Seven Blessings & Counting, plus chores and more!!

  We had our seventh child in May 1014, and thought maybe that was then end of our crew (though I truly hope it wasn't), and then God blessed us again with this new pregnancy. So now in 3 short months in early January 2017 we will be parents of 8 blessings!! Our children ages then will be Nathan 16, Clayton 14, Samuel 11, Sarah 9, Anna 6, Benjamin 5, and Daniel 2. Our children are quite spaced out due to our 2 miscarriages, as well as our own attempts at family planning in the early years which I regret now. I am so happy and truly blessed with our awesome crew that we do have though! And having older ones to help out is a huge blessing.

    I can tell you what makes these older ones of mine a big help, diligent workers, and a blessing to us, is the early training. Now I can't say I did very well in that area by no means, but they did learn to do their chores and work hard just the same. These younger ones now are a different story, since they haven't needed to start helping out at a younger age they are not near as capable of doing what these older ones were doing at their age. Starting chores at an early age is so important to help develop a routine to work and a love to work. So now I am trying my hardest to get these younger ones started helping out more, and assigning them regular chores.

   I have just recently came across some really good books that are excellent in the area of little ones and chores. They are called Mangers of Their Homes, and Managers of Their Chores, by Steven and Teri Maxwell. I highly recommend these. They are chock full of helpful information on scheduling and getting the children doing chores. You can visit their web-site at www.titus2.com They have many helpful recourses on their web-site, and many other great books too that they have written.


  One of the things they used was a chore pack. It was clip on plastic pouch which was inserted with various chores and responsibilities for the day for each child. ( 4 of these come with the book Mangers of Their Chores) I decided to do that for Sarah, Anna, and Ben to help to get them a daily chore routine started, and so they know exactly what is expected of them and when. So I made each of them a chore pack with the selected chores in them in the order they are to do them when they wake up in the morning.

    Here is an example of Sarah's chore pack for the mornings: the one in the front of her pack numbered 1 says wake up, get dressed, and comb hair, # 2 make bed, # 3 says breakast and breakast clean-up, # 4 Family Bible Time and brush theeth, # 5 start school, and # 6 sweep kitchen ( which she usually does on her first break in school ). That is her morning routine. She does chore # 1, then clips the chore pack on her shirt placing # 1 to the back, then does # 2 and places it to the back, then out to the kitchen she comes. She is happy to appear out in the kitchen neatly dressed with nicely comb hair and proudly wearing her chore pack, and happy that her bed is already made not needing to return to make it later. This is a huge step-up for her!! We have started this just for one week, and this week has gone very successful with her doing her things. Now the younger 2 of mine not so much. Seems the novelty of the chores packs wore off very quickly for them, and I have to really be on them as to what they are to do next.

   Sarah's next chore pack ( same chore pack but separately numbered chore cards) is the evening one and starts after supper. Since her school goes till late in the afternoon, she only has about an hour or so between school and supper time, so that is just free time for her. I may occasionally ask her to do something or to help me, but it is not scheduled or in an after noon chore pack. So her evening chore pack goes like this: # 1 Supper and after meal clean-up, # 2 Free Time and walk Dogs ( which this chore will soon change, it is only while we are on our month here in Texas that the children are walking my brothers dogs every evening), # 3 evening Family Bible Reading, # 4 Evening snack and clean-up after wards, # 5 wash up for bed and brush teeth, # 6 get in bed, prayer time, and lights off. All her chores are put to the back upon completing the task, so then her chore pack is all set and ready for her to wake up in the morning!!

   I am very happy about this new thing I have started and do hope it will help these younger ones to be more responsible and helpful than they have been. The older ones are so efficient in what they do. They know what to do and do it with out complaint. For dishes Clayton does breakfast, Sam does lunch, and Nathan does supper. They also all pitch in to help with the after meal clean-up, which now I am trying to pass that on more just to the younger ones. The older ones now have much more responsibilities out doors. My goal this winter is to get the younger ones doing dishes, giving the older ones a break on that. Infact they will have to take over the lunch dishes completely since Sam who does lunch dishes will begin attending school outside the home at the end of September. Sam's school was consuming a lot of my time every day since he still needs quite a lot of help, which then cut down considerably the time I had to help Sarah and Anna with their school, so with much prayer and consideration we felt he and I both would do better this year with him attending a near by school.

   With new baby arriving smack in the middle of the school year in January this should be a great help to us all. The birth of a new baby always throws things off a bit, but this baby even more so. If it is as the Dr. has told us from him viewing the sonograms ,this baby will have some brain defects. That will mean slower mental development I guess, or what could be called special needs.

   I know our God is more than capable of completely healing and changing what the DR.s have seen on the sonograms so far, yet here before our baby is born,( many prayers are going up on our behalf ) but if not I am not one bit worried either. I know our God who has seen fit for us to have this baby will also equip us for the task of caring for our sweet baby no matter what! I have no qualms at all. I do though want to know all the information that Dr.s can tell us on what to expect concerning what is up with baby. At this next appointment on Oct. 4th, they should be able to tell us more they have said. They have us going to a big hospital in Edmonton. To me if the Doctors are right it is a good idea to know all we can, and if they are wrong then all the better! ~God's Will be done. And to Him be all the Glory, Amen!!

In Him, Mae