The bowl of chance

     For those of you who don't know.... I was married on March 5th. This means, instead of being 5 hicks from the sticks, there are now 11 of us. My husband has five children. It has been quite an adventure. I moved on Thursday, spent Friday unloading my trailer into the new house, and was married and ran away on Saturday, and then Monday, spent my first day as the mother of nine. I cried that day. Five children came home from school and four of them had to read to someone. I stood there and I wondered what time that meant we would have dinner. Would there ever be any time for them to play? It was a noisy confusing mess. I wasn't the only one that cried. If it wasn't for my mother in law, I think I may have crawled under a rock and never come back. My husband was a similar mess.
      We have three little girls ages 8,8 and 3. They LOVE to play dress up. The first week, I did 17 loads of laundry. I don't even want to think what that meant for the water bill. We cleaned there room three or four times a day. The little boys, ages 3,5,6 and 7 , were no better. They filled their laundry basket twice a day. We cleaned, and cleaned and cleaned.......and cleaned. I wondered if I would ever have time to sleep again.
     At dinner time, my meals went cold for the first three days. The kids ate like a whirlwind. James and I spent the entire time plugging our ears and serving just as fast as we could. They were thirsty, they needed more mashed potatoes, someone cried because there were no more mashed potatoes, and they got skipped. I wondered if I would ever eat again. 
     These days, I'm an old pro. We've had to adjust several times, but those days of mess, and crying and noise are over. ( Well, almost :) ) To combat the laundry monster, we tried removing the laundry baskets, so that they would all have to sort out their clothes with me, before the clothes hit the laundry room. It didn't work. We ended up with a pile on the floor, instead of a pile in a basket. So, we put locks on the doors, and now the kids play in the family room in the basement. When the room gets dirty, which happens a third of the time it used to, we take 15 minutes and clean it.
     At homework time, the kids sit down and get to it. They all read silently for 15 minutes and then they quietly work on individual stuff. We treat it like a lab. If they have a question, We work through it, but otherwise, they do it themselves, and I just proof the final paper. We are done in about a half an hour, and then everyone goes out to play.
   At dinner, we have fun. Each child takes turns telling about their day instead of screaming over each other for attention. They raise their hand if they want seconds of something, and EVERYONE eats their vegetables.
     Last night was perhaps one of my favorite dinners. It was just a little different. Because I am still adjusting and some nights are better than others, we accumulate a lot of left overs of various sizes and kinds. It adds up to a lot of food. My husband was going through the fridge and said that he just couldn't see wasting a thing when resources are so appropriated already. So.....he got out a sheet of paper and a bowl. The Bowl of Chance was born.
     What is the bowl of chance you say? Only the best game EVER! We put all the kids names in a bowl and then they passed it around and pulled them out one at a time.The name read got to choose a left over. Happy kids, and an empty fridge. Game over.

     I'm sure the road will still be hard. I'm sure the rules will change.  In fact, I don't even have a good picture  of all of us .The best part is....I can do this. I am a mother of nine.