See, what had happened is that I'm so used to living here that I forget what is supposed to appeal to the outside world. What parts can and should I share?
Those are actually huge questions. So I can, and do, bury them under a pile of seven people's laundry.
Do you want to see pictures from our trip to Bali?
How bout the roti place we go to on Saturday mornings?
Do you even know what roti is? Would you care if I told you?
You get me? So. Sorry about the long pauses between posts.
Here's one I think you may find interesting:
We put all five of our children in one bedroom.
Ages 1 year through 8 years. Boys and girls. Same room.
"How do you do it?" (I assume they mean raise 5 kids and keep my sanity)
At this point, the answer is, "Sleep is important." Its that simple.
If you can get children to sleep through the night, I'm convinced it would solve like 1000% of parenting anxieties...at least in parenting little ones.
And that's what we've got a whole lot of around here. Little people. They are fantastic and are also still young enough that seeing them sleeping in their beds is still the sweetest part of their fantasticness.
We start young at letting them learn to go back to sleep on their own. If you'd like details I can explain further if you leave a comment.
I realize there are many many deeply held beliefs about sleep. I live smack dab in the middle of a culture where kids sleeping in their own beds and not with parents or in parents' rooms is not the norm, I know the opposing views. I get told differing views.
I do not care.
Sleep is important. My sleep. Their sleep. Our sleep. Everyone's sleep.
Parenting is way easier when you get your Zzzz's. (do NOT look at the crooked pictures. It's a kids' room! Just be glad I got them to clean under their beds before taking the pictures and that we didn't zoom in on the boogers on the walls.)
For clarification, they are in the "master" bedroom in our house. We decided we didn't need the big room and that these last few years are the only chance we'd ever have if we wanted them to all share a room.
But I promise we still the masters round here.
First, there's the shared responsibility of cleaning the room. They all help. Which is nice.
Only one air conditioner to run at night in a city with ridiculous electric prices. A plus.
Bath time and bed time and getting ready times are a bit more contained because they're all in a central location. (I know. I want a matching rug in front of the wardrobes too. Tell that to the expensive import store that doubled the price when I went back to get the matching one!)
And lastly there has been so much sibling bonding. Mostly in the form of the older kids giving some sort of comfort to the younger ones. We've found them all in differing beds in the mornings and the reasons given are usually in the, "Birdie was scared." or "I was hot in my bed." or "Isaiah said I could sleep up there with him." Friendship and bargaining and comfort and living life together. It's quite adorable.
