Weasleying It

Weasleying It

We came to the conclusion not long ago that somehow we have become the Weasley family. House with extra rooms added on? Yep. Christmas presents that are hand knit? Yep. Chickens in the front yard? Pick-up Quidditch games? Overgrown weedy garden with gnomes? Ghoul upstairs that makes noise when it gets too quiet? Yep, yep, yep and yep. You may think I’m exaggerating on the gnomes and the ghoul, but I’d be willing to debate you on that because our house is loooooooooud.

You probably also thought I was kidding about the pick-up Quidditch games.

And lots of kids? Yes, we have that. And come October we will be one closer to the Weasley’s seven. We’re a bit late in announcing it, but with this quarantine it’s been hard to remember how long it’s been. Indeed, the fact that we’re barely four months away from delivery is almost shocking. While quarantine itself seems to have lasted about 10 years, this pregnancy has been pretty quick.

It isn’t common to see families our size anymore, and invariably when people discover that we’re expecting our fifth the responses range from confusion to horror. When I say that our goal is to be the Weasley family it suddenly becomes socially acceptable (this hosting site should allow emojis, because I could use an eye rolling one right about here.) No, we’re not looking to be the Weasley family, in spite of the unintentional parallels. Saying so just makes for an easy way to help others realize that big families can be fun. Raucous, messy, and wearying, sure. But also fun.

I’ve been showing Peter this picture a lot, which is of him as a newborn. I use it to tell him that there’s a new baby coming. Whenever he sees it he slaps the phone out of my hand. He also takes umbrage to whenever Rachel pays attention to any child his age or younger. We may be in for a difficult transition.

Rachel has been feeling well, though unfortunately her morning sickness coincided with the PE knocking me off my feet for the duration of February and March. A lot fell on her shoulders at a difficult time. Now we’re on to better things, as the morning sickness is gone and I’ve regained a lot of what I’d lost (plus an extra 15 pounds or so from being sedentary for so long – another eye roll emoji, please.) The house is getting back into order (ha?), the goats are milking again, the hens are laying, we have seedlings in our mud room ready to go out… we’re back to all the chaos that comes with life in The Burrow.

Somehow, even though there’s still time before this little one shows up, it already seems to be an important puzzle piece to our household. I remember my mother saying that friends and neighbors often come and go, but family is for life. Might as well have a lot of them!

3 thoughts on “Weasleying It

  1. Congratulations and God Bless you all! Home schooling, goats, chickens and children! I don’t know how you do it all, but you are amazing parents and people!! We are going crazy with the two we have at home with this quarantine! (and I swear the one in Heaven plays tricks on us by moving things around the house!)
    Keep doing what you are doing. May Rachel feel well these next four months!!! (when I was pregnant with Elizabeth and Julia was just 6 months old I had a hard time! I can only imagine the extra challenges of 4 little ones!

    1. Just because we do all those things doesn’t mean we do them well! What’s the phrase, jack of all trades, master of none? 🙂 In all seriousness, we are blessed with great kids. Our house and our property are a hot mess, but we do have good kids, so I suppose that’s somethng.

  2. Congratulations to you, Rachel, and your growing family! Growing up, we both had 4 siblings in our families so we know what a large family is like. Not always easy, but so much fun! Im sure Peter will come around once his new brother or sister is there all the time….LOL. Anyway, keep safe and healthy. God bless all of you!

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