The Seventh Wonder

Rearing children can be all-consuming.  Certainly it has been that for the past few years.  In the process of devoting my attention to my family I haven't yet updated our final addition to the Fine Family: Kamera Deanne.

 

I like to joke that Kammy was a conspiracy between Heavenly Father and Jimmy.  She wasn't part of my plan, but I am so thankful she's a part of our family forever!  Born on February 7, 2014, at 2:13 p.m.,  Kammy entered the world with barely a push.  She captured our hearts immediately and continues to draw mine closer to the Savior and our Father in Heaven because I'm so grateful for my blessings.  

Kamera has brought our family joy.  I love to hear the kids when they pray for individual members of our family.  When they pray and thank God for Kammy, it is always with the words, "We are thankful for Kammy and the happiness she brings..." It's true.  

She lights up the room when she's in it.  

There's so much to love about our little fire cracker.  Every morning I look forward to her pudgy little legs running to me to give me morning hugs.  She loves to play with my hair, and finds it soothing to twirl her fingers around and around in it when she is sleepy.  She adores her big siblings and loves to play with Brexton.  Having a fondness for makeup, she is has been found more than once to appear from the quietness of the bathroom with "wips" and "eyes" that she thinks make her look beautiful and we think makes her look hilarious.  She wants so much to be like Mommy and her big sisters.

She just turned two-years-old and is growing so much!  She is potty-trained, loves to listen to music and play "Just Dance" with her oldest sister, Hali.  She surprises me when I hear the lyrics of her older siblings' songs coming out of her mouth like, "Trouble, trouble" and "Shut up and dance with me!"  (The surprises are not always pleasant. haha) One of my favorite times of the day is lying down with her at naptime on my bed as we listen to "Heavenly Lullabyes" playing on Pandora.  She twirls my hair around her fingers and snuggles close.  I quietly breathe in the scent of her thin blonde hair, the smudge of peanut butter left on her face from lunch, and her sweet breath as she drifts off to sleep.  These really are the best days of my life and I'm in Seventh Heaven with Kamera!

A Different Kind of Mom

I have been pondering lately on how different motherhood looks for me now than it did eight years ago when I started this blog.  Back in 2008 I posted a quote that said: 

"Having children is a lot of work. And we have to not be afraid of that, because it's that very element of working hard and being willing to do whatever it takes that makes us who we are. It's the sacrifice that makes us who we are. I want to bear my testimony of the joy that comes from having families, from having children, because there's not only the commandment of the Lord to do it, but there are great promised blessings." 

Cheryl C. Lant, General Primary
President

I remember what the worked looked like back in those days.  I used to make a big deal out of all the holidays.  We would have green pancakes every St. Patrick's Day, big creative birthday bashes, make crafts and display them to make things festive. We would visit the library for story time regularly, were frequent visitors at the children't museum, played at parks, had friends over, read mountains of books, and had tea parties.  Motherhood looks different these days.

Now I am managing the schedules of three teenagers, homeschooling, driving endless miles from seminary drop-off and pickups to babysitting jobs and dropping off dinner to a hungry daughter at her job because she forgot to bring one--again.  I'm teaching how to write great essays, divide fractions, plan teen movie nights, and stay up late after dances and dates looking forward to my girls crawling onto my bed and talking and laughing about it together. We've gone through the anxiety of teaching a teenager to drive and am embarking on that journey yet again right now--with a little less paranoia.  We've handled friend crises, enrolled in community college, signed up for ACT's and embarked on 4-H projects and road trips.  And in the midst of all this moving forward, I have to pause and look back because in the process of growing with older teenagers, I'm still rearing little ones, too.

I knew for sure things had changed when tonight Jimmy was taking L and T shopping and leaving me home alone with the two and four-year-old.  "Wait!" I protested. "Are you leaving me alone with these two?" I asked with trepidation as the little kids climbed onto the counter top to watch me as I made pizzas for dinner.  But as soon as I said it, I felt--something--well up inside me and scolded myself. I used to do this all the time! I chided.  So why is it so hard now?  

Somewhere along the line I got used to the help of the Big Kids. They are wonderful! They have babysat, entertained, taught, read to, and played with their baby siblings from the very beginning. They've changed diapers, fixed meals, cleaned house, bandaged boo-boos, and potty trained. Because I don't have to do it all with the little ones anymore, I'm reminded how difficult those early days of mothering really were when all the kids were little, and I feel more grateful than ever to have the extra help.  

