Night off??

Our life at at moment is far from ideal. While waiting for our house to sell, Stephen has been living and working in Wangaratta , where we all shall move to when we sell.
Having the Daddy away from the everyday life of our family has changed the way we have had to go about certain routines and responsibilities.
We have had to alter the way we view routines, that are even more difficult with the wide variety of ages in our family.One of the routine changes has been bedtime routine. Now this can be a make or break time for things going well in a family and more so when you have lots of little ones to get to bed.
With different age groups form 19 to newborn this is a much more difficult time than just having middles and littles.What makes this harder of course is to have NO Daddy to help with this while I get the current baby to sleep. Now I have been told that if I didn't feed and cuddle our babies to sleep they would go to bed much better and with less hassle and I should change this for our own good. However as research has shown you cannot spoil babies by picking them up when they cry or by giving them too much attention so I will continue to do this.
So back to the bed time routine. Our very willing and capable older children help me out big time, with this when Stephen is away.
As Braedon is Myffwyn's buddy he is the one who has been putting her to bed. He is very patient with her as she is the only child we have who takes so VERY, VERY long to get to sleep. Thank goodness for books and video I Pod's.
Autumn is Corbyn's buddy and she is very good with him as well. He does not take quite as long to put to bed.
The best way we have found at settling for the night is after dinner clean up, teeth etc is to gather together for the Rosary, bible story and read aloud.
The Rosary really does quieten our minds, hearts and pace. The little ones are very good at sitting through all 5 decades of the Rosary and often fall asleep during this time. Then we read the bible and read aloud and the middles and littles who are still awake go up to bed. I then come and say their prayers with them and tuck them in. this also can be hard if the baby needs me just then. The middles are very patient waiting for me to come and sometimes the little ones are already asleep when I come up.
So back to the picture of Braedon having a night off. We had come home from taking Mama and Papa to the airport in Launceston and Braedon said he wanted the night off. He set himself up with a Breaky Tea on a little table in front of the fire. He had the stero on with his own choice of music, candles and tablecloth etc. And the big can of Milo for his enjoyment. This was the signal for ckaos to reign. Of course as soon as he started Myffwyn who had decided she would "keep after herself" came down stairs and wanted her buddy to "keep after her".
End of Night off.
Kynan who rarely has a little one to put to bed, but does some other things was the cleaning lady as a light was smashed and needed cleaning up.

We have great children. They are helpful, loving and affectionate to both Stephen and I as well as each other. i love how they want to help each other , how they encourage one another how they STILL think when they are all grown up they want to live so close to each otter and us so we can do things together still
Here they are in descending age. No more steps stair look as they grow up. I do miss that look but they all have such gifts and talents that are emerging as they grow. Who could want to stop that?
We have been so blessed by these children God has given us and we are so thankful.
Blessings,