10 Interesting Things about Multiple Bles8ings

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

I read a lot when I travel. I love to read on flights, in the airport, on buses/trains. I like to read before bed in hotels (rather than watch tv before bed like I do at home). And, when I'm at my Florida house, we read before bed since we don't have a television in the bedroom (theoretically, we don't really own a tv, which makes this blog rather funny, but that's beside the point).

Anyway... I usually read magazines, and pack a single book. But, since I haven't flown in almost three months (which is rare for me, I feel like I normally fly at least every eight weeks or so), I had a stack of magazines and TWO books ready to go. I finished the first one today, and I rather enjoyed it. It was the first of Kate Gosselin's books, Multiple Bles8ings. It's the story of Jon and Kate, from the day they met through the sextuplets turning three. Remember, the show began when they were only two (and they'll be six in May), so the book is written by an already-in-the-media Kate (with Jon as well as Beth Carson). There were a lot of interesting things in the book, and several ideas that I will carry with me through the next ten years or so, as I hope to have young children of my own in that time period. But, here are ten things I liked/found interesting in the book (in no particular order):

10. Apparently, a pregnant woman's HCG level doubles every thirty hours for the first eight weeks of her pregnancy. So, if yours isn't high enough (25), test again in two days... you're bound to know then!

9. In Pennsylvania, child care center ratios are 3 children per adult. So low! No wonder Kate lobbies to have a nurse part-time for a full year, she deserved one!

8. "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:34) I learned this lesson when I was a senior in high school, and I look back on the epiphany often. The whole idea of taking one day at a time is remarkable.

7. Kate mentioned surprisingly little about her cooking habits. On the show, it's very clear that she's into organic and into healthy cooking and whatnot, but in the book it's not even mentioned if she makes the babies' food herself or not. Perhaps this will be covered in the next book.

6. We know that the family was on Medicaid, and that bills were high, but no numbers are given, nor was there much information on exactly how they managed everything while Jon was out of work (which was a substantially long time).

5. There's NOTHING in there about Kate returning to work after the babies are born. On the show it's clear that she was working as a nurse here and there (I think it was just Saturdays in the beginning?), but the babies are already three at the end of the book and no mention of it? It doesn't really fit, especially since it would work great in ending and how God provides, etc.

4. I was glad we got the full story on their possible adoption. It had been mentioned several times on the show and in other interviews that Kate did, but I had no idea that the baby in question was one of a patient of Kate's from the hospital, etc.

3. I was really rather shocked by the fact that Kate had volunteers coming and going without a set schedule. I would have figured that she would be the first one to organize something like that. Perhaps she was just so awed by the volunteers that it didn't occur to her?

2. Now, after all of the backlash about whether or not the kids should be on tv, how they were pulled, yada yada, it was interesting to read that Jon was against filming the kids in the very beginning... he even initially said "no" to the documentary that would later lead to the Jon and Kate Plus Eight show.

1. We heard about the order of the babies in crawling and walking... what I really wanted was a list of their first words. I was really curious to find out if most of them said the same thing, or if they were all different, and how close together they were, etc.


Stay tuned next week, as I hope to have finished my other book for this trip - The Duggars: 20 and Counting!