A Day in the Life of a Big, Growing Family ~ Part 2

The manager of this big, growing family is feeling so blessed! 

We're surrounded by the fullness of the hustle and bustle of all ages and stages of life around us! 

And sometimes it takes all the organizational skills I can muster to keep track of it all, 

and to keep things flowing smoothly.  

Take last Wednesday for an example as a day in the life of this big, growing family.

So we got the notification that grandson Caleb was born early Wednesday morning, and we needed to make arrangements to get down to Oregon to visit them and pick up grandson #1 for a few days. 

But we didn't want to bring the four little ones just yet for a visit.  

So Wednesday ended up being the first day we planned to take Peter and Brielle for their new violin lessons.  It is also homeschool basketball in town, and Caroline had planned to take Brielle and Charlotte out to the movies after her work day for their February birthdays.

So how do we coordinate all of these things? 

Well, Lydia had offered to help watch kiddos, so we asked her if she could watch Ben.  

Valerie also had offered to help, so we asked her if she could take the 3 others out to town for the violin lessons and to get Charlotte out town for Caroline to pick up after work. 

So we left here with everyone around 2pm . . . dropped Ben with Lydia, and met Valerie halfway to town to drop Peter, Charlotte and Brielle with her.  They headed on to town, and Tim, Joe and Daddy and I continued on to Oregon.

Then, Valerie would sit in on the violin lessons (so I would know what to help them practice) and she stayed there until Caroline was able to pick up Charlotte and Brielle. 

Valerie brought Peter back to Lydia's to join Ben there. 

But first, on the way home, she still took our friend Abel to his home after basketball as we do each week.

And then finally, Caroline picked up Ben and Peter from Lydia's house around 9:30pm for us!  

And we returned home from the Smith's with Lukey at about 11:00pm! 

I am sooooo thankful for Lydia, Caroline and Valerie's help, and for everything that they orchestrated and re-arranged in their busy lives to make all this help possible!   Thank you, thank you!

(These pictures are from Caroline's phone during their outing to dinner and a movie!)