This photo makes me laugh every.single.time I look at it. The gingers were sick and we had been homebound over the holidays, and my uncle sent us these fun glasses to lift our spirits. I try to look at parenting through those same funny lenses— there’s always a humorous moment, a realization, or a teaching amidst the frustrations and stresses of raising a family.

Nope, although the old me was a high school English teacher. I still cling to that work title even though I haven’t taught in ten years.

I have four gingers– they didn’t stand a chance for anything other than red hair. Ginger4 (10), Ginger3 (7), Ginger2 (6) and the Littlest Ginger (4). We live a chaotic life of running from one event to the next, but we laugh a lot in between. Ginger1 was a preemie, born at 26 weeks at 1 LB, 12 oz due to a ruptured and infected placenta.  Her story is God’s story and we are humbled by all He provided during our months in the NICU and beyond. Ginger3 and Ginger2’s pregnancies were monitored heavily with constant doctor visits and home health care– injectable medicine I came to trust was my life saver. When I grew allergic to the injectable, I wasn’t allowed that piece of my treatment anymore, and Ginger4’s pregnancy and healthy delivery was God’s way of helping free me from any mommy guilt I carried from the first stressful (but not avoidable) preterm birth. I learned I was, in fact, capable of a successful pregnancy from start to finish. Thank God!

I forgot the tooth fairy three nights in a row; on the fourth morning I woke up at 6am, freaking out, grabbed $2 and shoved it under her pillow and while doing so, woke her up. She was upset there was no fancy note. With my hand still under her pillow, I said, “At least you didn’t get a Euro like your sister got last time!”

I felt relief knowing Operation Tooth Fairy was successful until I got an email from her teacher saying: “Breaking news!  Your ginger is so excited!  She lost another tooth this morning!  She is excited to give it to the Tooth Fairy tonight!”

Argh– here we go again! She must have told her teachers about her failing fairy, so they made her a door sign to help the tooth fairy get her act together.  The stress is “fairy” real.

I plunge every toilet at least once a day. This is the second time a ginger has pooped so big, it sits sideways in the toilet and doesn’t flush down. (Gross, right?) So Paul just leaves it, hoping it will succumb to the water around it and melt away (he doesn’t like getting his plunger dirty— trust me, it’s another story for another day). In the meantime, the house smells like poop. I had a new first in my life as a parent, and in my life period… I had to take a wooden stick and cut a ginger’s poop in half and shove it down the hole. How gross is that??? I consider this a win because I didn’t break a sweat plunging yet another toilet.

I don’t have this parenting thing figured out, but I love the challenge. I trust that God’s control is greater than my own, and when times get rough, He has me covered. My parenting survival tactic is to find the humor in every bit of our everyday chaos.