As far as Januarys go, this one hasn’t been that bad. I know we’ve had others that were far more brutal in terms of illness and weather (although the cold plus just enough snow/ice every few days to keep the roads an absolute mess has been exhausting and cabin-fever inducing to new levels); however, the way my posts are going so far in 2020, that’s kind of hard to see because even though the new year hasn’t been the hardest, it clearly also hasn’t been the easiest.

It seems that we are in the phase of life and parenting right now that is tough. (Sidenote: I’m 10.5 years into this gig and starting to become wise to the fact that all the phases come with their own, unique challenges, so…..).

Part of that is the sheer number of children in our house. For perspective, I’ve started referring to the children as “a little army of our own making” which is said with equal parts love and exasperation. Another factor in the struggle is that their age range (10.5, 8, 6.5, 4 1/3, and 2) makes it near impossible to do any activity all together that everyone enjoys/doesn’t sabotage (WA, I’m looking at you). And yet another part of the hard is the fact that each one of those children, just like the stages of growing up, comes with her or his own unique needs and challenges that we have to navigate at all hours of the day and night.

Hey, I didn’t say this was ground breaking content here; just some necessary truth telling because when you see pictures like this, I need you to know (and my future self to remember) that they are utter bullshit.

The fact that my children all played the same thing at the same time peacefully, yes, did happen. But it lasted for less than two minutes before someone got bored and someone else stole someone else’s tool and someone else tried to eat the PlayDoh (*ahem* Wilson). So yes, I snapped this pic and am sharing it with you but not because I’m gloating or showing off my mothering skills. It was an utter fluke in the midst of long winter days filled with close quarters, quick tempers, and meals that are much like play time where there is always SOMEONE (pick one, anyone) who is pissed and not having it.

I share this with you because I need to be honest about the unglamorous moments, which, let’s be real, seem to accumulate much faster than the shiny ones. Actually, I just think it’s that the shiny ones aren’t as (literally) loud as the hard ones, which is why it is so tempting to try to capture and document those only.

But that’s not real life, or at least not mine, so here we are – stuck in the middle of winter, telling some truth and owning the fact that loud and cranky as it may be, I still wouldn’t ask for anything different (that’s also BS; of course less infighting and food complaining would be welcomed. Beyond that? Nope; wouldn’t change a thing).