But Mom, I wanted that one

As a mom of 5 young children, one of the most annoying things I deal with in my day is whining. "But Mom, she always gets to sit there," "But Mom, I wanted the green one," Mom why didn't I get a toy," "But Mom, I always have to clean up the living room," etc, etc.

Somedays I am convinced that my children native language is in fact whine. Sometimes I hear whining when there is no one around. Sometimes it feels like no matter what I do, it is not good enough.

Ever wonder if that is how God feels? If I am truly honest, there are times when I overlook the abundant blessings God has placed in my life, because I am too focused on the blessings He has given someone else. How sad, because it means I am missing out on the gifts I have.

I serve an amazing God who loves and adores me. He cares about me so much that He knows the exact number of hairs on my head. Now that is a dedicated and loving Heavenly Father!!

I need to be more aware and appreciative of the many blessings that God has given me and stop feeling His ear with whining. Because He has already blessed me more than I ever deserved.

Something new in my life

So it has been a few weeks since I have posted. Life is going good here in the Schimek household.  Everyone asks me how it is being a mom of 5 and honestly I have to say, it has been relatively easy. I can't recall any of our children being a huge adjustment. Maybe it is because our babies are pretty good compared to other babies from what I hear from other moms. Our babies have always slept pretty good, eat good, don't cry all the time, and are pretty happy.

The school year is winding down and the kids are excited for summer. John and I are looking forward to the school's dinner theater program and JJ's kindergarten graduation.

One not so great thing is that John, Kennedy, the boys and I went to the dentist. Kennedy has one small cavity that they decided to hold off on filling since it was so small, I had only 2 small cavities that I got filled, John had a whooping 8 cavities he is in the process of getting fixed, and then the boys.....Alex needed 2 fillings and 3, count them THREE caps, and JJ needed 1 filling, 3 caps(although one they were able to avoid capping) and 1 tooth filled. Just paid off the dentist bill and now have another big one. Praise God we have good dental insurance.

Now for my news I am excited about. Maybe for some of you this will be no big thing, but for me it is something we have needed to start again. So about 2 weeks ago I was kinda freaking out about dental bill and was wondering how we would manage payments on it. I mean lately it seems like even though John gets really good paychecks and we don't have any huge bills or alot credit card debt, it always seems like by the end of a pay period we are broke and haven't paid all our bills. So I started looking at our bank statements and figured out that we were WAY over spending our food budget because we were spending way more on resturants and fast food than I imagined.(it was insane)

Then I was looking on pinterest to get some crafting ideas and came across fabric money envelopes someone was selling on etsy. Then it was like a ton of bricks fell on my head. Of course, money envelopes. We tried them once but never really did it for long. But I decided we were doing them again. So I decided to make my own(which are super cute) and get back on the system.

I actually am really enjoying it. I made 7 envelopes, and labeled them groceries, going out(for fast food), pop(yes we need to budget for pop, but it is cheaper than some habits), gas money, misc(for hair cuts, etc), bills(that I pay around town), and another one that I haven't decided on yet.

Then I took them and some other people saw them and they ordered some. So I decided that I am going to sell some on etsy(other people are charging way more than I wanted to spend, so I made some more reasonable) and take orders for those who know me. I had one lady order a set for her kids that have 3 envelopes in each set, one for Tithing, Saving, and Spending.

I am going to also make a set for saving for Christmas that has an envelope for each kid and John in fabric that reminds me of them, and also a set for my crafting so I can budget my money for selling my crafts(praying I can sell some more) and set back tithing money, then split the rest between money to buy more crafting supplies and paying money on a bill or something we need to pay off. That way I can have something I am actually paying on and feel like I am contributing some financially.

So here is a picture of my envelopes. Aren't they super cute?

 

Here is my etsy store if you want to check it out. https://www.etsy.com/shop/Tutuprecious

To much!!

Chalk it up to having 5 kids and seeing the cost of having a large family or the fact that I am going through my house cleaning out all the clutter and abundance of stuff, but I have been seriously rethinking how I go about presents for the kids(birthday, Christmas, Easter, etc) and also other items we bring into our house.

I went into the girls room the other day and in only 20 minutes had 2 garbage bags of stuff to get rid of. 2 bags and that didn't even make a dent. We have allowed our house to become storage for stuff we don't really need. I want to change that and the amount of money that we spend on things we shouldn't spend it on.

Anything worth having is worth working towards

We have become a society where we want what is easy. As a whole, we have become people who if it takes a little work or time, we would rather just not have to do it. We don't want our kids to have to go through a little bit of a hardship, to go without something they want, buy them cars when they are 16, bring their stuff to school if they forget it, come to their rescue if they have their littlest issue, etc. What are we really teaching our children and ourselves?!

I for one seeing the effects of this in my life and my family and I am not liking it. I am becoming a soft, selfish, lazy person. I want to teach my kids to become responsible, hard working, active people. And how can I do this, if I constantly make excuses why I am not keeping up with what is my responsibilities, or taking care of myself .

