Primarily written by Adrienne, a homeschooling mother of seven, ages 10 and under. She chronicles life, laughs, struggles, and lessons learned as she raises a larger-than-most sized family and tries to figure out what she's doing day by day.

With occasional posts, Alexandra, Adrienne's older sister, writes of her ranch life in Nevada and raising four sons, ages 5 and under. Life is never dull and her boys have given her some pretty awesome stories to tell.

Stick around awhile, and you're sure to laugh, nod, smile, be encouraged, and see what life is like with a big (little) family.

11.24.2009

It's all in the numbers.

Number of times I've sent children back to bed this morning before 9am: 4. One didn't get sent back, one got sent twice.
Number of times I get told I have my hands full when we go grocery shopping (on average, no lie): 6.
Number of kisses I get in a day (from children under 6): 30
Number of kisses I get from Blaine in a day: usually less than 30. :)
Number of laundry loads I do in a week: 6-8.
Number of times I sweep the kitchen in a week: 10.
Number of times I wipe pee off the wall/floor/potty chair/sink and other random places Sterling manages to hit in a day: 6.
Strangest place Sterling managed to hit in the last week: It's a toss up between the back of Dad and Mom's bathroom door and their bathroom vanity. And yes, the door was open when he hit it, and yes, it did make the door close. I'm almost impressed. Almost. Pretty sure Mom wasn't even close to being impressed.
Yes, Sterling is potty trained. All of the places he hits (or almost always. We'll allow for the rare accident.) are from the potty chair or the toilet. Any minute now he'll develop a sense of aim - but I'm not holding my breath.
Number of times I yell "Ruby Alexandra!" in an hour: 5-10. Unless she's sleeping - then I get a blessed reprieve. Ruby needs to learn to take longer naps before I go hoarse.
Number of times I've been told my hands were full by a stranger when I didn't have all of my children with me: I lost count. 25+. I don't even tell them what they are missing anymore.

Our house is roughly 900 square feet. That's 150 per person, if it were divided evenly. Yet, I rarely get more than 2 square feet around me - and if I try to cross out of those 2, I trip over someone. Why is that? Sadder still, why did I have to hunt down a calculator to figure out 900/6?

The look on the lady's face at Walmart yesterday when she asked Liberty if they were all brother and sisters, Liberty said yes, then Liberty told me that we need more boys for Sterling and I said maybe someday? Absolutely priceless. Shocked, slightly disgusted, and absolutely hilarious. Apparently she thought I hadn't had them all on purpose. Really now.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

When you hit 5 or 6 kids, they stop commenting ALL of the time. Just a few comments a trip. (And all good, except we seem to generate the TV comment a lot. Not sure that would be classified as good, but at least they mean to be funny.)

I think when you have as many kids as I do, there is an aura of unapproachableness about you. :)

When I go out with just 2 or 3 or whatever, I get the hands full comment ALL of the time. I think they have no idea that is the SAME thing EVERYONE says.

What do you say? I smile and say "Yes!"

Did your laundry load average go up? Last we talked you were just under 7 loads a week. sigh. I'm starting to wonder if I'm up to 2 a day yet. I'll have to count and let you know. :) The laundy pile is like a growing monster. It's a good thing I enjoy laundry, or we'd never have any clean clothes!

Unknown said...

What's the TV comment? I'm drawing a blank, so I must not have gotten that one!

I got a "plate full" comment the other day. That was a slight variation from the "hands full". :)

I usually say "We have a lot of fun!" but people just look at me strange. I should try just agreeing. I did say, "Not too bad yet!" once. That was a funny look.

Laundry did go up with warmer clothes. Shorts take up less room in the machines, I suppose. I used to be able to skip a day once in a while. Not so much anymore. Sheets, diapers and towels always put me over the top of my load a day average. Ugh.