Author Archives: Honey

About Honey

Honey is a homeschooling mama of five amazing children. She and her husband Jonah run Sunflower Schoolhouse together. She provides the content and he provides the technical support. Please see the About for more information.

6 Ways To Make Time For Everyone

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creating family memories

There are challenges in every family and I have noticed that one of the things I really have to work hard at is finding that special one on one time with each child. With some of the children it is easier than with others. I have a few that will come and snuggle when they know they need it, but I have others who don't know how to ask for what they need.

I have been thinking a lot about how to meet the needs of each of the children and how to balance the attention that is going around. I am learning to make sure that the time spent with each child is meaningful and the proper fuel for their love tank.

Here is what I am learning:

  1. Know their interests
  2. Know how they receive love
  3. Be creative
  4. Do things that are important to them
  5. Make eye contact
  6. Tie heart strings

1. Know Their Interests

I really need to know the interests of each of my children. To do this, I need to pay attention to them. Close attention. I have a few of my kids nailed down on their interests, but there are others that I need to watch more closely to figure them out.

2. Know How They Receive Love

I need to observe them and watch the things that make them happy. How does each child best receive love? What actions on my part will help to fill their love tank through out the day? This is no easy task when you have five completely different children.

3. Be Creative

I tend to have all these amazing ideas in my head and they just float around in there. I need to take the time to be creative with the kids and not just leave all those fabulous ideas in my head because that really doesn't benefit anyone up there.

4. Do Things That Are Important To Them

The most meaningful moments spent with my children are when I drop everything do the things that are important to them. I have to watch for moments and I need to do more of this.

5. Make Eye Contact

Eye contact is so important. I need to make the effort to look each child in the eye and connect with them as many times a day as possible. Life moves so fast around here sometimes that the answers are quick and it's all a blur (we are working on slowing down around here - we need to move to the countryside).

6. Tie Heart Strings

heart strings

I am feeling the need to tie a few more heartstrings with each of my children these days. Take moment and read a post that I wrote a long time ago for The Mob Society, Trying Their Heartstrings. Hint: there are more crazy pictures. 

It is an interesting journey exploring each of my children and thinking about the best way to meet their needs. Each child is so unique and different that it can sometimes be difficult to pinpoint the best way to connect with them, but I have found different ways to connect with each of my them. It is a daily process making sure that each child has what they need from me.

It can be so easy to go through the motions and just tending to the day as it unfolds, but I am trying to be more purposeful about my interactions with each child, so that no one slips through the cracks and ends up with an empty love tank. It can be easy to get swept up in the drama of the child with autism or the whiny three year old and miss something very important in one of the others.

Making time for everyone in a large family is not easy, but there is grace, loads of it for the times when I mess up or fall short.

How do you make sure each of your children gets what they need from you everyday?

I am linking this post up with Hip Homeschool Moms.

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Pantry Challenge, Good Soups, And Menu Plan Mondays

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Large Family Good Eats

What are you feeding your family this week? 

We have a busy week ahead of us, so it was important to me that I take the time to figure out what our food was going to be for the week. This post is how I hashed all of that out. Come along for the ride.

Pantry Challenge

I was realizing tonight that I need to dig through the pantry and freezer and figure out what food we actually have and think about ways to use it up.

We tend to shove stuff in the freezer and forget about it. Note to self: label bags before you put them in the freezer.

Does anyone know what kind of pen works on a bag that is going in the freezer?

I stumbled onto this post recently about a pantry challenge and decided that it was just what we needed, mostly to clean out the freezer, fridge, and pantry. I went to the blog tonight to read the post while I was writing this post and discovered there is only one day left in the pantry challenge (here is the Pantry Challenge Log). It was still inspiring to me.

There is more stuff in the freezers, pantry, and fridge but these are the things that stood out to me (other stuff could very well have been hiding).

Freezer here I come:

  • box of sausages
  • bag of cooked sausages
  • 3 bags of shaved roast
  • pork chops
  • 2 bags of falafels (Do they go with tzatziki sauce?)
  • 1 bag of corn
  • 1 bag of peas
  • bag of chicken patties (that no one likes, ugh)
  • 2 boxes of tart shells
  • several litres of cream
  • random bags of weird food

Pantry organization is on its way. The shelves are looking messy and the food needs to be arranged in some kind of logical manners which shouldn't take too long. Okay, the organizing will wait until tomorrow, I need to get this post finished.

Pantry here I come:

  • several bottles of salad dressing (Ranch, 1000 Islands, Caesar)
  • 4 boxes of stuffing
  • several bags of rice
  • potatoes
  • giant cans (4L each) or grapefruit, olives, tomatoes, carrots, etc.
  • random bags and bottles of strange things
And last but not least, I peaked in the fridge and found some goodies that are still edible. Yes, I need to clean that out, it's about that time.
Fridge here I come:
  • a large turnip
  • a large cabbage
  • onions (I know they don't belong in there, but I didn't put them in there)
  • sour cream
  • tzatziki sauce (Oh, let's buy or make some pitas.)
  • and the usual or unusual condiments (HP Sauce, Ketchup, Mayo, Mustard, etc)

Soups For Lunch

We have figured out breakfast, but that is another post (coming soon). I would love to incorporate more soups into our lunch menu. My friend Tonya wrote an awesome series about 10 Days Of Warm Winter Soups. They look so yummy. I even started a Soup Pinboard on Pinterest.

Speaking of Pinterest (you are on Pinterest, right?)

