7.5 Weeks

It has been 7 1/2 weeks since Joshua was born. He has grown by leaps and bounds, and he has lost the newborn look. It is sad that the tiny stage just does not last very long. He is still just as calm as ever. Joshua is sleeping a lot better now too. He was nursing 4 to 5 times a night and now he is only nursing 1 to 2 times a night.

Joshua at one week

Joshua in the same basket at 7 weeks

As far as I go, I have 20 to 30 pounds to lose. I gained 10 pounds after Anya was born that I never lost. Then I gained another 10 pounds after Joseph was born that I never lost, and now I am still another 10 pounds heavier. If I lose just 20 pounds, I will be okay with that. If I lose 30 pounds I will be back to my college weight. That would be nice, but I am older and I have had 8 babies. I will be satisfied with being 10 pounds heavier than I was when I was 19.

My weight loss plan is to lay off desserts and to exercise 3 to 5 days a week. I have worked out part b pretty well. I bought a used elliptical last Saturday and I am using it during nap time. We don't always have a nap time. But we do have a nap time at least 3 to 5 days a week. Since this has always been my personal time, I won't be losing any time that I spend cleaning the house or interacting with my family. When it warms up a little more, I want to start taking my babies on long evening walks. We live near a city trail, so that could work out well.

The part I am finding challenging is eating less sugar. My kids expect cookies after school most days. Most days I make them cookies. Then I eat the cookies too. I am either going to have to listen to a lot of complaining kids eating fruit (which we do, but if we do fruit for every snack instead of homemade cookies, my food budget jumps up a lot.) or just stop eating the cookies. I think I should just work on self control. I find it easy to not eat too much and to not eat anything sugary until school gets out. Then I am tired and want to eat junk along with my kids. Anyway, I have to work on this a lot! Does anyone have any ideas?

How I Do It: Organization in a Big Family Part III

Making Cleaning Easy

I learned how to do this from the worst job, but most useful jobs I have ever had-- cleaning hotel rooms. (It is funny how miserable things can turn into huge blessings.)

My cleaning supplies include: ammonia, murphy's oil soap, comet,  toilet cleaner, cloth rags made from old towells and t-shirts, and green scoth-bright scrubbies

As you can see, I use very few cleaning supplies. I put the ammonia and the murphies in spray bottles mixed with 90% water. For cleaning the bathrooms, I squirt and wipe the floors, sinks, and exteriors of the toilets. I do not have spend anytime rinsing because watered ammonia does not need rinsing out. This saves a ton of time, kills the germs, and leaves things sparkling clean. It is also very cost efficient. I use comet and scrubbies on the bathtubs and shower walls. the comet is cheap and does a good job of removing soap scum. We always install shower heads with hoses to make rinsing easy so that saves me time too. (They are also nice for bathing.)  I use toilet bowl cleaner in the toilet because it is so concentrated. I use a toilet brush inside the toilet. During the week, I wipe things off as needed with the flushable wipes we keep on the back of every toilet. I only do this when I use the bathroom and see a need. This saves time too because it is fast, I use something we already have for other purposes, and I am not scheduling in extra cleaning. 

I use the spray bottle of ammonia for almost every spill. It works well on carpeting, furniture, walls, etc. We just spray and wipe with a rag or towel and the surface is clean and not sticky. This also kills germs. Since ammonia water does not get bubbley it is a great cleaner for carpeting and upholstery. No rinsing is needed. However, when using a carpet cleaner I usually use the recommended soap because it smells better.

I use murphy's oil soap  mixed with 90% water in a spray bottle for wood surfaces. To wash my kitchen cabinets and to dust most of our surfaces, I spray and wipe with a soft rag. This is fast, and cheap. Again. There is no rinsing and no filling up a bucket. 

One other trick I recently learned is to use the toilet cleaner around the faucets to remove hard water deposits. This is not easy and needs a lot of rinsing. I do not have to do this too often, though.  The ammonia keeps the dirt off, and the sinks and faucets shiney pretty well, and perfectly well when we did not have hard water.

The ammonia and murphy's spray bottles keep my house clean and disinfected without much cost and without much effort.

Broken Television

Our TV broke completely. It will not even turn on. We do not have the money saved to buy a new TV. We are not going to buy a TV on credit as we have great doubts that no TV counts as an emergency worthy of credit card debt.

After Joshua was born, we got into the habit of watching a lot more TV everyday after school. I had been thinking we need to stop this. But 6 children anxious to relax and watch TV everyday did not help my resolve to get back to normal. Well, a broken TV helps that resolve a whole lot, and we have been so much more productive since then.

Of course, we still have the computer. It is just not so cozy and comfy. We really have to want to watch something to make watching movies on the computer worth while.

A Creative Mother

I think Anya will be a very creative Mother.

Johnny at the Denist

I rarely have a normal picture of Johnny

Johnny hates going to the dentist and he hates brushing his teeth. But he is doing a lot better at brushing his teeth because 7 months ago, Johnny had five cavities. We had to hold him down until the novocaine and gas took enough affect. I was awfully embarrassed; Johnny was truly terrible. Now dental time has come again and Johnny had another 2 cavities. (He is now carefully brushing his teeth for a full 2 minutes.) Yesterday, Johnny went to get his fillings. I decided to stay in the waiting room in hopes that Johnny would behave better without me there. He did. Johnny began by expressing his fear to the dentist. Then he asked the dentist to say a prayer with him to help him make it through his fillings. The dentist was kind enough to do so, and he and Johnny prayed together. Johnny still squirmed around, but he made it through with no force. I think we will keep this good dentist.

Ruth's Musical

Ruth played a chorus part in her school musical. She loved, loved, loved it. They practiced for the last 2 1/2 months. Then they preformed 4 shows last Thursday thru Saturday. Ruth asked me what her favorite parts were. They wee of course, the parts she was on stage. I thought Ruth was totally cute!! She will do this again next year, even though it took a whole lot of time.

ABC's

Joseph plays with everything and anything as long as it belongs to some one else. The other night, Joseph played with John's newly bought blank note cards. He looked through a bunch of them, and when he came to the front card with the writing on it, he joyfully exclaimed, "Ooooooo, it's a,b,c's!!!"