5

I've come to the conclusion that 5 is my checkmate. 5 kids. I now seem to have peaked in my capabilities as a mother.

I used to be on time or early pretty much every time. Now, I'm lucky if I'm only five minutes late.

I have never lost a child in a store before. Now I can add "left store without a child" to my list of parental faux pas. (thank goodness it was only for a minute, but I still had a heart attack.)

 I literally have to count on my hands to keep track of my kids now. "OK- two little girls out on the neighbors trampoline, one little boy playing video games in the Living Room, one 2 year old putting an entire roll of toilet paper in the toilet, and one baby sleeping. Good. 5 children, still alive!".

I have also realised that when Zaria arrived, I was still able to keep up with pictures and blog updates and baby book entries. In fact, as the label cloud below attests, I posted a lot! It didn't hurt that we'd just gotten a new camera that I didn't know how to use but with Van's arrival I am seemingly incapable of accomplishing ANYTHING! I'm doing good if I get one thing checked off my getting seriously long To-Do list in a day, so posting pictures or blogging and the baby book are getting sorely neglected. Which is a shame because Vanden is soooooo fun and might I say, extremely cute!

I am hoping this is all just a stage... I have a toddler. And a baby. AND 3 older kids who each have 2 hours of homework a day. And it's winter. It takes 20 extra minutes to just walk fall out the door. So, I'm just trying to be ok with it. Because in six months, hopefully, I will look back and be able to say, "Whew! Glad we got past that one!"

And this stage has it's benefits too! I love where each of the kids is at. I have no desire to rush through these moments with them for the sake of convenience. I will never get a chance to be in this moment again. And I wouldn't miss it for all the punctuality in the world.