Kimber's Navy Family

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...

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...

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 ...

We've passed the 100th day of school for our 2nd grader and twin kindergartners. It was a big adjustment for me going from one child in school to three children in school all day. And now, for the first time ever, we have more kids in school than out of school home with me. I thought I would write a little piece about how amazing it is only having 2 home all day and 3 in school. 1. Mornings can be busy. Above is an actual picture of me getting the kids ready for school. I think my favorite part of the morning is when sneakers go missing right before we walk out the door, a child is somehow naked when moments before he was fully clothed, or when the toddler raids the already packed lunch pails. Actually, no. I love when I meal prep breakfast for the week and the children refuse to eat it. Wait, it's also fun when there are no jackets in the house... or the children won't wear the jackets... or they try to wear the wrong jackets (you are a boy's size 6... you reall...

I've written about this before, but after I had baby #4 2 and a half years ago, I had complications that required surgery. The surgery included a hysterectomy. We weren't sure if we were done having children (correction: I wasn't sure if I was done) and so we talked to my OBGyn about the risks of another pregnancy. He told us that the complications most likely wouldn't get worse during pregnancy, but that, while the pregnancy would be safe, it wouldn't be comfortable and that the complications would be worse post-partum. We had a tough decision to make: one more pregnancy or a hysterectomy? After a lot of late night discussions, we decided to try one more time. We had 4 boys and we were "going for the girl." We started trying for baby #5 when baby #4 was almost 6 months old. I got pregnant with baby #5 almost a year later. From the beginning, it was a rough pregnancy. My morning sickness (all day sickness) exasperated my complications. We were told the p...

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...