manageable

Four children are not manageable.

Two kids are. Most people have two arms. Three kids are just over the line. Two fit in a shopping cart and with only one on the loose outside the cart, that's still manageable.

Four kids don't. One infant seat takes up the whole seat part of the cart which keeps the driver of the cart from seeing much in any direction. Two on the loose is not even feasible when the two are under 6 and their mother's view is obstructed by a car seat with an infant in it. The things that would be in the cart would all involve food dye and sugar. Perhaps that is why most people stick with two. They don't want more than one is an age category. More than one in diapers.

On one hand, a person shouldn't bite off more than they can chew. Four children under six are definitely more than I can chew. That doesn't mean there aren't lots of maternal parental units can organize and handle four children under six. I know of some of them. Those mothers have careers outside of the home, they participate in hobbies and still have time to write about it. I am not organized all the time. Lots of things catch me off guard and since it takes me at least a day to come up with a solution to almost any situation, this is a problem. If I do have an idea for a crafty creative craft project, there is nearly always one important component missing. Glue or powdered sugar or something like that. Sometimes I remember snacks and water bottles and pack them in the appropriate bag or container. Sometimes all the snack-like items are gone from the pantry. And the water bottles are frozen or missing in action.

See, this is not manageable to have snacks only some of the time or only three of the four parts of a craft project. This is definitely not organization. This creates disasters and catastrophes.

But how I see it, whether you want to see it or not, children, in sequence and quantity, come on God's timetable, even with our best laid plans. So if I find my crew unmanageable right now, God has a plan in mind and probably a whole curriculum of lessons to teach me while they are with me.

So on that note, I'll start with hitting the unmanageable piles of dirty clothing littering the basement. The kitchen however, cannot even be described as unmanageable.

the crew

a family photo (of sorts)

Since the electric ice cream maker was missing a component, the camping ice cream was the obvious (and only other) choice.

Priya and Sam happily fighting over who gets to shake the ice cream ball next.
Since we were also missing peppermint flavoring to make peppermint ice cream, we added a bunch of candy cane to the custard ice cream resulting in sort of peppermint flavored orange ice cream. But it was good and it is gone.

pet lion

Sam came leading Anneka out of the bedroom a minute ago with a plastic coated hanger around her neck.

"I found this nice lion," he announced to Priya, who is making an ark using a lot of scotch tape.

The best part is that the back of Anneka's hair even shortly after being combed, frequently resembles a bit of lion's mane. Today is no exception. In fact, today her hair might challenge even the best of detangling sprays.

Anneka playing with her baby Jesus and the other characters in the Christmas story too (and Priya's foot)

baby Jesus

Anneka looked at a picture of baby Jesus in a book I was reading them last night and when I told her it was baby Jesus, she disagreed.

"No, baby Jesus is at Grandma's," she said.

Apparently earlier that day, they had been playing with the nativity scene at Grandma's.

a little smile

just a tiny smile (and some remnants of lunch)

surely this counts... (and not just gas)