Saturday, April 15, 2017
Places/Activities:
Where to start!? I know it's been a while since I've posted in the
blog. That's because I've been keeping so busy lately. Family comes
first, followed by work, then chores, then reading, and then whatever
time is left I spend on the blog or drawing. There hasn't been ANY time
left for drawing or the blog, or reading recently. I've been trying to
maximize Squeaker's time off from preschool. On Wednesday we all went to
Storyville and hung out there for a while. We were going to go to a
museum out of state, but then decided against it since it would be
likely that it would be off the hook due to Spring break. So glad we
decided to stick close to home instead. In the afternoon, we took a walk
on the Trolley Trail and I was stopped by a woman on the trail who told
me that she also had twins and about how her mother told her it wasn't
too late to get an abortion when she found out. Wow. It just never
ceases to amaze me the stuff that people randomly say to me. She also
said that it took her until her twins were completely grown before she
stopped crying everytime she saw a pregnant woman and would find out
they were having twins. Let me just say... while my reaction isn't
anything like that, I can still understand and relate. Having twins is
no joke. I often feel like I'm herding kittens most days. After I put
the babies to bed, I washed windows while Squeak watched a movie, and
then continued to wash them after I put her to bed. I know. Who in their
right mind washes windows after the sun has long retired? Me. That's
who. Having twins +1 means you do stuff whenever you can make it happen.
And sometimes that time happens to be at 11 o'clock at night. I can
tell I'm lightening up a bit in my ridiculous neat freak behavior
because I did not get out the toothbrush and scrub the window tracks
this time. I only windexed inside and outside. That's it. The scrubbing
will have to wait for Fall. I just didn't have the time or care enough
to make that happen this time.
Thursday we visited the Aquarium. Squeak read 5 different books about sea life for Enoch Pratt's
Read
to Reef program, which earned us 4 free passes to the Aquarium. The
twins are still free since they are under two. The only problematic part
of taking them, is that there are no strollers allowed in the Aquarium.
So, we had to check the stroller and then I wore Bear on my back and
had Puff on a leash, but ended up carrying her most of the time because
it was so ridiculously crowded there. She has quite a long attention
span and enjoys just watching animals or a show for long periods of
time. I didn't get to take but a couple of photos at the beginning
because it was just too much of a challenge to keep up with taking care
of all of them! My mom and an old friend joined us for the trip as well,
so it was nice to have a couple of extra pairs of eyes looking out for
us! Friday we ended up returning to the zoo to meet up with another set
of friends who I haven't seen since before the twins were born. That's
why I love our zoo membership so much. It's a great way to help support a
good cause, I learn something new each time we go, and we will often
have a friend or two join us to be our guests when we go visit. It's
such a lovely zoo and we always have a great time when we visit. Squeak
was super happy to have other kids to hang out with while we were there,
too. We also stopped in to visit the Easter bunny and pick up a
chocolate Mary Sue Easter egg! I have never in my life seen the zoo so
busy before though. It was crazy to see how many people were there. When
we got home, Squeak, and D and I all dyed Easter eggs while the babies
napped and then I made Carrot Cake cookies and banana bread before my
dad and stepmom arrive to join us for a pizza dinner. Today I'm
exhausted. D was away for a couple of days this week and with all the
running and prepping for Easter, I'm completely worn out. After a long
walk this morning to get to an Easter egg hunt that lasted WAY longer
than we anticipated, I'm sitting in the recliner with my feet propped up
while working on my class, writing this blog, and then hopefully
finding some time to draw and read this evening after the kids go to
bed. I'm so tired, but I'm feeling pretty content.
Reading: I'm still reading The Grain Brain. Last time I posted that I had lost 3 lbs. So, it's one of those things I have to keep weighing in my mind. Do I REALLY want that alcoholic root beer? Or do I want to keep losing weight and feel better? I'm not gonna lie. 5 times out of 10, I'll choose the instant gratification. I was just complaining to a friend of mine as I pushed almost 60lbs of twins up the hill at the zoo that you'd think with all of the running I do all the time (running around of children, not actual running. You must not know me very well if you actually imagined that was running. HA!) that I'd be super healthy and skinny by now. But, no. Sigh. We've been making changes here and there to our diet. For example, I had NO idea how addicted I had become to having a Coke in the afternoons. I've now substituted that afternoon Coke with a glass of milk, sometimes chocolate. Not sure it's really better, but until I can get back to the norm of being a full time working parent, it's helping me get through the day for now!
