Dear Skippy and Janet,

Skippy asks:  What will be the final division of kidlets between how many bedrooms when you are finished? And will you and Mr. Man have your own room?

Legally, we will have four bedrooms, but we will be using the living room in the old mobile as a bedroom too, so we will have five (illegal...lol) bedrooms.  The division of the kidlets will be as follows; in the new mobile the two oldest girls will share a room, My Man and I will take the master bedroom.  I had to really, really think on that one.  Is it fair for he and I to take the master bedroom when kids (more than two) would be sharing rooms?  In the end I decided that yes, it was fair.  My room is never just my room, the kids love to come hang out in my space and it will be the perfect place to put a computer for the older kids to do school work where it is quiet.  Besides, our king size bed wouldn't fit in the little bedroom without little more than a small path around it.  Baby Man still sleeps with me, and I figure he will be staying for a few more months.  The third bedroom will go to the three little people (The Rose, JoJo and G-Man) and during the week Dawsy will be in there too.  He's only nine and still needs a little more attention and supervision, plus I'm afraid he will get picked on too much if he's in with the older boys all of the time. 

In the old mobile Columbus will get his own room, and then the living room will be shared by Einstein and Sugar King, and on the weekends Dawsy can sleep over so that he can still be part of the boy club.  I'm not sure what to think about so many boys by themselves.  On one hand I think that they will do fine, on the other I imagine late night wrestling and the stench of an uncleaned locker room - time will tell, right?  Who am I kidding - we all know what's going to happen.  The best I can do is to close my eyes for most of it and then when it gets unbearable yell and carry on enough to scare them into kinda cleaning up their act....until next time......lol.

I plan to hang a sheet between the living room and kitchen and then use the kitchen area for storage.  One of the many exciting things about this whole thing is that we can get rid of our household storage unit - getting our stuff back and eliminating another monthly bill - woo-hoo!!

Janet asks:  I remember that some of your older children are helping with the meals. I am interested to hear how you have managed to run a family of 12 while doing all that work on the new house. Heck, I can't imagine how you manage it all on a regular day to day basis.

Janet, I think that both My Man and I would say that it's felt like a massive juggling act.  On a good day we both feel stretched thin in meeting our daily requirements, and then when a project like this comes along it really stretches us.  At times it's been stressful and tense, and at other times we've felt great pride - it just depends on the day.  We try really hard to balance it all.  If I don't cook dinner one night, then I try to make sure I do the next, so that it's not just night after night of kids cooking grilled cheese sandwiches. 

I've taken the kids swimming most every day that the weather allowed, because I normally do, and because during times like this it's even more important that they get some time - from me, and to burn off that extra energy and just be kids.

Cleo has been the one watching Baby Man the whole time I have been working.  It's easy to praise Columbus when I can show what's he's done, but really, I couldn't have done any of this without Cleo's help.  She has a fantastic spirit that is always eager to help and she never complains.  None of the kids have complained.  When you come from losing so much, a gift like this is just that - a gift, and even if we have to put into it and work for it, we all see the huge value it will have in making our lives better, so much better.


The last month has been a work in progress and much of the time it's felt like controlled chaos, at best, but it's worth it and we all know it.  There is one post that I wrote and never published and it was from one of the harder days - the kids have tested the limits of not being supervised and My Man and I have had words here and there - we're human and we're not perfect, but overall we do like we always do - regroup and move on.  Other than that - we just take it one day at a time, plan as best we can, and then accept that plans change (like I thought we'd be moved in by the end of July).  When people used to ask me how I did it I would tell them it's a labor of love, now that the kids are older I tell them that I don't do it all by myself.

This whole experience has really been awesome and there have been so many great lessons for all of us.  It has been another opportunity for us to work together as a team, see our weaknesses and then learn and grow together.  We also have the benefit of knowing who and how this gift came to be, and trust me when I say that none of us will ever forget it and it has changed the core of each of us and our outlook on life and people.  This has got to be one of the single most profound things that has ever, or will ever, happen to any of us.

Today's Progress

I got the rest of the hall painted.  Some of it still needs a second coat, but I ran out of paint, which is really a bummer because I only need a little teeny tiny bit more!

I got the hall ceiling painted - I can now check the ceiling off my list of things to do:)

We got the second coat of paint on - This room will be done once My Man puts in the carpet.

I want some shelves in the space where we took out the closet....there's a ton of storage space there!

My Man wants me to go to The World's Longest Yard Sale with him tomorrow - I told him I would.  Normally, I would be all excited to go, but this year I'd rather get the mobile done.  But, we'll have fun and maybe I'll find some curtains, though I can't remember what we have in storage, so I hate to buy anything if I don't know if we really need it or not, and I can't think of anything else we need.....maybe I'll find something worth some money on Ebay, making money makes me feel as good as saving money:)