stay on top of it...plus it teaches the kids to take better care of their clothes (me too ;) )

I plan on going through my wardrobe today and getting rid of anything I don't wear (I did this a few weeks ago and wound up with two 13 gallon trash bags worth of donations :glare: ) I need to do it again because I want to take inventory and then make a list of the things that I would wear often and that would be complimentary to my ever changing shape :glare: I'm going to go with white, black, navy, grey and maybe some brown. I want a jean skirt (above the knee), a black dress (casual but that can be dressed up if necessary), a few t shirts in black, white and navy, a pair of jeans and a few pairs of jean shorts ....(and some black yoga pants but I already have some :) ) Then I'm going to make a list of things we need for our house that will simplify life and and lend itself to a more minimal lifestyle. I know it sounds counter intuitive to go "buy" more stuff to achieve a minimal lifestyle, however, I'm buying practical things. For instance, I want to purchase some plain white towels instead of having mismatched, torn towels. I'd like to not have the visual clutter of ragged towels. Plus, I will mark them and assign each child ONE, UNO, EINS towel! I'll update later with my progress :) I wish I had a camera right now :( I can try to take some pics with my laptop's webcam but the quality is carp...so we'll see

I was hoping you'd chime in :001_smile: I remember being inspired by your posts from a previous thread on this same topic. I follow most of the blogs that Stacia listed. I also love Zenhabits! I also found this one while Googling the other night: http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/2011/12/free-printables.html

Thank you for these!!!!!!:001_wub: some I recognize but some I don't....great reading!!! :)

I'm of the mindset that if throwing all of that away has gotten you to a point where you are mindful of everything that comes into your house, then it all evens out in the end :D I'm slowly starting to think twice about every.single.purchase I make. If it's not going to be something that I use often or that we absolutely need to live, then no...it's not coming into my house!

:iagree: Although, I do believe that much of this depends on personality and how much "stuff" you can manage to keep organized without it overwhelming you. I'm finding that I personally LOVE hand me downs and having a big selection/variety of clothes for all of us. The reality is that it overwhelms me and I wind up more stressed because I have piles or bins of clothing everywhere that I don't have time to take care of (ie: wash/put away). This is true for the rest of my house. I have friends who have as many kids as I do and who have knick knacks, store hand me downs or outgrown clothes, keep pieces of games together and tidy, etc. This IS NOT ME. If I see a lone Lego on the floor, I'm not going to take it back to it's home. It's most likely going in the trash! I find that I function better with less. I can think more clearly and make better decisions when I have less choices and less clutter.

Oh I like this way of looking at it! I have some mismatched pillowcases and other random linens that seem to take up our entire linen closet....they are mostly faded and not the greatest. I need to weed through them because I'm missing sheets to many of them. It doesn't seem like we have a lot of sheet sets yet the whole closet just seems cluttered.....if that makes sense?

I'm currently obsessed with minimalism :tongue_smilie: I've ready quite a few blogs, websites and a few books on the subject. I've also started a few threads in the past regarding de-cluttering/simplifying that were super helpful! However, now that I've actually begun the quest for minimalism, I'm having a hard time finding other large families who are doing the same. I know there are a few on here who have offered helpful suggestions in the past, but does anyone know of any good websites/blogs that offer even more support/etc for large families who wish to live with less "stuff"?

Can I just add that none of us are perfect parents and it sounds like you are truly trying to mend the relationship with your son. I applaud you for that :grouphug::grouphug:

My dd17 went through this from the time she was like 4 til about 15/16. She absolutely hated me. It was horrible and hurtful. I don't know what I did....well, for her....she wanted to be an only child. She still makes comments today when I complain about being tired. She says "You're the one who had to have all the dang babies"... I can tell you one thing I did that seemed to help some. I started spending MORE time alone with her. I would take just her to the store with me. I would take just her out to dinner, etc. I worked hard on our relationship and tried to validate her feelings as much as I could (some were hard because she just seemed so self absorbed!) Does he get along with your dh? He probably does have anger at his father for leaving him....but he can't direct it at him, so he uses you as his target :( So sorry you're going through this. I hope things get better soon! :grouphug:

