Saturday Cleaning {Large Family Style}

Posted on February 16, 2013 by bakersdozenandapolloxiv

Today we’re up to our Saturday House Cleaning. An activity that has brought much groaning and gnashing of teeth to my house. Clean? On a Saturday?

As if it’s a new concept.

I’ve heard everything from “It’s kind of funny we used to really like Saturdays when we could sleep in, but now we have to clean” to “I wish tomorrow wasn’t Saturday“.

We are experiencing some growing pains as we adjust to this new idea. I’ve mentioned before, my children live in mortal fear that they will do more work than a sibling. And that very thought strikes terror in their hearts.

Our Saturday cleaning isn’t pretty, but it’s getting done.

Apollo’s has a rough few days. Crying, crying and crying. He is down to two tube feedings a day. The problem is, this leaves him hungry (he obviously needs to be hungry to eat) and he asks for food all day long, but won’t eat any of it. Yes, we’ve tried everything. Thanks to my last post about his eating, I have a few great leads on some feeding therapy (one less than ten miles from my house!)

I took these photos a few days ago, as Apollo played with his toys. He had them talking to each other, and fighting, and going up to space. His talking was so animated, that he got out-of-breath. Just from talking. He sounded like I would sound if I were talking while going up several flights of stairs. But he was just sitting and talking while he played He’s breathing has been a bit rougher lately. Maybe he’s fighting a cold…

The really difficult thing is, he gets really, really out of breath still if he cries for too long. It makes the option of putting him to bed and making him “cry-it-out” as ridiculous as it’s always been. It was nice to hear that every other parent on our double aortic arch Facebook group has this same problem. How do you leave a baby/toddler to cry when it makes their oxygen level drop? You don’t.

Well, I’m off to clean the fridge and pantry so we can do another big food prep for the week. I should be back to posting meal plans tomorrow.

Happy Saturday! Unless of course, your mom is making you clean the house, in which case it will probably be a completely miserable Saturday.

You Know You Have a Large Family When…

Posted on February 13, 2013 by bakersdozenandapolloxiv

{Re-posted from my old TypePad blog}

…your children feel sorry for families with only six or seven children.
…even your friends aren’t sure how many children you have.
…your family no longer fits in a 15 passenger van.
..complete strangers feel welcome to comment on your fertility and contraceptive methods.
…you have to carry three health insurance cards in your wallet- because that’s how many it takes to fit everyone’s name.
…you take the wrong child to the dentist…simply because your handwriting on the calendar was messy and both started with a “j”.
…grocery shopping for 30 children and 12 adults for a two day camp constitutes a “small” shopping trip for you.
You find yourself relating some small incident to your husband and starting with the words, “Well, I only boiled twenty-six eggs for breakfast…”
…you buy a 40 pound box of bananas intending to make banana bread and freeze a bunch for smoothies…but your children eat them all first.
…you find an afternoon root canal relaxing.
…it takes you twenty-three minutes on the phone to schedule your children’s dental appointments.
…you’ve given up on using your toaster entirely and make all of your toast under the broiler in you oven.
…you are seriously tempted by the stacking cribs you see at Goodwill for $19.99…and you’re not even pregnant.
…you find yourself thinking, “Wow, the house is so quiet and peaceful with only nine children”.
…you have enough children to constitute not one, but TWO large families.
…you have a laundry basket devoted entirely to lonely socks seeking their mate.
…when you can’t take all of your children to the doctor’s office at the same time because the waiting room has only 10 seats.
…when you still have seven children that are required by law to sit in a carseat or booster seat.
…you call the doctor to get your children tetnus shots, and they tell you they don’t have enough in the office and need to order more from the health department.
…you take up more than one entire pew in church.
…you take only half of your children to the library, and STILL get asked if they’re all yours.
…you go to fill your children’s flouride prescription at the phamacy and you clean them out of every pill they have…and it’s still not enough.
…you spend sixty dollars on socks…and not everyone gets new socks.
…you go shopping at Costco and the cashier asks if you’re having a soccer barbecue.

California Pizza Kitchen | Happy Food

Posted on January 28, 2013 by bakersdozenandapolloxiv

Yesterday our family attended our very first Starlight Children’s Foundation event. The Starlight Children’s Foundation provides education, entertainment and activities to seriously ill children and their families. The Starlight Children’s Foundation recognizes the strain of a sick child on the entire family and works to bring a little joy and relaxation to everyone. Apollo was approved for the program last fall, but the irony was the very condition that qualified him was the very reason we had to keep him out of public places- so we couldn’t actually attend any events! Everyone was excited about yesterday’s adventure to California Pizza Kitchen.

Apollo was completely enthralled with Starry, Starlight’s mascot.

California Pizza Kitchen opened its door to us an hour early. First thing on the agenda was making our own pizzas.

If you know me well, you know I’m a huge pizza fan! I mean, a huge fan of pizza. Also a fan of huge pizza. You get the idea.

Someone was happy to be out of the house…and not seeing a doctor!

After our pizza-making we got a full tour of the kitchen. One of my children pointed out that California Pizza Kitchen uses the exact same storage containers we use! I bet they saw that recent photo of my fridge…

The kitchen tour included seeing the oven where our pizzas were being cooked. Awesome!

Some of us were a bit excited about our pizzas…

Apollo was game to tackle his (cheese-less) pizza…though he really just ate the pepperoni then asked for mine.

Thank you so much to the Starlight Children’s Foundation and California Pizza Kitchen for giving our family a fabulous time!

I’m going to save the rest of the day’s adventure for another blog post.

{Join us over at the Crazy Casa K where bloggers are linked up for Happy Monday: Happy Food!}

Christmas 2012

Posted on December 25, 2012 by bakersdozenandapolloxiv

We had a fabulous Christmas over here at A Baker’s Dozen. Following is a mixture of photos of Christmas Eve and Christmas day. If you’re wondering about the mismatched attire…I chose to let my children wear whatever they wanted to our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. Some chose to dress up…some not so much. I also didn’t force anyone to pose for photos. The girls asked me to get the camera out and whoever felt like it hopped in the photos.

Jubilee, Apollo, Tilly, Hezekiah, Adalia, Avi, Kalina and Tucker. Eight of my favorite children! My children are strange…very strange. Don’t blame them, they’re homeschooled. Or formerly homeschooled. Or something…

Adalia’s not really taller than Tilly. Not by a long shot. She just happens to be wearing ridiculously high heels.

Apollo was so excited to go to church (we keep him home to minimize his exposure to germs). Trying to prepare him, I told him we would be singing some songs…to which he responded, “Songs like Hey Jude?” Two and a half and already a Beatles fan!

My first (but not oldest) and last born sons.

Chuck reading our Advent story, Bartholomew’s Passage.

Kalina has been wanting to make these cake pops for months. They turned out beautifully!

I love, love, LOVE these adorable little boys! Same size, completely opposite personalities.

A game of Rook and homemade marshmallows, thank to Tilly.

I’ve written about our Christmas traditions plenty in the past…but since someone will ask, we don’t put up a Christmas tree or exchange gifts. We work really, really hard to keep Christ the focus of our holiday. We do, however, love to celebrate. Part of that includes stockings for the kids, with small gifts. Candy, and orange and a few trinkets to make the day special. Nothing big or expensive. We save that for birthdays.

And this afternoon flowers were delivered to Adalia from a certain young man who lives in New Zealand.

{Our grown children chose to celebrate Christmas in the nearby city where they live. All three at attending Job Corps are putting down roots and seeking a healthy independence for themselves.}