some quotes to make you smile...

Filia had such a special time with Grandma when she babysat the kids during my hospital stay.  She often prays before bed that God would "please help Grandma to bring me to the park pool in her messy car" or "please help Grandma to visit me and hold me and read to me."

On our first Sunday back to church as a family, Filia asked,"Is Brandan going to worship and read chapter 2 at church?"

When I told Filia that she needed a spanking, she sighed, "Okay, can I just get a high five?"  I realized that she was requesting a token swat on her hand instead of "the real deal" on her backside.

Rus recently told me that "Tert must be thin because he's having an outburst of growth."

Tert told me, "Mom, I feel sad like I wasted time swimming when I could have been doing EXTREMELY FUN STUFF."
Before Brandan was born, he said, "Mom, it will be great when you have this baby because then you won't have any more pain!"
After his brother arrived, he commented, "All of Brandan's cries are BEAUTIFUL!"

Having our 6th child has certainly been an adjustment. I'm still learning to juggle the perpetual needs of so many children (from carpooling teen activities to potty training my 2 year old) while maintaining some sense of peace and order in my home.  I am trying to relax about the fact that every square inch of our house is packed, and the clutter piles are unavoidable.  My living room was a real source of stress to me during my nesting days since all of the wall paper (and a good deal of the sheet rock) was stripped off.  There's simply no time to paint these walls any time soon, so I decided that, instead of letting this ugliness get me down, I'd hand the kids a pile of markers and let them decorate the walls for us.  Whenever a friend visits, they add to the murals and think it's great fun.  :)