Once upon a time we worked with a crew that branded more than 3,000 calves each June and did all the accompanying spring ranch work, and we thought we were pretty busy.

After a few years we started hosting a ranch rodeo each June.  We kept on branding, too, and we thought we were pretty darn busy.

Along came our first baby.  Parenthood was hectic, but we kept on branding and rodeoing.  We thought we were super busy.

The second baby came when her brother was two.  We were still branding and rodeoing, and we figured we were super stinking busy by now.

The third baby came when her big brother was four and her big sister was two.  We juggled three kids through branding and rodeoing and figured it was the busiest we’d ever been.

A year later my husband took over ranch management.

A year after that, at the beginning of 2018, we had our fourth baby.

We still brand and ranch rodeo every June, dragging our four kids along as we go.  This year we managed to cram kiddie softball and Bible school into the sixth month, too.

I keep thinking life will mellow when we leave infanthood and toddlerhood behind here in a few years — when we’re sleeping more, when our youngest can dress himself, when we put these kids of ours to work doing the dishes and folding the laundry.  But friends with older kids say no, that life with a bunch of school-age kids, even though there are no diapers involved, is just a whole other kind of busy.

Right now I guess I would say our little family is crazy busy.

I guess the next stop is unfathomably busy?

And to think… I thought we were busy back when all we had to do in June was brand!

© Tam Blake