Then there were four

I don't want to over-dramatize this, but I feel as though today marks the beginning of a new chapter in my life. After taking some paternity leave Richard has returned to work today, leaving me alone to embark on my journey as a stay-at-home mother of four.

On Friday Richard left for a couple hours for a lunch meeting at work. It was a beautiful day so I decided to take the troop to the park. As if the adventure of a first outing with four kids wasn't enough, I brought the dog along. She has been terribly neglected of late and I knew she needed to play as much as the kids. But it was a foolish mistake.

I removed the kids from the van one by one, and then let Misha out. It took about five seconds before someone was bleeding. Fortunately it was Miriam, the least likely to care about mere flesh wounds. But Eli freaked out at the blood and for a moment I was tempted to load everyone back up and return home. But I sent Eli off to the playground, cleaned up Miriam and we had a nice time thereafter.

Ever since I found out I was pregnant I've had anxiety about taking care of four kids. After Miriam was born it took me months to feel like I had things under control. So I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to enjoy this time rather than simply feeling like I'm surviving it. The strongest impression that I had was that I needed to wake up before the kids each morning. It completely changes my mood if I am prepared for the day before the children start thrusting their needs upon me. I managed to get off to a good start this morning. One for one.

I know there are mothers-of-four, five, six, and so on, everywhere, handling their responsibilities with grace and organization. But I want to use my blog to document this time with the hopes of offering encouragement to others, but also selfishly looking for encouragement from others.

In the words of the Cat in the Hat,

"Here we go, go, go on an adventure!"