When I first officially became a mom, some 16 years ago, I never imagined my family would look like it does. Now, I have five kids, two grand babies and a son in law, at 37. I consider myself blessed beyond measure.
Our family is not traditional at all. I was a single mom of an adorable chubby little boy. My husband, a divorced father of two. We started off with three kids between us! And a boatload of baggage, but that’s a different story altogether!
Suddenly, I’m a mom of three really cool kids. Fast forward five years and we hit kid number four, our bouncing bundle of energy, The Duchess. Four kids. We had our hands full! Number five just kind of fell into our laps. Our oldest daughter had a best friend who somehow ended up folding into this crazy fabric we call our family.
And then there were five! Five kids gets a little crazy. Especially since three of them are adults doing adult things like getting married and having kids. Boom!! Grandkids!! Let me tell you, being a Nana at 37 is wild!! The looks I get when I tell people I have two grand babies are hilarious!!
My crew is loud and crazy when they are all together. There’s laughter! Loud, riotous, contagious laughter!! Someone is always antagonizing someone else. The babies are everywhere. And I’m usually too busy smiling at all of the insanity to get video of it.
Thinking about how my Chaos Crew, yes that is their official name, came to be reminds me of something many forget in life. Family isn’t always blood. There are times you get to choose your family. And there are times family chooses you.
I sent a kiloton of Merry Christmas messages today. Friends and family alike got personal messages. I commented on Facebook statuses. I opened awesome gifts from my family who truly gets me. I mean I really, really wanted the beautiful Kitchen Aid mixer they got me. But, the best part was having my family around me all day.
Family is the greatest gift we get to enjoy here on earth. All the mixers in the world wouldn’t mean a thing if I didn’t have them to bake cookies for. I count myself ridiculously blessed to have five crazy kids, two adorable grand babies, one wacky hubby and an insanely amazing relationship with them all!
1A napping away