Five Years On … Things Change and Things Stay the Same

It’s been about five years since I started writing for this humble blog, which also is about half my kids’ lives. Crazy when I think about it. And as I think back on the posts I’ve written, in some ways, things have changed so much, but in others, things are exactly the same.

Soccer momming all over the place

For instance, Are triplets easier than one? Okay, obvious click bait. But I stand by it, mostly. That is, until I went to a meeting about competitive soccer and learned it costs $1,200 per kid for a year of soccer plus various fees and uniforms and whatnot. So right about now I’m thinking, BOY. One kid would sure be easy. Or cheap. I suppose I never said triplets would be cheaper than one, though. Well, considering the tears I shed when I heard that price tag, let’s not quibble over details. On the other hand, while it may cost three times as much to have triplets in soccer, it would still cost that much to have three different ages of kids in soccer, and at least this way they can all be on the same team. At least until one reveals himself to be better than the others …

Speaking of sports, does that mean I’m officially a soccer mom? I mean, I already have the minivan. And yes, I still love it. And when this one dies, I’ll probably get another. Still in love with those power sliding doors!

Something that hasn’t changed is the amount of whining my kids do when it comes to monthly photo time. When I wrote this post about how I do them, I’d taken 65. We’re still going strong with almost twice that many – 124! Not bad, eh?

Getting my crafty back on

The boys got older and now I find myself with more time to do crafty stuff. Currently, I am obsessed with sewing. I also have a vinyl cutting machine and teachers got custom labeled wine bottles for Christmas. I am Pinterest-worthy once again!

I’m still loving working from home, and I’m still traveling a lot. I’ve been all over the world, and I hate to complain that my diamond shoes are too tight, but I have to say, the traveling has lost its appeal a little bit. The boys miss me, I have gotten more anxious about flying, and I find myself looking forward more to an upcoming trip to Orlando than one to Singapore. Well, the flying part anyway. I haven’t completely lost it!

Oh, this one’s funny. Oh, bless my heart. Oh, ha ha ha, I’m sorry, I’m crying laughing here. What happened is, four years ago, my kids wanted to impress a friend so they ate garlic knots at a pizza place. And – pause for laughter – I thought I had won the picky eater battle. I mean, sure, okay, they are marginally better eaters since then. They will eat one vegetable now – arugula. (Really, it’s “choke down a few leaves.”) At Easter dinner, they told my mom that they wouldn’t try her carrot souffle because they prefer their carrots raw. Oh really? News to me! Well, turns out “prefer” just means “hate to an infinitesimal degree less but still won’t put anywhere near my mouth.” But they’ll eat bacon cheeseburgers now! I mean sure, it’s not healthy, but it’s something new! Right?!? P.S. Do those snap pea crisps count as veggies?

Let’s see … I’m still not scared of germs, still don’t ever want to go to Jazzfest, still shake my head at a 4-year-old boy in a jon jon, still love my neighborhood, and am finally getting to a place where I’m happy with me. Oh, but at last … all of my kids have normal colored hair again! Still haven’t curbed cursing in front of the kids (but they still reprimand me when I do), have a few more tattoos, and I still don’t buy cheap pencils.

Pam Kocke
My name is Pam, and I live in Algiers Point with my husband George and my identical triplets Linus, Oliver, and Miles. I work from home as a Happiness Engineer for Automattic. I enjoy reading and photography and sewing (and blogging!)

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