08/18/2017

Our Big Move: Part 3 {Moving with a Large Family}

Our Big Move: Part 3

{Moving with a Large Family}

This is part 3 of a series. Click here to catch up on Parts 1 & Part 2.

We ended up settling on the first house. My husband was sure it was the right fit. Although I really did like the house, I wasn’t 100% convinced. Even so, I had been praying and asking God to give my husband wisdom. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.” I know a lot of people though who spend ages picking the house they are going to move into, they might be using someone like la jolla real estate but they just don’t want to commit straight away. My husband was happy to, but I just wasn’t convinced.

Sometimes I struggle between a logical decision and an emotional one. In this case, I could see how rational my husband was being but my heart still pulled me in a different direction. I ultimately submitted to him, but even though I could see the logic, it didn’t make it an easy decision. Some of you might not get that and others of you will. But that is ok – we all struggle with different things.

Looking back, maybe I should have prayed that we both be given wisdom, because I did internally struggle over what I wanted and where I could see our family living and what my husband felt was right. In the end, I’m thankful that I submitted to what he felt was right.

Back to the story: the next morning we put an offer on the house, and thankfully the couple accepted it even with a super quick closing date! As we waited in the plane, we saw a beautiful rainbow in the sky. If you are also thinking of moving just like we did and live in the Jacksonville area of Florida, you could, for example, look into something like house for rent in jacksonville florida to find out tips on how to rent a house out there, reasons to move to Jacksonville and much more. It is always worth doing your research before making such a big commitment.

We traveled back home and got to work packing – even though we didn’t know if our house would ever sell. At least that is how it felt to all of us at the time. The whole problem with the way the kitchen faced and the front door, apparently.

Within a few days of getting back home, we had contacted our moving truck and hubby had ordered a bunch of moving boxes from the same company. They were scheduled to be there by Wednesday.

As it turned out, hubby was scheduled to be out of town on business for two days so during that time, which just added to my layers of stress that I already felt weighing on me.

So, in an effort to get some stuff done, my kids and I had decided to start cleaning out our kitchen. I knew that our new kitchen was quite a bit smaller (less cabinet space) than our current one so we decided we needed to sell or give away quite a bit of things. Thankfully, many women from our church were able to use what we were getting rid of, so I loaded all of the items onto our counter.

The next day, when hubby flew home, I was exhausted and so was he. I ended up sleeping in when I awoke to a text that we had another house showing. We decided to ask for more time because the kitchen was still a wreck from the day before and we knew we were going to start packing, so we didn’t want to put everything back away.

Our realtor quickly contacted us to let us know that the people were very interested and would want to come later that same day. We agreed and got to work straightening up and cleaning our house. A few hours later we had our offer and the house was set to close a few weeks after we moved out.

To say we were happy is an understatement. Things were finally all falling into place.

The rest of that month is a blur. Its a mixture of fragmented memories and pure exhaustion. I remember packing box after box. I remember hubby packing our kitchen (yay hubby!). I distinctly remember piles of paper plates. I really don’t care if I ever see another paper plate again.

I can still see the piles of boxes taking over our dining room as we prepared for the move. The timing couldn’t have been better because we were done with school and so we just packed up everything we didn’t need and prepared to go.

When the day finally came many people from our church stopped in to help. We had teens and strong men helping my husband and sons move some of the furniture and boxes. We packed our own truck through U-Pack. This service worked phenomenally.

We packed -they drove. I was somewhat worried that they wouldn’t get there in time because they give you a window for delivery. We packed on Monday and they picked up later that night. We were told it could be delivered between Thursday and the next Monday. I called to double check the time on Wednesday morning and it had already been delivered to the holding dock in Illinois. How is that for quick service! Our stuff made it to our destination before we did! Thankfully, it is held in a storage unit (still in the truck) until the day of delivery (which we were able to choose).

As the day went on, I began to clean up behind all the boxes and furniture that was being moved. By that night, our truck was packed and taken away. We were left with a completely empty house. The kids, hubby, and I cleaned the bathrooms, kitchen, refrigerator, pantry, and floors throughout to leave it nice for the new owners. Finally, we were ready to begin our trip across many states.

The next morning, we woke early and headed out. We decided to stop on our way to go see the Ark that has been built in Kentucky. That was a fun adventure. We stayed at a hotel nearby the first night and the next morning we got up early to enjoy our excursion.

The Ark is massive and the kids really enjoyed it. It is so much more unique than a museum because it feels like you are experiencing life on the ark.

There were animals, life like containers (where food would have been kept), even the living quarters, there were movies to see and tons and tons of exhibits. If you and your family are thinking of going, we all LOVED it and highly recommend it.

