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Life Update and Blog Changes
I’ve been doing this blog/vlog thing for a LONG time. I think we are about 15 years into this little internet space of mine. Not long after I started, more than just family and friends came over here to read this blog. After realizing that a LOT more than friends and family were reading, I decided to take down my original blog to protect some of my family’s personal information. When I did that, I basically restarted from scratch only saving the name, A Farmhouse Full. I then started to incorporate video into the mix because it seemed to fit me better. After all these years what I have shared…
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Love is a Verb
Love is a verb. It doesn’t always resemble the curated love stories and the filtered and posed images we are bombarded with daily. It’s more than one dimensional. It’s a complicated action that takes on many forms. Sometimes love is gentle and meek. It looks like the way you help scoop up the pieces of daughter after her first real break up and remind her of her strength even thoughthe enemy is whispering lies of her weakness to her. It’s when you finally just give in and say, “I am sorry,” because you’re BOTH in the wrong, and being right never feels as good as it does when you’re enveloped…
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Our Large Family Christmas Traditions
Christmas 2020 is upon us, and our Christmas traditions will hit full-on “go-mode” starting tomorrow. Tomorrow marks the official start of our homeschool Christmas break. In celebration, I am sharing our large family’s favorite Christmas traditions. Tree The first weekend of December marks the beginning of Advent and also my oldest son’s birthday. (He turned 18 this year which is CRAZY to think about.) The first weekend of December is also when we usually pick out a tree and decorate it. Some years we go all out and hang enough ornaments on our tree that I can almost hear its branches begging for every-living mercy. Other years we only do…
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An Open Letter to my Teenage Son on his 18th Birthday
Today my oldest child turns 18. Legally an adult. I still can’t grasp that fact. It doesn’t seem like the sand in his childhood should be shedding its last grains into the bottom glass. I am a mix of so many emotions. There is the sigh of relief that the ball is fully in his court now and the pang of anxiety surrounding that same realization. He will now (for the most part) will be sorting out his mistakes on his own using his still green life lenses. There is the vain longing for all the spent time back again. To fix my own mistakes and re-live all the beauty…
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Homeschooling, Public Education and Fear
When I shared on my Instagram last week about my son’s first day of public school, I got a few concerned messages from fellow homeschoolers and public-schoolers alike. Now before you go picturing my son as a little boy with a book bag that is bigger than he is and his first day of school consisting of paste and crayons… He has facial hair and a drivers license. He stands several inches above me and will be 17 in a few short months. He is entering public school as a junior. Still, the concern came from followers of mine who knew all those facts. I DO understand their side of…
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Basket System Organization Hack
I shared a while back over on my YouTube channel (are you subscribed? If not, click here!) about my life changing 3 basket system! It is an organization hack that allows you to be 100 times more efficient at cleaning up, and it will ALSO put your kids in charge of keeping up with their own toys. ALL WITHOUT NAGGING! Seem too good to be true? Think again! The reason this hack works wonders is because it is SUPER easy to implement! With a family of 10, things get left out constantly. We need to have consistent “pick up times” to combat the clutter. Our usual pick up times tend…
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Kids’ Birthday Gift Ideas
Even with a ton of kids, Mike and I sometimes struggle to come up with unique birthday gifts for our children. To make matters more crazy, half of our family’s birthdays fall in a 6 week period in the summer. The last of those birthdays will wrap up next week, so I thought it would be a great time to review some of the gifts we have purchased as well as some others that we have considered. We usually do our shopping on Amazon because, lets be honest, it’s easiest way to shop. I don’t have to put on a bra. It is delivered to my door, and review on…
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When being a parent sucks…
When being a parent sucks it totally sucks. I’m not talking about the physical demand of toddler-hood or the sleepless nights of infancy. That stuff is a cakewalk comparatively. It’s watching your older kids find their footing in the world when they choose a hard path. When they stumble but don’t want your help or input. When your council, no matter how high-caliper your experience, is rejected and thrown out like trash. When you remember how ignorant YOUR own parents seemed in your teenage-mind and you KNOW that the rebellious streak that ran through you flows fresh through a child you bore. The part that takes great faith is trusting…
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February 24 – March 2, 2019
What’s up, Farmhouse Family? Last week I shared an ever popular grocery haul, but made some big mess ups… opps! Oh well, can’t win them all, right? I also was tagged to do the “assumptions” video that has been going around YouTube. That was a really fun one to film, and I even had a few visitors toward the end. Keep in mind, too, guys, that YouTube is doing a major “housecleaning” of channels and comments to make it a safer platform for kids. I respect the swift and severe action they are taking, but that does mean that things are a bit wonky right now. Most of my past…
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How We Use Bedtime Charts in Our Large Family
I am so happy to share with you how we handle bedtime in regards to personal responsibility in today’s video and I even have a free printable for you HERE!