Well, here I am. Attempting a blog. I know, I know, you’re all thinking, “Finally!” Or…. maybe not.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to do a fair amount of thinking when I’m in bed wishing, praying to be sleeping. It’s probably because the other 4 people in the house are sleeping and I can actually finish a thought. Kind of like when you take a dog for a walk and it pulls you most of the way because it’s so darned excited. Last night I was thinking about how moms are really pioneers. Stay with me here. I’m not the first mom to have 3 kids, or the first mom to have all 3 kids pretty (stupidly) close in age. But in every new phase of our family life – I’m a pioneer. I have to figure out how in the world to navigate this new phase, longing for the last one that I hated at first but eventually came to grips with, and even possibly did pretty well at. Right now I (along with every other stay-at-home mom of school-aged dependents) am pioneering the path of having my 3 kids in each other’s company ALL DAY LONG and they get sick of it. It can, at times, get dangerous (mostly for my girls). So I have to be creative in how we spend our time, and how Eli spends his time when his energy gets the better of him.

My other thought was that I pretty much have to be 3 moms at all times. Each of my kids requires a different kind of parenting. Grace is almost 7 and has high highs and low lows. When she cries, she cries. I’ve progressed from “This isn’t something to cry about” to actually trying to empathize with her when some seemingly insignificant occurrence has ruined her day. I don’t always succeed. Eli just turned 6 and is in-tense. He laughs hard, he runs hard, he plays hard, he hits hard (ask the girls). So I have to find things for him to do. Thankfully he really loves to be a helper, so I try to think of projects he can work on. And when I got nothin’ I send him to his room with his Legos. And then there’s Ada. She’s 4 1/2 (as she’ll tell any stranger on the street) and is all sass. Thankfully she gets it from me, so I know how to work it to my advantage. 🙂

So there you have it. My thoughts. My first post. Be gentle.