Long Time Gone

I know, I know~ I'm very delinquent. It's been more than 3 weeks since my last post. My apologies. Consider that my maternity leave. Since then, Tim had a wonderful week off and I got to sleep to ridiculous hours of the morning, my wonderful mother came to visit and we've been reorganizing our house and our school and our lives. I came up with a fabulous new schedule and wrote it out on a big white board. Adam was kind enough to erase it with his foot within 24 hours. (Good thing I had it copied elsewhere...)

I feel like I've been in a time warp! Aaron is growing by leaps and bounds, the big kids are finishing up their school year, and tomorrow our Adam will turn 2 years old.

Some days I feel like I'm just holding on to sanity by a thread. It turns out, having 5 kids (7 and under) is a bigger project than I thought. There's a lot to do, many little people are talking to me at the same time and at least 3 of them need something from me at the same moment.

However, there is so much joy around here! We all adore Aaron, I get hand-drawn cards and love letters everyday, and when Daddy comes home, there's a spontaneous party in the foyer.

I've begun exercising again. I've been doing it at naptime for the youngest 4. Dabney stays awake and "babysits" Aaron while I'm in the basement. That 45 minutes everyday gets me sweating and brainstorming and relaxing and I come upstairs afterwards a few hundred calories lighter and more prepared to face the remainder of the afternoon. It's a huge blessing.

I love my job more and more although the challenges abound. I love buying huge amounts of food and cooking it for my kids and husband and filling our freezers and pantry. There's something very satisfying about hauling out a huge cart-full of groceries from Costco and then having Tim bring up the rear with his huge cart-full of kids. (I've been trying harder to receive those 'helpful' comments from strangers with more grace.)

So, there we are. We're still alive and still adjusting and still learning and really enjoying Aaron's company. I'll be back again soon~ I promise! I wanted to share some things that have helped me be a better manager of this crazy household that might help you too.

Enjoy the somewhat random pictures (courtesy of my mom) below!

This picture here is for you all who say I never post pictures of myself.