sunday.....and lots of kids are hungry

It seems like I just sat down from breakfast cleanup, which was added up into cleaning the mess I made making brown sugar kettle corn last night, vacuuming, doing some laundry, changing some diapers, ect, ect.....and now THEY WANT LUNCH! I found a Christmas advent calender that I had bought cheap after Christmas, filled with chocolates, and that was devoured pretty quickly....then Kathryn found a box of pizza rolls in the freezer. A 15 count box. Make sure everybody gets one! They are doing lunch on their own for now, but believe me, if I choose to sit here and let them, I will pay for it.....I told them they can have a sandwich, or some oatmeal. Mirielle, Mali, and Margaret just came in the door, they have been gone to a meeting, and they are coming to the rescue and making some oatmeal for some of the kids.



Bananas. I cannot eat them, I am allergic. I love them. I sneak a little taste once in a while. I cannot eat any tropical fruit....but bananas, they are almost a staple food here. When they are hungry, have a banana. Healthy, neat, cheap. I pick them up everytime I go to the store. And if they perchance (is that a word?) get a bit brown, Abigail will make us some banana bread, which I can eat.



I am excited about something: I am going to lunch tomorrow with some friends. I think there will be 4 or 5 of us. We haven't decided on a place yet. It really doesn't matter, just somewhere we can sit for a few hours and talk. 3 of us went to breakfast a few weeks ago, we sat and drank coffee for hours. These things are very special to me. Mirielle will get out of classes by lunchtime, so she will watch the little ones for me. Some things do get easier when you have older ones at home. To be able to go to some of my appointments without bringing everyone was something that was unheard of for many years. Now, I can usually find someone to watch some of them, and decide on the key ones to bring so things are smooth here, too.....shopping trips are the same thing. For years, I did the shopping either late at night, when they were in bed and Paul was here, or during the day with all of them. I still do that sometimes. The older ones do have their lives, but they are willing to pitch in to help, too. Older ones come with their own troubles for parents, though......FASFA, college loans, vehicles, insurance, permits, licenses, rides, ect, ect.....different troubles than when they were little, but things that keep us busy nonetheless.....



Paul scored one million bonus popularity points with the kids one night when I wasn't here. Apparently, either he or one of the older ones made some popcorn.....the little ones were tucked into bed. So, they smelled the popcorn. Daddy so nicely brought them each in a handful, into their beds. They are still talking about it. Daddy is nicer than Mommy, because HE brought us popcorn in bed.....

Well, I had to take a break, now it is a few hours later, Charlotte Claire and Camille are tucked into naps, and it is a bit quieter in here. 6 kids are in the living room, 4 or 5 in the kitchen, a few in the little girls' room, and Paul is going to take a turn on the treadmill, which I just got off of. I went for over 20 minutes, listening to ABBA. Now, I feel more like I deserve a rest....

Jonathan has his whole Thomas train set up across the livingroom floor. He thinks when we pick up and vacuum, it is a fresh clean floor for him to play on.

Hmm....here I sit....coffee ....I just told Kathryn I'd pay her a quarter for a cup of coffee. I don't mind getting up and making one, but:

1. Someone might steal my computer.

2. Someone might steal my chair.

3. I might see lots of distractions along the way....like, messes to clean up, kids to talk to.....

4. Coffee always tastes better when someone else makes it.


Lunchtime goes on all day here. The kids that are eating now will not be hungry for dinner. The kids who ate a few hours ago are having some chips with the kids that are eating now. I could be more strict. But I just don't feel like it. Joseph just had a cup of icecream, when I was on the treadmill. I simply pretended not to notice. I try to give them as much freedom as I can, while still sort of fairly distributing the snacks and good stuff. That sometimes involves pretending I don't see things. I hate getting after them....but theoretically, one person having ice cream could turn into quite a big ordeal, if certain younger ones noticed and decided they wanted some too...

Gosh, I could just let them do this all day, and not even serve dinner. But I can't. Inevitably there would be someone who didn't eat.....so we always sit down and eat dinner together, no matter how the day goes. I have a ham in the 'fridge, and I have a lot of potatoes, I can peel some and mash them. And we have lots of frozen veges....then maybe tomorrow I can start some soup before I leave, using some of the ham.....

We have what I call a "roundy-round" seat. It is sort of an Exersaucer, which Camille has grown out of. I don't know exactly where to store it, it is big and barely folds. I asked Aaron to bring it downstairs. He asked why we were even keeping it. I said that you never know, maybe we will need it someday....he was surprised, and said he thought weren't having anymore kids.....I said that 'ya never know.....he seemed happy about that, then started begging for me to adopt a baby, how about a little Chinese baby, please mom, please? Oh Aaron, if only it were that easy. I am not sure anyone would give a family with so many kids a baby, even though we would love him/her, and take good care....and we are getting older, I am 43, Paul is 46. Sometimes when I hear the heartwrenching stories like the one Paul told me yesterday: a young mother in some midwestern state drowned her two young daughters....2 years and 4 years old, I think....the mom was having trouble with the kids' father, ect ect....so she drowned the kids. I WOULD have TAKEN them! The failed Nebraska law did prove one thing: there is obviously a need, however sad it may be, for people to be able to give up their kids. I don't think we should go back to state run orphanages or anything, but......to be that desperate....it is unspeakably horrible. I wonder how God possible can stand to see all that goes on on this earth.

Yeah, give me a cup of coffee and a computer, and on and on I go...sorry....