Connecting

I have nine children. Seven that I juggle on a day to day basis. :) I love them all. So much.

And yes, seven takes work to keep up with AND do it well.  There's never enough time for each one. Each day. We do our best, but sometimes a child needs more. So we run errands together, talk by bedsides, do dishes, and make cookies together. 

But inevitably there's a lot of noise to compete with. Nay, lovely excitement. :) I don't consider the love here noise. Not really. But it does make it hard for the ones with trials to get some of the talk time they need. And even when they do, they seem to forget all those happy thoughts when they are caught in another hard spot and I'm not there.

So they have journals. Like this one.

10 year old's brand new journal

And we write back and forth to each other. They tell me everything they want me to know, and then I write back all the words of comfort I can. They reread it. They treasure it. Or so I'm told. :) Through the journal writing they have my undivided attention, and through our correspondence we console one another. Mostly the consoling comes from me. :) 

Kids are faced with so many trials, ones I've already been through and thus can help lend support. They make me glad I had those trials of my own, so I have SOME knowledge to help lift them up. Or just tell them they are loved and not alone. Worth my time.  TOTALLY worth my time. Always.

How do you help support your children? What challenges do you face in the world today?

Never too old...

Our dinner table is always full of lively conversation, and the other night was no exception. Except for one thing.

Our usual dinnertime "topic" conversation posed the question to the table, "What was your favorite bedtime story as a child?"

Our children's eyes immediately lit up, while our daughter's boyfriend shrugged his shoulders with a polite, "I don't know. I wasn't really read to as a child."

Now before you begin a rant about poor parenting or some such opinionated statement, you would need to know this particular fellow and his devoted parents.  I won't go into it, because that's not really the point of this post. The point is...

You're never too old to enjoy a children's book.

My oldest daughter truly has fond memories of bedtime stories, practically has the books memorized.  So I decided to step up the conversation by grabbing her most favorite and reading it to the entire table. Inside a barn in the country.  She insisted I do the voices as well.

The low chuckles accompanied that of my high-pitched giggling daughters and the mid-range laughter of my 13 year old son. :)  I got a certain thrill at hearing their thorough enjoyment.  I think there was clapping at the end.

We read MY favorite bedtime story next.  Well, Tuesday isn't so much something to be read, as is something to be experienced. There are like six words in the entire book. It's mostly pictures.  And yet there was a story behind the pictures that magically changed from night to night as my husband "read" the books to our children.

It was precious to see the effect the books have had on my children and their continued love of reading.  I also realized that my littlest ones didn't have a favorite one, nor are they read to as much as the older ones were.  A product of a busy household I suppose (and yet hasn't dampened their enthusiasm for reading books themselves).

But I'm not worried about spending more time reading to them, because...yup.  You're never too old...

Just Start

Two little words, yet so hard to do sometimes.

Will I regret my decision? Will I succeed? Will I be able to finish what I start?

I have two words in response: Who cares? You will never know what you can do, if it's worth it, and whether or not you will fail if you don't even start. 

I can't count how many crafts I've never finished, or stories that are waiting their turn to be told. Whether or not I'm afraid of failing should be irrelevant. But it's not. It's real. We don't like committing ourselves to things we're not sure we can finish. Why start if we have little chance of finishing? Nanowrimo anyone? 50,000 words in 30 days. Why? Why I ask you?

Because the joy is in the journey, not the end result.

Why do we feel so accomplished when we achieve a goal we've set? Because we finished what we intended, obviously. What if our goal was to simply have joy along the way? It wouldn't matter if or when we finished because our goal wouldn't be determined by an end result, but rather an ongoing love for what we are doing.

This has been a profound concept for me this year and is at the heart of my Nanowrimo story. It was also the means to my taking on a difficult task both physically and emotionally: my boys' Christmas stockings. Each of my children have one, and so will my boys. They take around 70 hours to complete. Each. So you can imagine how daunting it is to start, not to mention the feelings of making something your boys will never actually use. 

But WE will. We have a special plan for them, and it's pretty wonderful. But that's another post for a later time.  Meanwhile...

