Six Years a Mama

Today, our Keira girl is 6 years old. 

The child who made me a mama. 

The one who God gave me to teach me how much I could love another person. Not that I love her more than the hubby...but it is a different kind of love.

When you look into the eyes of your firstborn for the first time, you get to experience a fraction of the kind of love that God has for us. 

As a baby, she was already so full of joy. The only time she cried was at bedtime...she wailed actually...for 15 minutes and then she went to sleep. She would NOT fall asleep in our arms...she had to cry. I think it is because she never cried during the day.

Around 1 year old. 

She has truly been a delight. Keira is emotional about everything now. I think it is why she is caring and compassionate and never wants anyone to feel left out. Although her emotions can make difficult situations, I think that they make her a beautiful person.

2 year picture

I don't love her more than any other child, but most of our "firsts" as parents are with her. So it is different. That also comes with the territory of her being the first one who gets the brunt of our mistakes...so it's not all good! haha

 She is a rule follower (when she is not at home!) and it kills her when she disappoints anyone. 

3 years old.

 She takes her role of big sister seriously....and I hope that continues. She is a leader and a follower. She loves to be silly yet also can be serious at times. Like daddy, she likes to try new foods that she has never seen or tried before. 

Around 4 years old.

 She is spunky, creative and spends a LOT of time making up different craft ideas, drawing, and uses up a ton of glue, tape, constructions paper and markers. But is is so worth it. She is also stubborn and not easily persuaded once her mind is set on something. 

5 year Birthday!

 It has been amazing to see her learn to read this year and celebrate with her through her first year of Kindergarten...no matter how much complaining she did about sitting down to do school! haha

Keira has a beautiful singing voice and LOVES Irish Dancing. She had been competing for a year now and is doing great. (A few years ago, if you told me that dance competitions would have any place in my life, I would have laughed...now I embrace it and it is a lot of fun.) More on that later though.

I took a few pictures of her this morning...my 6 year old. 

Keira Marie

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The Laundry Monster

Do you ever feel buried in laundry...I do...most of the time!

I actually think that I have finally found a system that works for our family right now. I have tried a few different things that have all worked at different times but right now, I am feeling like I am winning the battle...well....most days.

For the first few years of our marriage (and only 1 or 2 kids), I just did a load of laundry here and there. Some days I wouldn't do any and other days I did a couple of loads. My problem here was that I was really bad at sorting, folding and putting away. I would put Tom and my clothes away but the girls would be sleeping or something and we ended up living out of laundry baskets a lot! Also, I am only OCD about a few things in life but one of them is matching tops to bottoms with the kids clothes. I don't like to put a shirt away without its coordinating pants...so...often, they were separated in the laundry and it would be awhile before I could find the matches. Silly...I know.

Then for about a year it worked for me to do ALL of the laundry in one day of the week. It was the only "chore" I would do that day but as each load came out of the dryer, it would get folded and as soon as that kids rooms was free, it was put away. That worked for a while but when I did have something else to do that day, I would get behind and it was nearly impossible to catch up.

Then...Levi was born. My snugly, content, happy, giggly love-bug....who happens to have a diaper explosion AT LEAST once a day!

I needed a new system. For a while, I just did laundry all the time again and it never seemed to be caught up. But, because I was constantly doing his laundry, I realized how much easier it was that all of his laundry stayed together. It came from his hamper, down to the laundry, then folded and back to his room.

So, I adapted this system for the rest of the house. The girls laundry (because they all share a room) stays together. Every day, I do a laundry for a different room of the house. If I have time, I will get two rooms done in  a day but it has made a world of difference.

Once each bedrooms laundry is done, I will do whites and towels. It works great!

I finally have stopped feeling overwhelmed by laundry and this really helps with my matching clothes OCD.

Now....If I could figure out how to make socks stop separating from each other that would be great!

Comment below with ideas and tell me how you win your battle with The Laundry Monster!

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Five Minute Friday: Close

Today's Five Minute Friday word is Close. For more information on what Five Minute Friday is, check out Lisa-Jo's blog and it explains more....basically...Five minutes of unedited writing on a certain word or phrase. So here's my five minutes today:

The word close has so many different meanings to me. The first thing that comes to mind is my relationship with my children. I want to be close to them, I want them to be close to me. My hope is that they will share with me and I with them and that we will always feel comfortable in that way.

I love to be physically close to them as well...the snuggles I get daily are amazing. Baby boy LOVES to be held and often nuzzles his face into my neck and shoulder. He pulls my face to his and gives me sloppy baby kisses and I can't get enough of it. My girls each need their own snuggle time with me too. Often, we read together all snuggled up on the couch.

Sometimes I find that when they are especially grumpy or whiny, really all they need is some time on my lap.

I pray that as sisters and brother, they remain close to each other through the years and always have an encouraging relationship with each other.

