I want you to know that it is possible to raise 6 kids, cook every meal and run a business. Is it hard? Yes. Frustrating? Sure. Have I had a meltdown or two? Definitely. The most important question is; Is it worth it? On so many levels, YES! Our home is very schedule oriented. Pretty much everything we do has a time and a place. Things can easily fall apart and get crazy when there’s no order to them. Before you mutter to yourself “this lady needs to unclench and relax” (if you hadn’t already) just keep in mind, there’s a difference between keeping an order to things and micro managing. I try as hard as possible to NOT micromanage. Believe it or not, we do still have a great time as a family! I’ll try to walk you through a typical weekday (they’re all pretty much the same) followed by the weekend. Here we go!
Monday’s tend to be the busiest weekdays. I’m up every morning by 6:30am. Can you smell the coffee? I’m going to need it! The older 3 kids are up at 6:45am. Breakfast is usually waffles, french toast, oatmeal or muffins. We try really hard to do a good, warm, nutritious as possible, breakfast to keep the kids full until lunch. The 3 youngest are up by 7:30am. By 8:00am the 3 oldest are at school. This is when I try to get laundry going and cleaning done. With 8 people in a home, I do at least 2 loads of laundry a day. Getting behind on laundry is a mistake I try to avoid as much as possible! Time moves pretty quickly when you’re staying busy so that will take us up to about 12:00pm. That leaves myself, Mr. 6 Cakes, and the 3 youngest to eat lunch. We will usually eat something easy and quick. Sandwiches, leftovers, pretty much anything that we can cook or put together in about 10 minutes. Now it’s time for the youngest to nap, the other 2 to play, and my husband and I get to work on the blog or any cake orders. Now it’s 3:30pm and this is when the day goes into hyper-drive! The older 3 get home from school. There is almost always homework. There are papers to read over, notes to sign, books to read, stories to hear, glasses to clean, I mean, the list goes on and on! Usually while one is doing homework, another is taking a shower. So, just to make sure you’ve got this all pictured correctly I’ll break this down into a list for you (the numbers represent a child).
- Showered and watching a movie
- At the table doing homework
- In the shower and then watching a movie until they can do their homework (they take turns on homework so there’s less confusion and more focus)
- Loudly running around and playing. Possibly coloring on a wall. Possibly getting into something of his sister’s that she will be very upset about.
- Sitting at the table repeatedly telling you he wants to “color” because in his eyes there’s nothing you could be doing with a pencil and paper besides coloring!
- More than likely on my hip or playing with Dad.
We usually eat dinner at 5:00pm every night. Remember the schedule I told you about? If plates are not being set out by 5:30pm you better believe there will be more than one child acting like they just walked 10 miles uphill to get to the restaurant that they waited 6 months to go to. I’m not exaggerating! So, while all this homework is going on I’m also cooking dinner. After dinner, the kitchen gets cleaned up and then it’s “snack” time. My kids call their dessert “snacks”. This is another one of those things where if they don’t get their “snack”, it’s the equivalent of them finding out that all the chocolate in the world will forever cease to exist. Ok, now we’re at movie time. It’s 7:00pm. Time to get into bed, get comfy and watch a movie until lights out. This only applies to the kids. Surely you didn’t think I was getting done that early! Between 7:00pm-8:00pm is when I clean up, get everything back in order and ready for the next day. 8:00pm is lights out for the kids. I’ve still got a little while left to go. This is when I get the awesome hugs, kisses and unbeatable sounds of all the “I love you’s”, “sleep good” and “sweet dreams!”. Ok, now I can take a shower and get in bed. Notice, I didn’t say go to sleep. Inevitably, I’ll work on the blog some more.
Weekends are easier but there’s definitely more cooking and food involved as 3 of them aren’t at school eating lunch. The weekends are also when the deep cleaning gets done because we are firm believers in teaching the kids to help out. They all have chores and honestly, they are all very good helpers. The weekend is also when they’re allowed to play their electronics (DS, XBOX, Wii, etc.). We do not allow them to be used during the school week because it’s a distraction. We’d rather see them use their imagination and play with toys (they all love Lego’s) than sit in front of a video game all day every day.
So there you have it. A day in my life. This obviously changes according to things like cake orders, holidays and just life in general. Some days I can really appear to have myself in order and some days my husband will be wondering if I’m going to lock myself in the closet with several bags of peanut M & M’s and never come out. As a family we always make it through. We have a lot of faith and a lot of love between the 8 of us and that will never change.