4 Moms, 35 Kids

When Kimberly, over at Life in a Shoe mentioned that they were hosting a linky today to show how big families live, I thought “this would be fun!”….and I was hoping that some of you ladies might have some suggestions on decorating/organizing things here.

We’re a family of twelve (my husband Paul and I have six sons and four daughters).

We’ve actually just moved from here (want to buy a mobile home?):


Being a family of twelve in a single-wide mobile home was another story by itself!

to here:

We live in a small, rural town in Alabama.

My favorite spot at this house:

The front porch is 80 ft long. I’ve placed some of our existing furniture on the porch, but honestly, it looks odd because the porch is so long. Anyone have any ideas for pulling it together??

I do love our ferns, and I love that porch swing…it’s the other places where I’m needing assistance.

The story of how we bought this house is actually amazing, but, I’ll save that for another time. For now, just know that we thought we would never find a house that could hold all of us, much less afford one. God is so much bigger than we expect, you know?


This is a swing frame that was left in the front yard…I’m going to place some swings for our younger children here.

In any case, we still have A LOT of work to do here. We’ve been here about six months.

These are remnants of a recent craft project (I still want to try coloring onesies for the baby….but again, another post for another time!):

This is a lake house, but for now, the lake has been drained to make it deeper.

When we moved here, there were beautiful bulbs, pear trees, and this lovely fig tree:

Chickens, chickens and more chickens!! (Mental note to self, DON’T wear flip-flops while taking pics of the chickens!! They will NOT leave my toes alone!) :


Our baby rooster!

Sunflowers in the garden:

Another square foot box:

I’m sparing you the in-ground garden. It’s a shame. Hopefully, we can show it some much needed attention this week.

We have about five acres. When we purchased this house, it was left FULL of more random stuff that I can even describe. In June alone, we LITERALLY removed 2 tons of trash from the basement alone.

Back yard swing that I hope to paint and restore. It would be nice to have a larger seating area here!

We are thankful for God’s wonderful provision. Each day, we find something new about this house that we love!

That said, this house is a work in progress, and probably will be for months to come!

If you have ideas, I would love to hear them!!


3 thoughts on “4 Moms, 35 Kids

  1. I came over from in a shoe on the bedroom post and had to find more info on your home since your bedrooms are so big! What an amazing house.

    My suggestion for the porch would be to do several separate areas, groupings of furniture. So maybe an area with plants, a little fountain, and chairs, and then an area with the swing and a table for drinks. Something like that.

    1. Thank you, Cherish! This house is such a testimony of God’s faithfulness. With ten kiddos in a single wide mobile home, we were really out of space. It had been years since we could all even eat around the dinner tables- there was just no room! We weren’t even looking for a new home when this one became available…it’s needs a lot of work, but it does have the space that we have needed and we know this is exactly where God wants us. Glory to God!! We feel we have been part of a miracle! : ) Thank you, for visiting!

    2. Thank you also, btw, for the comments about the porch…that’s what the ladies are all saying. I’m trying to think now on one thing at a time…I have some old ladder-back chairs I was thinking of placing with the rocker …and then I’m going to focus on cushions for some of the seating. Now to just figure out how to coordinate fabrics for that– I don’t want them all to be the same, but I am *NOT* good at matching colors and such.
      I had never thought about a little fountain…that’s a great idea!

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