full hands

by the lack of blog posts lately, i'm sure you can tell...

my hand are full.

full of kids and groceries and laundry and bills....

and i hear it all the live long day.

in the grocery store

at the park

at the doctor's office

at the library

while trick or treating...

and pretty much everywhere we go:

"You've got your hands full!"

most of the time i just smile, trying to hide the fact that it bugs me.

i know that people don't mean it in a negative way.

but the looks on their faces when they say it gives away what they're really thinking:

these people are crazy as loons.

those poor parents...how will they survive?

maybe we are a little crazy.

but we actually like it this way.

and we wouldn't change it.

in fact, having a family of six is not the worst thing that could happen to a person.

we chose this life.

no one dumped a pile of kids on us.

we prayed for them.  we asked for them.

 they are our gifts.

we could have chosen more vacations and a fancier house and nicer cars and less to carry.

but we didn't.

there's nothing wrong with small families.  and i can see the benefit.

there's nothing wrong with frequent vacations to awesome places and magnificent houses and cool vehicles.

but there's nothing wrong with big families either.  

and there's nothing wrong with the sacrifices we make to provide our kids with siblings.

its just a choice.

and let's be honest:  whether you have one child or twelve, parenting is hard.

it's true.  our hands are very full.

but if you think our hands are full, you should see our hearts.

dusting off the ol' bliggety blog

People.

It has been such. a. long. time.

As in.....over two years.  I'm sitting here, shaking my head in stunned silence that is has really been that long since I've been on here writing about our life.

Here's what happened.  We added a fourth baby to our family and something had to give.  I dropped out of the blog-o-sphere and basically the social media scene for the past two years because my kids were crawling all over me, running into the street, climbing to their demise and flushing mini spray bottles down our toilet (true story!).

I'm sad that I neglected the writing part, the thing that gives me such joy and energy.  But in a life that is literally exploding with blessings, I traded something that I really cherish, for a short time, in exchange for the sleep and presence of mind that are required to keep four human beings under the age of 10 alive.

Here's the good news.  We've accomplished a lot since I was here last.
For starters, we're all still breathing.

In addition to that worthy achievement, we've hit some big and small goals including, but not limited to:




being adorable



pulling off a 6-person group Trolls costume that was the envy of our small town

 

10 minute stints of not fighting with siblings and getting from the top of the hill to the bottom with four humans on one sled




sledding outdoors with indoor cats



riding lessons



learning to pray with sausages for fingers



being creative, making things





learning to snowshoe



trading ice, snow and below zero temps for ocean and sunshine



surprise snowball attack with daddy as the unsuspecting victim





exploring new places (Omaha is fun!)





celebrating Jesus



potty training, cheering on the Vikings and participating in March Madness



becoming an official member of the dive team.


I'm going to go ahead and give myself grace for my absence here.  In some ways, I wish I had written more about all we did these past 30 months.  But I also realize that some memories are for the heart and not the page.

Now that every living being in our home is walking and talking and peeing in the toilet on a regular basis, I feel like I've got some minutes back.  Not to mention the fact that I discovered Wal-Mart grocery pick up so basically I'm just sitting here with my feet up and not one thing to do except pay some attention to this long-neglected space.  And, of course, fold my laundry.  'Cause you know, no matter HOW OLD these people get, I'm always gonna' have a mountain of clothes to battle.  Unless we get serious about joining a nudist colony, which is sounding more and more enticing by the day. ;)