Try Not to Blink

My kids go back to school on Thursday. At times it feels like my summer never really started and other times I feel as if I've been living in a really long tunnel with only a small sliver of light filtering in at the end. Summers with new babies at home can be hard. Everything about summer time inspires you to go and do and be in the grand outdoors. But newborns are terrible at regulating their body temperature and they can't be out in the sun and they need to eat ever so frequently and even when it IS convenient to go and do with a newborn, going and doing with a newborn plus a 2 year old and 4 older children? Yeah. A daunting task for even the brightest of days.

I think we've weathered it well. We haven't done much, but we've tried. Last week, I took a breath and a gulp and left Jack and Ivy for 10 solid hours so Josh and I could spend the day romping around an amusement park holding hands with the big kids. They were desperate for it, I could tell. Their little hands reached out for me all day. They wanted to sit next to me, to talk to me, to touch my unencumbered by newborn self. It gave me pause to consider what it does to a family to have so many babies, to have a Mama that is stretched between so many. Perhaps there are moments of hard--moments of frenzy and emotionally taxing chaos that make me wonder what on earth I've ever gotten myself into. But in the end, when Ivy gets in the car and asks when she can see "her Henry" or Jordan takes the baby and changes his diaper without even being asked, or Lucy exercises compassion and provides service by entertaining the little ones while I get dinner ready, I remember that our family is the perfect environment for all of us, parents and children alike, to learn love and tolerance and patience. Yes. My children will make sacrifices because we are many. But the blessings they will receive and the lessons they will learn will outweigh the sacrifices. I hope.

And so we've spent most of our time at home. We've worked in the garden and practiced piano and worked on memorizing scriptures. We've had a few fist fights and yelled at each other far more than we should have and watched too many episodes of Phineas and Ferb. We remodeled our basement and moved two of the kids downstairs. We've made treats and watched movies and tried to do chores every day. Tried. That's a good word. We've read books and gone to the library and spent time on Khan Academy. (Are you familiar with Khan Academy? Go. Learn something. It's awesome.) We've had productive days and PLEASE HELP ME I'm drowning days. And now the summer is over.

Jordan starts the 6th grade, Sam and Lucy are 3rd graders, and little Henry is finally starting Kindergarten. It'll just be me and the babies at home. I figured out the other day that when Jack starts Kindergarten, Jordan will be a Junior in High School. It doesn't seem all that far away for my youngest to be starting school, but it seems completely impossible for my oldest to ever be old enough for high school. I know. I'll blink and he will be.

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