I will survive

At breakfast, we held a family meeting and laid out some ground rules for the day. I made the kids count, first themselves, and then me. Four kids, one mommy. For almost two weeks, grandparents and friends have been on hand to help us handle life as a family of six. But yesterday, the last of our help left. And when the hubby headed out for work this morning, I was forced to face reality.

"I'm very outnumbered," I pointed out. "And that means I'm going to need your help today if things are going to go well. We are going to be kind to one another. We are going to be patient with one another. You are going to obey right away, all the way, with a happy heart when Mommy tells you to do something."

They nodded. They understood the seriousness of this occasion.

I prayed, early and often, on my first day at home with four kids ages four and under. And our day went very, very well.

We assembled the same nine puzzles about five times each.

We cut, glued and colored construction paper letters to make decorations for Daddy's office.

We built train tracks, block towers and pillow forts.

We ate three good meals (dinner was provided by another kind friend, otherwise our good meal count would probably have dropped to two today).

When we took something out, we put it away. When we made a mess, we cleaned it up.

I did not try to move mountains of laundry, or accomplish anything other than keeping my sanity and my children intact.

When they went down for afternoon naps, I caught up on some chores that have fallen by the wayside over the last two weeks. For two and a half hours (all the time I have between Levi's feedings), all four kids were asleep at the same time. It was a miracle, to say the least.

I might not get much done in the way of general housekeeping over the next few weeks, and that's okay. But today showed me that I can, in fact, handle these kids and this new crazy life of ours. I survived my first day home alone.

Next challenge: a shopping trip to Target. We're running low on milk and bananas around here, and something must be done about that.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...