Wonderful Wintertime Waterfall

We have been blessed with a beautiful waterfall in our "backyard", well about 100 yards from the back of our house. I'm guessing as I am really bad at judging distances.

My nephew snapped this picture with his phone and forwarded it to me.

Thought it would be helpful to see a comparison picture of the waterfall in the summer to give you a better perspective. It can be from 4-7ft deep where the water is splashing down. But it reaches wading depth pretty quickly.

Isn't it beautiful!?! We really are blessed.

Dozen People- ONE Bathroom!

The most asked question we get when we are out as a family is "Are they ALL yours!?!" Then it is usually followed by "you must have a HUGE house. How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you have?".

Answer: No, not a huge house and we have 4 bedrooms, one bathroom.

We really don't think too much of it but it was a little bit ridiculous last Sunday as we were trying to get ready for church. Let me first say there are reasons I only take showers (NO BATHS).

1. The pipe drips into the laundry room on the clean clothes only when the water is sitting in the tub for a bath. (Consequently everyone takes showers for the most part... unless special permission is given)
2. With 10 kids who has time to take a bath!
   
3. Contrary to what others might think, I do NOT like labor. I pretty much only take baths during labor, and so if I try to take a bath the whole labor and delivery process becomes first and foremost in my mind. Not exactly a "calgon take me away kind of moment.
4. While laying in the bathtub another thing becomes glaringly apparent... there is some staining that can only be noticed at eye level while laying in the tub.
   
5. What is really nice about taking a shower is that the running water drowns out the sounds that are going on in the rest of the house. The rule used to be "if there isn't a fire and you aren't bleeding (like need to go to the ER kind of bleeding) then don't bother me.. But as the family has grown the reality is there is just isn't enough time in the morning to get teeth brushed, showers done, hair combed etc. SO... THIS was my shower last Sunday:
   

(Note: there is a non see through fabric shower curtain for apparent reasons)

I here the door quietly open and peek out to see Ella. Well I better let her stay in because she can be disastrous if no one is watching her.

Knock knock

Me: "Who is it"

Child?: "me"

Me: "Me who?"

Child?: "Mitch, I need to brush my teeth"

Me: (sighing) "Come in but make it fast"

knock knock

Mitch: "who is it"

Josh: "I need to brush my teeth"

Mitch: "I'm already in here"

Josh: "I don't care" pushes open door and comes in.

knock knock

Amanda: "Liam needs to get a shower. I'll undress him and hand him in to you"

Me: SIGH again as Amanda enters the bathroom, and uses the toilet as a chair to sit and get the baby ready to come into the shower.

Anyone counting how many children are in this bathroom at this point? FIVE!

I hear the door open and shut and am assuming the bathroom now has one less child only to find one more walked in. Josiah doesn't want to miss any interesting conversation so he has joined us too.

ME: "there are SIX kids in the bathroom" Now yelling sarcastically, "Any other children out there that aren't in the bathroom?!?"

CALEB: (my dear obedient thoughtful yet very literal child) "Here I am mom" as he enters the bathroom.

I start half yelling and half laughing: "This is ridiculous....there are SEVEN kids in here! EVERYONE OUT!"

Mitch: "not fair, I was here first! well sort of"

Now I know some of you are wondering how big our bathroom is... thinking it must be one of those spacious luxurious master baths. Ready for this... it is 6'x8'. Thats it! I don't know how anyone managed to brush their teeth without it feeling like a football game.

I don't know how they all fit in there but they did it somehow.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel though. We have a new bathroom planned for the addition. In fact it is almost plumbed but we can't go forward until the inspector comes. Right now the new bathroom is holding all the kids clothing in baskets on a shelving system in hopes of having a bathroom, laundry room, changing room all together.

Oh joy of joys... a second bathroom... a quiet shower....could it be possible? Time will tell. I am silently wondering though if the second bathroom won't be finished until 1/2 the children have moved out of the house. LOL (ok.. David just kidding in case you happen to read this). And I know that in another 20 years I will probably miss episodes like this one.

Sneak peek

Thought I would share before and after shots periodically of decorating or cleaning projects. Reality is that our house is close to 1700sq ft. Hypothetically if 12 people left out 5 things each hour you could easily have over 600 things out of place by the end of the day. SIGH Here is a typical cycle of cleaning in our house:

This is the before picture of our living room full of sick kids and items that have accumulated on the floor etc

And here it is after an hour or so of sorting.

I'm not crazy about the toys sitting behind the couch in full view as people enter the house. Any ideas on storing toys in a way that is accessible to the toddlers and still orderly looking? Funny question, as this is a new blog that no one reads :)

And most shocking of all...this is less than 24 hours later. UGH! Now in fairness, Mitchell has been working on laundry and that activity always seems to breed more chaos in the room.








A portion of Mt Neverest (aka laundry) has been conquered for the day.... this is our laundry folding couch.






Now if I get really brave I will give you a sneak peek into our laundry area/clothes room. But I don't think any of us are quite ready for that yet.