But I realized during my moment-long panic attack about being left alone with the youngest two children that I need to go back in time to live in the present a little bit better.  I need to take a step back from the Big Kids and their fast-paced life and stoop down to the level of the Little Ones more often.  So I gathered up those smudge-faced little ones and let them scoot a little closer on the counter to help with dinner.  I remembered how much H, M, and L used to love helping in the kitchen back before our lives sped forward too quickly.  And it turns out, B and K love it, too.  The smiles on their faces as they helped sprinkle the cheese and chop the olives were exactly as wonderful as their Big Siblings'.  I gave them a high-five after we cleaned up and gave myself a little one, too. Because even though motherhood looks different these days, sharing a moment and making a memory with your children still feels the same as it always has--wonderful.  

Things A Mother Does Not Want to Hear

 1. "Mom! B was dancing on the roof...naked!"  Yes, our three-year-old B had climbed out the window upstairs and was dancing on the roof in his preferred outfit of nothing.  When I asked him why he was up there he simply replied, "Because I was waving at the neighbors...but they didn't wave back."  My thoughts: Probably because they were calling the police!!!  

2.  From an email from 12 yo Leah while she was babysitting her younger siblings, "Mom, Roman and Teagan have a dove captive in the house. :( "  Ummm....yeah.  Apparently there was a loose bird flying amok in my home.  Feathers were everywhere when I got home.  I love my life.

3. From the husband who has woken me up at midnight from a dead sleep, "Watch out!  Watch out!  There is a huge spider above the bed!!"  He leaped out of bed, flicked on the light, threw off the covers and searched and searched and searched for the monstrous spider.  We found nothing.  I asked him how big the spider was and he proceeded to indicate with his hands the size of a basketball. Obviously he was dreaming when he saw the spider, but I went and slept on the couch anyways.  I felt imaginary spiders crawling in my hair all night!       

             

New Year, New Goals

One of the kids found a journal I began about 12 years ago for my first child.  It was fun to read the stories our firstborn and the kids had such a good time laughing about them. I have another two journals for my second and third children, but then the days began to get more hectic and about four kids in I think I threw in the towel.  The kids were sad to see the lapse and the younger ones especially felt disappointed.  Then I remembered that I had this blog and opened up to it on the internet where we all had a lot of belly laughs reading the posts and remembering things forgotten long ago.  It has been nearly three years since my last post and there's been a lot of changes in our family since then.  We've welcomed another beautiful girl to the mix, rounding out the number of children to a full week's worth.  Some days it feels like seventh heaven around here and other days it's just seven kinds of crazy, but I'm re-committing to blogging more frequently about our family so that in ten years from now, I'll have even more embarrassed teenagers who want to change their names. Here's to a very Fine 2015!

Brexton

Brexton Moroni was born January 13th at 9:40 a.m. I was so filled with joy and relief when my nine pound nine ounce boy was lying on my chest, skin to skin, looking up at me with little spit bubbles popping all over his mouth. He was here at last. Safe. Healthy. Warm. Mine.

When he was three days old we had to be admitted back into the hospital because his bilirubin levels were too high (in other words, he had really bad jaundice!). It was horrifically emotional for me to be newly postpartum (aka HORMONAL) and sit by watching all the nurses poke my tiny guy again and again looking for a vein to get an i.v. into. I am so thankful that is over.

Thankfully our stay just lasted 36 hours or so and we were able to go home again where a house full of eager arms was anxious to hold their baby brother. Everyday I am so grateful for the help I receive from my Big Kids. Whether it's cleaning the house, making dinner, rocking Brexton or changing his diaper I always have helpers willing to do the job.

Having six kids and homeschooling has definitely been an adjustment of craziness and hectic scheduling but we are all so so happy our little guy is here. Everyday he makes us smile!

Sweet as Honey

We toured the local(ish) honey-making store with our homeschool group. My kids are huge fans of honey and they were in heaven watching the little bees in their glass case and looking for the queen.

We had a little science lesson on queens, drones and worker bees. Everyone got to see how the honey was bottled, taste some flavored golden deliciousness (my favorite was cinnamon honey!) and ask as many questions as their little hearts desired.

We love taking time out of our house and away from our books and schedule to learn about life and experience it hands-on. And, we love spending time with our favorite friends!

Milking Cows and Making Cheese

We joined our homeschool group on a fun fieldtrip to a ranch this week.

Mel was particularly excited as she is our lover of all things farm-like. We loved being in the beautiful mountains, seeing the grassy meadows and nearby ponds and spending time together.

We watched how the ranch milks their cows. All the kids seemed fascinated as they stood around the fence quietly looking on as the milk dripped into the container. We then learned how the milk was pasteurized and sent over through pipes to the neighboring building where cheese is produced!

We enjoyed a picnic with our friends, the kids played games for a couple of hours and then we got to go watch a huge batch of cheese being made. The kids were fascinated to see the process from start to finish.