Ten Things about the #5 Allans

I’m borrowing Kristi’s idea from several years back, hoping you won’t notice that it’s a cover for the fact that I haven’t really had anything worthy to share lately. I figure some bullet points of our lives should suffice. And like the last time I did this for the email chain, I can promise you it will all be pretty mundane.

  1. By the end of this, I won’t know how to get out of the “numbered list” format. That is because I despise technology and it returns the sentiment. Danny and Isaac can never leave me. If they do, you’ll find me turning real pages, using a typewriter, and stuffing my money under the mattress.
  2. Juggling six kids is an act you’d be amazed to see in a circus. Good thing most of my children are too heavy to toss into the air, but it sure gets complicated, exhausting, and at times, fascinating keeping up with their schedules and emotional health.
  3. Ellie will begin her career at Chick-fil-A this week. It’s not quite the Allan McDonald’s dynasty, but we’re doing our part to give the chicken empire kids who’d rather do chores for money at work than at home. 
  4. The season for guests has possibly begun with back-to-back weekends of company. Unfortunately, neither weekend saw beautiful spring weather and we were forced to watch baseball. I mean, we were forced to watch it in the gray, dank NH April. Thankfully each set of guests were quite agreeable to walk beside us in our busyness and visiting happened more on-the-go than on the sofa. Hopefully our next guests will experience enough May sunshine to bring some with them on their return to Newfoundland.
  5. We will be back to a full house come this Friday as Jake returns from his first year away. Isaac is flying down to FL on Wednesday to participate in the challenge of “Will the Brothers Come Back Bonded or Bruised?” while they make the long drive homeward. Prayers would be appreciated.
  6. After putting in two more weeks of travel, Danny gets to sleep in his own bed for three weeks before another trip. Since he’ll be gone over his birthday, you can send me whatever presents you would have given to him. Just kidding. Unless….🤷
  7. “Anna, where are the snickerdoodle cookies you made?” I asked her, very sarcastically, knowing she hadn’t actually baked them last week like she said she would. Without missing a beat, she replied, “Oh, well, I separated out all their ingredients and put them back.” 
  8. Raise your hand if you loathe living in a tech world while you have children. I know this seems an awful lot like my first point, but that one was about my incompetence. This one is about the difficulties technology brings to our family, so stay with me. Now raise your hand if you are reading this from a device right now. See my conundrum? It’s good– until it isn’t. The kids need it, but so often it is misused or abused and the challenge lies in striking the perfect balance of using technology appropriately while leaving time for some fun stuff without the latter use overtaking the first. Who’s got the answers and why haven’t they shared them with me yet?  
  9. There’s nothing here because seven eight nine. Can you believe that the number of times my kids roll their eyes at my humor is exponentially more than the sum of times they laugh? My sadness is infinite.
  10. This last one is a fact we’re all learning together, since I didn’t even know about it until right now: James hates small spaces while Caleb seems to love them. That’s what Caleb just told me when I asked him what I should write about the two of them. I’m afraid to ask them how they’ve come to know this about themselves. Everyone deserves a little mystery in their lives, right?

And that’s a wrap.

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