Stalked by the Stork...a diary of raising 10 kids

Life has gotten busy. I know that sounds lame, because who’s life isn’t busy? Life is busy in ways that are much different than it used to be. Probably not more or less busy actually, just differently busy. I stopped blogging for a while because even though it was something I enjoy doing, it had started to become a chore. I had always promised myself that if it got to the point where it was no longer fun, and seemed like work, like having to wash a sink full of dirty dishes, or having to assemble five kids for showers or having to clean my room (which almost always needs cleaned) then I’d stop and find something else I enjoy doing instead. After all, with eleven children, or even with one, free time isn’t in that strong a supply to spend it on something that doesn’t bring joy. Lately, I’ve started to miss it though. A few days ago, I looked back over some old posts, and I found so many things- stories and memories- that I’d forgotten all about, memories that would be lost forever if they hadn’t been recorded on this blog. Oh yeah…that’s why I enjoyed blogging! So, I’m interested in starting again, and as always, the purpose is not to write grammatically sound or even coherent posts. It may be sloppy and messy and I fully admit, I like to write in sentence fragments. Yes, I realize they aren’t complete sentences and as such, not proper. I’m not all that great at spelling, and I ramble. But that’s not why I write or don’t write this blog. I write this because without it, I’d lose a lot of memories that I’d really love to keep, and my children would lose the ability to look back as grown ups and see what our days were like when they were small. Life gets crazy, our house is frequently chaotic. I don’t take the time that I should to make sure my kids know how much I love them or how precious simple moments with them are to me. So…here we are again. Maybe our blog will get a new name, maybe we’ll just keep the one we have.

So what’s going on now? Everything and nothing all at once. Ordinary life, I suppose. Drew is in college now, trying to find what interests him and what he wants to do. He has a job; he makes good money for an 18 year old who lives at home. Manny works as well, at Pizza Hut here in Mascoutah. He also keeps stats for the basketball team, and had a pretty great season of football. He earned 1st Team All Conference for the Mississippi Valley Conference and Honorable Mention for All Area Large Schools (which is odd in that Mascoutah is not really what I’d call a large school). Brandon also played football last year and is now in wrestling. He loves it. January 31st will mark five years since he took his very last dose of Cyclosporine. Five years of no medications whatsoever and still maintaining remission. He only sees Dr. Rob and Dr. Bob once a year now. To say we feel grateful is an understatement. Jackson started middle school and played football and basketball this season. He’d like to run track in the spring but we’ll have to see what his grades look like; it’s been a rough academic adjustment for him this year. Brice is in 3rd grade and is doing so well! He is having a great year in school and also played football for the first time this past fall. Loved it. The twins are in 1st grade and have the same teacher Brandon had for 1st grade. It’s really neat that their teacher held them when they were newborns. Sydney is in Kindergarten. Her personality hasn’t changed at all and so she’s still stubborn and willful….which is awesome. Bree and Mia are both in Pre-K. They ride the bus together but are in separate classes. Baby Sam is 16 months old and home with me all day long. He’s sweet and happy and in love with his Dad and older brothers. That’s about it. In a nutshell, that’s us. More coming later. Glad to be blogging again.