Looking To Expand Your Resume? April 30, 2007

I swore I would NEVER buy size 5 diapers! GROSS!

Why can’t my almost 3 year old twin boys figure out how to use the toilet on a regular basis?…ugh…I am seriously looking to outsource their potty training. Anyone brave enough to take on such a task? Just leave a comment and I WILL get in touch with you immediately. Pay is dependent on rate of success. (The Pilot is willing to trade a life-time of buddy passes to anyone who can “complete” the training course.)

This Beautiful Mess April 30, 2007

This tree (that Violet loves to climb) blooms in early spring, just in time to assure me that winter really will end again this year. It then drops nasty, slimy petals all over the yard and, some years, it actually blooms twice. The Pilot threatens to cut it down each time he is outside cleaning up its’ mess. I think we must secretly love mess-makers: twin boys, two rescued cats, leaky old British cars, basements, and tractor sheds (that house the boys favorite “Gampa dirt”).

Kilroy Was Here April 28, 2007

Why do I blog?

That’s a good question…let me think a minute… I don’t have enough brain power for a full minute of thought…seriously…there are a few reason I blog.

When my daughter was born I started a written journal for her. Nothing fancy, just my thoughts and emotions about whatever- letters to her, thoughts about her daddy, feelings on current events. It was a way for me to introduce my young mother self to my future adult daughter. At times I felt like I was writing a relevant history book for her. And other times, I was just talking. She knows I have this journal and she knows where it is. She is looking forward to the day I read it to her or simply hand it over. When will that day come? I have no idea.

Then the boys were born and our lives changed as I could have never imagined. All journaling stopped, all logical thinking stopped; I was simply consumed with surviving yet another day at home alone with 3 small children. My sole goal became keeping us all alive until The Pilot came home. Now, that we are trying to shift from survival mode to live life mode, I want something to give to the boys too. I want them to know that at some point-usually during their sleeping hours- I am capable of complete sentences and thoughts.

So the answer to the question is: I blog for my own sanity. I blog because sarcasm is lost on the very young. I blog because sometimes the comments are my only contact with the outside world (so, if you never comment I never “get out”! hint hint) I blog as a way to record my life…to prove I was “here”.

Why do you blog?

Count Them One by One April 25, 2007

Who teaches a little boy where to find worms? Why is he always trying to renegotiate the bedtime terms?

Who teaches his sister how to pick flowers? Where did her little voice get such power?

Why do two of my three children love to swing? And all three fear a bee’s sting?

How can I love them so? How am I qualified to raise them “in the way they should go”?

As I’ve said before, staying home with children is the toughest job I’ve ever had or heard of (it might even be a contender for Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe- think potty training disaster with twins) . There are days I wish someone would fire me and ban me from the premises. And then, there are days that I am constantly reminded of how blessed I am to be able to stay home and enjoy, train, discipline and love each of our babes.

Recently, very recently, I was reminded of how short life is and how unexpected the end can be. I am suddenly very aware of the little (very important) things- more than the usual coffee, sanity, personal hygiene, and good groceries!

Oh, Wise Readers, I urge you to count your blessings…daily.

Cry Baby April 16, 2007

Herbie, as we’re leaving the farm: “Mama, you miss Gampa?”

Me: “Yes”

Herbie: “You cry?”

Me: “Yes”

Herbie: “Your heart hurt”

Brotherly Love April 12, 2007

And then there’s the beauty of having twins…

The Celebrity of Having Twins and Actually Leaving the House April 12, 2007

My twins are almost 3 years old and their sister is 6. So you would think that I would be accustomed to the questions, looks, and whispers; but I am not. I keep thinking that my next trip out into the real world will be “normal”. I think “normal” left the day we found out I was having two babies. It might have left before that, I just didn’t notice until we were buying a bigger car, trying to figure out what to do with a large purchase designed for a family of four, and explaining what “twins” means to an almost 3 year old.

Some days I want to wear a sign that answers all of the usual, mostly stupid questions. Other days, I want to where a sign that addresses the following:

1. Do you really think it’s any of your business?
2. Do I look like I have time for you to stand in front of my grocery cart and debate their “identical-ness” with me?
3. Why do you get to say that three children is “a lot”?
4. No, your children that are 23 1/2 months apart are not “just like having twins”. They are 2 YEARS apart.
5. “Double Trouble” is a rather rude thing to say.
6. “Boy, you have your hands full, ha ha” Ya, think?
7. I don’t care that your best friends’ neighbors’ sister-in-law’s cousins’ great aunt had twins.
8. Their birth story is only told to close friends/family.
9. Neither is the “bad one”. They are equally “all boy”.
10. Yes, I work…ALL DAY LONG.

So, if you were the people I ran into yesterday while running errands, please don’t stop me or the next mother of multiples you meet. We really are on a time schedule. We must get home before our “polite faces” melt.

(Can you tell what kind of a week I’ve had? Thank you to all of those who smile and keep on walking. My mom, mother-in-law and sisters are happy to take your questions on my behalf. And, now that I think of it, I’m happy to field most of the questions when I have time.)

Sometimes I Forget To Stop and Smell The Coffee April 7, 2007

I remember when a cup of good coffee meant a morning spent at the coffee shop reading the newspaper or visiting with friends. Now “coffee” means I might make it through the morning. The last time I was asked if it was “for here or to go” I actually thought “you’ve got to be kidding?” When I get coffee I need it in the to-go cup because you never know when we have to go RIGHT. NOW. or when someone (read small child) will knock the cup over. With a lid, I only lose a few precious drops of the “nectar of sanity”; without the lid, I’m wearing the entire cup for the entire day.

A few weekends ago, Violet and I met one of my sisters for some Stumptown brew. I had it in a real coffee cup. What a difference a cup and saucer make. It was the most amazing drink I have had in years! It actually made me happy. When was the last time a cup of hot milk, espresso, and a hint of vanilla brightened your day?

As my sister said, “it wooed” me.

note: This is actually the cup I was served. I snapped a photo with my phone!

Another Adventure… April 4, 2007

You are standing on a shore…somewhere. A ship before you spreads her white sails and starts for the blue ocean. She is a beautiful and strong ship and you watch her until she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle.

Then a sad voice at your side says, “There…well, well. She is gone.”

Gone where? From your sight - that’s all. She is just as large in mast and spar as when she left your shore, just as strong and able. Her diminished size is in you, not in her, and while someone at your side is saying, “She’s gone…” there are other eyes watching her approach from the horizon. Eyes that are ready to take up the glad shout, “Let the adventure begin, for here she comes.”

–Ernest K. Gann