WHAT CRAZY FEELS LIKE

It's been ages since I've done a "Day in the Life" post, so I need to pick one up before school lets out.  However, we had dinner out as a family a few weeks ago, and I began taking notes, because the chaos level felt so high and comically insane.

It was Friday night, and we headed to our regular Mexican restaurant.  When I say regular, I mean it wholeheartedly.  They know we don't need menus and usually start with sliced avocado and understand that I want a cup of limes with the order of chicken fajitas that John and I share.  They also know where we live and were able to deliver a diaper bag to our door when we left it there a few years back - that's great service. 🤣

We walk into the door, and it is clear that William needs to go to the bathroom.  His tells are general crotch-grabbing and dancing around, so once inside, and I head straight to the bathroom with both twins in tow, because obviously, if we are going to the bathroom, it should be a field trip for several children.  John gets seated with the big girls, and we do come back to the table to find that there is a Diet Coke for me and Sprite for 3 out of 4 kids.  The 4th child wants water, because it is healthier for her.  I do not know where she gets this.

While placing our order, Violet is singing High School Musical songs on repeat 🎶, because she is obsessed.  Her favorite character is the pseudo-villain Sharpay. 🤦🏻‍♀️  Bella launches into an explanation that Amelia Earhart might have actually ended up in China, and we are trying to follow this really interesting tale.  Bear in mind, we are in a Mexican restaurant on a Friday night, so it is fairly loud - part of what we love about it, because the volume masks our chaos.  But, it does make it hard to grasp what really happened to Amelia Earhart. 🤷🏻‍♀️

During this time, Violet has gone from singing HSM songs to trying to fist bump us 👊🏾 and saying, "Boom Shaka Laka."  William is trying to sign "I Love You" with his hand, but can't get the fingers arranged properly and wants a LOT of help.  Meanwhile, I can safely compare Lily's chip eating procedure to wood heading into a mulch-maker.  Chip mulch is showering us all as we pull on our safety goggles 👓 and reiterate for the millionth time - "One hand. One chip. One bite." (This line is no exaggeration, we threaten to revoke chip privileges if she cannot follow the chip rules.)

Bella and Violet are trying to share the salt shaker so that every chip can be a-salted.  Apparently we are all sodium deficient.  This sharing has good and bad moments, just like life.  We get our food quickly - one of the many reasons we return weekly to eat here.  Children are in various states of happiness/sadness about said food.  Everyone needs ketchup 🍅 as the perfect compliment to their Mexican 🇲🇽 fare.

William and Violet begin playing Rock Paper Scissors instead of eating, but for whatever reason, the version they learned is Rock Paper Scissors Shoot, so every round ends with a gun.  Perfect.  As we encourage them to EAT DINNER, one of them tell us to "shut your baby lips".  (There are a lot of reasons we have sought parenting help.)  The other one says that they don't like us.

Once they realize that eating is the best plan for dinner time, they shift gears, and William begins apologizing profusely while Violet says "Dilly Dilly" as she raises her Sprite in the air.  Lily is explaining to us that if she closes her eyes, she can map out an outline of every item that is on the table like a drawing.  Bella has finished her water and needs the waiter to refill it, so she can keep on being healthy.

John and I haven't seen each other all day, and I finished the book Born a Crime (highly recommend) and am trying to tell him about it.  This is an exercise in futility.  There is a shoe👟fight that breaks out under the table where shoes have been removed from feet and lobbed at other legs.  We are trying to eat our fajitas.  There is another trip to the bathroom.  We signal our waiter for our check to end this madness as quickly as possible.

We get home and comment that dinner actually went pretty well, all things considered.  There were no major melt-downs, and everyone eventually ate a fair portion of what was on their plate.  We decide to talk after bedtime, after which we are too tired to talk and end up watching Dodger baseball (him), working on a photo book (me) and tucking in relatively early to do it again the next day.

This is just a snap shot of life these days.  It is full and beautiful and feels crazy a lot of the time.  For reference, I'll include evidence of when we took pictures with the Easter bunny on St. Patrick's day.

19 ON 12: A DAY IN THE CHRISTMAS/COOKIE LIFE

This day is actually last Monday, but the week has unfolded in such a way that I am just writing the post now.  Some weeks are like that, and it certainly feels like every week this December has been like that so far. 😝

7:10ish am: I woke up the twins from the floor where they always sleep.  #whoneedsacutebed #oranybedatall



7:40ish am:  I was running late getting everyone to school, because quite frankly, getting out of bed is hard and getting out the door is harder.  And the every-day-ness of it wears me down, and I care less than ever about it all happening on time.  I'm sure I'll turn over a new leaf in January when I am newly invigorated about all the prosaic things in life, but at just this moment, we are crawling towards the finish line of Christmas break.



