Ah, the challenges of being a mommy!

I love my children. I love being a mommy of many. I consider myself blessed to have 5 adorable, intelligent, creative, inquisitive, friendly, healthy, and active little guys. I love all the snuggles and kisses when they first wake up in the morning, their eyes lighting up when they learn something new and exciting, taking long walks and exploring the world together, and talking with them about their activities, hopes, and dreams. But I have to remind myself of these things. Often. Because they are a lot of work. Especially when they make big messes. Like today.

It was a peaceful enough morning...Joshua was catching up on his school work, Jon and Jordan were watching Dora the Explorer, and Joseph, whom I have to watch like a hawk or who knows what will happen was sitting at my feet playing with Thomas trains while I cleaned up my desk and filed school papers. Joshua finished up his work and joined the others in the living room, and still everything was peaceful. Then Joey jumps up and leaves the room. As I'm taking a split second to think "Hmmm, should I finish these or go ahead and follow him and bring him back?" he starts saying loudly "Mommy, water, Mommy, water!" so I go with the following him option. Now remember, he's been gone less than a second, so the following scene is, oddly enough, NOT his doing. Turns out my bathroom is about an inch deep in water, and a small, uh, river, is coursing down my hallway. I ran in, threw a towel on the floor in the doorway, and proceeded to use the plunger on the toilet, which had just a bit too much paper in it. I then got to spend the next 15 minutes sopping up the mess with our (rather large, considering I just did laundry) collection of dirty towels. Then I had to find the culprit.
Now, many of you don't know this, but I actually have 6 children. You don't know that because the 6th is invisible, and rarely speaks. His name is "Not Me!" and he is extremely messy and causes all sorts of trouble. Naturally, all of his brothers ratted him out and told me that he was the one responsible for today's fiasco. I've really got to find a way to discipline that child! Now if I could just FIND him...
Oh, and if that wasn't enough, I came back into the living room after cleaning that up and Josiah, my 6-month-old, was GONE!! I managed, in between heart palpitations, to get out "Where...IS...JOSIAH?!?!" while frantically looking around the room. Turns out Jonathan had carried him into the other room and put him in his swing. They're not ever allowed to pick him up, much less carry him without me present and none of them has ever done this before so it was quite a shock, but he did do a good job and get him safely buckled in. Of course, he's NEVER to do it again without my permission!!
So, like I said, I love my children, and love being a mommy. I'm just going to have to spend the next few minutes reminding myself of just how blessed I am!