Follow God, not people.

Hey y'all!

Today I want to share some revelations God has given me :)

About two-is weeks ago after years of stress and frustration I finally realized in all my searching for God's plan for my life I got all turned around. I wasn't searching for God's plan, I was searching for the world's plan. I have always lived simply, with very little in the eyes of most but always *just enough*.

I am a stay at home, homeschooling young Mama to five beautiful children. Many people, including fellow believers, think I am wasting my life, they say I could do and be so much more......but this is my calling. This is what God created me to do. And really, I have been the vessel through which God has born eternal human beings. I get to moldbthem in to oyr next generation of caring, loving, hard working, responsible adults..... there is nothing "more" than that.  I have absolutely no desire to have my children be raised by someone else while I get a piece of paper that says I know "enough". 

Do you realize how insane it is to think it "worthwhile " for a woman to send her children to be raised and educated by strangers while she goes out and cares for children as a teacher or day care worker....but it is considered a "waste" for her to raise and educate her own children?!

For the first time in my life I have complete peace, God has called me to be a wife, mother and friend, and that is more than enough.  :)

Be encouraged Mama's, your work is worth while,  it is "enough " ♡♡♡

~Allicen

Flowers from my sweet boys ♡

Just a short little post.....

Ok y'all, I have been seeing a VERY disturbing trend in our society....Mom's treating their children like toys. Forcing their children to show them affection and love, forcing their children to perform for them......I could go on.
Ladies, PLEASE STOP DOING THESE THINGS! It is good to take pleasure in you children but depending on them for your feel good boost of the day is WRONG! If you ask your child for a hug and they don't want to stop playing with their friends to give you one....LET IT GO! LET THEM PLAY! Stop sweet talking them into it, or WORSE using your motherly authority to FORCE them! Allow them to have their own feelings, allow them to be the individual little people God created them to be. And seek your *feel good* fix from God and your husband ;)

The golden rule and Grace, we are teaching them but are we living them?

Are we holding our children to a higher standard than we hold ourselves? 

Are we as parents following "The Golden Rule" we expect our children to follow? 

How about Grace? We certainly expect and at times take advantage of the Grace of God, do we extend that same Grace to our children?


I see it all of the time, and sadly I do it all the time. You know that situation where your 5 year old does something that they "know" they should not be doing, like painting the bathroom mirror with your new lipstick, then you lose your cool and yell, punish and humiliate them as though they just locked the doors and then set fire to an orphanage? Yeah. I think we are doing it wrong.
We *know* we shouldn't have lost our cool, yelled, some parents spank or worse, some call their children names, some even make them do things like scrub the toilet with a tooth brush........we KNOW better, we really do. But what is the typical response? While laughing with our mom friends we retell the story with a chuckle and say" we are just human, thank God for Grace!".
So not only are we completely unrepentant, we think it's *OK* for us adults to make mistakes because God gives us Grace. He doesn't scream at us, physically hurt us and humiliate us.......
Aren't we supposed to be modeling Godly behavior for our children?
Why are we holding our children to a higher standard than ourselves? I'm not saying we shouldn't discipline. But I think if we were better examples and worked harder to DISCIPLE our children, we would need to discipline less.

Today I am going to start remembering these verses and applying them as a mom;

"And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise."
 Luke 6:31 
"The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked." 1 John 2:6

Will you join me? Let's start treating our children with the Grace and Love that God shows us :)

Until next time!    ~ Allicen <3

How I keep up with my children's growing feet!

Hi y'all!  :)
This morning I am going to share how I keep up with the near constant growth of my children's feet!
 About six or seven months ago one of my little ones started complaining that their shoes were hurting their feet. I checked their shoes and sure enough they were WAY too small! I found this great printable shoe sizing chart >>  "Size 'em right" Shoe sizing chart, printed it and was shocked to find his feet had grown 2 1/2 sizes since the last time I had checked!! 0.0
Since we try to avoid buying new shoes for children (because not only do they grow out of them quickly, they tear them up!), we try to buy the next shoe size up before they need them. 
Now what I do is once every 6-8 weeks I pull out my sizing chart, measure everyone's feet and write the sizes and date on a sticky note and keep it in my wallet. Now whenever I am at goodwill and they have shoes half off or a bunch of new additions to the racks I don't have to guess sizes and can buy for current needs and future needs if they have what I am looking for! 
Not only has it helped us avoid sore feet and squished toes, it has helped us save a lot of money! We spend $0.99-$1.99 per pair of shoes and $1.49-$2.99 per pair of boots, that is a BIG savings compared to even the clearance shoes at shoe stores or even Wal-Mart! 
I hope this information is helpful, until next time!