There were plenty of places to sit and rest. This was especially important because our oldest son has special needs, including some muscle tone issues and problems walking. He gets tired out easily.

We stayed one more night in Kentucky and then the next day we made our way to Indiana before driving on to Illinois. Moving with a large family takes so much work, patience, and diligent work. Looking back, I’m really thankful we chose to break up the trip like this. It made it a little less stressful (especially for the kids).

The next morning our moving truck arrived and Hubby and some hired movers unpacked. It was so nice to sleep in our own bed again and to start the process of unpacking.

Check back tomorrow for Part 4!

08/17/2017

Our Big Move: Part 2 {Moving with a Large Family}

Our Big Move

Moving with a Large Family: Part 2

So, we took an early plane into Chicago and made our way over to the very first house on our list. There was a small problem. When we pulled up to the front door, the owners were still at home! There was a mix up on the times, so we waited a few moments while they headed out. We quickly walked through the house, both my husband and I were silent as we tried to envision our family living there.

Waiting in the driveway … ready to look at houses!!!

I mentioned, in my last post , how we made a list of what we were looking for. My ideas have changed somewhat over the years, especially with the more kids we’ve had.

One thing my hubby and I had agreed upon was a garage big enough to fit both of our vehicles.

We had talked some about yard size (I wanted bigger and he wanted smaller). We had also talked about how many bedrooms and bathrooms we wanted/needed.

I’m well aware that there are people out there who live in tiny houses and have big families. In fact, my friend moved to a lovely, lovely area called castle rock colorado with a family of 7 and they have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and apparently they’re thriving! But, that isn’t us.

I need my space or I get a little antsy. So, for us 2700 square feet was our bare minimum. We also talked about what we were willing to compromise on as far as bedrooms and bathrooms. Two bathrooms seemed too small.

We agreed that our minimum in that area should be 3 full bathrooms (or the ability to create 3 full bathrooms). We also agreed that bare minimum should be five bedrooms with the ability to create more.

We were willing to compromise in some areas but not others. For instance, one of my longings was for a large laundry room and perhaps even 2 laundry rooms (it is my dream).

I also love large kitchens and place at the island for all the kids. Next on our list was a mudroom. We have so many bags, backpacks, shoes, boots, coats. You get the idea. Trying to store that by our front door is a bit of a nightmare.

Our old mudroom that we really loved (and used a lot!)

Also, over the years I began to really dislike open floor plans. What started out as seemingly a good idea, had turned out to become noisy and messy with this many kids.

I like enclosed spaces away from other people. I like having a quiet nook where there isn’t a television screen, where I can curl up with a good book. I also like cooking where I don’t have kids running through and creating chaos.

I don’t mind some open parts of the house, but the more “spaces” the better in my mind. I also realized, in my house looking, that too much open space with balconies can create chaos. What looks beautiful in pictures, causes issues when you add in 3 kids 5 and under.

Moving with a large family is a lot of work. Both my husband and I had mostly the same opinions in mind – but we wanted most of all was what was best for our family. While I say all that, rest assured that we knew we had to find a house and find one in a hurry. So, we were willing to compromise where we needed to.

The only thing my husband commented on as we walked through the first house was that he had measured the garage and it was big enough to house both of our vehicles (and we do have one really large van.) I walked up stairs and realized there were 5 bedrooms upstairs and 3 full bathrooms. Huge plus.

There was a laundry room upstairs and right next to it was walk-in closet that would be perfect for a family closet (for our younger kids).

I met up with my hubby upstairs who was really into this house.

We both liked the rather large mudroom that was right off the garage, too. I was worried the kitchen was too small for our needs and the yard wasn’t too big, either.

Because we needed to move on to our next house appointment, hubby asked me to quickly jot down some notes on what we really liked about the house and then we jumped in the car and made our way to the next house. Then the next house. And the next one.

There were several in a row that were a total no from the get go. We couldn’t even consider them once we saw them.

Two houses didn’t have fenced yards and they weren’t allowed to.

One of these houses had a large pond in the back yard.

Yikes. Not going to work with all these kids.

One of the house was filled with a smokey smell that would be terrible for my asthma.

What you can’t tell in the pictures, you can certainly tell when you walk through the doorway. That one was a glance at the realtor and then we headed back out the door.

Then there was a house that I really loved and my husband definitely did not. I still can’t quite figure out what he was seeing vs. what I was. But we moved on.

We saw one more that we both liked and would consider and one I absolutely LOVED.

It had a dream kitchen. It had land (about an acre.)

It was just a gorgeous layout and beautiful property. Everything had been renovated and updated.

