The Ambitious Life

Everyday. I'm sitting here with a baby perched on my shoulder and the keyboard perched on my knees.  My feet are up on the desk giving me enough space to comfortably type but not so much space he can arch backwards and go flying.  It is a balancing act, just like so many things in life.  And six babies into this mom thing I'm getting pretty good at tensing the right muscles in my arms and shoulders to manuever him back into position without breaking my though process. Everyday I get up in the morning, usually to a baby just starting to fuss.  He is a good kiddo and quiet usually so it's a more gentle wake-up than some of my other kids have been.  Every morning I take a quick shower, hoping the water is piping hot - I'm mastering the running of the dishwasher at just the right time so that the water is reheated and waiting for me.  Then I gather bottles that are scattered in my room from all our middle of the night feedings.  I generally try to pra...

Timothy Richard Kilby  Born September 6, 2016  1:21 PM  9 lbs. 1 oz., 21 inches Timothy finally arrive safe and sound. His due date was August 30, so exactly one week overdue. For a little history lesson, my body has never gone into full-blown labor on its own. I went into the hospital with Grace having minor and irregular contractions . I think they just kept me out of pity since she was five days late. With Isaac and Abi my water broke and with the twins I was induced. I was pretty convinced that we would have to schedule this week to be induced even though I had been having some irregular contractions. Monday, September 5 I went to bed feeling very sore and had some signs that labor was maybe coming up. It was all very early labor stuff so I did not think too much of it although I was hoping - and it was all stuff I hadn't really experienced before with my other pregnancies. Around 2:30 I woke up with contractions that were fairly regular and fairly inte...

My dear Abi Ann, I am writing this without reading what I've said to you in past years.  I may say the same things.  You are my little ginger girl, a delight to all and an absolute sweetie.  Recently you will come over and tell me you love me, unprompted and that I'm beautiful.  Sweetie, you're beautiful.  You spend HOURS in the coloring room creating and thinking and dreaming.  You make all kinds of creations and all kinds of mess but I love to see how your brain is working.  You are talented in ways your momma is not and I pray you never lose that creativity.  You are also incredibly stubborn and set in your ways.  Right now that can be really hard and leads us to some tense moments, but kiddo I pray that God continues to refine that quality in you so that it is used for His glory as you get bigger.  Knowing right from wrong and stubbornly refusing to bend is a beautiful thing and I pray that for your life, even when it feels har...

I have a love/hate relationship with waiting for babies.  Logically I know I'll be spending the next 18-20 years with this boy...but that doesn't make these next couple of weeks feel any shorter!  Last week the baby was transverse (sideways) across my stomach which is an automatic C-section if he presents that way when I'm in labor.  Fortunately he is now (well, as of Wednesday) either butt down (breech) or head down (ideal!).  Either way is better!  I'm still praying he is head down because that is best case for all of us.  We shall see.  This is one active baby but I think I've said that about all of them.  Either way, I can't wait to meet him and I'm confident God has his birth all under control. Life these days is a little nutty.  I feel like they are periods of rushing followed by periods of waiting - within the same day.  When the kiddos are sleeping it is always a mad rush to do as much as I can, but when they are up the time s...

Woman at Starbucks: Is this your first baby? Me: No, it's my 6th. Woman: *literally takes a step back* WOAH! You do NOT look like you've already had five babies! Congratulations! Me: We can be friends. I currently have five kiddos walking around with me in my day to day life.  Their ages are 6, 4, 2, 2, and 1. I am also seven months pregnant with my next little one.  All of this brings about quite a bit of attention and both pleasant and unpleasant comments.  The above is an example of a pleasant comment and since I'm in a good mood and don't feel like ranting we will just leave the unpleasant ones for another day.  My life right now is pretty awesome.  Four of the kids are coming up on birthdays.  That is always a fun season.  In the smaller ones it is also a time of frustrating growth of wants and desires without the physical or verbal skills to go with it.  They catch up but it can create a few weeks or months of chaos.  Worth ...

Grace is wrapping up first grade.  Seriously.  We will be posting our end of the year picture soon.  It seems like it went really fast!  She has done a great job and I'm predicting will be my easiest to school, however I'm hoping I get a couple more easy ones!  She is at the point now where she needs a little direction but since she reads so well can work pretty independently.  It is a beautiful thing.  Depending on the lessons I do science and history with her, but not always.  She is big.  I would say this year in homeschooling has cost less than $100.  We purchased a reading book through her schooling program so that she was not reading online all the time.  We also purchased a math curriculum that was right around $60 for first through third grade.  Since we'll finish about halfway through that (smarty pants) that's about $30 for this year's program.  Our other "big" expense was printing her math and spelling/gramme...

Isaac, Kiddo I love you.  You are a happy, sweet kiddo and I am so thankful we have you.  You are quick with a smile and a delight.  You like to wrestle your brothers and be loved on by your sisters.  You and Levi are best buds - he still likes to "hold" you even though you are almost as big as he is.  You like to play with cars, steal things from your brothers and try to walk.  You also like to nose dive off my lap because you think flipping over is hilarious. I'm so thankful that we have you - seriously, most families don't get a fifth kid and I can't imagine not having your grin in my life.  Thank you for being a sweet little man. Love, Mommy For your birthday dinner we had: Brisket that daddy cooked for 24 hours!  (Ok, not quite but almost) Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandma, Aunt Becki, Maddie, Miss Aleni and Aunt Janet all came over (and your daddy, me and your brothers and sisters) For your birthday cake you had: A gumball machine! ...

Ya'll - homeschooling has taught me two things.  1. How brilliant my kid is.  2. How undisciplined I am without a plan.  It is so easy to just skip school on days when we have other stuff going on.  I need to get over that! Fortunately she loves doing her school work so it isn't too hard to stay on track.  So since we are about mid-year, I figured it would be a good time to update what we are doing, what works and what hasn't. We are still doing the assignments written out in the spiral notebook.  The core of our classes come from Allinonehomeschool.com (Level 1 and Year 2 Level L).  We do their History, Science, Reading (although we bought the book to do that off the computer), PE, Art, English/Writing.  We are supplementing with free McGraw-Hill workbooks I found online for Grammer, Spelling and Practice.  We are also using Mammoth Math instead of their math program.  It is working well. At the beginning of every week I set up fiv...