Lots

When all my kids were living within these walls, it was a noisy, chaotic place. My brother commented that every time he visited us, he’d go home and board up another bedroom. I’m not saying mine were to blame, but he did have but one child. 

We grew four. I gave thanks a thousand times and still do, that we had that many. Actually, I wished that we would have had one more. Brian would say ‘You’d be 80 years old & still be saying … ‘just one more.’

So we were six.  We call it The Original Six, like the hockey league. They filled the house, those children of mine.  Filled it with the happy noise of healthy children – filled it with scrapping and fighting too, but at any rate, it was filled.

There’s mostly quiet now. Just the two of us. And Abby.  But thankfully, all four of them live within minutes of the old homestead. Six minutes, eight minutes, thirteen minutes and nineteen minutes. How many people with four children are that blessed.

And the bigger blessing is that the Original Six now is Twelve, soon to be Fourteen. It gets harder though, to pull that many people together, so even though they all live close, it's not all that often that someone isn’t missing.

Yesterday they all came together to wish me farewell as I head across the sea this week. ALL were present and accounted for. I was one Happy Mother.  I so badly wanted to take some pictures, since it’s a rare occasion anymore. But they get a little testy when I drag the camera out every time they’re together and I didn’t want to spoil the mood.  I have it out so much, that 22 month old Gibson saw a picture of a camera in a magazine & pointed to it and said ‘Nana’. 

Careful to only point in the direction of the little ones, I captured only two moments. Two being fully entertained with a sink full of dishwater and them with the cake.  My youngest daughter, Alyssa is an amazing cook – very creative & adventuresome and she’s shown up with some very interesting recipes. When she insisted that she was bringing dessert, I knew it would be something unique. She presented me with an early Mother’s Day … Spiderman cake. Not just any Spiderman cake – and ICECREAM one. It was a hit.

 Lots of noise, lots of silliness & lots of food and lots of people. My favourite kind of day.