Client Feature: Strong mother of one daughter and quintuplets is expecting one more! How does she manage it all?

It was mid-morning when Joy Gonvalez came to see us at Adorn, she is a lovely woman with beautiful eyes and a great smile. Gonvalez talked to us a bit about her six, soon to be seven, children. As a salon that is geared towards strong women who are skilled at balancing several things at once, we were excited to hear about how Gonvalez managed her tribe!

Tell me a little bit about your journey in motherhood:

Well we have an almost eight year old daughter, then we have five six-year-olds which are quintuplets and then we have one on the way, due in November. It’s been a great journey, I was telling Holiday that when we got married I told my husband that I wanted adventure, but I didn’t know what I was asking for. I wouldn’t change it now for the world because to me, you give them love and they give you love back and it’s just like what a family should be.

What are some things that help you stay on top of everything?

It’s definitely fun. We have lots of fun everyday. I would say that the two things that have helped me a lot, other than having a great husband, is having a time in the morning to when I can just pray and have quiet time before they get up, and trying to stay as organized as possible because it helps everybody else fall in same footsteps. Not that I’m an extremely organized person, but it just helps whatever you can do, you know? They kind of do the same thing.

What’s a good example of things that help you stay organized?

For example, with their clothes, now they’re starting to pick out their own clothes and things like that, but I try to fold together clothes that match and think about who is going to wear what. I let them pick out which outfits, but the outfits are already all matched up so I don’t have to worry about them wearing clothes that don’t match because I match all the outfits up at the beginning of the season. This way, I don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the season. I’ve also been trying to teach them to unload the dishes and put their dishes away, and to be more responsible. If I just stay one step ahead of the game, then they can do their responsibilities. Teaching flexibility is important too. Flexibility and responsibility is such a balance. Like, letting them make a mess and say, ‘As long as you clean it up, it’s fine.’ Then if they don’t clean it up remind them that they won’t be able to do other things unless they learn to clean up after themselves. But then it’s fun to let them paint or do new things that help them to step out of their normal routine. They just played their first soccer season and we had to help them a lot at first to get their soccer shoes and shin guards and everything on. However, they learned how to do it on their own by the end of the season. At first it I was thinking, ‘what did I get myself into,’ but then they learned so much from it. So letting them experiment and watching that process and them helping each other. One of our children is special needs, he’s had fifty brain surgeries up at Duke Hospital and I think that has taught them  a  lot about how to care for people who aren’t exactly the same as us, but who need love too and not judging them but making them feel part of the family and society.

This has been great! Thank you so much! Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thank you! I’m really glad I came here. I found you online and I liked your website a lot and Holiday here is doing a great job cutting hair!