If I were a.....

yes, his handwriting needs a lot of work :)

Kade gave us a card for Christmas he was working on at school.  They laminated it and everything but it was just so cute what he wrote inside.  They were supposed to answer "if I were a Santa Claus I would..."  Ehren and I had a good laugh about the very first thing he wrote. "I would help mom with daycare because she has a hard time with it." :) Sweet little Kade has no idea how true that is sometimes and I am sure he witnessed more than a few stressful occasions the past couple years.  I am not going to lie, it is very hard work to have multiple kids at home that come from all different families.  I probably mentioned this earlier but this Fall I realized how much easier this year is compared to last year when the 2 youngest were just babies and had to be bottle-fed a few times a day.  I think I was just surviving for a few months there. :) This year they're walking around and just like hanging out with the other kids and play by them.  My favorite age though must be around 2-5 years old.  Kids are so sweet at that age, they love to read books after books, they listen so well, are eager to please and want to do whatever you suggest for them to do.  They will fight once in a while, but it is so short-lived and they don't remember crying 2 minutes later.  I don't know if it's just me but I do think many times I'm doing a terrible job with it and I should be doing so much more with the kids but at the end of the day, there is only so much I am able to do.  I am thankful though that in return, I don't have to send my kids to some daycare and I can be with them at home, even if it means we can't go anywhere during the day.

Kade's other line said: "If I were a Santa Claus I would buy my family some food because we run out of food a lot." :)  So true, we need to buy groceries A LOT. :)  No wonder when we have 7 kids at our house at some point every day.  At least I have not heard a line from our kids yet that every kid says at some point : "we have nothing to eat" so I think that is pretty good.  We really are blessed at how much we have in comparison to people all over the world.  We don't know what it's like to skip a meal because there is nothing left to eat yet we don't ever think of it as a blessing, more like it's our right to have all that and so much more that we could so easily live without.  It's really sad how consumer oriented our world is becoming and how few simple things remain as part of our family life.  I can't say I'm living a minimalist lifestyle, it is far from it actually, but it just amazes me how so many families are driven by having more stuff in their lives and how whatever the children suggest or want at an early age, they get without even having to wait for it.  I'm a bit afraid of what our children will have to deal with in their adulthood, it's hard enough right now but is going downhill too fast. :)  I just hope we can stick to our believes as our kids get older and have them see it's ok to be different.  It's ok to go against the flow, to be the only fish sometimes swimming against all the other fish that we see.  Because the only One that matters sees us and is so proud watching us do just that.