Introducing: The Large Family Letters
babies, more babies, and the notebook-writing life.
Welcome! I’m glad you’re here.
1. A little backstory.
I’ve had a blog (or two or three). Back in day I was the nerd with a notebook or novel in hand. Being the youngest of 7 in a large (and loud) family, there's not a lot of chance to have your voice heard. So I learned to write. I may have alarmed my big sister with my first poems, penciled into my green memo notebook in 1st grade, but she really didn’t understand what I was trying to say.
“No, it’s about a cat! See the cat picture?”
Here’s how the poem went:
some people think I'm really pretty but I think I'm just an ugly kitty
I promise, I didn’t think I was an ugly 1st grader. I did however feel like a misunderstood 1st grader.
Fast forward some years, and I find my dream man at the age of 18. We get married less than a year later (why wait? He’s my dream man!) and then have our first child, a boy, within our first year of marriage. Sixteen months later we have our second child, a girl. This is when most people would stop. Instead, we repeated this a few times…we’re now expecting our 7th.
Sometimes I still feel like a misunderstood 1st grader. Maybe you do too.
Somewhere in the midst of birthing babies I got distracted and off-track; life started to feel too digital, too mundane, uninspiring. It’s easy while nursing a baby to scroll and scroll and scroll until you’re not sure if you have any original thoughts anymore. I’ve learned to raise my kids without screens, but I seem to have forgotten what that life could be like for myself. This journey towards rediscovering that has led to more pen and paper, less of my notes app. More hand-written recipe cards, less scrolling past ads during dinner prep.
Maybe I’m getting old, or maybe its that I’m pregnant with my 7th kid; I’m getting nostalgic about everything. So here I am, writing in my notebook every day like my 6-year-old self on the school bus, and it’s brought me to Substack.
2. I am not the mom expert here.
The Large Family Letters is not about being “supermom.” This is not an advice column or a homeschool how-to. My oldest isn’t even 10 yet so I don’t plan on writing a parenting book anytime soon. Or ever. I honestly don’t like parenting books.
However, it’s a space for me to share some of the simple moments in life- things like pancakes on a Saturday morning and singing goofy songs with my kids. I hope these stories remind you to slow down and watch the clouds move in the sky, not through the screen of your phone.
3. The plan.
Some posts will be stories from my childhood, growing up the youngest of a bunch of kids. Other posts will be more “in the moment.” The goal is to publish a new post two times per week. For now, all my content is free! In the future I would like add a paid subscription option.
If any of this interests you, please follow along! Thanks for reading.
Congratulations on your 7th baby! We have 8 children, a 2 year old grandchild - and another grandchild due late October.