Today was mine and Cal’s second week back at church. I would have liked to take a bit more time off, but didn’t really feel like I could. I spent all of last week in the mother’s room.
This week was the Primary Program, which was nice because half my kids sat on the stand. The easier half though. Ollie and especially Ruby did their utmost best to make sure it still felt like we were wrestling on a bench with six kids, even though there were only three. Aaron actually spent the majority of sacrament meeting taking Ruby back and forth between the foyer and our bench. Ollie spent the entirety of Sacrament meeting trying to perform headstands and somersaults on the bench before I could stop him.
Second and third hour were not without their own forms of excitement. At one point we encountered an explosive baby diaper from Cal, and a gushing bloody nose from Ollie who had a head on collision with another kid in nursery during bubble time.
*Sigh* And of course Aaron stays after to count tithing, so I get the pleasure of hauling the entire rowdy, starving, cranky circus home by myself, and then trying to start dinner.
BUT hey, my earrings were rockin’ today, so there’s that, right?! We can’t ignore the little things, sometimes they’re all we’ve got. I’m grateful for Dressing Your Truth and Energy Profiling, so that I can at least look put together, even when I’m very far from it.
Cal is six weeks old, and life is slowly (or not so slowly sometimes) pushing us back out into it’s hustle and bustle. Part of me is ready and part of me is not. It feels like a baptism by fire, figuring out how to ‘do’ life all over again with six kids. The water is deep, and the waves roll over my head again and again, leaving me spluttering and flailing and trying to grasp exactly how I’m going to make this work.
Sleep isn’t the problem. Cal is a pretty good sleeper, and although we aren’t getting a ton of sleep, we are getting more than I expected.
No, the real difficulty is the “double toddlers plus a newborn” stage that I’m in. I feel like I can go anywhere with the three older kids plus Ollie and Cal. And I feel like I can go almost anywhere with the three older kids plus Ruby and Cal. But to have the three olders plus Ollie PLUS Ruby PLUS Cal is still a bit intimidating. I don’t feel like I have enough eyes or hands to keep them all safe.
I know it will get easier. I had double toddlers and a newborn when Lincoln, Ivan, and Adelia were those ages. It was hard then for the same reasons it’s hard now. So I know we’ll get through it. But life isn’t letting us lock ourselves inside and wait until it’s easier either. So I’m doing my best to jump out and meet it head on…starting with basketball season.
Because if I’m honest, my older kids need it. Even my Type 4s are getting restless and sick of the house. Lincoln told me the other day that he was tired of being cooped up and never going places like we used to.
And we all know I’m sort of a “go big or go home” kind of gal, right?
So Adelia and Ivan are doing basketball and swim clinic, and Linc is doing swim clinic and water polo. There’s also Scouts, my Relief Society calling, book club, and a volleyball league I just joined. Have I mentioned that we homeschool? And we just found out that Aaron is going to Honduras for work for two weeks in December. Heaven help me. Haha!
In other good news, half the bunk beds are finished! Just one more half to go. We set up the finished one for Ollie, and he loves it.
And a couple cute pictures of my little Cal buddy. He’s a keeper. New babies cause a lot of commotion and fuss, but they are worth every bit.
