The two girls and I are sick.\u00a0 We have the stomach yuck that the boys had last week.\u00a0 We\u2019re not dying or anything, just curled up under warm blankets, eating dry toast, and watching television\u2026and blogging, of course.\u00a0 #4\u2019s warm little body is curled up next to mine and the deliciousness of her body heat is making me drowsy.<\/p>\n
The boys are making their way slowly through their schoolwork, unsupervised.\u00a0 Every now and again I hear the not-quite-patient voice of #2 explaining math to his younger brother.\u00a0 #5 keeps\u00a0 popping in and out of the room to lay his chubby almost-3-year-old hand upon my forehead and then his head upon my chest.\u00a0 He shakes his head at us and says \u201cSowwy sick.\u00a0 Wuv oo.\u201d and then goes back to the bowl of cereal his brothers keep refilling to keep him quiet and happy.\u00a0 #1 is dozing in her own bed and alternating between sleeping and geometry homework.\u00a0 I don\u2019t blame her, geometry makes me sleep, too.<\/p>\n
Sick children, a never ending stream of sick children, is part of the horror of big families.\u00a0 I get asked repeatedly what we do when we all get sick.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how to explain it in ways that people who\u2019ve never had a large family can understand.\u00a0 We just love each other.\u00a0 We see the gaps in what needs to be done, and step into the holes.\u00a0 My 10 year old did the dishes this morning because I was too nauseated to do it myself.\u00a0 My 8 year old took the nasty towels to the laundry room when his sister complained about the mustiness of them.\u00a0 He even brought a fresh one for her while she showered.<\/p>\n
There is no magic to it.\u00a0 It is simply a family.\u00a0 Large and chaotic when we\u2019re all healthy, but compassionate and considerate when we are not.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a trick; it\u2019s simply love.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how you teach them to be this way, they simply see the love of their parents for them and for each other, and assume that this is how the world should be.\u00a0 This is truly one of the greatest benefits of large families, and I am so grateful for it<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The two girls and I are sick.\u00a0 We have the stomach yuck that the boys had last week.\u00a0 We\u2019re not dying or anything, just curled up under warm blankets, eating dry toast, and watching television\u2026and blogging, of course.\u00a0 #4\u2019s warm little body is curled up next to mine and the deliciousness of her body heat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n