Recipes:
I just received my second order from Penzey's today. I've found that we
do better when I cut up a ton of fresh veggies like red and orange
peppers, cucumbers, celery, and carrots and keep them in the fridge to
have when we are looking for a snack. Having those along with some
homemade horseradish dip from Penzey's has been the bomb!! Hoping I can
keep this up when I return to work. Going to need to put together a
schedule of things to do each week and make sure that veggie chopping is
on there!
Random Thoughts: Sometimes Alanis Morrisette's song, "Ironic" pops in my head. I feel like it could be my theme song to be honest... So, when we bought our house 4 years ago, we decided to purchase a round table for our kitchen area. It has 4 chairs. Isn't it ironic that we now need 5? Anyway, so these four chairs have a nice plush fabric top to them. WHO IN THE HELL BUYS FABRIC KITCHEN CHAIRS WHEN YOU HAVE KIDS?? Me. Us. We do. We are the morons that bought fabric chairs to go with our then 6 month old and now 4 year old and twin 1 year olds. The twins are getting sick of their high chairs now and attempt to throw themselves out of them, so I thought that perhaps it might be time to move them to booster seats since Squeak was much younger than they are now when we moved her to a booster seat at the table. We used to put down a towel over the chair and the booster seat on top, but something tells me that just won't fly with these two very busy twins. Well... we can't have these little mess makers sitting on fabric covered seats!! Just imagining the little grubby spaghetti coated hands reaching down to wipe on the fabric chairs is enough to send me into a full blown neat freak panic attack. So, I did what every sane neat freak would do... I went to hell (the fabric store) and came home with a large sheet of special furniture plastic so that I could recover all of the chairs. I took off the first seat, neatly cut out and stapled the plastic on over the fabric, then neatly screwed it back into the chair. Perfect! Wait... what's that? A crumb of food! No problem, I'll just wipe it off the plastic covered seat! Wait... why isn't it coming off?!?!?! Oh, because that crumb was on chair, and I unknowingly permanently sealed it in plastic on the chair. Isn't it ironic?
Places/Activities:
Where to start!? I know it's been a while since I've posted in the
blog. That's because I've been keeping so busy lately. Family comes
first, followed by work, then chores, then reading, and then whatever
time is left I spend on the blog or drawing. There hasn't been ANY time
left for drawing or the blog, or reading recently. I've been trying to
maximize Squeaker's time off from preschool. On Wednesday we all went to
Storyville and hung out there for a while. We were going to go to a
museum out of state, but then decided against it since it would be
likely that it would be off the hook due to Spring break. So glad we
decided to stick close to home instead. In the afternoon, we took a walk
on the Trolley Trail and I was stopped by a woman on the trail who told
me that she also had twins and about how her mother told her it wasn't
too late to get an abortion when she found out. Wow. It just never
ceases to amaze me the stuff that people randomly say to me. She also
said that it took her until her twins were completely grown before she
stopped crying everytime she saw a pregnant woman and would find out
they were having twins. Let me just say... while my reaction isn't
anything like that, I can still understand and relate. Having twins is
no joke. I often feel like I'm herding kittens most days. After I put
the babies to bed, I washed windows while Squeak watched a movie, and
then continued to wash them after I put her to bed. I know. Who in their
right mind washes windows after the sun has long retired? Me. That's
who. Having twins +1 means you do stuff whenever you can make it happen.
And sometimes that time happens to be at 11 o'clock at night. I can
tell I'm lightening up a bit in my ridiculous neat freak behavior
because I did not get out the toothbrush and scrub the window tracks
this time. I only windexed inside and outside. That's it. The scrubbing
will have to wait for Fall. I just didn't have the time or care enough
to make that happen this time.
Thursday we visited the Aquarium. Squeak read 5 different books about sea life for Enoch Pratt's 
Read
to Reef program, which earned us 4 free passes to the Aquarium. The
twins are still free since they are under two. The only problematic part
of taking them, is that there are no strollers allowed in the Aquarium.
