Four (Basically) Teenage Boys & the Year of Mega Change

I now basically have four teenage boys.

Sure, the oldest is almost twenty, and the youngest is barely twelve, but this is the phase we are in. It’s such a busy, stressful, and yet surprisingly fun phase. I wish I could have spent the whole past year blogging all these cool memories.

This past year was another one of those Mega Change years.

Teenage kids eventually leave home, and that’s where we are now!! We are standing solidly on the launch pad. It’s a bittersweet place.

I haven’t updated Gettingmyacttogether.com since May of 2024. That is over a year ago. Why did that happen? Well, here’s the thing. In 2024, we moved again, and I no longer had time to keep up with my websites.

On top of that, we sent our oldest son away to college. He’s over three hours away!! That was a whole adjustment.

Moving to a new house and moving out a giant chunk of my heart wasn’t enough though. I also decided to take a new part-time job!

Then halfway through last year, I finally gave in to our then middle schooler and home schooled him.

So I was home-schooling Daniel in the mornings, working four hours in the afternoon, then running home and serving dinner. Then we’d do all the driving kids to practices and such.

It was yet another year I had to set the blog aside.

But y’all know I cannot stay away from blogging!

Missing Joshua and realizing that Caleb is leaving next year was a solid dose of reality for us. The fact that the era of raising children is one small part of your whole life is now painfully believable.

It’s an Aha! moment in the strongest sense. I want to spend as much time with our kids as we can while we still have them home. We want to do everything we can to make them prepared to face the real world.

It feels like the day your kids leave home is this thing that happens all of a sudden, but it’s not sudden. We’ve all been working up to this for years. The young man standing before us looks nothing at all like the baby we brought home from the hospital. It’s time for him to leave home and see what he can do!

Driving Joshua to college last fall was not sad like I thought it would be.

I was just as excited as he was. Instead of feeling sad, I felt proud for him and hopeful for his future. I had perfect peace that this was a good move for him.

Now our second son is talking about going away to college too. He’s filled out his first college application, and I have to admit. This time it felt sadder. I was sad for a selfish reason though. I’m sad because now two of them are leaving me. I know the years of having a house full of children is ending, and I hate that.

I’m proud and nervous and excited for him too though.

The hardest thing about having four teenager boys is the very thing people joke about (when they are all home).

It’s keeping them fed!! Friday I went grocery shopping in the morning, and then I went to work. I left all of the groceries that do not need to be refrigerated in bags in the kitchen. The boys were so excited to have new food they sent me a text message celebrating.

My kids are celebrating when I buy food. It feels impossible to keep enough food in the house. I think I’m going to join Costco. It’s a solid fifteen minutes from my house, or I would have already.

I always inwardly laugh when I’m filling out forms at the younger boys’ doctor appointments, and the survey asks about “food security.”

Haaaa! Well, no, they kind of don’t have food security, as sad as it may sound. It isn’t for lack of funds though, so I always answer no, we do not have a food security problem.

In reality, they hide snacks from one another (Alan included), ration out who gets how many of things, and sometimes even argue over food. That’s sad. I am totally going to join Costco this week.

The best things about having four teenage boys

There are so many wonderful things about having teenagers. In fact, it’s so useful I’ve gained a ton of weight in the past ten years. Maybe this is why. I have all these people to bring in groceries, help chauffeur the younger boys, do the dishes, vacuum, and do laundry. Gone are the days of me carrying thirty pound toddlers up and down stairs and then squatting in the floor to clean up all their toys. Physically, this is way easier.

Plus, they are good people. I like being with them. While other people were hyper-focused on grades or training their kids to sit quietly, those weren’t our main goals. We focused on spiritual well-being and making sure they know how to be kind friends.

No one is perfect, and our boys aren’t either, but they are extremely likable.

Just today, I was fussing at Daniel for algebra homework with zeros in the grade book. He calmly waited for me to finish, and then he pointed out those assignments weren’t marked as “not turned in.” That is because he turned them in. They aren’t recorded yet, but they will be.

The boys don’t fight often. In fact, there are only two major kind of disputes we have around here. Who gets to sit in the front seat and “How many brownies did you get?” are the main points of contention. Otherwise, this place is peaceful.

So all in all, this ship is sailing through good waters. I cannot complain. In fact, I should probably bake everyone a cake.

Problems will come. I know that, but for now, life is pretty good, and I could not be more grateful.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. ~Colossians 3:15

In loving memory of the worst change of this year, losing my dad, who read everything I ever published, and never complained about anything I wrote. We love you and miss you so much, Dad.