Small Country Town with a Large Family

In a small town in Northeastern, Indiana called Garrett lives a family that has made many people talk. Although most people do not know our family, we can promise you that most everyone has a comment to say about us. It is sad how people pass judgement upon others without taking the time to get to know those that live next door.

Yes, I am speaking about "Our Family." Over the years people have lost touch with what family is all about. Have you taken time to visit your local nursing home? If you have not done so than you might wish to do just that before the day comes that you move into the home as a resident. In most cases these elderly people do not have very many visits from their family members. Everyone is always planning to go and visit grandma or grandpa but today just doesn't have enough hours in it. So maybe tomorrow but tomorrow will never come until the phone rings and the call comes in.

Our family has made sure that we talk about the importance of the complete family unit. Did you ever wonder what happened years ago when the places that we know as nursing homes had never opened the doors for patients.

Parents grew older and older until one day arrangements had to be made to have care provided for our loved ones. It is our belief that our parents are a blessing to us in our youth and in our older years. The grandchildren will learn a respect and love for the family unit and bond as they learn how to love, except and provide care for their grandparents.

In our home it is not uncommon to find 12 cousins running around the yard, playing and yes even fighting. During the day you may find some of the cousins gathered around the table having school time. That is correct, I said school time.

Grandma has a lot that she can teach the children. However, if she just feels like relaxing, she maybe found rocking a baby and singing to the infant. As grandma begins to forget things, it is alright because the children still love to sit next to her at the table as mom sits between the little one and grandma. She takes a special amount of time to feed grandma, the baby and even herself. Nobody even seems to notice if grandma is talking to someone that only grandma can see. She is loved and cared for by special hands. The greatest gift that we can give to our parents in their later years.

The grandchildren are often found, playing house. It used to be everyone wanted to be mom or the baby but in our house, you may have to calm down a disagreement when everyone wants to be grandma or grandpa. Love has no boundaries, nor does it see faults. If each of us could look through the eyes of a child than just maybe the world around us might have a better chance.

Homeschool Ruts

Just like any other Homeschool Family, we have found this month a month to pull out some extra curricular actives. A little more hands on activities normally helps to get the children ready to sit down and learn some more.

I can remember when my children were Homeschooled. Every year I would think I was the only parent that felt like the year was dragging on. Sometimes I would find myself doubting if I was cut out for Homeschooling my children. This was the way I felt until my first year of going to our Homeschool Parents group. It was at one of the monthly meetings that someone spoke up and said exactly what I was feeling. Within minutes other mothers began to join in. I was amazed that I was not alone.

From that moment on I decided to do some extra curricular activities. My daughters and my daughter inlaws are continuing forward with using some of the same activities. Yet, they seem to have a little bit better plans because they built on from my ideas.

Hands on projects are great to get the children moving. They are learning and do not even know that they are schooling. Building bird houses to set outside to see if we can attract some birds to put nest inside. We also are building and repairing the area for our chickens. Yes, it is that time of the year. Time to start planning our garden for the spring.

Is our Lifestyle Old or Is it Future Lifestyle

Is it an Old Fashion Family Lifestyle? Maybe what we are beginning to see is the return of our forefathers. Years ago people living in an extended family home. It was not uncommon to see Grandma and Grandpa living with the family. In some cases even the Aunts and Uncles lived on the family farm.

When we first started our change we never thought ten years down the road our family would be over twenty people living in the family home. It started due to the fact that I had a spinal cord injury and lost my use of my left side. The pain was so bad that I began wanting to die. My older two sons noticed that help was needed in our family home. Soon the two of them began to come home and stay longer and longer. It was not long before the first son moved home and within days the second son moved it.

My second son married the same day he moved home. His wife had decided to stop working outside of the home so she could help me get rehab and proper medical attention. Another goal that the two sons and my new daughter in law Christina, was to make sure the younger two brothers received the best chance to enjoy their youth and get the best possible education possible. Everything happened so fast that we needed a fast fix for rules and goals within the home unit.

The first thing that had to be discussed was the fact that as I was not willing to have anyone boss me around. Yet, someone needed to be the head person in charge, as well as the individual had to make sure everything was handled properly. When I say properly I mean examining all parts of the problem and solution. It was only right that as the oldest and the own of the home at that time would be me. Truthfully I did not know what this would mean years down the road or I might have decided this was not a good idea.

The next part of Authority was the fact that even though I had the final say, It needed to be respected that two sons happen to be adults and one of those sons was married. This meant that they needed to be considered separated households. The structure would be they would handle their own issues but never cross over into the others personal family unit. My daughter in law had to have respect and I knew this. Crossing over meant that none of my sons could speak harass toward her. They could speak with their brother or choose to bring the issue to me. Most the time it is brought to me, but there is no excuse for crossing over.

Several years later, I have four sons living at home with each of them having their own little family circle. This means that their are four daughter in laws and all their children. We have had three babies born less than 9 months ago and one more baby on the way.

Maybe it was easier for my sons to blend into this family type home because I have often in the past taken in homeless people and helped them to get on their feet. Every time the individual would be ready to move into their new home, I would state to the family I would not except anymore individuals.

