All together in one place

August 02, 2018

All together in one place

All seventeen of us!

Deep joy. The kind that starts at the top of your head and finds its way to the bottom of your toes. That's how it felt having our three kids and their families all here with us last week.

Not that it was perfect, because it wasn't. You can't put 19* people together for five days and have every single minute go smoothly. Especially when nine of them are not old enough to vote, and a handful of them still need extensive help with personal hygiene.

But it was still wonderful. The kind of wonderful that found me tearing up, off and on, as I'd look across the pool of faces and just soak in that we were all together in one place.

The mom/grammy who wears rose colored glasses would like us to all live on one street, and be together all the time.

The mom/grammy who is more of a realist knows if that was really the case we'd strangle each other before too long.

But it was just so blessedly fantastic for the few days it lasted.

Sarah, Pace and their four

Leslie, Jeremy and their three

Dan, Janae and their two

After we dropped our son and his family at the airport, we came back home to bathrooms that needed a good scrubbing, toilet paper needed restocking. We went through scads of creamer and coffee, and hot dogs and burgers, and gasoline in everyone's cars and boats. The carpets of our minivan are covered with sand that I'm not ready to vacuum up just yet. The windows of the car and the door to the patio and the storm door are covered with beautiful handprints from all the kids who pressed their sweet noses to the glass to watch deer and turkey eating in our yard, or the view of lakes going by as we drove down the road. They can stay a little longer because

The original Fab Five

I loved every single minute of it. I loved the noise being too loud. I loved the groceries costing a fortune. I loved the toilet flushing every five minutes and plugging more than once. I loved the doors to the house being left open so I could think, in my brain, that we were 'air conditioning the whole wide world' just once more. I loved little people holding my hand as we crossed roads. I loved morning coffee on our deck with everyone wearing bed hair and sleepy faces and rumpled pajamas.

It was worth every penny. It was worth all the sleep we missed. My mama heart is full to the brim right now.