all because two people fell in love

I was thinking today about how full my household is. Actually that's not entirely accurate, because that implies a sort of quiet contemplative pondering. "I was socked in the nose with the inescapable reality of how full my household is" is more like it. It's an extension of the fullness of my family, and my life, and the events swirling around and through and in us. It could make a girl dizzy. In fact, reading this post could make a girl dizzy, as it veers wildly and un-connectedly from one thought to the next.

I can't imagine what an empty nest would feel like. I had ALL my little birdies in my nest today...and their little birdies, too! It was JR's first trip to Mimi and Pop's house. We also had an extra mother-in-law and eight or thirteen workmen outside, with all their big backhoe bobcat pneumatic drill hammer shovel thingies. Sand trucks and lumber trucks and bears -- oh my! Just kidding about the bears.
I think.

It felt like a zoo at times today. I wish that I could just yell "hold it!" to everything else except helping baby JR and his momma get in sync with each other. You remember how it was that first week with a new baby? Just the overwhelming hormones and emotions and questions and physical exhaustion and lack of sleep? Doesn't it seem like a dirty trick for car batteries to die and cameras to break and laptops to start making funny noises and luggage to get lost? Doesn't it seem like there should be a moratorium on things going wrong? Just a grace period of sorts?

Right in the middle of it all my mother called because her washing machine was overflowing. When my amazing fix-it-hubby went to help her with it, he discovered that she had six bottles of Downy in her laundry room, but no detergent. So who knows how long she's been washing her clothes with just Downy... This addition, it is not happening any too soon.

Garrison forgot his lunch, and didn't stay after school to lift weights so he needed to be picked up. Danny stayed to lift, because he's still not sure what next year holds for him regarding football and college, so he's trying to be prepared for his upcoming visit to meet the coaches and I don't even know what else. I just know it seems like a lot is hinging on it. No.... no stress there at all.

Just like there wasn't any stress when Danny called me to ask if someone else had picked Susannah up after school today (they hadn't) because he was there at her school to get her and she wasn't there. I know she's the fifth kid, but I still hate to think she wouldn't be where she's supposed to be! She did turn up, but it was a brief scary moment.

It's a funny thing about my family -- we eat. We're just kind of odd like that. So even though I'd rather be reading to Lily or bouncing Tessa or watching JR run through his repertoire of facial expressions, meals still need to be made. Laundry still needs to be done (extra laundry needs to be done!). Groceries need to be bought. And then more groceries. Every day. Because as soon as we get home from the grocery store, we're out of milk. Then somehow Valentine's Day has crept up on me again, like most holidays do in recent years, which necessitated an eleventh-hour run to Target for Corie and me, where I was compelled to spend many drooly minutes in the Choxie chocolate aisle, counting and re-counting how many people I was buying Valentine treats for. Oh, and by the way, Susannah needs to bring brownies to school. But that's okay because she gave me plenty of advance notice. Like eleven minutes.

I think about my life with Jim, and how it started out just the two of us, and now here we are at the center of this hurricane that our family has become. I told JR today, "This chaos is your family, darlin'. Welcome and get used to it."

You know, I wouldn't have it any other way.