So I bet you are wondering if this ever ended. The truth is I stopped opening my door, but my sons have not failed to take off from the point I stopped. Currently we have one mother, one cute baby girl and two men. The only difference is that only one of these individuals will be working towards the day that they have their own place. The other young man had been a part of our family of 8 years and the young lady has been here before 4 years ago, but now she is here to stay.

All the children in the home understand who their parents are and go along with the chain of command. They know respect is shown to all adults and if there is a problem they need to go to their parents or to me (known as Nanna). The parents are responsible for the care of their own children but can ask for assistance from the other adults. A great example is during the flu season or even teething time.

Our home is full of love, yet not exempt to the daily problems. Meal time is great because we believe in sitting around the table. This past Christmas I was given a beautiful table that handles us just fine. We will need to enlarge it when the children leave the high chairs. Our first large table was made out of saw horses and plywood. We kept a plastic table cloth on it or should I say two of those table clothes. It was plenty long and everyone had elbow room. I guess as long as there is wood our family table will continue to keep growing.

Guess today is as good as any other day to start posting again. My 2012 goal was to be faithful to my blog, but it looks like I got off to a shaky start. Today is Valentine's Day and it is only my second post. What a slow beginning, but I still have some time to change it around.

Today is a special day in our family. It is not just Valentine's Day, rather it is also my daughter in laws birthday. She is twenty two years old and a sweet-heart. Shh, don't tell her I said that because I do not want her to get a big head.

She blessed us with a sweet little bundle of joy, December 12, 2011. She came into this world weighing 6'11. They named her Nevaeh Lee Marie Eicher. She was welcomed into this world by her three brothers, Dustin, Joey, and Hayden.

Nevaeh was welcomed home by our Old Fashion Family that lives together here on the homestead. Our Home is made up of 5 boys, 4 girls, 5 men and 6 women. That is including me. I am the Grandma, here at the Homestead. Our home is always growing, with a baby due in August.

Years ago large families happen to be common. We often get strange looks from people when they see us all together. In fact, I was once involved in talking to this young girl at the park with her daughter. We got to talking about where we both lived. When I asked her if she knew where Bryan street was, she said yes she did. Without a pause, she went on to speak about this two story house on Bryan Street that her mother told her to stay away from that house and cross the street to avoid it. Her mother told her that the family that lived in the house sold drugs and had large parties. At that moment I was stunned and wanted to change the topic, however the young girl was interested in what house it was that I lived at.

I started to giggle and then went on to tell her that the house she spoke about was the place that I lived in. This young girl went on to become a dear friend of mine, not to mention her mother often stopped into visit.

People often pass judgement on people before taking the time to get to know the people. I am sure that people still think that my family are wild and crazy. Sometimes it bothers me and other times I just want to grow larger and larger.

Although some of my children have grown up and moved away, several of my children remain here on the homestead that we purchased after most the children had grown up. Those children that remain have families of their own.

We started out with a small house that is continually growing and growing. We all share the belief that people have slowly lost touch with the meaning of family. Years ago, It was common that Grandma and Grandpa lived with at least one of their sons or daughters. In our case, All of my sons have decided to remain here and just keep adding onto the family home.

We have also opened our doors to helping other individuals that maybe faced with some tough times in their lives. In this case, these individuals are treated just like my other children...FAMILY.

NOTE-Some people have asked me if I plan to ever stop letting people move into our home. I have even been told that I should tell my children to get jobs and move out. I find that so sad, because little do they know that all my children have jobs, and the house we live in, is owned by everyone.

2012 New Years Goals

Here at the Homestead goals for the year 2012 have been made, both personal and joint. We believe at this time of the year it is time to reflect back over the past year and consider things we can change to improve the new year.

One of the largest goals that was made had to do with the structure of our daily life. As the days grew colder and nights came sooner we soon began to comprise our daily structure. Nobody wanted to drag themselves out of bed or even do a fast clean up of the house. We all just wanted to be like our family pet, our potbelly pig named Sissy. She loves to eat, visit her box and then onto her bed to snuggle down under the blanket.

However even Sissy likes to change the rules and routine during these colder months. If we are not careful Sissy will act like she is off to bed until nobody is watching and there she goes. The first couple of times she left her bed it took us hours to find her. Now we have her hiding spot located and she gets caught every night as she crawls her way under Victoria's blankets. However that is not good enough. Sissy gets under the blankets and then turns around to get her head upon the pillow next to Victoria. Of coarse Victoria is happy to help out as she puts her arm around Sissy and off to sleep both of them will go.

So even though Sissy can be lazy, we can not become lazy. It is important in our old fashion large family we have to follow our schedule extremely close. If we want to start our next day off bad then be sure to go to bed with a dirty house. Everything will fall behind and for some reason I become an Old Grouch!

With all the goals each of us made for our New Year, we have found two goals that we have done in the past and recognize the benefit of making sure to keep this goal is to each of us. This goal is to have our personal devotion and pray both morning and night. Even though we do this as an individual we like to also make it our goal to have a morning time devotion because it helps us to remember our focus is the Lord and showing Our Lord's love through our actions and through our lifestyle.