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Joy's Fun Stuff

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Holidays

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Gifts

Deep Thoughts

Mom Hacks

Food

How I Only Do a Couple Loads of Laundry a Week (with a family of 7)

To Everyone with Kids at Church

To Everyone with Kids at Church

So a few weeks back my kids sang in church in front of the whole congregation. It was seriously adorable and sweet and was just one of those happy moments you know you will look back and fondly remember. But in this particular case the nostalgia would not last long as you would then be smacked in the face with the memory of the full-on, soul wrenching, blood curdling death scream immediately coming forth from the small 3 year old on returning to her seat to find her brother h

Anger-Be-Gone with 1 Magic Phrase

Anger-Be-Gone with 1 Magic Phrase

We all have times when we are barely getting by, where microwaving dinner sounds just too hard. As pathetic as I am, I have just been through a week of that. Matt's had a business trip for 6 days and I'll tell you what, it is no joke. I have NO IDEA how you single/military/husbands-work-crazy-hours moms out there function because I'm. So. Dang. Tired. Matt occasionally takes work trips but its been a while since he's been gone this long. And I certainly didn't have all of my

Teaching Kids to Clean, aka The Death of Me

Teaching Kids to Clean, aka The Death of Me

Having a clean house with little kids is like running up a down escalator. Wearing roller skates. But it's a problem, because when my house is a mess I feel crazy. I know of plenty of amazing women who don't feel that way. They are able to happily function in the kicked pathway through the living room. I long to be like that, but stuff everywhere kills my soul. Waking up to a destroyed kitchen tops my list of Things to Put Mom in a Bad Mood. If any of my college roommates are

Quest for the Perfect Gift: Family Values Book

Quest for the Perfect Gift: Family Values Book

I'm pretty sure my siblings inwardly groan when they see my number calling them. I have a tendency to come up with these great ideas and then invite/force them all to participate. A few years back I came up with this winner: A Family Values Book. A what? It's a book where members of your family help reinforce to your children the values you think are important by writing of a time when they learned a lesson as a child. My siblings loved me for this one. So I'm not going to li

Losing a Baby: Looking Back and Moving Forward

Losing a Baby: Looking Back and Moving Forward

11 years ago this week I was in a hospital bed, very near death. After some years of infertility we were finally pregnant. At 33 weeks along, what started as supposed indigestion ended up being a ruptured appendix that almost took my life. The infection overtook the baby and at 5lb 4oz the sweet little boy we had prayed for so long was delivered stillborn. While grateful for my life, my husband and I went home with empty hands and a long recovery, both physically and emotiona

No Yelling Zone

No Yelling Zone

Sorry, but I feel things strongly. It's a blessing and a curse. I didn't realize how much of a curse it was until kids came. When stress is high I tend to feel it and express it. Darn it. And with a house full of darling little monkeys there is a lot of stuff happening all at once. I'm not complaining, mind you, just stating fact. This is what I signed up for. But sometimes it can be overwhelming. Unfortunately, that stress can come out as Loud Firm Speaking. It's a problem.

Easy Family Valentine

Easy Family Valentine

15 minutes. That's how long this bad boy took me to make, and that included googling "hand lettering love" for the cheat on those words. So easy and fast. I like to keep a small stockpile of poster boards in my stash (love you Dollar Tree!) for impromptu projects like this, but this idea would totally work with construction paper or even lined paper torn out from that old notebook in the church bag. Basically, this is a place for each member of the family to write things they

Messy Room Solution: Grade Them!

Puzzle Motivator aka Cleaning Toilets Happily

Puzzle Motivator aka Cleaning Toilets Happily

We do Saturday chores around these parts. Note I said "Saturday chores," not "Saturday MORNING chores." Chores have been known to take a large portion of our Saturday. Not that the chores themselves are so long or difficult or time consuming. Mostly, it's the idea of doing chores that makes them take so dang long. We've been known to take quite some time to get started. And then we've been known to get "distracted." We've been plugging away with chores, week after week after

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Halloween Gingerbread Houses

Halloween Gingerbread Houses

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Gratitude Turley

Gratitude Turley

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Veteran's Art Surprise

Veteran's Art Surprise

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Turkey Stick Puppet

Turkey Stick Puppet

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Tape Masks

Tape Masks

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