"Before I got married, I had six theories about bringing up children. Now, I have six children and no theories." -  John Wilmot While we don't have 6 children, this quote couldn't be more spot on for my little brood! I grew up with just a younger brother and we had an age gap of 7 years so I remember my childhood being very quiet and quaint. We hardly faught or got in each other's way, but that could also be because we didn't have a whole lot in common. I always thought that when it was time have a family of my own, raising kids would be as easy as how I remembered mine was. My husband and I would be able to still maintain our pre parenting lives to some extent, and the kids would all just play merrily together. This is where I *insert the screeching hault!* 

22. The tender age I was when I first found out that I was going to be a mother. Myself, I was barely out of the stage of going from despising my own mother to learning how truly amazing that

I was made a mother at the age of 23. At that time life was still a fairytale to me. I pictured my life consisting of waking my family up with the smell of homemade baked pies every Sunday morning,