go clean your room!

We live in a 3 bedroom house. Pretty normal.
We have 4 kids, 2 boys, 2 girls. So originally we had girls in one room, boys in the other. But about 4ish months ago we moved all of the kids into one room aka "the sleep room" and moved all of their books, games, puzzles, toys into the other room aka "the play room". This has worked out really great for us. On the weeks that Mason is home from visiting his dad the kids all wanted to sleep on the bunk bed in the boys room at night to chit chat, giggle and hang out anyways and now with London sleeping in there she has her own bed and they still get to be together. Betsey was put into the sleep room a few months ago as well, and it's working out really well because they respect her sleep time and do not wake her up. Also as the younger ones nap it gives space to the older kids to get to play and read together. I am a big fan of children sharing rooms. It teaches them to share and to respect others space and belongings. It also helps the children hold each other accountable. Our children are young enough that having boys and girls in the same room is still appropriate. But the downfall is that there is a lot of stuff in the play room to clean up each day and this has become a huge deal to my kids. It takes them forever every day, lots of crying, whining and discipline involved.
Yesterday was no exception. Finally after the millionth time of disciplining, raising my voice ( fail ) my husband going in and doing the same thing (fail) . I finally just realized that my kids don't know how to organize and put things away the way I would like them. They have never been trained to do it. They have had their own rooms with the things split up so there wasn't as big of a mess to pick up. So I went in there and sat down and showed Mason the proper way to put the books away on the book cases. I showed London how to put the puzzles in their bins, the dolls in the other and her dress up clothes in the right spot in the closet. I showed Rowan where his dinosaurs go, and where the firetrucks go on the shelf. It took 20 minutes.
I realized how many times I get so frustrated with my kids over things that I have not take the time to sit down and properly train them how to do & complete. I just automatically assumed that they would know where everything went and how to put it back where it came from but after 10 hours of playing off and on in a room you forget and they are young. I had to apologize. Today they made a mess before breakfast and I said lets do a quick clean up, it was done.....quickly.
amazing.
I'm sure I will still have to remind them of how to do things, but that's my job...to train my children.

Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it"

the 5th means just as much as the 1st

I overheard a conversation of 2 moms at Mason's school on Friday that just really upset me. I just can't get it out of my head. They were really making fun of their sisters and brothers for having big families. They were saying such rude things. I just stood there wondering if people say the same thing about me for being pregnant with my 5th. And then I thought why is the world so against parents having children? Why is that people consider the first and second children such blessings but anything beyond that is just crazy and unwanted and merits rude comments like "don't you know how this happens" "better you than me". 


I was really sick last night. I couldn't keep my dinner down, and I woke up in the middle of the night completely sick again. This pregnancy has been a little hard in the morning sickness department. I feel really tired, a little grumpy and very nauseous. My house is falling apart, I'm going days without doing laundry which is catastrophic for a family of 6. I'm washing clothes then not putting them away and then I can't tell which clothes are clean or dirty and I refuse to do a "sniff" test. This morning around 3 I was sick again and I laid in bed and started crying. I starting telling God that I have no idea what He was thinking letting me get pregnant again. I told Him that there is no way that I can do this, that I can manage my house, that I can give my kids the attention they need and I will have nothing left for my husband. I cried really hard. I felt totally defeated. The comments of the ladies from Friday repeated in my mind. I began to feel that maybe those words were true. I ended up just crying myself to sleep. I woke up feeling the same feelings I had felt earlier. Then while getting ready, I began thinking of how God has a plan for my life. So I opened up my handy YouVerse bible app and searched "God's plan" and this verse popped up:
 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  (Jeremiah 29:11).


Exactly what I needed to hear and it gave me so much peace. 
And then right now I was reading a blog and the mother who has a large family wrote this and it totally encouraged me:


"God never gives us more than we can bear. And He knows I couldn't handle a large family. Truth is, none of us can really handle anything. Truth is, we are all flawed and it truly is only by His mercy that we move and breathe and have our being. Thus, it follows that if God chooses that you have one, three, seven, ten or *no* children, it will be truly by His grace and mercy and ultimately for YOUR good and HIS glory."


I'm a blessed lady. My children make me so happy and I know that being a mother and wife is a wonderful thing that maybe isn't valued enough by people, but it is valued highly by my God and that is good enough for me. Also.... laundry isn't the biggest deal in life right now and I don't know why I keep complaining of being tired, I've been tired since 2005 and I should be used to that. And I know that when this baby is here, all of these silly non important complaints will be exactly that....not important. My 5th child is just as important to me as my first, not a curse, not an inconvenience, not unwanted, but loved.