"You must be busy"

It is Saturday afternoon and Logan and I are out and about with the kids.  We arrive at Wal-mart in style in our light green Toyota Sienna mini-van.  So far this is a pretty normal occurrence at this family friendly store.  Then we walk to the side doors and out stream our sweet kids.  First an infant car seat emerges, followed by one, two, three, oh wait, four young children (with a six year old as the oldest).  We troupe to the front door and the children separate into two carts, each manned by one ready adult.  Let the sweet looks from grandparents, alarmed looks from other parents, sidelong glances, and encouraging sentiments begin!

We have found that these trips can be a sure set up for failure, or they can be a complete success. The outcome is almost fully dependent on if all of the kids are fed and rested. If these simple requirements are satisfied it is pretty smooth sailing.  If one or both are lacking the results can be pretty spectacular...

We have received a wide array of comments.  Some of my favorite include: "This is why God created grandpas" (from a sweet old man who was smiling at Lindsey), "Are you trying to recreate the Brady bunch?" (to which I sweetly responded that this was not the case because all of them were mine), and "You must be an amazing mom!"  The two comments I can count on pretty regularly are "Wow! You must be busy!" and "You must not have any free time!" Providing a response to these comments will do a great job at summing up our lives right now.

"Wow! You must be busy!"

The short answer to this comment is "Yes we are, and I wouldn't have it any other way!" I confess that I have a slight addiction to having a daily schedule.  I know exactly when I have workout time, laundry day, cleaning time, momma day, mommy time, quiet time, afternoon yoga, etc. Logan did a great job of summing up our  busy lives in our last post dated January 17^th.

"You must not have any free time!"

I am a stay at home mom with five kids and by all accounts ‘me time’ seems like it should be an elusive idea.  Surprisingly though, sometimes I feel like I have more than my fair share.

This is due, in part, to my scheduling prowess. My day begins at 6:00 when I wake up to have some time for myself before kids are up.  Lindsey’s overnight feeding schedule has recently adjusted allowing me to do this again (Waking up at 6:00 is difficult when combined with nighttime feeding). Morning time lately has been about catching up with current events, reading my book for book club, facebook, and anything else that sounds enjoyable.  

All of this is generally done while listening to the familiar sounds of Logan practicing the guitar in the background. He is now working on Sweet Child of Mine and he is sounding AMAZING.  Morning time is a time where each of us have our own individual time. Occasionally though, a great topic will come up and we will find ourselves in a good conversation.

During the week I workout 3 times at the Kroc center, have playgroups with the kids and my friends, have ladies night, enjoy a monthly book club, and I work 2 afternoons each week as a video relay interpreter for Sorenson. I feel like my sanity levels are very balanced, and this allows me to enjoy being a mom even more!  I feel like I can be more present and be a better mom when I have time outside of the home and time specifically for me.  I also enjoy momma time most afternoons. Things are just better after a relaxing yoga session and in a clean house (these two definitely don’t always happen, but it is oh so nice when they do!).  Doing things with the kids is not confined to that time, but I know it will happen if I have a specific time for it.

Logan and I are also in a good place.  Every day after 8:00 is time for each other. We fill this time with reading our book together (right now we are reading 1984 and this is something like our 75^th book that we have read out loud together), engage in a good conversation about current events, philosophy, random topics, etc, or watch a movie.  We are also back to our weekly date nights.

The good, the bad and the ugly

So far I feel like I have been standing on a bit of a soap box exclaiming about sunshine and rainbows.  We have plenty of those in our lives, but there is definitely another side.  Let’s rewind the story…

…We troupe into Wal-mart where the kids separate into two carts each manned by a ready adult…

In this story the parents end up frantically hurrying through the isles to the sound of one child sobbing, one child screaming, one child yelling “He HIT me!,” and one child vehemently denying that any wrongdoing occurred.  I left one child out of this scenario as a kind of hopeful idea that one of them was behaving.  This scene honestly would probably include the youngest toddler jumping off of the cart (because this is Walmart, and seat belt is broken) and running in the opposite direction we are walking.  

Yes.  This happens.  I can normally predict the trips that will be horrible because the kids are tired, hungry, or just done being out and about.  Admittedly they are all becoming much better to take places and are getting better at being polite and well behaved.  However, just the sheer number of them makes things difficult and a decibel louder than a normal level. This just comes with the territory of a large young family.

Now let us go back to our home which is always clean and relaxing.  Okay, I admit that the house I am referring to is actually someone else’s house.  The house we return to is wild and crazy!  I have my cleaning time set aside in the afternoon right before kid time.  There is a reason for this. I think the kids can happily mess up a house in a matter of minutes, and if the house is messy there is some kind of switch inside of my body that makes me grumpy and reduces my fuse by a few inches. As an aside, another time this switch rears its ugly head is after our kids are read to, teeth brushed, sung to, and tucked sweetly in bed… And one or more of them do not stay there or become very needy.  

The bottom line is that life is very good right now.  Logan and I both feel very balanced, and we are both enjoying the ride. We love the way our lives are shaping up and we are enjoying the intentional process of creating the family traditions that we want to shape our family.

Sometimes the house gets messy and very loud. Sometimes children fight. On the other hand, Logan and I are best friends, our children are best friends, we are constantly developing personal relationships with each child, the kids imaginations are amazing, we have a LOT of family time together, we love to be together, and we all love each other deeply.  

I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Logan took this picture of us doing Cosmic Kids Yoga together.  Check it out on youtube.