Which Nursery Rhyme Character Are You?

If I'm being honest, life is good but it has never felt so hard. I feel so lucky to have the six beautiful people that live here in this house with me, live here in this house with me.  But, man.  This is a lot of people and it is a lot of work.  And it's not just the physical work, and not getting nearly enough sleep to do it well, but it's the emotional effort and fortitude required that adds to the load.  Having four kids for me, I wouldn't have called it easy, but I wouldn't have called it hard, either.  But five? This thing is no joke. The addition of Jack has ramped up this mommy factory to max capacity. The motor is roaring and the gears are thumping and I am just hanging on. Dan appears to be doing something similar.  I find myself wondering, when things calm down in 10 or 20 years, will I still have all my appendages, or will I have lost a thumb or a leg or my heart somewhere on the assembly line? And will Dan and I even know what to do with each other besides fall asleep, absolutely spent, to reruns of Shark Tank?

In the mid mornings, when homeschool is in full swing (and overall going pretty great, by the way), when two babies are screaming, Ava is trying to concentrate, and Max wants another peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I am mentally transformed into my nursery rhyme doppelganger.

You know the one, right?

There was an old woman, and in a nice home she did dwell,
She had so many children that most days were heaven, but some days were...not that great.
She gladly wiped bottoms and served peanut butter on bread,
But by the end of the day she was completely whipped and fell into bed.




The irony of life is that the cause of my pain is also the cause of my unrivaled pleasure.

Jack has been a little slower to sit up, not that I'm complaining about that because the longer we can put off his growing up, the better, in my book.  But I was starting to suspect it was a sign that his body was ready for some real food.  It's not that I hadn't given it to him, but the fact that our baby seat was still occupied (Finn), didn't help the convenience factor, but mostly, it was because when I had given him regular food, he backed up worse than rush hour traffic.

Remind me to tell you about the time the doctor had to perform a poop extraction.  It was even worse than it sounds.

But, a new regime of Miralax and a new high chair got this little buddy in business and he was thrilled!

When he gets in his chair and the food appears, he wiggles his entire body with excitement.

He still loves a good bottle though, 

And as suspected, once he got some good sweet potatoes in him, the sitting up has come right along.

He may be 7 months old now, but the novelty has not worn off.  I think he's everyone's favorite. 

Especially, Finn's.

 Finn has a straight up problem though.

  Hello, my name is Finn and I am a paci-aholic.

Ava is making great strides with her riding and has mastered grooming and tacking up her horse independently.

I told Luke to go fix his hair the other morning before school and he came out like this.  Somebody wants to be just like their dad.

Luke had his first piano recital a week ago.  He was so excited but, not surprisingly, wanted to play it cool.  He tried so hard not to smile and he played great while he was doing it.

Meanwhile, Max was channeling Michael Jackson.

I had to snap this picture the other day.  It's not to illustrate that I make pies a lot (I don't) or to give the illusion that my kitchen table is always clean (it's not).  But this moment was a great one.

 My kitchen table was clean.  I had accomplished an uncharacteristic amount that day, including a pie, so I was feeling good.  But the greatest part, was looking at these little people around me and being flooded with the feeling that not only did I love them, I liked them.  They may be small, but they are fantastic humans.  They are smart and kind and fun and good.  And each one of them, would be people I would choose to spend time with. Which is good, because I spend a lot of time with them.
 This was a moment of being reassured that the effort is totally worth it.  It's all worth it.  I have complete faith that they will continue to grow into the kind and good humans they have already started to become. And in 10 or 20 years, when things calm down, as long as I have Dan and our reruns, and these five people, I might be short a thumb, or all my dark hair, but I'll still have my heart.