Have Kids. Will Share.

April got away from me. Let's be honest: quite a lot of things get away from me these days. I assume this is one of the perils of having a big family. It's not the only peril. Here are some more!

Once upon a time, if I was planning a meal that used ground beef, I would buy one of those handy little one pound packets at the store. We'd even have leftovers! A couple of years ago, I graduated to the three pound tube of meat. I'd use two pounds and freeze the extra pound to use for another meal. Now, the whole three pounds go into the pan. Leftovers are hit or miss. Oh, the days of tiny grocery bills...they are long gone.

We get a lot of "You've got your hands full!" comments. This is nothing new. We've been getting them since the twins. And I get it. When you see a huge family, sometimes you just want to say something. Yesterday though, I had someone tell me that I sure did have a lot of helpers, and that may be my new favorite, only to be trumped by hearing how adorable or well behaved my children are. I did get asked the other day if I ran an at home day care. Nope. These are all mine.

Last week we had record wreckage in our home (please try saying "record wreckage" five times fast). In a six day span, we managed to break 9 different items: a wooden cutting board, a plastic bin (that wasn't even ours--the twins thought it would make a great step stool), one dessert plate, a Thomas the Tank Engine spoon, a juice glass (that one was me), three bowls (in one fell swoop--unloading the dishwasher is hazardous), and one other item that currently escapes my mind (see paragraph one).

In addition to the record wreckage, the twins like to take advantage of any momentary distraction exhibited by Mommy (i.e. homeschooling or nursing) to create fabulous murals on their walls, doors, bed spreads, naked bodies, etc with whatever markers they have secreted away from the last time all drawing utensils were confiscated. They also managed to use an entire previously unopened bottle of baby wash at bath time last night. The Man and I are going to get our new family motto emblazoned on our imaginary coat of arms: This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things. Either that or tattoo it across the kids' foreheads. Preferably in purple as that has been the marker color of choice lately.

Our family needs to just start a list of "You might have a big family if..." It's close companion would be "You might be a fifth child if..." And Twinkle is starting that one out right with doing two complete roll overs without anyone there to witness. Both parents were otherwise occupied wrangling kids and putting together dinner on both occasions. She also graciously took a nap in the barbershop while all the boys were getting assembly line haircuts. Evidently, for a fifth child, there is nothing quite so soothing as the hum of a fan directly accompanied by the sound of loud dance music and eight barbers buzzing. I now have "The Twelve Days of Christmas" stuck in my head.

At any rate, I'm including pictures from Twink's three month out door photo shoot (knocked out while the boys played football and the twins alternated hitting each other in the head with the swing and trying to con me into letting them play in the Man's jeep). I'm trying to get back to writing more regularly, but most of the time by the end of the day all I want to do is never talk to anyone ever again which might be a sign that I'm an introvert who... has a very large family. All of which means, let's not hold our breath.