We 4 Moms were doing Q&A sessions every 4th Thursday of the month, but the last one was a special LFL edition so it’s been 2 months since we had a regular old-fashioned Q&A. Since I’ve totally lost track of whether I had any old questions waiting for answers, I posted on Facebook asking what you wanted to know. The responses are below.
Kimberly Harris-Dill wants to know what to save.
Kimberly, I made a deal with my kids yesterday. Every day that they can fill the trunk of the car with donations for the thrift store, I will go drop off the donations and bring back 44 oz. cherry limeades from Sonic.
If you’re starting to think you asked the wrong person, you might be right.
But we do try to thin our belongings regularly. Having limited space forces us to live a little on the lean side, and we quickly begin to drown in stuff if we don’t stay on top of it.
When it comes to saving things for sentimental value – which is where I think your original question was pointed – we do a lot of photos and blogging, and save most of our memories that way. Our sentimental stuff is mainly in cyberspace and in our heads. We talk about memories and simply don’t feel the need for a lot of physical props.
Paperwork is easy too: nearly everything can be saved digitally if you suspect you might need it someday. Just scan it or even take a digital photo and save it somewhere safe. We use Dropbox a lot, but I’ve recently started using Catch on my phone (love the ability to tag!), and many people find Evernote addictive. All 3 options work both on the web and on mobile devices. All 3 are free and there are endless alternatives if none of those is your cup of tea.
Clothes are more difficult. We have 2 big obstacles: one is our hard water. It’s very difficult to remove spots and stains, so clothes don’t last nearly as long as I feel they should. It’s not practical for us to reduce to just a few outfits per child because in 3 weeks they would have nothing presentable. The other obstacle is that someone smaller always needs your castoffs. I can’t just give away the things they outgrow because there’s always somebody who will need them in a year or two. Can you guess what we’re overflowing with here? It’s not paperwork, photos, or toys.
Caroline Allen asks, How to keep a house clean when your house is on the market? Just kidding, I’m running around like crazy getting ready for a showing. The house is a mess, we haven’t had a showing in a few weeks!
I’m wondering if this is the Caroline Allen aka The Modest Mom, but it’s not my turn to ask questions.
Caroline, my answer would be to keep the house. See? Problem solved. Duct tape could provide an interesting alternative, but we used to be friends with a police officer who got in trouble for inappropriate use of duct tape so maybe not a great idea…
Jen Ballaro is wondering, But- what do you do with all your shoes?
Jen, maybe we should have called our blog Life Under Shoes, or Life Among Shoes. We have 4 teen daughters with 2 more fast approaching that age. Our shoes are overrunning us. Megan just took a quick count, and we have well over 100 pairs of shoes. That’s not counting the bag of shoes I dropped off at the thrift store yesterday.
We keep them in shoe cubbies
, on over-the-door shoe racks
, and in shoe baskets in the closet. I just realized if we started sleeping in shoes we could get by with storage space for 12 less pairs. Don’t worry; we’re not that desperate. Not yet.
Kimberly Malone Hardaway asks, How do you discipline/teach your toddlers? My 1-year-old does not respond to the word no (probably because his sisters say it to him 100 times a day). When I try to discipline him, he just smiles and laughs. He’ll even spank his own little hand and laugh. Can’t wait until this little guy can finally understand English!
Kimberly, your toddler can learn to respond to the word no when it comes from you, no matter how many times his sisters say it to him. The sooner he learns this lesson, the better – and he is plenty old!
If he smiles and laughs at you, you’ll need to communicate better. He needs to clearly understand that you are not playing with him. Use a firmer voice, and if you are smacking his hand, smack it harder.
I don’t know what your particular struggle is with your guy, but I have posted about a few specific toddler training issues in the past:
- Blanket training revisited
- Babbling babies in church
- Children in church
- Training the will
- Helping a baby sleep through the night
Lana Celmer (whose father baptized me and my sibs, lo, these many long years ago) wants to know, Do your kids ask to visit friends as often as my tiny family? I only have 3 kids, 11yr old Boy, 8 year old girl an 2 year old boy. My kids seem to be pretty?lonely? lacking in playmates.
