They mean well...Don't they?

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and  multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:  Genesis 1:28

According to the above scripture ^, I am blessed!!!  The intention of this blog is not to tell my life story and how I got here, but rather to share the joys, hardships and outtakes of being the mother of seven children.  I hear comments ranging from "I can't imagine!" to "I completely understand!  The other day my dog..."  I've been told I'm crazy and the most famous phrase "You know what causes that, don't you?"  I'm often asked in the grocery store, "Are they all yours?" which reminded me of when Lori Apon gave her response to that question, "No, I get up early in the morning and go around the neighborhood gathering up children to take to the grocery store!"

I am still getting used to the fact that people feel that since you have a lot of children, they have a free pass to discuss your sex life as if you are some sort of nympho couple.  I suppose this is because they automatically rule out that we are Mormon or Mennonite based upon my nose ring and tattoo!  I'm thinking of writing a book of good comebacks to stupid comments.  I have thought of beating them to the punch and saying, "You only have two children?  Marriage counseling might help!"  but that would break the golden rule!

At the core of our family is Jesus and we try to keep focused on God's plan for our family and ourselves as individuals.  Not having been raised in Christian homes ourselves, raising our family according to the Word of God is new to us each day.  Like every family, each day comes with some new challenge as a parent and a wife/husband.  We have four older children: Ayana-14, Emily-11, Samuel (Sam)-9, Nathan-7 and then there is Jacob-3, Sarah-2, and Janine (Maddie)-almost 1 year!  The older four brought different challenges than the younger three.  The younger kids have been Kryptonite to my parenting skills.  I am still searching for the ones that came with these little darlings!  Somehow, I missed the meeting on raising three small children back to back in a large family. Now, with my 86 year old grandmother, that has had a stroke, joining our family, I have more on my plate than I ever thought I could manage. 

I pray this blog brings you joy,laughter, good experiences, better experiences and an appreciation for large family life!  Stay tuned, so much more to come!