Simply Real Moms:Meet Jessica B.

So, it’s Tuesday. And this post was supposed to go up yesterday. But, after two trips to the doctor, Super Summer drop off and pick up at church and errands I didn’t get on my computer until late last night. So…here we are this morning!!

I hope you have been enjoying hearing from these wonderful moms as much as I have.

Want to catch up on earlier guest posts by amazing moms? Just click on the ” Simply Real Moms” button.

Our Simply Real Mom today is someone I’ve also known for years. Her family were missionaries just like us. Her and her siblings are cousins to my cousins. So…we’re related by marriage I guess! (Did you understand that??) She’s a mom to 7 beautiful kids. SEVEN!!! And she looks like she’s never had kids. Seriously.

She’s another person I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know better and keep in touch with through Facebook. (Since she lives very far from me!)

You can read more about her at her blog: Cottage Capers

Meet…..Jessica B!

**Only one child in this picture is hers. As you can probably guess, it’s the one in her lap! As a mom of 7 it’s hard to be IN the picture with all of your children! Jessica told me this picture was taken at VBS this year.

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I was completely blown away when Mel asked me to be a guest writer. I’ve never written for someone else before and my first thought was “What do I SAY?!”….and even though I’ve had plenty of notice I still can’t say that I’ve come up with anything. =) But since this about being real I’ll just jump right in.

As Mel said, my name is Jessica, I’m 32, and I’m a stay-at-home, homeschooling mommy to 7. Aaron (11), Lela(9), Alyssa(8), Isaac(7), Levi(5), Kyla(3), and Asher(18mths). (And yes, we would love more if that is in God’s plan.) I’ve been married to my best friend for 11 years (and 9 months) now. lol.

I am always having people ask me how I “do it”. My answer …”I don’t”. If you don’t believe me just come visit us, or at least visit my blog over at “Cottage Capers”. I am not your perfectly organized, everything’s awesome, got-it-under-control Mom. I would love to be, and I do strive to get there someday, but as of right now, we just live! Any planning ahead I can do makes life so much easier, but if anything ever works out you can be sure it was because of a LOT of prayer.

On a normal day, we don’t eat breakfast before 10:00, lunch before 3:00 or supper before 8:30 or 9:00 at night. We do have naps, but never at the same time every day. We ALWAYS have coffee! Usually a couple times a day. My target “school-time” is from 12:00-3:00 or 4:00pm. That’s if I’m not so behind on laundry that I need all hands on deck to help us catch up. Everyone including Kyla has chores…it’s a necessity. I try to do at least 2 loads of laundry per day just to keep up afloat. Up until a month or so ago I planned and shopped by menus, but our crew has gotten where I need to shop in bulk. So, I keep our basic menus handy and buy staples at Sam’s a couple of times a month. I have tried to have a cleaning schedule in the past and I’ve never stayed consistent with it. We live in a 3 bedroom, 1 (teeny-tiny) bathroom house with a big yard. =) I struggle to maintain a balance between chaos and flexibility. I tell my kids, people are more important than schedules, so when someone drops in for a cup of coffee, everything else gets put on the back burner. With homeschooling, our goal is more than just academics. We want to teach lasting life skills, as well as logic and Latin.

My husband ran across a quote the other day that we felt exemplifies our perspective quite well:

“A human being should be able change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

That being said, teaching it is much harder than reading it. It has been, and continues to be quite the adventure. I do rely heavily on my husband to keep me balanced and to help me notice and enjoy the little moments that might get overlooked while I’m busy changing a diaper or mopping up a spill.

I don’t know if I have any tips or tricks that might help any of you out there other than this…None of us can do this Mom thing without the Lord right beside us. Because it’s so much more than a physical thing. If it were just a matter of cooking balanced meals and putting on band-aids than it would be “do-able” (maybe). But we’re doctoring hearts and feeding souls, and that takes the touch of God. On us and on them. If I have learned nothing else, I’m learning that I can’t do it myself…I need Him. And by my saying this, it makes it sound like I’m so spiritual….soooo not the case. I fail daily. I lose my patience, fuss at my kids, get an attitude when we’re late, feel exasperated that, in spite of my best efforts someone is still going to have a dirt smear on their clothes, and miss-matched socks….but I want to be better than that. My goal is that they see that being a Christian is REAL. It’s Forgiveness and Grace. It’s as real as sharing your favorite toy with your brother, and not getting made at your sister when she gets in your stuff. And I want them to see that in me. And I want them to see that in spite of our failures, the Lord is always there to pick us up and love us and help us try again.

So I don’t know if this was what Mel had in mind, =) but I hope it was encouraging to at least one person out there.

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Do you want to be featured in my Summer Simply Real Mom Series? I currently have these dates open:

August 8th, 15th and 29th. Contact me if you’d like to guest post from one of those days!

Tags: large families, mothering, Simply Real Moms

Comments

Woolbright52

Great blog Jessica! I know it can’t be easy with seven children! It sounds like you have the right idea and you manage your household well! I enjoyed reading your blog!
http://www.simplymelsblog.com/ Simply Mel

Thank you for this post, Jessica! It was so honest and REAL. It was perfect. I LOVE LOVE that quote. I’m definitely stealing it. Do you know where you guys read it?