New Questions

Before Everyn was born I got alot of questions about how many kids we were going to have, and surely this was going to be the last one.

Now those same people keep saying stuff like, "you may as well just have a 6th" and "wouldn't it be awesome if you had another one that was a girl and then you would have 3 and 3?!"

I think the whole thing is cute.  For the most part, people love babies and when the  baby is there it seems that everyone is happy and rejoycing and thinks it is a marvelous thing.

And it is.  Babies are pretty awesome.

And older siblings are pretty awesome too.

I have had to change my tactics a little bit when we go out.  I have to handle the baby carrier and whatever bags/purses I need.  I also have a slippery almost 2 year old that needs to be monitored and controlled.  There are keys and doors and cards that need to be maneuvered.  Honestly, I just used to do it all myself- except the carrier of course.  The boys tend to lose things out of bags and get distracted and let go of their sister.  Now though, I give them jobs.  I've been putting Roman on door duty, and I hand him the van key and he is in charge of that and getting everything unlocked and opened.  Deacon gets to pick if he wants to carry bags or handle Berean.  He usually picks Berean and she holds out her hands to him and he holds her hand and tells her all kinds of things as they walk along together.  Lincoln usually holds Berean's other hand.
Lincoln lets go at will, though, so I can't really trust him.

It has been working, but I am thankful that it is 36 degrees today and that we haven't had cold days or lots of snow this year.

The other question Noah and I have been getting is this, "So, how is it going..."  but it is said in a way that the asker expects the answer to be "it is so horrible, why did I ever do this!"  or "we are dying due to lack of sleep".  They seem like they don't believe me when I say that things are going fine.

Homeschooling moms with lots of children say this instead, "how's the sleep?"  I tell them she sleeps at night in 4 hour stretches and they say, "you're ok then."  They know, like I know, that if you are sleeping in 3 1/2 hour segments that you can conquer the world.  Well, maybe not the world, but at least the pile of dirty dishes.  Maybe, with some chocolate, you can even get to the laundry.

I am not going to lie, there have been hard moments when everyone is crying at once or I have had to put the pacifier back in someone's mouth for the 100th time.  A couple of days the boys have watched more tv then I would prefer.  Many nights I have fallen asleep before I have finished my days work.

But really, the hard moments have not been that many.  Maybe 5% of the time.

It is like any job, I suppose.  Some days your customers (or patients, or students or coworkers) are more needy than other days.  Some days the tasks you are asked to do are harder than tasks you have to do on other days.  Some days the amount of work is more than you have time for.  I think that is just the way it is.

I do know that things will be harder when I go back to work in a couple of months.   I am a little worried about that, but it will be ok.  Right now I am enjoying my time off, enjoying my family and enjoying things not being too hard.