Diaper Bag Simplified

Not too long ago, whenever I thought of going anywhere, I had to re-think my diaper bag. I had to pack extra outfits, pajamas, multiple sizes of diapers, etc. for all of my toddlers! They’re a little older now, so it’s not as complicated. But still… the system needed some improvement!

This year, I’ve adopted a new system that I LOVE! It works wonderfully for us.

I currently have 3 potty-trained children, 1 almost potty-trained, and 1 in diapers. The four older children rarely need anything from the diaper bag.

So what I’ve started doing is packing a few necessities in my cross-body purse and then  I have a well-stocked diaper bag that I keep under the seat in the van.

In my purse, I keep:

• An outfit for the baby
• 3 diapers + wipes
• Nursing cover
• Baby toy

And it’s as simple as that! To head out the door, I just check to see if I need to add a couple of diapers and I’m good to go!

In my larger diaper bag, I keep:

• Plenty of size 3 & 4 diapers
• A few swim diapers
• Large tub of wipes
• Basic outfit and underwear for 4 youngest children
• 3 sun hats
• Changing pad
• Sunscreen
• Bug spray
• Band-aids and triple antibiotic ointment
• Arnica gel
• Couple of plastic bags

Since we rarely use the outfits and I start out with a bunch of diapers, I don’t check this diaper bag very often at all. And I love leaving it in the van –  one less thing to cart around or forget!

It works great for all of the spontaneous adventures we go on as a family! 🙂

Farmhouse Outdoors

This summer, we have been able to nearly finish the outdoor work on our 1.3 acre property! It’s been so rewarding to see it come together. When we bought the property, it looked like this…

Over the years, we’ve done lots of clean-up! Last summer is when we really started making improvements to the exterior of our property.

We put a new roof on…

Tore down this little deck and removed the French doors, replaced them with 2 windows, stuccoed the foundation and painted the shutters and trim…

Tore off the old deck, built a new one, framed in the one car garage, and installed new exterior doors…

We had a basketball court that had a 8-ft chain link fence surrounding it. The whole area was very overgrown with trees intertwined in the fencing. It had to go!

Trent tore it all out and we had several tri-axles of gravel delivered to re-do our driveway.

This summer, we painted our porch, stained the front steps, landscaped around the house, and painted our doors!

Here are some Before & After photos…

The Front of the House…

The Side Yard…

The Back Yard…

The South Side of the House…

Driveway…

And a few more pictures from around our property…

It feels SO good to be almost finished with outdoor projects! It’s been a long road and it’s very rewarding to enjoy the fruit of our labors. It’s a great place to raise our family. 🙂

Of Fathers & Sons

Boys need their Daddy. Sons need their Father.

Truman is our only son surrounded by 4 sisters. While he doesn’t have a brother, he has the most engaged father a boy could ever want! Trent takes Truman with him all the time. Being self-employed, he can take him to jobs. And Truman just loves it!

They work hard together and they play hard together! I am so thankful to have a husband who is interested in training and raising up our son to be a MAN.

Truman is a very contented boy when he’s with Trent. He’ll be with him hours upon hours without complaining. We have very limited toys and we encourage creativity and their imaginations by not having them play with any devices, video games, etc. I believe this cultivates contentment.

He’s a hard worker and thrives being with his Daddy.

They have been fishing a lot this year. Truman landed his own huge fish the other day! It’s amazing for me to see our son casting and reeling in his line all on his own.

He’s already talking about hunting season coming up this fall! Whenever Trent wakes Truman up early to go hunting or fishing, Truman always comes and gives me a hug in bed before he leaves. I love it. 🙂 Trent is teaching him well!

Road trip to go pick up a boat…

And of course real men have to stop at Bass Pro Shop.

Sleeping under the stars…

A couple a months ago, I called Truman to come in for his resting time. He was working.  I told him that he needed some rest. He replied, “But I put in a 15 hour day the other day!” And he had. 🙂 He’s a trooper!

First time golfing together…

I’m so thankful for Trent and Truman’s time together Making memories, developing work ethic, teaching him skills, cultivating character, and having a lot of fun at the same time!

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

For a few years, I avoided making cookies because I couldn’t achieve consistent results. They tended to get thin and crunchy around the edges – which I didn’t prefer. I like soft and chewy cookies!  I have mastered this recipe and the results come out wonderful every time, so I thought I’d share this recipe!

If you can count on a recipe, it simplifies your life! 🙂

We like our cookies fresh, so I have started baking a few cookies when I make the dough and then roll the rest into cookie dough balls and freeze them. This has come in handy so many times.  Trent and I love to be hospitable and it’s kind of been a tradition to make fresh chocolate chip cookies for guests and serve them with coffee or milk.

Chocolate Chip-Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cups uncooked quick oats

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Gradually add sugars, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until yellow disappears after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Stir in oats and chocolate chips. Drop by slightly-heaping tablespoonfuls (with a measuring spoon) onto un-greased light baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 3 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Yield: about 6-1/2 dozen.

Hint: The trick with these is not over baking. Remove from oven when they still look doughy in the center, but are lightly golden on the edges. Allowing them to cool on baking sheets for 3 minutes actually bakes the center.

