A living blueprint for large families who are done surviving and ready to start designing. 🦁
No homework vibes. Promise.
This is not a self-help book. Self-help books sit on shelves collecting dust while you feel guilty. This is a DO book. Every page is something to fill in, argue about with your partner, laugh at together, or cry through. Both are valid.
The Jones family has 7 kids. We wrote this book in between school runs, restaurant visits, road trips, and one very memorable hotel bathroom incident involving six children. We get it. Let's go.
Before you can design where you're going, you have to own where you've been. No filter. No highlight reel. Just the truth.
Not the Instagram version. The real one.
Add your favorite family photo
Tap to browseIf you made it this far with this many kids, you've already done things most people would never survive. Own that.
Drop in your earliest family photos. The ones before you knew what you were doing. Especially those.
Add photo
Add photo
Close your eyes. Imagine life 3 years from now when everything is working. What does it look like? Now open your eyes and build it on the next pages.
Stop thinking small because you have a big family. The size of your family is not a ceiling. It's your superpower. You just haven't used it right yet.
Not the values you think you should have. The ones you actually live by. There's a difference. Let's figure out which ones are really yours.
Real values are revealed by what you do when nobody's watching, what you spend money on without thinking, and what you get mad about. Not what you post online.
Put the kids to bed. Grab a drink. This chapter is just for the two of you. It gets funny. It gets real. It gets spicy. You're welcome.
Answer WITHOUT looking at each other's answers. Then compare. Loser does dishes. (We don't make the rules.)
Each person writes their own answer. Reveal together. 1 point for each correct guess about your partner.
Disclaimer: These questions are uncomfortable by design. If you get through all of them without learning something new about your partner, you're either lying or you're the most self-aware couple alive.
Answer honestly and separately. These are the conversations most couples avoid. Don't avoid them.
We said this chapter gets spicy. Here we are. You're welcome.
Answer honestly. The point is to actually know each other better. Big families need strong foundations.
Couples in large families are statistically the most likely to forget they're a couple. Not today. Here are 8 date challenges. Check them off.
Early days photo
Recent photo of just you two
Big families can have designed lives. It just takes more intentionality than everyone else. Here's where you design yours.
You cannot thrive in a space that doesn't work for you. A family of 7 in a 2-bedroom is not a housing situation — it's a survival reality show.
Add an image of your dream home
Systems are not boring. Chaos is boring. Systems are what let a family of 7 actually enjoy each other instead of just surviving each other.
Most families plan their vacations more than they plan their lives. Not anymore.
The scrapbook section. Drop in your photos, write your captions, document the chaos. This is the part your kids will look at in 20 years.
The regular Tuesday mornings. The backyard moments. The ones that feel small but aren't.
Progress doesn't always look dramatic. Sometimes it looks like getting through the month in one piece. Track all of it.
One rule: you have to actually fill these in. Even one line per month is better than skipping.
Document where you started. When you look back, this page will hit different.
When we started
Where we are now
For the days when you forget why you started. Read these.
You are a family of 7+ navigating a world built for families of 4. You are doing something most people don't have the courage to attempt. That deserves credit, not comparison.
The stage you're in right now will pass. The sleeplessness, the noise, the feeling of never having enough time — it shifts. What stays is the family you're building underneath all of it.
When you choose adventure over fear, they learn courage. When you choose each other on the hard days, they learn what love actually looks like.
And sometimes the reminder you need is: everyone is alive, everyone is fed, and tomorrow is another shot. That counts.
A section dedicated to the actual reason this family exists. Each kid gets their own page. Don't skip this.
Add their photo
Add their photo
Add their photo
Add their photo
Add their photo
Add their photo
Add their photo
Add their photo
Ideas, plans, 2am thoughts. No rules here.
Scoring: 1 = never again / 3 = solid / 5 = bringing everyone we know. Kids vote too.
Ask them. Write it down. Make some of it happen. Watch their faces when you do.
Gratitude is free, costs zero dollars, and is one of the most powerful things a family can practice together. Just fill it in.
Write this last. Seal it. Open it in one year.
Write a letter to your whole family — including your kids and your future selves. Write it from your heart.
50 pages. Hundreds of answers. Photos of real moments. Plans for a real future. This book is now yours — forever. Return to it. Add to it. Grow with it.
The Jonesfam Culture is proud of you. 🦁