  ~ Allicen

Post of randomness :)

Ok y'all, what I am about to tell you has changed my life! Are you ready????>>>

Don't buy multiple colored/design socks!!!!!

I have taken the advice of having all black socks for my husband and sons and all white socks for the girls! We no longer have the constant issue of "Has anyone seen the match to this?!"!
It's amazing that just changing the color of our socks has reduced the chaos in our little house!

I am Also working on reducing the the quantity and variety of our wardrobes. Just the basics for our family of 7 add up to a lot of laundry, add to that the fact we have such a hodge podge of styles and fabric types it just complicates the laundry process. We also don't need 5+ sets of jammies for each person! I am realizing that having more clothing and dishes means we just enable ourselves to put off doing laundry and washing dishes until we are completely out of clothes and dishes. That means by the time we finally get around to washing those things they have turned into a huge mountain to be conquered, and ain't nobody got time for that lol!

Another thing that I have learned is that while it's good to buy used and save the difference in most cases, and sometimes the cheaper new items are just as good as the more expensive, sometimes you save money by spending more money up front and sometimes you save money by buying new. We have realized that with things like large appliances it is best to buy new so you get a good warranty. The same applies to tires and parts for vehicles, if you can buy new do so. Also be sure to research the products before buying sometimes there is a good reason in price difference (as we have found to be the case with things such as tires).

Well those are a few of the things going on in my house and mind!

Until next time!  ~Allicen <3

Boy am I struggling!

Ok y'all, please tell me I am not the only one that feels like throwing in the towel on a semi regular basis?!?!

My husband and I sat down and watched the movie "Mom's Night Out" the other night and WOW. I was fighting back the urge to fall apart into a giant ocean of tears! I could so relate to the main character "Alyson" (come on, she even has my name!!! Mine is just spelled weird-er?) Anywhoo.....I have been struggling like never before over the last year, ever since my 5th child was born. I am so happy we named her what we did (Trulie Grace) because her name is a constant reminder to me that I so completely need God's grace.

 I struggle with chronic back, leg and foot pain, I have only averaged 1-2 hours of sleep each night for the last 8 years (Any tips for night weaning a HIGH NEEDS 15 month old who still nurses ALL NIGHT LONG? If so share your advice in the comments!! PLEASE), I don't have many Mama friends......and I really need at least one good Mama friend to talk, share and visit with at least 1-2 times a week.....I could go on, my list of complaints, struggles and frustrations go on for miles lol!
I guess the ultimate point of this post is to let other Mama's know, if you feel like locking yourself in the bathroom with chocolate so you can ignore the shocking condition of your house and the never ending demands of an army of little people......Hunny.....I feel you! You are not alone! I am really hoping I'M not alone haha! So please feel free to vent, share support, encouragement, sympathy and your own struggles and triumphs in the comments! God bless Y'all!!

Love, Allicen <3

Frugal Food!

Hello everyone! I wanted to get a "real" post up and I have MANY things I could write on........I just don't have much time right now. So I though I would write a short post about Frugal food :)

Why is it that most affordable, stretchable food advice involves processed junk or inferior quality meant etc? Not only do I like to be thrifty and creative with food it is also a necessity for a family of 7 living on about $23,000 a year! However I am bound and determined to do my best to feed my family good, healthy, QUALITY food. That is where the creativity comes in :) I shop sales and comparison shop, it takes some extra time (and half of the time it stresses me out a bit lol!) but it is so very worth it!
 Last week while I was shopping I considered buying a family pack of the the cheapest ground beef they had ($2.79/lb) I hated to spend that kind of money on meat that I knew wasn't good for us......that's when I saw the turkey! Why is it that we save turkey for Holidays only? Not only is it delicious you can do so many things with it, AND it CHEAPER!!! ($1.19/lb here, it will be cheaper next month!) I spent $14-$15 for a 13# turkey and I was able to squeeze 5 meals for my family of 7 out of that one turkey!! We had roasted turkey the first day, cold turkey sandwiches the second day, turkey and cheese crackers the third day, and I have the carcass in the freezer and will be able to get enough stock for turkey dumplings or soup for 2+ meals from that. Seriously, embrace the turkey as a regular staple y'all, I know we will be!

Blessings~ Allicen.