You’ve heard the advice. (heck, I’ve told you to do it!) “Postpartum moms, REST MORE!!” And yet, maybe you wonder… what does that practically look like? Especially when we have other children, and when they’re all/only littles, the advice can seem impractical. “HOW exactly am I supposed to do that?,” you might wonder. Well, look no… […]

8 kids is a lot. It’s not “19 and counting” or anything, but it’s still a lot. The bigger our family has gotten, the more I’ve had to up my game when it comes to swapping out sizes and finding good organizing solutions for clothes. Here’s what standing in line looks like when I take my youngest… […]

#1– WHAT TO DO WITH THE PRESCHOOLER WHILE HOMESCHOOLING? Q: I feel at a loss with what to do with my 2-1/2-year-old daughter while we’re homeschooling, or even just throughout the day as I’m trying to get things done. What do you do with your 2-1/2-year-old? A: Well, Theo’s my current 2-year-old, and he’s a… […]

2014 was my first year of writing at JessConnell.com. Since we’ve nearly reached the year’s end, I thought I’d do a quick “year in review,” to give you the opportunity to read any articles of interest that you may have missed. For each month of 2014, I’ve shared the “top” article, and my personal favorite. Let’s get going. JANUARY […]

This might be the hardest part (for me) of having a big family. It’s the part I didn’t really expect, because, prior to having kids, I always saw myself as an extrovert. A quite marked extrovert. Not only that, but I always liked being around kids. Loved it, in fact. Playing, wrestling, tickling, laughing, snuggling down to read… […]

No matter who we are, who our kids are, or how long we’ve been a mom, the tough days come. Bad attitudes come. Rough nights of sleep come. With tough days comes an uphill fight to have a contented attitude. I see it in my life– don’t you?– and so of course it occasionally comes […]

When our family (with 7 kids ages 14 & under) backpacked the 93-mile Wonderland Trail, one of the biggest considerations we faced was how much, and what, gear to bring. Here’s how we made it work: BACKPACKS Each person carried their own pack: Doug: Osprey 85-liter Aether Jess: REI Piggyback toddler/child carrier (we tried soft packs & Kelty… […]

Q:  How do I keep busy at home? I find myself so terribly bored and restless at times. Being a stay at home mom is so boring! What am I supposed to do with my down time? Once chores and homeschooling are done for the day, I literally have no idea how to fill the couple of hours before I need… […]

We have a family habit of taking off and dropping our shoes by the back door when we come in. Then, twice a week, one of the little boys has a chore of tidying them all. Looking back, it would have been better for me to  teach them all to practice diligence from the beginning, by having…

  We’ve got 7 children. 6 of those are boys, but actually, our daughter ended up having the worst traumatic accident we’ve encountered yet (so don’t count out those girls!). We’ve had dozens of ER runs, and dozens more of NEAR-ER runs, where I carefully assessed the damage and ultimately decided to stay home and…

Earlier today, my sweet 5-year-old Moses asked me: “Remember when we goed to the store?” Me: “When we WENT to the store?” “Went!” “Yes I remember…” Then this just happened: “I writed my name….” Me: “I WROTE my name.” “Wrote my name.” and I realized– when I started out, I didn’t know how constant this mothering job… […]

Almost every pregnant woman gets to a certain point where she JUST. FEELS. DONE. We feel massive, bloated, tired of waking up all hours to go potty, irritable (rather than sentimental) when the hiccups start up at 11:21 at night. And then for some of us, we reach that “Due Date” and keep right on… […]

We were outside, sitting in the filtered summer sun, under a group of large trees. At our community library event I was sitting at the back of a large group of mothers with their children. The woman right in front of me had one 3 or 4 year old son. At one point, he walked up to… […]

{NOTE: For those readers who don’t know our family, we’re the Connells. Doug’s my husband and I’m Jess. At the time of this trip, we had 7 kids (Ethan-14, Baxter-12, MeiMei-10, Silas-8, Moses-6, Theo-3.5, Luke-18 months), and I was 6 months pregnant with our 8th child. I’m publishing journal entries, pictures, & memories from our 12-day family… […]