March Madness

I just glanced at the calendar on my way through the kitchen and realized that we still have a few days before the end of March. At first I thought, "I can't believe it's nearly April." Then I thought, "How have we fit so much into March?!"

It has been three and a half weeks since we got Little Girly home. This was obviously the biggest life change and we are all still wiggling around in our new roles to try to make them more comfortable.

Because it happened so fast, we have been fully immersed in getting to know Little Girly while also doing 'life as usual'. Darla finished up a season doing dance/cheer, which she loved. We tried a little homeschooling in the cracks but for the most part March has been a bit of extended Spring Break.
We got to go down to Mount Vernon to celebrate with my brother, Elijah, a long awaited cd release of his band, Into Light.
At the concert, Elijah's 4 day old son Harrison Rits made his debut. That's right- once again in less than a month the Tadema family added more than one baby.
My nephew Gage got to experience his first birthday at the age of five. It was a huge celebration with all the cousins.
Of all the Taylors, Everett has had the most 'adjustment'- as anticipated. He has displayed this by completely reverting in potty training. All our work in the past year has temporarily gone out the window.
In case you needed a visual... the cousin count is now at 14 children ages 6 and under:
We got to visit with long-time friend Steve when he came up to support Elijah's cd release. (This is us attempting a sing-a-long with 14 children underfoot. Fail.)
As though a new baby, getting the hang of the foster care responsibilities, backward potty-training, regular life, and special events weren't enough...our family came down with the stomach flu last week. (I'll spare you a picture- although S.'s face while stripping beds and using an entire bottle of carpet Spot Shot was thoroughly amusing...if I hadn't been gagging.)

Thankfully, we got healthy the day before Hudson went in for surgery. He had ear tubes re-inserted and his adenoids removed. As our most resilient child, he toughed it out and we all had a beautiful family day filled with popsicles, ice cream, smoothies, and a middle of the day movie. Surgery in style.

The next day S. packed up to go speak at a middle school weekend retreat, where he will be until tomorrow. (We joked about who would get more sleep- the one with 4 small children or the one with 100 middle schoolers.)

So here I am with one baby hiccuping beside me, one toddler going through many pairs of underwear, one pre-schooler who hears well and is adenoid free, and one kindergartener (oh, shoot! Kindergarten! Back to that on Monday.)

With a twinkle in his eye, S. has been reminding me of my favorite quote by William Ross Wallace, "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."

Look out...we are out for some serious world dominance, people.