Welcome to PracticingNormal

My name is Mariet and I am a mother of a chaotic blended family of 5 kids.  Our youngest is 6 and the oldest is 16.  We live a crazy, almost normal life.  Mostly we succeed, some days we fail spectacularly.

This blog is my way of keeping sane, being inspired and having an outlet for the days when my 5 kids feel like 500.

I would say that we are a normal family but how do you define normal?  Isn’t normal just a setting on the washing machine?

My family is just PracticingNormal.

All a little bit crazy (ok, mostly me).  If I have to define our family it would be as a kaleidoscope of colours.  All with different personalities, strengths and weaknesses.   We navigate our busy life with mostly joy, a lot of patience (of which I personally have very little) and a playful amount of ants in the pants. (again mostly me)

Meet the crew:

My husband, mr. Blue.

The calm in the stormy sea that is my crazy life.  My first kiss.  There is not enough words in the world to describe everything I love about him.  After taking all the strange twists and turns that life has thrown at us we ended up together again.

Gamer Boy:

My boy.  The older brother that sometimes drown in the sea of pink with 4 sisters.  Addicted to games and anything IT, using his room as a man cave.  You will occasionally see him forage for food in the kitchen.

Bubbles and Boo:

Twins in everything but looks.  Always together.  Playing, plotting, laughing and/or fighting.  As a mother I am so glad that they are best friends and honestly a little scared for the day that they realise they can team up against me.

Bubbles:

Boo:

Cupcake:

The little charmer with the big, blue eyes and the charming smile.

 The Littlest Mouse:

My little old soul.  The happy-go-lucky child in the family.  Making friends wherever she goes.  Full of surprising wisdom hidden underneath a naughty smile.

And then there’s me.  Wife, mother, entrepreneur, in love with trees and words and a little bit crazy.

That’s the lot of us.  There is also a dog (Zoom) and a black cat (Spooky) somewhere.  Welcome to our grand adventure.