Meet Shauna.

"I am a Mom of five kids. Yes, my hands are full. Yes, our grocery bill is higher than ever and steadily on the rise. And yes, I am living my dream.

If you were to see our family in IKEA you’d probably be tempted to stop and count, followed by a quick glance at my stomach, 'Whew, maybe they’re done.' Depending on the day (and if we are at IKEA it is likely a crazy one) at least one of my children has unruly bedhead, another is crying and still another is pulling on my husband’s arm trying to get our attention while we, the parents of this brood, use every ounce of energy we have to maintain eye contact with each other in order to finish deciding which mattress to purchase, lest we get swept away into the chaos.

I am well aware that having five kids doesn’t merit a television show or a medal or anything, but it does often compel people to stop us and ask, 'How do you do it? I have two kids and I feel like I’m drowning.' My usual response is, 'It isn’t always pretty.' It isn’t always pretty, but my go-to quip fails to paint a clear picture of what life in our busy, loud, messy family is like. It’s not always pretty, but it is beautiful.

It is not pretty when you are scraping crusted-on cereal from the floor for the 5 millionth time, but it is beautiful when your 3-year-old squats down beneath the table to help. It is not pretty when someone’s ice cream inevitably falls off the cone resulting in tears, but it is beautiful when a brother or sister comes right over with a hug and offers to share theirs. It is not pretty when my husband and I can literally not finish a conversation (and we’re talking a very short dialogue here, nothing deep) because the sheer volume of our kitchen is deafening. But it is beautiful when we manage to meet each other’s eyes long enough to exchange a winsome smile and our silent message: 'They are ours. We are so rich.'"

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Project meetSteem is my way of introducing friends, family members, acquaintances and even strangers to the Steemit platform. A majority of the liquid rewards earned from each meetSteem post will be sent to the individual featured in the post after he/she sets up a Steemit account.