Living, with Children

How did I get here?

I never wanted to be a parent. As the oldest of four, I grew up thinking kids were a chore and not worth the effort. I figured that if I changed my mind after I had an established career, I would just adopt a child or two. It’s amazing how much a person’s attitude can change.

I am now the proud parent of five beautiful children ranging in age from 13 years to 15 months, and step-mother to four more, three adults and another 13-year-old. Yes, that’s right, nine children. It’s not easy, but it is fulfilling.

Most days, the same old routine is just that, the same old routine: get kids up and dressed, feed them, send them to school or give lessons for the ones I teach at home, clean the house, feed them again, get them bathed, read stories, and tuck them into bed. On the other hand, every single one of them has surprised me with a good laugh on one day or another.

Boys will eat anything.

One of the girls lost her toothbrush one morning, and we mounted an expedition to find it. Her brother quickly chimed in that he knew where it was, so I sent him to go get it. The next thing I hear is him rummaging around in the dog food bag as he is coming back. Now, I’ve been a kid myself, and I have a younger brother, and I know that young boys sometimes have especially strange eating habits, so when my son came up behind me after rustling a dog food bag, obviously eating something crunchy, I was a bit concerned. I very cautiously asked him what he was eating, almost afraid to learn the answer. He quickly gulped, smiled, and held out his closed hand. Again, I asked him what was in his hand. Again, he did not reply, and looked a bit concerned, then ever so slowly opened his hand to reveal … cereal! His twinkling eyes revealed his moment of triumph as I laughed out loud. Only then did he hand over the missing toothbrush.

My husband plays the airplane game with all his babies when feeding them. At one point, our then 13 year old son was sitting at the table as we were feeding one of the babies. Daddy flew the airplane around and around and into the baby’s mouth. One of our other sons snickered a little, but we didn’t think much about it until the next airplane went flying right by our 13 year old’s mouth, which seemed to open of its own accord to accept the spoon full of baby food as it went past. Absentmindedly, he was still playing airplane!

The best present of all.

I think most children will come to Momma with the eternal offering of pretty weeds and appropriated garden flowers. My children have it down to a science. “These are winter flowers, Momma. See, they are white and it’s winter right now.” “These are marigolds, you said so, aren’t they pretty!” The highlight of my flower receiving experiences to date has been three of my children all bringing me armloads of grass in seed. “Look, Momma! These are love flowers, see the heart shapes on the ends. We love you more than this, but we can’t carry enough. Do you want us to go get more?”

How could I have ever wanted to miss out on that?