Strap in for Jason’s ongoing story. Once a tech obsessed writer/photographer/speaker, he thought he had it all under control – until his family grew six sizes. Now he’s trying to fuse everyone together into a single family. This is Family Sized Blender.

Good lord, it’s working.

The oldest daughter shut her bedroom lights off. The four- and five-year-olds made their beds. The ten-year-old put his shoes away. All the right way, all without being asked.

In the life of a parent with six kids – five under one roof – this qualifies as a major victory.

When I (gleefully) report to passers-by that we parent a half dozen kids, we often get the one question you’d expect – “How do you do that?” My answer generally waffles between “weeeelll, as a blended family, we’re pretty new at this and…” “oh, it’s not really that hard.”

Truth be told, we’ve both been beta testing a few ideas with the kids and it really, really is that hard. We spend an inordinate amount of time on things like picking up toys that the baby won’t eat, prepping meals and cleaning up after prepping the meals. We know that there’s got to be a better way, and that’s where the beta testing comes in.