Being the Mom…. Part 1
Oy! So, it totally helps me start this post when I’ve got steam… Coming out of my ears…. This is being a mom.
So, last night, after the husband and my 6 year olds went to bed, my 17 year old found me enjoying a show on Hulu with my eyes shut and sounds coming out of my mouth and nostrils. I hear, “I can hear you snoring.” I sit up, dazed, and he asks me, “is Dad going to eat the Orange Chicken in the freezer?”
I answer, “probably…?”
“When? It’s been in there for a long time,” he asks.
“I don’t know? When the feeling calls? It’s only been in there for a few weeks,” I answer. (When you have 6 kids and 1 steady income, this is called “Food Security.” “If you want some, go ahead and make a serving for your dad to take to work tomorrow.”
He goes out the deep freezer in the garage and grabs a unopened, Costco box of Orange Chicken, and I go back to enjoying my eyes-closed, whatever was on Hulu show, and am brought out of this episode to, “I forgot that you put the rest of the Blueberry Bread in the oven, and I totally burned it. I need to open a window as you’ll see the smoke if you look behind you,” he says.
“ Okay, open that one,” as I pointed to one of living room windows that has a screen on it. Fade out…. I open my eyes to see that Hulu is still on, and it’s nearly 2 am. I put the dog in his kennel and go to bed.
I wake up early to my wonderful Bi-Pap mask “farting” on my face and remember something about a window. “Oh crap!” I jumped out of bed to find that my living room window is still open. It dropped to 23 degrees last night, and my living room is freezing! I close it and text my husband to see if he found the Orange chicken for his lunch. He didn’t. I didn’t tell him it was there. Ugh. I start cleaning up the kitchen, because much life happens in our house after the parents go to bed and the sink was overflowing with dishes from dinner as well. (I’ve was having sneezing fits all day yesterday and it really knocked all of the energy right out of me.) I look on the counter and the rest of the COSTCO SIZED BOX of orange chicken is just sitting there staring at me like, “Hey…sup.”
I immediately call my 17 year old to show him that he’d left one of the only convenience foods we have, out and that it was all just wasted. I also mention that the window was left open and that not only is it freezing in the house, the heater was trying to compensate for it all night.
His response was, “k.”
There goes the steam engine! WTF! In my head, he just burned a 3/4 of a loaf of handmade, sourdough blueberry bread that we were rationing, because everyone wanted to just gobble it all up, left a window open in the middle of winter, ran our power bill up, and wasted a large amount of a convenience “fun” food in our house, and all you have to say about it is, “k!” I feel a mosh-pit of emotion, but I have to stay in my mosh pit to not disrupt the balance in our household of flippin’ Zoomers and Alphas!
But really, I love the heck out of my kids. And their kids. I only have one kid with kids. And I need to add, that of all of my 8 genetic contributions to this planet, only a single grandkid is a red-head like his “Yeah-yeah.”
My husband and I have 6 kids. I’ll give a little info about each below:
Our oldest, MacKenzie, is 26 right now, and she has 2 kids, a boy and a girl. She stays home with her kids and is learning how to homestead on a smaller scale. MacKenzie will be helping me thing year with our garden, she’ll have a small one of her own for fresh eating, and is learning things like sourdough bread making (she’s way better than me, and is using my starter, “Doh!’s” baby). She’s also learning more scratch cooking and freezer meal prepping.
Our next kid turns 21 this weekend. His name is Triston. Triston is almost done with his 3rd year at Boise State University. Next year he’ll graduate with 3 degrees, his major being Astrophysics, his minors in Computational Mathematics, and another in Computer something or other. After that, he’s trying to decide on where to get his doctorate. Right now, he’s currently on the Dean’s list and works for Alaska Airlines to minimize the ending costs of owning an education.
Next, is Lohgun. He is 19 and still lives at home. He is currently a manager at local, but major fast food restaurant. He’s taking it easy right now with work because he was actually working as a butcher for Snake River Farms, and it was taking a toll on his body. He didn’t want to destroy his hands and have arthritis so young. We’ll see what future comes for him. He’s actually a pretty hard worker both physically and in customer service.
Then comes, Aiden. He’s 17, almost 18. Man, I love that age! I was that age. I remember that age. I had one that age 2…4… and 9 years ago. That age and I are familiars. At seventeen, we know EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING. We can make our own decisions and they’re all going to be the best. We’re unbreakable, unstoppable, and no one should dare question that. I have the most ire, and yet empathy for the 17 year olds. It’s very emotional. You’re on the cusp of being able to choose your own path, while possibly letting go of the life you’ve already known and had comfort in. Aiden is super smart, so it’ll be interesting to see what his path(s) will be.
At the lasts but not leasts… are Zephyr and Zooey. They are our 6 year old, identical twin daughters, and were total blessings, not only for us, but each other. When you’re 11 years younger than the next youngest, you don’t have anything in common with your older sibs. Luckily, our girls split their cells to make a partner for one another. They are so opposite and are best friends and hate being apart from each other. They are incredibly entertaining, they’re funny, they fight, they thrive with each other. We lost a little boy during 2nd trimester a couple of years before the girls came along, and with me being 39 while pregnant and at delivery, the doctors said there was a 25% chance of having no issues with the pregnancy, and we beat the odds. They are what keep us young, yet feeling old, and give us a reason to keep trying!
My kids have brought me the most joy and the most pain in my life. I have loved being a mum since I first found out that I was expecting MacKenzie. There have been literal years of sleepless nights, wins, losses, joy, heartbreak, adventures, memories, challenges, and more to come. I haven’t enjoyed every minute of it, but each minute made me who I am today. I love all of my kids and will always be there for them if they need me. Who cares if I have to wear a stress-hair comb over, aka, the “Mom-bun,” with white sideburns that stick out on both sides of my head, making me look like I’ve got head wings. Or, what if I can no longer complete sentences? No one listens until the end anyway!
These people that I made, helped make the chaos that is Mad House. MacKenzie, by breaking the same toe on the same chair every week, and Triston, by speaking at great lengths about how much he LOVES MATH! Lohgun for being the first to introduce sticking both arms and legs into hoodie sleeves and running around, Aiden for always having an answer for everything, even if it’s improv, or “k.” Zephyr and Zooey for showing me that twins are a whole different breed. And for all of them saying, “Mom,” for what feels like millions of times. They are the biggest piece that makes me, me.