Lana, ours don’t ask very often. This is partly because they understand that gas costs money, so we live a very home-centered life. But I think it’s also because they have built-in playmates at home the way some people have built-in bookcases.
In spite of the fact that we don’t go a’visitin’ very often, we do plenty of socializing. We host a fellowship every Tuesday, attended by large families with children of nearly every age. Our church also has a fellowship meal after the service every Sunday, so the kids get plenty of time to visit with friends and acquaintances. Perry and some of the older 6 have been playing soccer every Saturday with people from church and the community. The girls love to ride to town with their dad so they can go help other mothers who are recovering from childbirth, surgery, or just have their hands full and enjoy the company of a happy, helpful teen. And because Perry works at a very family-friendly company, the children take turns going to work with him.
Our kids are quite possibly the most socialized homeschoolers ever.
That’s not to say they never ask. I have siblings just the ages of my 4 oldest children, and they have been best friends since birth, so they love to visit their aunts and uncles at Grandma’s house. My brother lives nearby with his wife and 3 children, just the ages of 3 of my middle/younger children, so they are always excited to get together with cousins. We’ve been getting together every week for a long lunch date.
For the most part, they are surrounded by friends and very satisfied with the busy social life they lead, and I think being part of a larger-than-average family has contributed to this.
Lindsey Page England asks, Do your kids attend pool parties, slumber parties, sleepovers, etc.? If yes – How do you handle gift giving and the siblings who aren’t invited?
Lindsay, we don’t do slumber parties or sleepovers, and the people in our circles don’t seem to do birthday parties with any regularity so this isn’t something we’ve had to deal with often. However, we wouldn’t have a problem with allowing just a few children to attend a party for their friends, while those who weren’t invited stayed home. If it was older children with their own money, they would buy the gift. For younger ones, we would “help,” which might or might not mean picking up the entire bill. Quite honestly, the gas would cost more than the gift anyway since we live far outside town.
and Cindy Dyer is just plain sweet: I’ve been reading you for so long you’ve already answered pretty much all of my questions.
Cindy, I love you.
Do you have questions for our next Q&A? Leave your question in the comments on this post, or to improve my chance of finding your question, wait for the Facebook request for questions next month.
The other moms are answering questions too:
Upcoming topics for 4 Moms:
- September 29 – {surprise}
- October 6 – Keeping up with housework in the midst of homeschooling
Recent topics:
- September 1 - 4 Moms practice patience in the midst of chaos
- September 8 - 4 Moms make lunch for the menfolk {linky}
- September 16 - 4 Moms talk style (parenting style, that is)
About 4 Moms, including a complete list of all past topics
Related posts:
Awwww. I love you, too.
here’s a question, just for nosy curiosity sake (and i’m posting it here, b/c i’ll probably forget it by the next time you ask!):
do your oldest children call your youngest siblings “aunt” and “uncle”? or are they on a purely first-name basis since they are the same age?
i most certainly don’t have this same problem, though my cousins and i are now dealing with teaching our little ones to call each other “aunt and uncle” – even though we’re technically 2nd cousins or something, just because it doesn’t seem appropriate for a 2-yr-old to call a 30-yr-old by his first name, but “2nd cousin Isaac” doesn’t seem to fit either
The kids are on a first-name basis with their youngest aunts and uncles because they are similar in age, but it amuses us to use the titles so we often refer to them that way anyway. Our younger children *do* use the titles because they are quite a bit younger than my teen siblings.
gotcha – certainly makes sense to me!
Hi
My question is the same one I left on facebook. Do you ever or have you ever felt like quitting homeschooling. Even in the early days. Thanks for your Q & A posts. I do love them!
LOVE the new layout to your blog! Your blessings are beautiful!
The new layout is fabulous! We just KNEW you would be able to have a new photograph for your header. It is a lot of fun and I’ve been enjoying the personalities coming through in it.
I have a question. We have a hard time getting our feisty three old to respect and obey his older brothers (10 and 12) when they have been put in charge of him. Suggestions?
P.S. LOVE the new blog!
What do you all do about dental bills? We only have 6 kids, but this is killing us in the wallet. Is there some large family insurance we should have?