It was at the higher end of our price range, though, and there was no way to make any extra bedrooms in the basement unless we tore out all the beautiful work that had been down down there.

There was also the problem that it was a smaller home than the first house we had seen. It was at the bottom end of what we wanted sizewise but also had less bedrooms with no option to expand them.

So we left, discussing our top two, essentially our first house and last house of the day.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of Our Big Move tomorrow! If you missed Part 1 of our series, please read it here.

08/15/2017

Our Big Move {Part 1: Moving with a Large Family}

Our Big Move

Part 1: Moving with a Large Family

Overwhelmed. Stressed. Exhausted. That was me for the majority of this year. It all started in late Spring when my husband accepted a job change that would move us half way across the country. We had been praying about my husband’s job for a few months. There were many closed doors but we knew that God was going to answer this prayer in His timing – not ours. In His way, not our way. We all knew there was a possibility of a move. We just didn’t know how far and how big.

Fun weekend. #exhaustedmommy #sevenkids #momlife #bigfamily #largefamily #momblogger #lifestyleblogger #mommyblogger

A post shared by Sasha Mills (@suchatimeasthisblog) on Apr 2, 2017 at 6:54am PDT

Even though we had prepared our hearts for this, it was so much more overwhelming than I realized it would be. I was trying to envision what the future would be with us packing, selling, purchasing a new house. I even had to look up how you were meant to be selling your home properly because it stressed me out so much. My mind would jump. What would people thing? Is my house nice? What house? Where? How would we find where we needed to be? Moving is hard. Moving with a large family at times feels impossible. With so many children and some with special needs it sent my mama bear instincts into overdrive. I wanted to do what was best for them – to make this a smooth transition. It wasn’t just selling my house that stressed me out, but looking at the house that I would move in to next freaked me out as well. I speak many hours looking up things online, feeling bewildered. You get so use to something that change can be hard. There were many things that I knew I had to look up. For example, I made sure to look at the energy provider that we would be using in our future home. I wanted to make sure that we got the cheapest provider and luckily a friend of mine recommended that I take a look at something like simplyswitch.com to make sure that I at least could save some money some where. That was only one small bit that made moving less stressful.

When you are Spring Cleaning with all 7 kiddos… stuffed animal anyone? I’m about to lose my mind. #momlife #momblogger #mommyblogger #largefamily #sevenkids #stuffedanimals #springcleaning

A post shared by Sasha Mills (@suchatimeasthisblog) on Mar 30, 2017 at 8:16am PDT

So, I entered survival mode. I took time off of social media. I took time off from blogging. I focused on narrowing our search for housing, schooling for our oldest son, and homeschooling opportunities. My older kids and I made a list of things we wanted and things we needed in a house. We brainstormed and came up with quite a bit of “wants”.

We poured over so many houses it boggles my mind. I had my kids in on this with me. They helped me look. They even vetoed a few and put some others on our “good” list. I realized that moving with kids especially moving with a large family requires to be patient AND to be diligent in the search. We wanted to make sure we were moving into a friendly neighbourhood because of having the seven children. We weren’t sure how we were going to find this out until we came across an online address lookup website which made this search easier than ever.

As the months went on we narrowed down the houses. All of this was happening while we were putting some of our stuff in a storage unit, staging our current home, selling other stuff online, homeschooling our kids, and making it through a lot of extra curricular events (my daughter’s first play, my first Sweet Adelines contest, the end of our co-op year…) So we kept pressing forward, but I felt like I was slowly sinking under the waves. It was hard to keep up with all that needed to be kept up with while maintaining a home in pristine condition (to show at any second) and parenting 7 kids.

My little girl in her very first play. So proud of her. #lifestyleblogger #mommyblogger #momlife #10yearsold

A post shared by Sasha Mills (@suchatimeasthisblog) on May 6, 2017 at 10:25am PDT

It was also hard for me to imagine us living anywhere but here. We had lived in that area for about 6 years but in that general area for nearly 20! North Carolina is where my kids call home and emotionally, although I felt like I would be ready for a move, I didn’t know if my kids were.

I’m sure I’m #nesting because my kitchen hasn’t looked this good in months! Yesterday I vacuumed, mopped, did laundry, did the dishes and organized our downstairs. I hope it stays this clean! #preggoproblems #9monthspregnant #37weekspregnant #kitchen #dreamkitchen #cleaning #largefamilyliving

A post shared by Sasha Mills (@suchatimeasthisblog) on Nov 27, 2016 at 5:29am PST

We pressed forward and put the house on the market, and we had showing, after showing, after frustrating showing. We found out some interesting things during this move. Apparently, our house has the wrong Feng Shui and is facing the “wrong” direction. Interestingly enough, that is why we didn’t get any offers or nibbles for months. At one point, I thought of changing our write up to state that this house has bad Feng Shui so if that is important to you, this isn’t the house for you. I didn’t though. I just took some deep breaths and prayed.

