The Great Eight

“I know what I’ll do!” I thought to myself as I busied about my day, getting overwhelmed by children asking ten thousand questions and relentlessly using the word Mum, “I’ll add something else to my ever growing list of things to do and start a blog!”

This is something I have thought about for a while, not because I’m bored !! Far from it. But because I am now 40 years old with 8 children and I thought I could share some of my knowledge with some home schooling, large family, craft and food loving families and give some tips on what we do to, somewhat, hold it together.

It must look like we know what we are doing from the outside, but I’m here to tell you

IT’S CRAZY IN HERE! There are days I’ve truly hit bottom, and I want to tell you, you are NOT alone! I see you! So welcome to my Blog. In it I am adding in tips and tricks for large families, recipes, patterns, amazing links to amazing people and my own personal stories and testimonies.

Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Melanie, I’m a person who absolutely LOVES crafts and children. I have many of each of those things in my house. I live in beautiful New Zealand in a smelly old town called Rotorua. I have birthed 6 children who are living with my partner and I full time and I have 2 bonus children who live with their mum but we are lucky enough to have stay regularly. Their ages range from 14 years to 7 months. 4 of them are children from my previous marriage so my partner is their stepfather, and we had 2 children together. So a total of 8 between us. It can get incredibly noisy and expensive in our house! 3 children are home schooled, 3 are at school, one is at a Steiner Kindy and one is currently attached to my body, breastfeeding. So we have a wide range!

My partner and I have been through an incredible journey the past 5 years. The trials we have been through would have broken most relationships, but we are stronger than ever. In upcoming blogs I promise to write a bit about my journey through the family court system and my mental health, in hopes that I can help others keep going through tough times.

❤