Of course, I have my moments each and every day where "close" starts to feel like I am being smothered and I have to take a deep breath and remember how wonderful these snuggles really are and someday I will miss them!

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Praise Him!

God's plans are so much bigger and better than ours. The end.

No really, I am sitting here amazed right now at God's provision for us as a family. Last Tuesday night (May 13), Tom took his last final exam. He graduates on June 8th and praise be to God, he was offered a Job that begins June 9! A good job. A career Job...doing what he wants to do. I am unbelievably proud of him as this is a huge accomplishment. Most of the last five years he spent working on his Bachelor's degree in Computer Programming (including summers). All but nine months of that, he worked full time. Keira was a baby when he started and since we have added three kids to our family. And...he has great grades. Yay Tom!

I wrote last month that I had no idea what a "normal life" would feel like and I am starting to experience that now. Tom is home after work, the kids get to spend so much more time with daddy and we are able to sit down as a family and eat dinner together on a much more regular basis. It's the little things folks.

But the thing that I am most amazed about is how over the last few months, I have not been very anxious at all about our unknown future. Sure, I had moments of panic, but they really were fleeting. It became second nature to just pray in those moments and I really did just feel a peace that could only come from the Lord. With so much up in the air, I was determined to focus on the fact that God has never left us and He never will.

I could write forever about all of the ways that God has provided for our needs in the last 5 years since Tom started school...well, really the last 6 years since Keira was born but the things that have happened most recently are the things that are standing out in this moment.

The fact that Tom lost his job a year and a half ago turned into the biggest part of God's plan is amazing. That is the only reason why he was able to graduate already. Then, he got a well paying co op that started last September and not only provided for us financially, but was also able to count as college credit. Another reason why he was able to graduate now. That was also supposed to end last Friday but they asked him to stay on a bit longer. This means that we will not have a single week without pay. CRAZY! God is so good.  (although, a week without work would have had its perks!)

We were mentally prepared for a lot of different scenarios...to move away if needed, to have time without a career, maybe doing any job that he could find, To have to take more classes to get qualified in other areas...

...but God has answered. We get to stay here, near our family, near our friends and in our church....at least for now. God is amazing and I am so thankful!

I realize that things can change in a moment and that God's plans for us could once again change but for now, it feels amazing.

One thing that I have really learned is that getting anxious or stressed about each situation really doesn't help. It doesn't change anything. Prayer does. Let Him ease your anxieties. Cast your cares on Jesus. He is never going to let you go!

Now on to the next big decisions....to continue renting...or buy a home...hmmmm.

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My Weekly Chore List

I am a checklist person. When I used to work in medical records and than later in medical coding/billing, I always had a daily task list made. It always included eve the most mundane tasks because if I got to check them off the list, it made me feel like I was doing something.

Well, as a stay at home mom, I have found that the same thing works for me. Even though the same tasks need to be done every week, it makes me feel like I am doing something when I can check it off of my list. I have tried all different kinds of lists that included assigning specific chores to specific days of the week but found that I need to be able to be more flexible than that. So, I came up with this:

It works for me. It motivates me to get things done earlier in the week so I can be done with them. It makes me feel like I am accomplishing something. If I post it on the fridge, when hubby wants to know what he can do to help, he can see where I am with the checklist. It is easier to find things for the kids to help with. I love it.

I have a Home Management Binder that I use each week as well. It might sound silly but it keeps all of my papers in one place and helps me keep track of what needs to get done. I will post more about all of those things sometime soon I hope!

If you would like me to send you the word file for this so you can make it your own, I am charging $1.50. You can paypal it to me at my e-mail address mcmillan(dot)chrissy at gmail(dot)com (no spaces) and send me a quick e-mail letting me know that you did so. I will get it to you the same day!

Happy Chores!

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Five Minute Friday: Mess

In honor of it being Friday, I am linking up with Lisa-Jo and her 5 minute Friday link. Today's word is "mess". So here goes...my 5 minutes of un-edited writing on this word:

Mess...I think I could go on and on and on about this word for so many reasons. I am in that stage of life where sometimes I feel like messes are all around me. There are certainly days where it feels like I have it all together but it doesn't last very long! Most days, it feels like I cannot get rid of the mess! I can literally clean all day long and even have the kids help me and still....somehow...I can find a place in my house that either never got cleaned or already got messed up again. It can be frustrating.

Don't you think that is somehow how God feels. He loves us so very much but we mess up all the time. He forgives us. He gives us new life. He helps us find our way and yet, there is still so much "mess". We follow behind Him messing up the things He just cleaned....a little like my two year old. I love her more than I could ever express....but she frustrates me on a minute by minute basis with all of the things she does to disobey me. Sometimes I am shocked by the mess she can make so quickly. And what a mess I can make with my life so easily.

Don't you just love her though. haha

Well...that ends my 5 minutes of writing for the day....not sure it made any sense but I am exhausted!

Have a great weekend!

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