About Having Five

The little lady is at my feet, trying to figure out the latch to open my giant bin of yarn.  She is so determined and funny in her smallish way that she sometimes reminds me of a kitten.  She is so busy!  Her little fingers are always finding the tiniest piece of this or that on the floor and putting it in her mouth.  Her little legs are getting so strong.  She is pulling up on furniture and crawling over things and up things.  She has found the steps!  I have rescued her from certain death at least twenty times today and it's only 1:00.  I had no idea that becoming a mother would require me to develop so many skills!

In this few years I have also learned how to be a triage nurse (is it broken?  does it need stitches?  is it strep?).  I have learned how to feed an army for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single day....and to do it with whole, organic food on a budget.  I have learned how to be a diplomat between nations (think brothers).  I have learned how to teach someone to read, do fractions, carve wood, start a fire,  to NOT start a fire, and to ride a bike.  And so many more things that I can't even list.

But more than that....what has shaped me more than that are all the things that having five has taught me about love.  Because for us, J and I, having five kids has made us take a good, hard look at us.  I think it has come to this, simply because there is so much work involved with raising a crew, that you have to be purposeful to survive.  Purposeful in how you spend your time.  Purposeful with your words, your actions.  Purposeful with who you are! 

And we are a team.  If I am purposeful about something, but he is not, then it is kind of pointless....maybe even harmful?  And if something is important to him, but not to me, what good is that?  So we've spent a lot of time these past two years figuring it out.  It's been crazy hard.  But he is so patient....and  I, so tenacious....and somehow it's just been so good despite how much work it is.

And are days are full.  These children blessings.  And we keep on laughing at how good it all is.