This is great news :) We will all continue to pray and send happy sticky baby thoughts your way :) :)

I've been praying and have all my fingers and toes crossed....waiting patiently for some great news :)

I have restless leg right now and I'm anticipating either one of the babies or ds8 getting up any second (ds8 has sleep issues)....it's 2am here... The funny thing is, I was JUST thinking about you, Nance!!! I'm anxious to hear about your u/s too :grouphug:

We lived next door to my parents at that time and my three oldest were 1, 2 and 6.... My mom came over hysterical....I remember her words vividly "They got the pentagon".... I remember pulling the three kids close to me while watching the coverage wondering if Los Angeles was next..... I remember dh calling to tell me there was still one hijacked plane in the air (Penn.) and they would most likely have to shoot it down because it was headed towards the Capitol. I remember watching people jump out of the twin towers while they were burning. I remember watching survivors run down the streets of NYC I'll never forget that day :(

I'm sensing a Facebook status update............:lol:

Absolutely beautiful!!!! I love how she has her little finger by her mouth...she looks like she's thinking hard...so precious!!!!!

Never heard of the broken cross thing....but I do find it ironic that some Christians would think a peace symbol to be anti-Christian....hmmm do they even KNOW Jesus? :glare:

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: I couldn't agree more with this. I was the perfect parent before I had children. When I had two pretty easy kids, I would still judge other parents for their seemingly lack of discipline. After having 2 special needs children, (one of which appears to be the epitome of "poor parenting" but in fact is due to his brain damage and inability to understand and learn from consequences!), I judge no parent based on their child's behavior. It's easy to make sweeping statements about poor parenting when your experience of parenting is limited to mild mannered children.

I'm slightly jealous of all the "first day of school" pics I see on my friends walls...partly because I would love some time to just breathe...but also because they are all confident in their decision to send their children to school. (speaking only of my friends...not a sweeping generalization of all people) Every year we start school, I'm conflicted on whether or not I'm doing the right thing. There are days when I wish I'd never heard of homeschooling because then I would just accept the fact that PS is the only option :(

Is there another surgeon you could consult with? That is way too long to wait especially if you're getting, what I assume is Pancreatitis? (sp?) Everyone here has great advice ie: low fat diet. I would also add that apple cider vinegar diluted in some water (add honey ...it helps!) will also help with the attacks (it helped with mine). I had mine out 6 years ago and I'm still having issues :( I have post gallbladder syndrome and need to keep a low fat diet even now (which I tend to forget at times :tongue_smilie: ) I'm so sorry you're dealing with this. It's horrible :( I'll be praying you get a surgeon who will do it soon!

One week isn't enough time to truly evaluate whether or not Monkey will be able to acclimate or not. (This is coming from a mom who pulled her child after 3 days of school so I'm sort of trying to convince myself here too ;) ) I can totally and completely empathize with you and your situation!! I think you need to think long and hard whether or not your guilt is the driving force behind your decision. After a few days back at home, Monkey will be the same lively, full of personality, but pushing mommy to her limits ;) child she was before you put her in school. Is having her at home what's best for her and you? Just some things to think about. Again, I totally get where you're coming from as I am currently evaluating whether I need to bite the bullet and commit to putting ds8 in school knowing it could cause some MASSIVE stress on all of us for a time...but could eventually pay off? Good luck and keep us posted :)

I've thought of Scentsy. I've done quite a few direct sales companies already without much luck (I wind up spending more than I make:glare: ) I'm open to working outside my home but my hours are limited to mostly after 5 or 6pm at night. We have no options for childcare and DH doesn't get home til later. I've thought about doing childcare in my home but I already have two babies plus homeschooling plus ds8's special needs that require me to be his "shadow" all day long. (we may put him in school which is another reason I need more income....we need to be able to pay for an advocate/attorney to get the services he needs) I also need to make more than minimum wage (overall) because it needs to be worth my while, yk? I would love to do some sort of transcription/data entry type job from my computer late at night but those jobs seem hard to find.

I like this explanation from an old episode of the Cosby show :lol: