Kimber's Navy Family

I've been having a lot of conversations lately, mostly with my best friend, about parenting. I think her and I are both at this point where we are moving from one phase of parenting to the next. For my best friend, she's been adjusting to life with three children. Her oldest is a year away from kindergarten. Her youngest is approaching her first birthday. For me, we've been adjusting to life with five children. This is my second year with three children in elementary school. Our oldest is in 3rd grade and it's his last year in the single digits. He turns 10 years old next year! (10 years old! I've been changing diapers for a DECADE.) Our twins are in 1st grade. My youngest recently turned one and our fourth is becoming a full-fledged preschooler. I had a hysterectomy earlier this year and so, for the first time after our youngest child turned one, we aren't considering when we should have our next baby. I had a conversation with her the other night and she was

I had a bit of a weird experience today. I went to my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group and each table has a mentor mom. Some of the tables had mentor moms like you would expect-- grown children, grandchildren-- but most tables had moms like me. Moms with 9 year olds. None of them had babies in the house anymore-- my youngest two are 3 years old and 1 year old-- but one gal, her youngest was 4 years old. I feel like I should have been empowered seeing that I could be a mentor mom. Instead, I felt like, oh crap. WHY DON'T I HAVE MY LIFE TOGETHER. Just that morning my oldest son (in 3rd grade) was in trouble for fighting with one of his 1st grade brothers. After breakfast, I found packed lunch pails strewn about the dining room instead of put in backpacks, like I specifically said. Our 1st graders went in their room and pulled out art instead of brushing their teeth and getting socks on. The baby spent the morning climbing furniture and emptying drawers. And our 3 year old ran a

When I have sat down to think about my blog and the direction I want it to go in, the first thing I think about is, "Why did I start blogging in the first place?" The question is closely tied to my life. I started blogging because I like writing. I like writing and felt that I couldn't do a lot of it with a toddler and infant twins. I felt like we had a busy life that was somewhat different than the civilian friends I know because my husband is in the military. I felt like we are a military family trying to put a lot of emphasis on family , because we do know that my husband is going to be career military, staying in until he retires. I felt like in the community of military families, it is good for us to talk about our search for "normalcy" and to stick together with our unique set of challenges. I felt like talking about these challenges in a public way-- on my blog-- would help shed light on our community and to overlap the similarities as a military family w

Mother's Day. I dread it. I feel agitated just thinking about it. Why? First of all, most Mother's Days I am nowhere near my momma. I hate that. And if I'm not near my momma, then I'm not near my grandmother. And I hate that. Being a Navy family, we are usually stationed far away from our families, which is hard over holidays. Second, it is such a let down. The ads always say, "Let her know how much you appreciate her." And, 9 times out of 10, Mother's Day is spent like just about every other day except your family wants you to "relax" (meaning: clean up the mess tomorrow) and "take it easy" (meaning: listen to them all fight while you sit on the couch until you can't take it anymore so you get up and solve the problem). Finally, the gifts. The gifts blow. Sometimes they don't, but most of the time they do. When you have multiple kids, it sucks when one kid gives a really good gift (beautiful painted canvas) and the oth

Military spouse or not, online parenting forums are flooded with questions on traveling with children. As a military spouse, traveling with children is inevitable, even if just for a PCS. So, how does one travel with children? For starters, pick your mode of transportation. There are things I like about flying and things I like about driving. With flying, I like that it shortens travel time. With driving, I like that I can pack as much as my mini van can hold: snack bags, en route entertainment, as much clothing as I want, etc... The flying versus driving argument is usually solved by what we plan on doing when we get there and how long we plan on staying. When we fly, I pick my airline wisely. I prefer to fly Southwest with our big family. I can change our tickets up to 24 hours in advance with no change fee. I like that each paid seat has 2 free bags included with the ticket price. And in-cabin pets are only $100. All of those aspects make it the friendliest airline for our mil

April is Month of the Military Child which has made me think a lot about our 5 military children. Our oldest son-- 8 years old and in 2nd grade-- has attended 4 different schools: 2 public schools across the country from each other (kindergarten in Washington DC and 1st and 2nd in Washington state), plus homeschooling kindergarten in South Carolina and preschool in North Carolina. He has lived in 6 different states and 8 different houses. This is his second time having his dad on a sea tour (though he was 2 years old when we got off our first boat). For our other 4 children, this is their first time having their dad on a sea tour, though not the first time they have been separated from him. However, we were able to video chat and call him on our previous separations. Our 6-year old twins have lived in 4 states and 5 houses. So far they have done school "normally," 2 schools, both in the same state. One was preschool and they have now moved on to the elementary school to att

I'm pregnant! Gotcha! April Fools! Today is the day my newsfeeds are clogged with articles and pictures saying, "Infertility is not a joke. Don't post fake pregnancy announcements." Personally, I'm not one for April Fools pranks. I honestly think that if someone swapped my sugar for salt and I put that in my CAFFEINE-- my LIFE BLOOD-- making it undrinkable, heads would roll. When I see all the articles talking about (and shaming) people who find humor in posting a fake pregnancy announcement, I don't necessarily agree. Hear me out. On social media, most of my friends are from the military community. We have friends who post fake order announcements or fake duty assignments, only for it to be an April Fools joke. And check out this list of April Fools jokes from Buzzfeed . Silly? Harmless? Pretty much. We have lost babies to miscarriages, one early in the first trimester and one nearing the second trimester. We have tried to get pregnant and

I go through phases in regards to house cleaning, where I can't function without a housekeeper and our bathrooms are covered in toothpaste and our floors with dirt clots, dragged in from muddy boots, and there is a layer of crumbs on every surface. Other times, having a housekeeper is more of an inconvenience-- making sure to have the house tidy on a certain day at a certain time, keeping the children out of her way, and possibly getting out of the house while she's here. Plus the expense. Currently, we are in the latter category. So, for the time being, we are back to cleaning our house, 5 kids and all. So how do you clean with 5 kids? Well, our youngest is an infant, so I don't have much to worry about with her, save for feedings and naps interfering. I tend to do loud cleaning, like vacuuming, right after she wakes up from nap. That way she's happy and content to bounce in her Excersaucer. For the in depth cleaning, like the bathrooms, I try to do that when she'