Meanwhile, we all tried to stay patient.

Even though I knew my husband and I had been praying for God’s will to be done, patience is something God is still working on in me. It is difficult to admit, but it doesn’t come easily for me. So we waited and we kept praying.

The day finally came to fly out to Chicago one late Spring day. We only brought our baby with us. We were ready to pick a house. We gave ourselves one day. ONE DAY. Yep, 24 hours to pick a house. We had narrowed down our list a million times over and finally settled on about a dozen homes that we would look at and put an offer on. We decided that we would have to move in 30 days so part of our hope was that whatever house we chose, the owners would be open to a quick close.

Part 2 of Our Big Move: Moving with a Large Family to be continued tomorrow…

08/11/2017

Chicago Baby Show – Free Tickets and Coupons

Chicago Baby Show Free Tickets & Coupons

So, a few weeks ago, I announced that my family and I just moved to Chicagoland. I’m so excited that tonight I get to share an opportunity with you! I’ve been invited to attend the 2017 Chicago Baby Show … and better yet, I have 10 tickets to give away to my readers!

The 2017 Chicago Baby Show, will be held on August 26 & 27 at Navy Pier. It will be part of the largest show series for new and expectant parents in the country. Built off the 7 years of success with our New York Baby Show and our inaugural LA Baby Show last year, no other event provides a better experience for thousands of expectant and new families from Chicagoland, seeking a family-friendly jamboree of top brands, great speakers and seminars, big giveaways, and lots of learning, support, bonding, and fun as you make your way into parenthood.

I’m so excited to see the vendors, the speakers, the classes, the reading rest stop, and the stroller test track! There is even a moms’ lounge plus giveaways!!!

Normal ticket price is $30 per family (for 2 adults and up to 4 children), and $20 per individual. Use the link below to register for your free tickets.

Click Here for Free Tickets!

Once those tickets are gone, please use this link to a 50% off coupon for your tickets!

Click Here for 50% off!

08/08/2017

How to Create a Powerful World War II Unit Study Your Kids Will Love

Create Your Own Charlotte Mason Homeschool

World War II Study for 5th-8th Grade

Last year I decided to do something kind of different. I decided to make my own unit study in replace of a boxed curriculum for my older kids. My 12 year old son really wanted to learn some more “modern history” and I decided it would be good to cover most of the 20th century. So, we started with a brief overview of World War I. We chose Story of the World as our history textbook which guided us through this time period.

After we read through World War I and the Great Depression we got to the background of what events happened and led up to World War II. From there, along with reading through Story of the World Volume 4, I chose some books that would bring this era of modern history to life.

I also added in some world geography in the form of mapwork and games. We read biographies and autobiographies. We read fiction and non-fiction alike. We immersed ourselves in the 1930s and 1940s.

We even studied some of science by reading about Albert Einstein. I want to share with you some resources so that you can also recreate a similar unit study that will suit your families needs.

Please remember that this is a difficult and dark subject, so obviously some kids will be more sensitive than others to the reading material. I was pregnant with our baby during much of our study and I will be honest…some of the books I just had to put right back down and I couldn’t get through at the time (especially Diary of Anne Frank). Please use your own discretion when choosing from the reading (and movie watching) list below. Some of the selections are better used for older, more mature students, or for those kids who aren’t sensitive to the material. Like I said, above, I chose selections that I felt were appropriate for the age ranges specified, but even in our household we didn’t use all the books because I found them profoundly sad. However, most of them we did use.

If you are homeschooling in the style of Charlotte Mason then be sure to add in copywork or dictation to fulfill your language arts (spelling and grammar). Some of our books were read-alouds and others were readers. I also chose to use a notebook and had the kids narrate in their journal by drawing pictures and retelling about different parts of what we read: retell biographies or certain aspects of the war – countries involved, leaders, etc.

One of my son’s favorite parts of the study was learning to play the game, “Axis and Allies”. He absolutely loves this game. It is simply a strategy game revolving around the main players in World War II. I found it to be a very complicated game, but he absolutely learned to play and loved it. We got the 1941 version but there are other versions available.

At the end of our school year I found that my kids had a very real knowledge of World War II. My son, especially, has a good grasp of who fought, who invaded where and when, what nations remained neutral, what the aftermath was, and what triggered the war for multiple sides. This is a very heavy and complex subject, so I’m very happy that we chose to do a Charlotte Mason-esque style of study to teach them this information.

Read on for a full book list to create a homeschool World War II Study.