As a mother of five children, including a baby girl and four boys, I know firsthand how challenging it can be to juggle the needs of multiple kids. But I’ve found that there are several strategies that can help make the job a little easier.

First, I’ve learned to ask for help when I need it. Whether it’s from my partner, family, or friends, having a support network can make all the difference when things get tough.

Second, establishing a routine has been a lifesaver. Having a set schedule for me and my children helps us stay organized and manage the various demands of the day.

Third, taking care of my own physical and emotional health is critical. Whether it’s finding time to exercise, eating healthy, or taking a few minutes to meditate, prioritizing my own well-being helps me be a better mother to my children.

Finally, staying positive and focusing on the joys of motherhood is essential. It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day challenges of parenting, but remembering the good times and celebrating my children’s accomplishments keeps me motivated and energized.

In conclusion, being an overwhelmed mother with a baby girl and four boys is no easy task, but with the right strategies and mindset, it’s possible to manage the stress and find moments of joy in the chaos of motherhood.

That was AI-generated. AI is very weird. I don’t think it’s replacing humans yet, and if what you do can be replaced with AI, maybe it will push us all to be a little creative.

Pictures will be forthcoming. I’ve tried four methods to get the images from my camera to the computer and they all failed. So I’m giving up.

I was watching a video and a person similar in age to me mentioned that she thought she would be on her fourth kid by now. Not single with a career. And then she went on to reminisce how maybe there was someone with a fourth kid who felt like they wanted to be where she was. There I was, feeding my fifth child, and thinking about how I wished I had more time to work on my career.

I’ve been guilty of not appreciating my life. I feel like maybe the life I have didn’t match the life I would need to have to truly excel. I’ve wanted to have more success in my career, more financial stability, and more opportunities for adventure.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be successful. I think it’s easy to get caught up in a narrative that to be successful is to have more: more money, money followers, more influence, and more opportunity. But maybe success is more about having enough: enough money, enough love, and enough opportunity.

I looked at the decisions I’ve made in life and seriously looked at other paths I could have taken. None were perfect, and all had both good things and hard things. The path I did take has led me to a life with lots of love, opportunities for creative work, and the ability to grow into a better person. It has suited me, not that I was already suited for my life, but in a way that my life has pushed me in ways where I needed to grow.

I’m glad that I’m a busy mom with five children, a role that takes up almost the entirety of my time and energy. It’s far better to live and appreciate the life I have, than to pine for a life I think I want, but perhaps is a fantasy that will never be as glamorous as it seems.

So babies are fun. They are very cute, and loveable. And then sometimes they scream at you for twenty minutes for no good reason. In the middle of the night. During those times, I feel like my life is awful. But it’s good to remember that it doesn’t last very long, and eventually, they go back to sleep. Most things that are awful in life don’t last very long. And the good things are always there to make life worth it.

I have lots of kids, but Evie is the only one who I consistently take pictures of.

We started to upgrade the house. We just finished a big addition to the house, but now we have to take the old part and upgrade it. The floor has holes, the cabinets also have holes, and everything looks about the same as it did thirty years ago. We started with the laundry room. I wish I had before pictures, but I don’t. Here’s after. And I’m a real-life person who does things to live in not look pretty in pictures. The laundry room is a bit cluttery with stuff from the pantry we tore down, and because of life. The kitchen was also not even remotely staged, but here are the before pictures for later.

And here’s a couple of the kids. Who are doing great, but also complain a lot. I would love to go a day without hearing annoying, complaining sounds. We went to the local Hutchings museum over the long weekend. Kids enjoyed it, and I suddenly realized that it was the basis of a recurring location in my literal dreams. I had been there as a kid, but mostly just remembered it in dreams. Zack’s been loving the local toddler sports, and also got sick and that was awful. He isn’t a happy sick kid. No one is, but some kids decided to just sleep a lot, and other kids cry at me all day.

Henry was baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was very ready for this: he has the desire to be like Jesus and has a sweet spirit. It was a beautiful day with a simple service, and his dad baptized and confirmed him.

We all enjoyed a winter break with lots of snow and fun things to do. I tried to keep the kids busy because I like them better when they aren’t bored and fighting each other. We visited family, went sledding, hiked to a waterfall, swam and visited a museum. But some of the best moments were simply being home together and playing games.

It was a crazy year:

I graduated from school with a Master’s in Landscape Architecture and MA in Instruction Design. I decided to start my own business.

Joe changed jobs and now works at a hospital in Salt Lake County.

We moved from our home of nine years to the home I grew up in.

Peter played basketball and is doing quite well even after moving to a more competitive area. He also likes piano, flag football, and percussion. Curtis did a lot of clubs, and rec soccer, basketball, and flag football. Henry did swimming, wrestling, piano, and scouts. Zack learned how to use the potty, went from daycare to preschool, and loves sports, monster trucks, and Spiderman.

Evie was born which is probably the biggest change of all.

We remodeled our home (still ongoing). We went to Lava Hot Springs, central Utah, St. George, and Logan. Not a lot of traveling with everything else going on, just enough to keep life interesting.

And here are my top 10 pictures from the year!

We had a great Christmas. The kids enjoyed all their presents, we sang songs and watched, read, and acted out many of the versions of the nativity, and spent some awesome time together as a family. I like going to church at Christmas. And the next day we took a short trip to sled, visit family, and have some fun.

It was our first Christmas in our new home. I missed some of the traditions we had in our old place: we walked up to the nativity on Christmas Eve every year. This year we performed one in our home with cousins. So new traditions replaced old ones. And it was nice to have the space to buy presents like a ping pong table and indoor sports equipment.

I also don’t take enough pictures in my life anymore. Just a few, and I go steal some my husband and son take as well.

So my kids tend to be a lot more pleasant if we take them places. We are a week into a two-week Christmas Break, and I’ve tried to keep them busy. We’ve been to the butterfly biosphere, a couple museums, the library, sledding, visited our cousins’ house and had cousins over. It’s been fun, and we are excited for a great Christmas. We’ve also made gingerbread houses, watched Christmas movies, played games, and the kids are really into tiny soccer. It’s regular soccer, but with a quarter-size ball and tiny little nets that Peter made with Joe

Henry had a birthday! He’s such a fun kid. Creative, full of energy. He loves people and makes friends easily. I love what he wrote on a school assignment about himself: “Not many people get me. I don’t really get myself.”

Winter is in full swing with days of snowfall. We went sledding because that’s what we like to do best when it snows.