Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Outings with the littles

Haven't done much posting this week because I haven't had a lot of time to myself. We're starting to do more schoolwork again and have been working on learning the 8 facts in addition, and list F in SWR. E always surprises me with how fast she picks up both spelling and math. I hope all the rest of my kids are this easy to teach :-)

I actually got out of the house with all five kids by myself again!! This is quite a feat, because as most of you know, I have to juggle two 3 month old babies, a toddler (20 months) who thinks running away is the best game invented since her other favorite game of climbing out of strollers and highchairs, a 3 year old boy with enough energy at times to power the Internet, and a very distractable 6 year old.

I am determined to make use of our very expensive stroller, however, so each week I have been trying to get out of the house at least once. A worthy goal to shoot for, I think. Last week we went to the library and it was very successful (if you go by my new expectations of what successful means), and the week before that we went to the grocery store to buy some chicken nuggets (how could any family with littles survive without a box of chicken nuggets in the freezer?? I HAD to go!). This week we made an extra special trip to the local science centre and children's museum. Our dear friends, the godparents of the twins, gave us a family pass there for christmas (thank you!!) and we had so much fun!

I love getting out of the house with all the children at once because it gives me so many opportunities for adult conversation. Mind you, it is usually the same conversation each time, but when you live my life, that's ok. Nearly every other adult I walk by wants to talk to me because they can't believe they are all mine LOL. You can literally see them counting each child in their head as I walk by.

I must be getting a lot of prayers from people though, because I have a great sense of peace most of the time. In fact, when I was at the science centre, I ran into a mom who had her 18 mo old twins with her (her only children), and she was amazed that I was out of the house and how I 'look so happy', she said. I just laughed and told her I was happy because I was out of the house instead of sitting at home with my chaos. She said she would remember me when she has bad days. Glad to be the 'someone always has it harder than me' person for her :-).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have a beautiful family and you are very blessed. Enjoy the chaos. : )

Anonymous said...

Melanie! Embrace the chaos, accept the insanity! LOL! Glad you had a nice time!

Anonymous said...

LOL I think that I am often that person who has it "worse", as well ;-)

I know what you mean about getting out. When the babies were born, up until they turned 1, we were making due with only one car. The babies did not actually leave the house except to go to the doctor until they were three months old. After a while of being inside for *days* in a row, I made a rule for myself that I at least had to go outside to get the mail every day, no matter what the weather was. It wasn't much, but it helped!