I started.

IT'S NANO TIME!!

Whaaaaaaaa?

Nanowrimo. Say it with me....naaaaa.....noooo wrimo.  It's not hard to do. Well, yeah, kind of.  I mean, 50,000 words in 30 days? Yeah, it's some of the hardest fun you'll ever have.

Here's how it works:

• Pick a plot (hopefully you've got an idea or rough outline going into it. Unless you're like me. :) I'm a total pantser. Don't worry though, at this stage I'm the only one who gets to see the embarrassing, ugly polka dot underwear. You get to see my daily word count. :)
• November 1st start typing like mad. You need about 1667 words a day to make it to the 50,000 by the end of the month.
• Chat on the forums!
• Read comics on the main page!
• Shop at the store and buy cool t-shirts and mugs!
• Waste time playing Candy Crush!
• Facebook like crazy!
• Find Writing Buddies and distract them--I mean help them!
• Try and get back to writing. *sigh*
• Discover amazing plot twist and fist pump the room. 
• Eats lots and lots of energy snacks. Is this why it starts right after Halloween?  Hmmmmm
• Type and type and type some more.
• Think about Thanksgiving Day looming and type faster. 
• Finish! Validate! Claim your prizes. Seriously. Since I started in 2005 the folks at Nanowrimo have really pulled in some awesome prizes for us to claim. Soooo cool.

I've been nano-ing since 2005. There was a couple years in there that I was working on my senior Honors Thesis and trying to graduate from college, so yeah....my word count was wrapped up in term papers and such.

Times and seasons. 

It's a tough month for me to do Nanowrimo. Okay, okay, every month is hard when you're a mom of seven and especially right now as I work to recover from a difficult and painful summer. But being a writer means that NO time will be perfect for writing. You have to carve the time out to do it. Life won't stop for us. And quite frankly, writing is better due to our experiences. It's the stuff that gives us something to write ABOUT.

So what are you waiting for?  Go! Sign up! NANO!!!!  And come be my buddy here. :)

Happy Writing!

Birthdays and Milestones

So excited about my birthday today, but probably not for the reasons you're thinking. I mean sure, it rocked having people throw me an early party yesterday, and then being handed a new iPad mini (on which I'm writing this post). :) 

Today is a big deal because I hit the 23 week mark!!

No, that's not the number of weeks on the Bestseller list. (Someday...someday...) It's the age of my sweet twin boys yet to be born. A month ago I was happily growing bigger and older with few worries beyond the start of the school year and whether we could we sneak in a few more trips to the pool before summer ended. 

Then the unimaginable happened. My water broke. And the miracles began. Instead of going into labor my body held on, refusing to give in. Didn't know that was possible. The not laboring part. I'd like to think of myself as a fighter, after all. :)

And indeed the battle began. We had to make it to 23 weeks before the doctors could do anything more for the babies. So the remainder of my summer consisted of bed rest, machines, and doctors galore. Then the other sac broke. On the first day of school. Last year a school bus ran into our car parked on the street. This year? Yeah...not a big fan of the first day of school these days. :) But older kids got little ones out the door AND managed to take the traditional first day pictures. Have I mentioned how much my children rock? Yup. They're awesome.

We were admitted to the hospital full time for watchful care. And boy do wonderful nurses and doctors make all the difference. A few scary nights were smoothed over because of their vigilance. And looking back, I can honestly say I didn't mind my time here. I was well taken care of, as was my family at home. The amount of people pulling for our family has left me in utter awe. To give you an idea, my husband bought me a box of thank you cards so I could use my hospital stay(and boredom) to thank everyone. One day he said, I think you need another box.

Yup. And here we are. My birthday became something more to look forward to this year. It was a chance at life and birth for our boys. I've never been so excited to turn another year older. It holds a special place in my heart for the miracles it has given me.  Not that we're out of the woods, but this was the first milestone. Now onto the next. A new hospital, special doctors, and a hope for more weeks of rest and writing out thank you cards.

Some have suggested there may be a story in this. Hmmmm...you never know. Life is full of surprises. And miracles.