One Week Later...

Today feel almost normal.  We have already eaten breakfast, done our school work, started on chores.  Isaac is sleeping peacefully in the swing, the boys are fussing at me from the TV room and the girls are on their hundredth Easter egg hunt.

Here is the key: I have EASY babies.  My babies tend to sleep well.  They tend to eat and go right back to sleep at night.  Once they are a few days old they tend to sleep well by themselves (meaning in their own beds, not on my chest).  If I had difficult babies, if they were colicky or not getting enough to eat or there were any complications, my life would not be back to "normal" at this point.

Normal is relative though.  I have no plans to leave the house ever because with 5 littles it's just too hard in this newborn stage.  I also have a double stroller but no idea how I'd manage to get all three who can't be trusted to walk anywhere at this point.  I do have a baby carrier but I'm not practiced enough with that yet to trust myself out in public with it.

Normal also means a slower pace of normal.  We don't stick to the same timeline and we all give a little grace when things run fast or slow.  It means letting go of the things that don't matter and not worrying about all the little details.  Everyone is dressed, fed, and happy?  Win.  That's all that really matters.  The rest of it will all get done - today, tomorrow, eventually.

Aaron commented this morning that the first question everyone asks him is "so are you guys done now?"  I wish people understood how that makes us feel.  I get that we're a little out there with our no birth control, trusting Jesus policy.  And man, I want to trust Jesus with all I have.  But when people ask that it makes me feel like they think we are just stupid for having children and for being ok with having a lot of children.  It gives me a moment where that fear creeps up that maybe this isn't such a good idea.  But then I look around my dining room at five beautiful faces - half of them yelling MOMMA right at that moment - and I know that I wouldn't trade it.  It isn't always easy and sometimes I think we're crazy too, but God is definitely all over this household and I wouldn't trade my "normal" for what seems "easier" any day.

Now I am being serenaded by a guitar playing fairy princess...I love my normal.