You can check out some of my food related boards on Pinterest:

Menu Plan Monday

Now on to the actual planning... it is Menu Plan Monday after all. In random order, here are some of the meals we will be eating this week.

  • Breakfast Skillet: Roast Beef, Onions, Potatoes
  • Pita Bread with Tzatziki Sauce
  • Pork Chops with Rice and Corn
  • Roast Beef, Onions, Rice, And Peas
  • Falafel with Tzatziki Sauce - Still not sure if that is a good idea or not?
  • Roast Beef, Onions, Turnip, and Cabbage

I am linking up with the Pantry Challenge, and Menu Plan Monday.

Don't forget to check out Tonya's Soup Recipes too.

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Kid Funny

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Dad and the kids were playing Creationary and I over heard this...

Dad: What is prickly and green and lives in the desert?

Kid: A horned toad?

(actual answer - a cactus)

It may not sound funny, but it was funny because what daddy created clearly looked like a cactus. I guess you had to be there.

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Bedtimes Past

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creating family memories

In a recent post, Crafting A Bedtime Routine That Works, I wrote about the bedtime routine with the twins. The Tadey shared a comment about her dream bedtime and how it wasn't happening the way she would like.

I don't want any of you to think that we haven't and don't have our struggles, so I will share more of our bedtime story.

Elisha is our oldest and he has autism and ADHD. For several years he would be awake until 11pm and up at 4am. Not only would he be up early, but he would be horribly demanding for food and wake up the entire house. He could not occupy himself at all. Thankfully, he has improved greatly in this area.

Now Elisha stays up late and can be a bit annoying as we are trying to get the little people to bed, but for the most part he can get himself ready for bed and isn't too much of a bug in the morning.

Elisha has his own room. Moses, Malachi, and Zion share a room. Hosanna has her own room, but spends most of her time in our bed (we are working hard to move her to her own room again).

Moses had a rough start. As a young baby he had severe rashes all over, but mostly on his face. He would wake screaming and needed cream and medication round the clock. Moses thankfully outgrew his rashes, but still has some allergies. He is now one of my better sleepers. He gets tired early and puts himself to bed. He really needs his sleep or he gets cranky.

Malachi has always been one of my better sleepers. He has been known to just curl up somewhere and go to sleep. He really values his snuggle time with me and always tries to use that card to stay up just a wee bit longer (and I usually give in). One time we even lost him because he curled up in a pile of blankets on my bedroom floor. We looked everywhere and couldn't find him and he was sound asleep all cozy.

When the twins were little babies they slept in the same bassinet. When they were a bit bigger they shared a crib. The the twins moved to their own cribs and from there they went to their own room.

The twins moved on to big beds much earlier than I would have liked because they managed to pull all of the stuffing out of their crib mattresses in one day during nap time.

Zion has always been a pretty good sleeper, but Hosanna has had trouble with her skin since she was a little baby. She gets really itchy when she is tired. She had severe eczema over much of her body for a long time. It has significantly improved since she was a babe (mostly her ankles and random other spots now).

We spent a great amount of time during her first year of life visiting the doctor, the ped, the allergist, the dermatologist, getting blood work and a variety of tests. Needless to say she has not been the greatest sleeper. She is often itchy at night and wakes fussing and unable to get back to sleep (without nursing), but even that is improving.

Sleep has been an off and on issue in our house. We have never had a decent bedtime routine that we have been able to keep consistently. I am a night owl and need time to myself to sort out my brain before I go to bed. Thankfully, right now we don't have any early risers.

The reason I shared about our bedtime routine was because inside I felt like it was a small victory. We finally had something that I had always wanted for our house. Something is still missing though, I want to have a more involved bedtime for the bigger boys, but I am not sure exactly how to make that happen. I need to put the big boys to bed around the same time as the twins because if I don't the twins get woken up.

After the last post I felt great that I had this new found bedtime routine with the twins, but I also felt a wee bit sad that the big boys were excluded from that. They probably wouldn't enjoy that routine, but I am sure they would enjoy some kind of routine with us. I am thinking about this and will let you know if I come up with something that works for our family.

I made this list of things to do in the morning a couple of years ago when the kids were a bit younger. It helped some at the time.

Ideas are welcome if you have any. How does sleep happen (or not happen) at your house?

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Sleep Of The Mama

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This was written some night last week. No, I don't remember the date, but I could check the email I sent myself from the iPad if you really want to know.

On with the story...

With my head on my pillow and my eyes closed tight, I try desperately to find sleep. On one side of me is my snoring husband enjoying his slumber and on the other is Zion, whimpering and whining because his cough is making him feel yucky. Hosanna is sandwiched between my husband and I, sprawled all over the bed, and her one desire is to have more nummies, but we are trying hard to wean. I try to redirect her back to sleep and it actually works.

My eyes are closed, but my head is full of thoughts. Lists of things to do tomorrow dance in my head. I suppose that I could count the lists instead of sheep? It is my own fault hat I am wide awake. I fell asleep for three hours while nursing the twins to sleep. I was so tired that I totally crashed and now sleep is alluding me.

Tired of trying to sleep, I crept quietly out of the room to find some place uninhabited by sleeping children and typed this on the iPad. The iPad is surprisingly quiet to type with, thankfully. As I found my secret night writing spot, I was greeted by Tizzie needing some late night tummy scratching. I give the kitty some needed attention and she moves on as usual.

Now that this post is out of my head, maybe I will find sleep? (Actually, I went on to draft 6 more posts). How is sleep at your house these days?

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