I heard something the other day, "If you really want it, you will make it a priority, if you don't, you will make an excuse." It is one thing to have a legitimate reason that you are unable to do something you HAVE or NEED to do(not meaning everything people would like you to do, but the things that are needing to be done because it is your responsibility), but if you always have a reason you can't do something, but you have time to do other things than you are just making an excuse. Example. I need to work out but I don't have the time. Yet I have time to park it in front of the tv for hours each day, then it is just an excuse! This is one of my problems. With sports season right now, I can't make it to the class I started going to, but I am trying to make time during the week to do a home dvd to make up for it. Not giving into the excuses going through my head!

Embracing change

Maybe it is the hormones from after having a baby or old age setting in, but I have noticed recently that I have changed in some ways. How you ask? Well my tastes in fabrics has changed. Now maybe others would not notice something like this, because not a whole lot of people work with fabrics often, but I love fabric! It is a love I don't always get to indulge because of my busy life, but when I get a chance I love to create.

Here recently I have been making stuff again...clothes for the girls; bunnies, robots, and rag dolls to donate; a blanket for a friend's baby; and recovering my dining room chairs. I picked out material for my chairs and the girls' dresses that a year ago I probably would have never considered putting in my house, but now I love them both!

I also notice that I gotten into the mood to purge stuff that we don't need. I have gotten rid of TONS and I mean tons of stuff that was in my house or storage sheds that we don't need or really want. And even with what I have already gotten rid of, there is still probably at least 1/4-1/2 of the stuff in our house that we don't really need. We all have way to many clothes, many of which we never wear, the kids have so many toys that their rooms are always a pit and they have no idea what they even have. Heck I went through the girls room once and got rid of a bunch of stuff but now see I wasn't picky enough about what I kept, and went through the boys room twice and they still have too much stuff. I want to purge a bunch more and simplify my house so it is easier for me to manage.

And then there are the ways I want to change. Like my housework. I am by no means a perfect housewife! I look at all these blogs of other moms with 4 or more kids and they are posting about organizational tips they have, or how they keep their house presentable while chaos is running amuck around them and know there is no way that will ever be me. And I don't really have any desire to spend every minute of everyday cleaning, but I do want to have a house that I am not ashamed when people stop by unannounced.

This week I have decluttered  my dining room and kitchen a bunch(you can actually see the top of the dresser in there) and have been keeping up on the dishes. I have washed dishes 3 times a day everyday. I am so proud of myself! Actually is quicker to just do them after every meal. And then I have been trying to keep up on laundry and fold them right away, which doesn't always happen, but I am trying.

I think the decluttering of my house will help with my desire to keep my house look more presentable. And also better organization and storage usage in my house. I know some people hate getting older, but I am embracing the older me and how I have changed. Well at least the good parts, the weight gain I am not embracing. lol

I am not alone!!

I went and had coffee with a good friend today. We did this regularly before our pregnancies, but then life and medical stuff got us out of the groove of it. It was so nice to sit and just talk. I hadn't seen her little one since her daughter was born and she is almost almost 10 weeks ago and my friend had never seen Emmalee who is almost 6 weeks, so it has been a while since we actually saw each other. We have talked quite a bit but not been able to sit down together.

As we talked we both shared our frustrations about raising childrens and also about our frustration about our reaction to kids behaviors. It was nice to hear another mom talk about how she gets just as frustrated as I do at times. I am not alone! Just nice to hear I am not the only one who has days where I feel like puling my hair out at the end of the day!

Proud of my kids!!

I have a grandma that has multiple scorosis. It is a really nasty disease. It has been really sad to see it transform my grandma.

This is my grandma on my dad's side. It is actually his stepmother, but she raised him and his brother from a very early age after his mother passed away. Her and my grandfather then also adopted a baby girl when my dad was a teen. Grandma Donna was never able to have any biological children. She was hit with this disease young and it has taken a huge part of her life.

From an early age I saw it transform her. I remember her always having trouble getting around, needing a cane, then eventually a wheel chair, to now being trapped in her body. She is in her 60's and has been in a wheel chair for probably close to 15 years. She can't eat or drink(has to have only liquids thickened), she can't move her legs and arms at all, can't see very well, and trying to talk is like trying to see through a fog.

Now you can imagine that it is something that is hard for kids to understand. My kids used to be very scared and not really want to go visit her. Heck I even was like that because it was just so sad and you can't help but think that she probably doesn't remember anyway, why bother.

Well when I went down with the kids in December I played on their sensitive hearts and told them that Grandma is stuck in her body, but she is there! She wants to see people, have them talk to her, and would love to have people treat her like she is just like anyone else. That visit they were amazing. All of them! They pushed her around the nursing home as we went visiting all the residents(Dad is big on showing off the grandkids and letting the residents enjoy seeing them), they sang to her all their Christmas songs they were learning, etc.

Since then, Kennedy has talked about Grandma from time to time and last week asked if we could go see her again. So I talked to Dad and also set it up with my sister to take my niece who they hadn't seen in 3 months or longer. So yesterday we went up. The kids were pretty good again. A little wilder because my niece was there(JJ and her are BEST buddies!!) but still really good. And all the kids were really excited to see Grandma, well except Bianca who is very reserved around people she isn't used to and Alex who is at that "too cool" stage. The other 3 all were kissing on Grandma and hugging on her, made me very proud of their sensitive little hearts. How lonely it must get for Grandma and you could tell it just made her day.

Here is a picture of my dad, my 5, my niece, and me with Grandma.