These kids of mine.

I love my kids. They're amazing. But as I'm sure most of you know, this phase of life is not a walk in the park. Actually, is any phase a walk in the park? I have yet to find a phase that is a walk in the park. It's all fun, but it can all be hard, too.

I sometimes get overwhelmed with having five young kids at home. Usually it's the older ones that cause problems though...fighting or name calling or otherwise being sick of one another. So sick of each other they completely lose it if I separate them. Makes total sense, right? I've been used to Ava and Jace's love/hate relationship for a while now.  But now Seth and Evany have been coming into their own and they will. not. stop. picking. at. each. other. I could often mistake them for the seagulls in Finding Nemo. "Mine! Mine! Mine! MINE!"

It's adorable, as I'm sure you can imagine.

But lately, it's been like the perfect storm around here. Ava is 7 going on 17 and so emotional. If you critique anything she does at all she says we must not love her and runs to her room. Jace is just exhausted after school and he falls apart incredibly easily. The other night at church he threw a tantrum that lasted almost 30 minutes. Because I said he couldn't have candy.  Seth has begun waking up in the middle of the night and turning on all the lights and watching the television, Evany has hit the terrible twos with a vengeance and is often seen throwing herself to the ground in protest of everything, and Coen is suddenly back to waking up every two hours at night. Also, they've decided they hate everything that I cook except for one thing. Yogurt. They like my yogurt. You can't live on yogurt alone, but my kids are apparently going to die trying. Ava and Jace have been known to burst into tears when I tell them what I'm making for dinner. It's really, really great for making me feel self-confident.

I am at a loss. I know this is a season of life, and I try hard to make sure I'm finding sweet moments throughout our day to remember when things get ugly. Overall, my kids are well behaved and reasonably kind and obedient. But right now, I have to say I'm fairly certain my children have formed an army to rise up against me. Is this what kids do in the winter when it's too cold to go outside? Go insane?

The upside is that if they are in cahoots against me, at least it means maybe they're bonding with each other and someday when they're older they'll sit around a table laughing as one of them recounts the story of how they used to drive me crazy. "Hey guys, remember that time Mom locked the door so she could go to the bathroom and we picked the lock just so we could bug her and steam came out of her ears? That was AWESOME!"