My name is Rachel. I’m a 35 year old Australian mother of 5 children. I live in the Western suburbs of Sydney with my partner of 14 years, Rob and our children Chloe (13 with Diabetes and Coeliac Disease), Clare (11), Caitlin (9), Riley (7) and Sophie (4 with Autism Spectrum Disorder), and our cat Chelsea.

Before children I ran a home based child care where I cared for between 5 and 8 children each day, so it has been no surprise to my family and friends that I have ended up having a large family.

I have been a Stay at Home Mum (thanks to my hard working partner) since I had my first baby in 1998 and I love it. Staying at home with my family is very important to me and while I say that I am by no means devaluing mothers who work outside of the home. I believe that all Mothers try to do the very best for their families and for me, my family and our circumstances, staying at home is what is best for us.

I have been blogging since January 2006. I really only started because I had begun podcasting and I needed a blog to help publish my podcasts. I started noticing other Bloggers and began reading their blogs. Not long after I was posting on my blog regularly. I blog about my family and my domestic side here on  A Juggling Mum.

Having a large family and a relatively small house has forced me to be creative when it comes to organisation and home management, as well as, at times forced me to live frugally.

I wouldn’t call myself a greenie but I have been trying to reduce my families footprint on the earth by recycling, using less water and energy and wasting less.

I work hard each and every day to keep our home neat, clean and clutter free while encouraging my children to be the best that they can be. Some days it is a struggle and other days it’s a piece of cake but everyday it’s an adventure.