So, we had to check the stroller and then I wore Bear on my back and
had Puff on a leash, but ended up carrying her most of the time because
it was so ridiculously crowded there. She has quite a long attention
span and enjoys just watching animals or a show for long periods of
time. I didn't get to take but a couple of photos at the beginning
because it was just too much of a challenge to keep up with taking care
of all of them! My mom and an old friend joined us for the trip as well,
so it was nice to have a couple of extra pairs of eyes looking out for
us! Friday we ended up returning to the zoo to meet up with another set
of friends who I haven't seen since before the twins were born. That's
why I love our zoo membership so much. It's a great way to help support a
good cause, I learn something new each time we go, and we will often
have a friend or two join us to be our guests when we go visit. It's
such a lovely zoo and we always have a great time when we visit. Squeak
was super happy to have other kids to hang out with while we were there,
too. We also stopped in to visit the Easter bunny and pick up a
chocolate Mary Sue Easter egg! I have never in my life seen the zoo so
busy before though. It was crazy to see how many people were there. When
we got home, Squeak, and D and I all dyed Easter eggs while the babies
napped and then I made Carrot Cake cookies and banana bread before my
dad and stepmom arrive to join us for a pizza dinner. Today I'm
exhausted. D was away for a couple of days this week and with all the
running and prepping for Easter, I'm completely worn out. After a long
walk this morning to get to an Easter egg hunt that lasted WAY longer
than we anticipated, I'm sitting in the recliner with my feet propped up
while working on my class, writing this blog, and then hopefully
finding some time to draw and read this evening after the kids go to
bed. I'm so tired, but I'm feeling pretty content. 
Reading: I'm still reading The Grain Brain. Last time I posted that I had lost 3 lbs. So, it's one of those things I have to keep weighing in my mind. Do I REALLY want that alcoholic root beer? Or do I want to keep losing weight and feel better? I'm not gonna lie. 5 times out of 10, I'll choose the instant gratification. I was just complaining to a friend of mine as I pushed almost 60lbs of twins up the hill at the zoo that you'd think with all of the running I do all the time (running around of children, not actual running. You must not know me very well if you actually imagined that was running. HA!) that I'd be super healthy and skinny by now. But, no. Sigh. We've been making changes here and there to our diet. For example, I had NO idea how addicted I had become to having a Coke in the afternoons. I've now substituted that afternoon Coke with a glass of milk, sometimes chocolate. Not sure it's really better, but until I can get back to the norm of being a full time working parent, it's helping me get through the day for now!
Recipes:
I just received my second order from Penzey's today. I've found that we
do better when I cut up a ton of fresh veggies like red and orange
peppers, cucumbers, celery, and carrots and keep them in the fridge to
have when we are looking for a snack. Having those along with some
homemade horseradish dip from Penzey's has been the bomb!! Hoping I can
keep this up when I return to work. Going to need to put together a
schedule of things to do each week and make sure that veggie chopping is
on there! Random Thoughts: Sometimes Alanis Morrisette's song, "Ironic" pops in my head. I feel like it could be my theme song to be honest... So, when we bought our house 4 years ago, we decided to purchase a round table for our kitchen area. It has 4 chairs. Isn't it ironic that we now need 5? Anyway, so these four chairs have a nice plush fabric top to them. WHO IN THE HELL BUYS FABRIC KITCHEN CHAIRS WHEN YOU HAVE KIDS?? Me. Us. We do. We are the morons that bought fabric chairs to go with our then 6 month old and now 4 year old and twin 1 year olds. The twins are getting sick of their high chairs now and attempt to throw themselves out of them, so I thought that perhaps it might be time to move them to booster seats since Squeak was much younger than they are now when we moved her to a booster seat at the table. We used to put down a towel over the chair and the booster seat on top, but something tells me that just won't fly with these two very busy twins. Well... we can't have these little mess makers sitting on fabric covered seats!! Just imagining the little grubby spaghetti coated hands reaching down to wipe on the fabric chairs is enough to send me into a full blown neat freak panic attack. So, I did what every sane neat freak would do... I went to hell (the fabric store) and came home with a large sheet of special furniture plastic so that I could recover all of the chairs. I took off the first seat, neatly cut out and stapled the plastic on over the fabric, then neatly screwed it back into the chair. Perfect! Wait... what's that? A crumb of food! No problem, I'll just wipe it off the plastic covered seat! Wait... why isn't it coming off?!?!?! Oh, because that crumb was on chair, and I unknowingly permanently sealed it in plastic on the chair. Isn't it ironic?
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