Large Family of the Week – The Ramseyer Family!

Lisa and Bruce Ramseyer live in Illinois, USA with their five children who range in age from 19 to two-years-old. Here is a little bit about them!

Bruce is a police sergeant in Illinois, USA.  Lisa is a former journalist promoted to stay at home mom when her first daughter was born.  We have been married for 23 years.  We currently home educate four out of five of our children.  Our eldest, Lauren (19) is a homeschool graduate and is attending a Catholic university out East.  Our daughter, Sarah (15) plays the piano and plays catcher for our local public school’s softball team.  Rachel (13) is a really good fencer and plays the violin.  Mary (7) is our girly girl who loves to dance, play dolls and dress up.  Michael (2) is the only boy in the bunch and boy, what a boy he is!

Do you consider your family to be large? If not, what do you think is the magic number which turns an average sized family into a large one? 

We used to think our family was large until we visited my daughter’s university campus.  We were a small to medium sized family compared to some of the families there some of which had up to 12 children.  This changed our perspective a great deal.

Did you ever think you would have a large family? 

Since I was a little girl growing up in Tennessee, I wanted to have four girls just like my favorite books: The Little House series and Little Women.  I got exactly what I wanted plus a beautiful boy.  My husband grew up with three brothers, so he was from a large family as well.

What is your best moneysaving tip? 

Cook from scratch.  Cut dryer sheets in two.  Turn off lights when you leave a room.  Buy used cars.  Budget very carefully and stay out of debt.

What is your best tip for organisation?

Label everything and enlist the kids in cleaning the house.

Do you cook the same meal for everyone or cater for different tastes?

We cook one meal, eat it together and if a child doesn’t eat, she/he goes hungry.  Eventually, they eat.

What is the best thing about having a large family?

We are never lonely.  Finding a playmate is easy, and you don’t have to go anywhere to find one.

And what is the most difficult?

The noise level during school hours can be a challenge with teens trying to study and the toddler being noisy and rough.  It takes a lot of planning.

If you could offer one piece of advice to parents, what would it be?

Enjoy each one of them!  They are grown and gone before you know what happened to you, and it is sad when they leave.

Don’t you have a television?

We have a television, but we do not have cable or an antenna.  So, really, no, we don’t have tv, we play movies instead.  It is much easier to control content when you have to buy or rent movies.

Do you know what causes it?

LOL!  Causes large families?  Uh, yeah, I dare say we’ve become experts by now.

And finally, will you have any more children?!

We’re in our mid 40’s, so it is less likely than it was when we were in our 20’s.  However, if one should come along, we’d be delighted…and hope for a boy!

Lisa blogs over at Shoe Livin so go on over and say hi!

If you would like your to see your family featured as our Large Family of the Week email family@largerfamilylife.com with ‘Large Family of the Week’ in the subject line. Click here to find out more.