"You Can Trust Me, Honest!", the Mom is Heard Saying.

Elena will be 20 at the end of June!

It is pretty amazing how time flew by.

I am fortunate to have fourteen of my fifteen still at home.

I will have three more children (Joyce, Josiah, and Alan) turning 18 this coming year!

Yikes!!

That will add up to five children eighteen and over!

I know the older ones will need to jump out of the nest at some point to fly off each on their own life adventure, but until then I will enjoy this time.

Thanks Elena for washing Anya and Lily's hair yesterday.

Anya and Elena

The big sister.

Lily and Elena

Nolan...doing his umbrella dance. Nolan is his own person. He wears his heart on his sleeve. That is part of what makes him so charming. He leaps before he looks. That is part of what makes this mom stay up late at night worrying. I still think he should grow up to be a cowboy. He does not think so, anymore. That is something little kids say they want to grow up to be, he told me not long ago. I love him. I am very glad I have him for at least 4 more years.

P.S.

Kids.

Sorry, but I told a little fib.

I did not delete these photos from my camera.

Nor did I crop you out of these photos before I put them on my blog.

You will thank me in about ten years.

Good memories.

Trust me.

Really.

Honest.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Interesting...

I was looking at our utility (water/electric) bill yesterday and noticed this...

Well...we never wanted to be average anyway...

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

Neighbor-ly Curiosity

Ha ha

One thing that is given out freely and in abundance at the farmers market is...gossip.

One poor person did not realize she was actually talking to the very one she was gossiping about.

No, I was not the gossiper (but I have tasted foot before).

I was the one being gossiped about...to me.

I am not in the public eye very much so this sweet neighbor did not know I was the mom of the Fryes.

In all truth, my family is not looked on very highly among our direct neighbors. They are the ones who hear and see the real life of a large family. It can be loud, it can be messy. I can be loud and I can be messy. Jeff and I see the struggles and the mess but we also see God's work in the lives of all seventeen of us. Our neighbors do not see those parts. We are not perfect parents. Our children are not perfect children. And it seems like when we fail or our weakness is seen by outsiders...well...we are judged hard. I think we meet a much deeper judgement by others because of our family choices maybe. Or we just plum do a lot worth gossiping about.

Anyway, I still am having a hard time lifting my head when I go outside the house.

I wish I was better at my mom/wife job then there would not be anything for the neighbors to gossip about.

~Sigh~

But as a spoof

To keep things light

I heard some of you neighbors were curious as to what the Fryes were up to last week...

A bunch of racket was heard by many.
So much racket heard by so many!
The sawing
The rattling of the metal chair horses
The endless drilling
Those Fryes
Those Fryes
The racket they make
OH the racket they make!!

All that racket neighbors,oh dear neighbors, was one beautiful custom made bunk bed for Ekie and Anya!!!

P.S. Sorry I was out in our front yard sawing at 11 at night. At least it was a hand saw...

The nitty gritty:

The width of this particular room is about 76" and the length of your average twin mattress is 75" and an average length of a bunk bed is about 80".

So see what we did?

We bought a bunch of 2x4s and plywood and built a bunkbed but moved the end supports to the sides and wedged the bed in tight.

Soon I will put up curtains, add some sort of protection on the windows so they do not hit the glass as well as whitewash the wood.

Next month we will build one just like this on the other end of the room for Grace and Lily.

And neighbors, all that irritating radio station flipping between county and '80s clasic rock last Thursday and Friday...well,that was me too. I was painting the girls room Purple Fizz. I will NOT apologize for the extra loud AC/DC just don't tell the kids...or my mom...'cause rock music rots the brain...so I was told.

P.S.S. As far as I know of my 10 blog readers non are neighbors.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

272

relationships.

We have 272 relationships at work in our house.

If I did my figuring right that is.

Seventeen people having to work together with sixteen other family members.

Many, many, many opportunities to love, serve, forgive, support, encourage, overlook...

Grant (16) Alan (14) and it's just Mountain Dew in a glass bottle :~}



Elena (17) Alan (14)



Joel (7) Anya (9) Josh (11) Josiah (15) Joyce (15)

Grace (7) Lily (4)

Lily (4) Ekie (10) Naomi (9)

Lily helping fold the Saturday morning paper for the big kids

Elena (17) helping a not so happy Anya (9) with her math

Sometimes things can get pretty intense here.

We can rub each other the wrong way, not want to forgive, or share, or be patient, or overlook, or love.

But just as hard and intense as things can get, you would find things can be just as fun, encouraging, loving, supportive.

In a large family our weaknesses are exposed more quickly and intensely but so is God's grace.

Being a lump of coal in the hands of our sweet caring Father and being squeezed (via our daily interactions with each other)...is right were I want to be.

And someday God will open up his hand and you just might bear witness to seventeen of the biggest diamonds ever!

Warmly,

A Patchwork Mommy

Just a Random Thing

I was thinking that to me this is a regular sight but to others maybe not.

Three bread machines and two crock pots plugged into a power strip all to provide parts of three different meals for one day.

Let's see...

The three bread machine loaves are for breakfast.

One crock pot is the main portion of our lunch.

The other crock pot is the broth part of our chicken noodle soup for dinner.



Just a random thing.

Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

A Summer Breakfast

It is hard to believe summer is coming to an end.

