Supermom Chronicles

The first words out of Faith's mouth when she woke up Thanksgiving morning was a very excited "Is it turkey day?" My husband explained that, no, we were having chicken. My mom-in-law had bought 4 roasting hens for me to prepare instead of the traditional turkey. So the rest of the day Faith exclaimed "Happy chicken day!" We thought it was pretty darn cute.

My mom-in-law was going to host Thanksgiving, but she hasn't been feeling well lately. So we invited the family to our house instead. It was a wash in terms of stress for me. If we had traveled, packing up the kids for the trip would have been about the equivalent amount of stress as staying home and hosting. Nowadays, if you take just a day trip with kids you have to pack half the house. With 3 kids, all with different sleeping arrangements and bathroom habits, it's especially bad. So I quietly said "thanks" on Thanksgiving for getting to stay home! Plus, John's siblings helped by bringing pies, rolls and casseroles. So I didn't have the entire meal to prepare alone. Early in the day we were able to get all the kids together for a picture. This was the best of about 20+ shots! Getting 6 kids 4 years old and younger to simultaneously sit still, look in the general direction of the camera and then smile is about as likely as choosing the winning lottery numbers! That being said, I think this pic turned out pretty good. From left to right are James, Cole, Faith, Chloe, Remington and Ryder.

For the past couple of years, whenever our family gets together for just about any reason, we find a way to fit in at least one game of Texas Hold 'Em. After a successful Thanksgiving lunch, we tried desperately to get all the kids down for a nap so we could enjoy the game. Ha! That was the most interrupted game any of us have probably ever played. We had a 50% success ratio (3 of the 6 kids actually fell asleep), so we were up and down like there were springs in our seats to tend to the ever-constant needs of our children. It was still fun, though. Deborah (John's sister seen in this picture) was the big winner. Ironically, she plays the least out of all of us, but she often wins whenever we get together. She's been known to go "all-in" just to quit the game, and then she ends up winning big. I wish I had her luck (sorry, Deborah, I meant "skill":)



All the kids loved the playscape in the backyard. In fact, John and his dad apparently liked it, too (look closely at the picture). I have to admit, the fort is pretty cool. I've climbed up there on occasion to visit my kids.



Here's Cole at the end of the day looking cute wearing his cousin Chloe's cowboy hat. All day we tried to coax Chloe into performing her highstepping routine (she finally consented to perform later in the day when she was good and ready). She's in dance class and is pretty talented for her age (3). Faith, of course, is dying to take dance too. We need to wait until I start bringing home a paycheck again before we can even consider that.

At midnight last night I was still up with a fussy James, who has no concept of time of day. But even in the depths of exhaustion I thought about how very much I have to be thankful for: a healthy family, the addition of 2 new babies to our family this year (James and Ryder), a wonderful husband (even though he insists on wearing his funky moustache right now despite my protests), the comforts of a home big enough to entertain the entire family at Thanksgiving, freedom in a nation that allows me to enjoy life while others sacrifice theirs fighting in Iraq, food always to fill our bellies and good jobs that allow us to live the life we want. I could go on and on. I wish everyone could be so blessed.