To Freeze: Roll slightly-heaping tablespoons of dough into balls. Place on a baking sheet and freeze. Once frozen, place into a freezer bag. To bake, place frozen cookie dough balls on baking sheet while you preheat the oven. Bake for about 11 minutes or until slightly golden on the edges. Remove from oven. Leave cookies on pan for 3 more minutes to finish baking.

Now off to enjoy some cookies and coffee!

The Children’s Room

One thing that I like about our house is that it isn’t super large! I tend to thrive on the challenge of making things work and utilizing the space that we do have. It’s less stressful for me than having a bunch of extra space to clean or to store un-necessary stuff. Our 4 oldest children currently share a bedroom.

Baby Kyndle sleeps in the pack ‘n play in our bedroom.

Their bedroom started out looking like this…

During our first phase of renovation, we tore out the water-damaged paneling, got rid of the mold, insulated, replaced the paneling and painted the room.

 

This is what it looked like when we moved in.

Here is how we had it arranged when we had two children in there.

We moved out for 1 year (which I will have to write about later). But before we moved back, we did phase 2 renovation on this room.

We freshened up the wall and trim paint, installed a galvanized metal ceiling, ceiling fan and track lighting, painted and distressed the dresser and a set of bunk beds, and built shelving in the closet.

Now we have 4 children in this room. With having a full-size bed on the bottom bunk, it sleeps 5. Under the cribs, I have a tote for each child’s shoes. Under the bunk, I have two large totes. One houses all of their swim suits, hats, and gloves. The other holds random other baby gear that isn’t used on a frequent basis.

One thing that simplifies their room is having no comforters on their beds. I figured that they’d end up on the floor anyway, or I’d have to help them make their beds every day. We’ll work on that when they are older! 🙂 They each have a couple of smaller blankets that they use for warmth in their beds.

I will confess that I did clean their room before I took these pictures!

The closet holds the 4 oldest children’s clothes. I hang up almost everything – which has worked so well! The girls each have 1 drawer in the blue dresser for shorts/pants/skirts and they share a pajama drawer. The large drawer houses their blankets. Truman stores his pajamas, pants and shorts in the plastic drawers behind the door.

This is all of their clothes for ALL SEASONS. They each have about 2-1/2′ of closet space. I really like hanging up their clothes. The children can help put them on hangers, the clothes look nicer being hung up, and I can easily find clothing instead of digging through dresser drawers. (*I do wish I had straightened up their closet before taking these pictures!)

The lower closet shelf holds drawers for socks, underwear, and tights. Our 2 diapers bags are stored their too. The top self has our baby scale, diapers/wipes, and a couple of extra bags.

It won’t be too long before Baby Kyndle moves in!

 

A Day at the Lake

Yesterday, we charted new waters as a family!

Last week, we purchased a lot at a private lake about 30 minutes from our house. This gives us access to the lake for boating, skiing, fishing, tubing, etc. Trent loves to fish and we’ve purchased a couple of boats over the past year; so it works out great to have a lake nearby.

The lake had a fireworks show last night, so we thought we’d try out boating with the children before the show. We were both a little nervous about how it would go taking 5 little ones out on a boat, but we were surprised with how well it went!

 

The night before, everyone tried on their life jackets and we went out to the boat. We assigned everyone’s seats and practiced going from the front of the boat to their assigned seats and vice versa.

We laid the children down for early naps before we went; but without success! So we set out nap-less! We arrived at the lake around 3:00pm, launched the boat, and cruised the lake for a bit. I’d never seen the lake from the water, and it was beautiful.

We anchored down in a shady spot and ended up staying their for a few hours. It was so relaxing. Trent took the 4 older children swimming, tried a little fishing, and we did a substantial amount of snacking!

Eden and Kyndle took a nap…

The speed boat is a special one. It is the one that my Grandma had for as long as I can remember. I rode on this boat with my cousins over 4th of July vacation every year, learned how to ski behind it and tubed behind it as well. My Grandma passed away last year, and we bought the boat. It’s fun to now make memories with our children, the next generation, on the same boat!

We pulled the boat out of the water, headed over to the playground for a bit, and then watched the firework show sitting in the boat (on the trailer!)

By this point, everyone was exhausted! We got everyone home around 11pm, tucked them all in bed, and got all of our gear put away before crashing into bed ourselves!

Trent and I felt so good about our day! I really tried to relax and not stress about having them all out on a boat. If I would have been tense, it would have changed the whole tone of the day.

We packed plenty of sandwiches & snacks, drinks, life jackets, 4 bath towels, sunscreen, bug spray, diapers & wipes. We also packed an old flat queen size sheet. This worked awesome for a picnic blanket. It felt cooler than a blanket, was large, and didn’t take up much space. I’ll be using it as our picnic blanket in the future!

We had also packed a change of clothes and sweatshirts for everyone. But we left those on the truck. Everyone wore just their swimsuits on the boat. It was super nice not having to worry about anyone getting their clothes wet and we didn’t have random articles of clothing strewn everywhere.

I loved having a “vacation-type” day without a whole lot of packing and prepping.

It was actually quite simple.

What made the day so nice was that Trent and I were really thriving as a team, in love, and no stress. That’s what the children will remember. Having Mommy and Daddy happy, engaged, enjoying each other, and enjoying them.

And all the money in the world can’t buy that!