Siblings are a Blessing and Occasionally a Curse

I have an insane number of siblings! If you count the bunch to the left, you'll see that there's a total of 9 of us. I could bore you with the details of which kids belong to which set of parents but it's hard enough for me to keep track of it all, let alone for someone without an emotional investment in the group. That being said, I'll spare you the genealogy lesson.

I have always been extremely proud of my younger minions siblings and I've loved having them in my life. They have defined a lot of who I am and how I see the world. When you look at life through 8 different personalities and 16 additional eyes you tend to get a really broad view of what's really important and what's not. But not every moment in my relationships with them have been smooth sailing. Sometimes, quit frankly, they've annoyed the piss out of me.

One of my sisters managed to accomplish that last night. See, some of them live close and some of them live far. The one's that live nearby have a tendency to randomly show up on my doorstep from time to time. I never mind. I like that they want to stop over and hang with their big sis, but I mean it when I say different personalities. Not a single one of us is exactly alike and that means that sometimes we have different views on things. For instance, with this whole not being a fat slob trying to live healthier journey I've started my household on.

James made the silly mistake of mentioning it to her when she was busy looking through our kitchen for a snack. Being in nursing school she felt overly compelled to share her opinions on the subject. To use a cliche here, Rome was not built in a day. I'm not expecting to move a mountain in less than a week. I'm just trying to introduce and guide my family in making some healthier choices at the moment. You know, baby steps? However, the mere mention somehow morphed into a complete nuclear attack on the eating/exercise decisions we've made.

"Well, if you're going to be healthy you have to stop buying white bread. It's terrible for you and that will need to go!" Ummm...

"You really need to join my gym with me. You don't have any excuse not to. It's only an extra hour out of your day." Well, my dear, you don't have kids. When I get a grand total of 4 hours a night at home, I will not be giving an hour of it to the gym. Me and Wii are getting along just fine thank you.

"Your diet has always been complete garbage and a lot of that is how much pop you drink." I'm fully aware that pop is not good for you. I get it. That's why I limit myself to one 12oz can a day.

Ultimately, I'm very aware that I haven't always made perfect decisions. If I didn't know this, I wouldn't be making any attempts to change anything. And it's very easy for all 110 lbs of her with her magical metabolism to sit in judgement of my decisions. News flash though my precious one from the lucky side of the gene pool... I don't however plan on halting all the joy in life (it's a little obvious I have a bit of a food addiction, okay?) just so I can be thinner. I just want to feel better and I want my family to feel better. No more, no less.

Most days things are like this between me and my siblings....

And some days... Well... They're just not.