I thought that the girls and I would eat outside before we started school.

Flowers for the table.



Josh added one from his garden.



Mmmm...my makeshift 'we have nothing for breakfast' breakfast. *



Naomi and Odell do not seem to mind it!



Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

My makeshift 'we have nothing for breakfast' breakfast recipe

A greased 13 x 17 pan
a dozen eggs mixed with about 2 cups of milk
a loaf of bread ripped into little pieces
About 1/4 cup sugar
cinnamon

Put the bread pieces in the greased pan. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in with the egg mixture. Pour that over the bread. Bake in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes or it looks done. Serve warm drizzled with syrup.

One After Another

We have had the worst time with our appliances this weekend.

It started off the weekend with our refrigerator getting too warm again. This happens once every month and a half or so for the past two + years. Frustrating! We had a repair man come in twice just to tell us someone spilled liquid in it and that I need to defrost it.He would not believe me when I told him otherwise. I just think the auto defrost is not working which blocks the air flow to the fridge. I do not know how to fix it myself so I just defrost it every month or so. Of course the problem started just after the warranty ended.



Next,I noticed our wash machine was leaking.



I found the reason. Jeff ran a snake down the drain today but could not find the clog. The machine works ok as long as someone is there to stop the machine to let the water drain.



And lastly our dryer stopped working! In a family of our size the washer or dryer not working for even a day is not good news.

Today,I stood close to the washer to wash our daily laundry (four loads) plus an extra load of towels that I used to mop up the washer water when I did not get there quick enough to let the water drain.

Jeff will take these wet baskets of laundry to the all night Laundromat after the kids are in bed. Good guy he is.



I am thankful that our water heater and furnaces made it through one more winter.


Warmly,
A Patchwork Mommy

Cookies,Chaos, and Potato Skins!

One would think since I have a bunch of children around all day I do pretty good with chaos and craziness. I really do not. I am pretty controlled over where kids are allowed throughout the day. I do well with up to say four or five children in a room with me at a time unless it is meal time,chore time,schooling time,or another specific time I planned. At the other times throughout the day the kids do not really have free reign over the house. They can not go into the basement to play and ten minutes later decide they would rather color in their rooms and then back into the basement to play after that.No,I can not have that. So I made a 'no wandering around the house wherever you want' rule.

I have other silly rules like only three kids are allowed up in their bedrooms to play at a time. The rest play in the basement. I set a buzzer and the kids rotate.

Another rule is they have to ask to use the bathroom or get a drink throughout the day. Why...well,if there is not some sort of bathroom asking rule I end up having half my children all in the bathroom at once (boys and girls) needing to wash their hands or get a drink but in reality they hang out in there playing with the sink,dancing,chatting,like there is a little party going on.

I have been thinking that I really need to grow more in the area of letting go of the need for order. Order is good but too much can cause me to miss out on growing my relationships with the kids and the impromptu fun I envision every other mom but me has with their children.

That being said,I though I would practice letting loose a little and called Joel and Grace up for an unexpected cookie baking time.



After a bit Anya ventured in to see what was going on.I thought that is ok she can be my helper.




Soon Lily and Nolan wandered in. Just out of the picture Elena,Josh, and I think Grant were hanging around. I was doing good but then both Joyce and Naomi came up from the basement to check out what was going on...I had this struggle in my head should I send them back in the basement or let them stay up...I decided I needed to send them back in the basement because I was starting to get stressed out with all the chaos. They were a little disapointed to be missing the fun..

I will keep working on it...



Just an added cute picture of Grace helping Lily make some cookies



After the table cleared Elena sat down to finish up the last of the cookies.



What good looking cookies!



Here is a frugal large family meal thing we do. Whenever we make mashed potatoes we save all the peels and freeze them. Jeff's idea,isn't it a great one! When we are peeling 20 pounds of potatoes and my hands start to go numb, knowing that the skins will be a part of a cheap tasty future meal makes the potato peeling task worth it.

Sometimes, I use the potato skins as a base for an egg bake but tonight I just put them in a baking pan,added oil,salt,pepper,and garlic salt and baked them awhile.



Tasty!

Lucky Indeed!

I was just thinking today that I sure have the best of many worlds around here.

I can have great conversations on the porch with my oldest 14 year old. She will be fifteen in less than a month!



Then hold hands with my littlest Lids.



and all the in-between stuff. It is a nice life!

The Hidden Costs Of A Large Family

I bet you did not know that we use three of the blue jugs of laundry soap a month. According to the package that would be 288 loads of I do laundry a month...about 9 loads of laundry a day. Do I really do that much laundry? I do a lot but I'm not sure I do THAT much!I bet I do 5 loads each day...maybe 6 or 7 loads if I am doing sheets or blankets. This month we even had to buy an extra little jug to get by. As of today, even that jug is empty three days short of our next month of shopping! Crazy! Someone must be using more than that recommended teeny tiny jippy little cup. I will blame it on Jeff. He likes his clothes to smell extra nice.



Now, we truly do fill up three 96 gallon trash cans a week.
Trash pickup is tomorrow and as you can see the two outer bins are filled to the top. The middle bin is filled just below the top and we still will be putting a few more bags in before pick up time. If we have any extra cleaning going on or a birthday or something our trash cans overflow!



I just migh try to figure out how many times we flush our toilets each day. That would be information most would like to know...