the better to see you with, my dear....

Sonja K. and I. I think it's funny how no matter which of my kids I "selfie" with, we look alike, although my kids all look so different from each other.

To the eye doctor we went yesterday afternoon so that Kathryn and Evelyn can join the ranks of glasses wearers. The little girls had too much fun trying on all the glasses, and though it took almost two hours, we didn't get bored. Kathryn, Evelyn, Sonja, Char, and Cam did start getting hungry...

We went to Target...


Evelyn sneaked a sip...

We stopped into the grocery store quick for ice cream, a pizza to put in the oven when we got home, some store chicken to eat in the van, milk, frozen veggies, shampoo and conditioner, Christmas M&M's, and a few other equally important necessities. Camille can't walk for long periods of time on the crutches, as it hurts her hands and tires her out, plus it was pouring rain last night, so she had curbside service, and her older sisters lifting her in and out of the van. When we got home, the kitchen floor was wet from the groceries being brought in, and she slipped and fell. She cried a little and said her ankle hurt and ached, but the fall didn't hurt it, thankfully. She landed on her back on one of her crutches...I set her up on the couch all comfy, and she got to eat her pizza there when it was done. I think the whole out and about thing just wore her out.

Today, a dark and overcast rainy day. It's so cozy in here it's not funny. I spent lots of time washing up a dollhouse and lots of furniture to give to some friends of ours, for Christmas for their kids. We decided to include the driving camper, and the pop-up camper. I cleaned it all with a toothbrush, washcloth, and anti-bacterial cleaner, then rinsed the dollhouse in the tub, and the accessories in the sink. It's all dried off, and wrapped up in pretty wrapping paper. The kids won't care if it's not brand new.

So my soldier son Sam is coming home for Christmas...my two daughters who are in Norway are not coming home. Margaret is spending Christmas with a Norwegian family, and Abigail is traveling to Dubai to celebrate with the family of a girl she has gotten to know in Norway. Benjamin, Ashley, and Anya are not coming home for Christmas, because they are planning to come for the cabin in the woods in June again next year, and travelling from Washington state is expensive.

My three real school girls are home now, and it's busy. I have this mindset that I am simply not very busy anymore because I am on what I think of as the "downside" of having sixteen kids....I was on the upside, the climbing up side, for years and years, nursing and changing diapers and cleaning up messes and going to bed at night with the house as messy as it was when I woke up in the morning, despite trying to clean it up, in fits and starts between three meals, snacks, appointments, and laundry. I never got ahead. While I was cleaning the bathroom, they would be messing up the kitchen. I would wash bedding, they would wet the bed. The laundry room doorway had an actual laundry mountain, I am not kidding.

So these days it's hard to think of myself as being "busy". I have time to write. I can go to the bathroom any old time I want, without making the big decision of whether it's better to announce I am going and risk having a child cry and want to come with me, or sneak down the hallway and just hope they don't notice Mommy's gone and decide it's a good time to play in the baby powder. I don't have to pack bottles and diapers, sippy cups and snacks, every time I go out the door. I now make dinner without little hands tugging my skirts and little arms begging to be scooped up. The cereal doesn't get dumped out.

Life is simpler. I am less busy. But I am busier than I think I am, the days never have enough time in them. The house is sometimes cleaner when I go to bed than it was when I got up in the morning, and I have time to shave my legs, but with four teenagers in the house, and four other kids (one older, three younger), I find enough to do. And right now, I have to talk to some kids, and start in on dinner....