8:03ish am:  In the end, we were only 3 minutes late to drop off the twins, which isn't too bad, all things considered.

9ish am:  I finished up my work out class! 💪👊🙌 I've optimistically worn work-out clothes and good-intentions on many days lately that did not include me actually working out, so making it to class felt really good!



10ish am:  Finished showering and getting ready for the day while re-listening to Ready Player One.  This book is such a fun read for me, and I enjoyed the escape - though it only took me 3 days to finish.  Mainly because I had a LOT of cookies to decorate.

11ish am:  Doing the detail work on the Joy to the World hearts.  Gold Polka Dots Forever!



12ish pm:  People asked me a lot if I did all the cookies by myself, and for the last two weeks, I did have a helper on several days - my friend Hannah.  She was a God-send and flooded pans and pans of cookies for me and maybe for you!  Thanks so much, Hannah!!!



12:30ish pm:  I had good intentions of making jar salads for the week, but since I was overrun with cookies, I never managed it.  Instead, I had this for lunch many days in a row - sweet potatoes sliced and microwaved for 2 minutes served with sliced avocado, lemon juice and salt.  So tasty.  Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine myself being the kind of person who makes lunch out of a sweet potato and avocado, but it is so good!



1:30ish pm:  Hannah's son, Titus, hung out with us most of the time - isn't he the cutest? 😍😍😍

2:20ish pm:  I was in the school pick-up line, because the girls have dance at 3:30 and being there on time requires me to pick them up from school on Mondays, which means getting in line super early.  Usually I write a blog post from the line, because I am just sitting there, chilling.



3:10ish pm:  The girls and I headed in to pick up the twins while the girls carried their snacks along with them, because no one wants to do anything hungry ever.

4ish pm:  Bella and Violet's dance classes were actually combined this day, and though you can't see Violet in this pic, because she had wandered off, she had a great time with Bella there to help her.

4:45ish pm:  Celebrating the fact that Violet stayed in her class the whole time!  As she is quick to announce, "Good job, Violet!"



5ish pm:  Checked the mail, because December is the only month of the year when I make that my job.  I LOVE Christmas cards!

6ish pm:  John and Lily arrived home from her dance class, and they had run some errands and also picked me up some flowers!



6:45ish pm:  Mondays are always a bath night at our house.



7:30ish pm:  We were finishing up bedtime and brought the advent calendar in the twins' room where we usually pray together.  Our kiddos love this calendar, though everyday brings fresh drama over whose turn it is to open the little door.



8:30ish pm:  John so very graciously assembled cookie boxes for me while watching football.



9:30ish pm:  Rounded out my night with even more cookies.  I use a cookie projector to get details like the globe and special writing just right.

That is how last Monday went down, and we are now officially on Christmas Break - at least with the big girls.  And I'm done with cookie orders, so now I just need to work on all that other stuff that Christmas entails!

16 ON 20: DAY IN THE FALL LIFE

So.  Our lives have changed a lot this fall with everyone being in school and me traveling a lot.  I wanted to document what one of those days looks like - here's yesterday.

7ish am:  Kids sitting together, eating breakfast.  They love Cracklin' Oat Bran right now, and I just bought five boxes of it before I leave town.  Wouldn't want to run out. 😳



8 am:  Walking the twins into school is usually a difficult task.  They both have so many things they want to carry or stop to see on the 20 foot walk from the car to the door.  You better believe those Star Wars stickers were mission critical to whatever Violet needed to do.

9ish am:  A walk through my neighborhood.  I love where I live.

10ish am:  I got an email from the library saying I owed $25 per these three books that were hiding in the girls' room.  I decided it was worth hunting them down to avoid paying $75 for books I don't even want AND to be able to unlock my online library account where I regularly download books.  Mission accomplished.

11ish am - 2:45ishp pm:  I ran a bunch of errands trying to get myself and my household ready for me to be gone.  Without the kiddos, I can notice different things, like this beautiful rose wreath at the library and the fact that pumpkins and mums are upon us.  When I get back, it will be October.  Say what?!?




And, with the children gone all day, I get to spend more time with my cat.  She's sitting next to me even now as I type this.



3:05 pm:  The girls came traipsing in from the bus, one of their favorite activities from school each day.



3:30 pm:  We picked up the twins and got to see the artwork they just completed.  While I wouldn't ideally choose to have them in full time school at this age, I am thrilled with all they get to do while they are there.  It is really great, and they love it.



4:15ish pm:  I forgot to take milk for the twins when I went to get them from school, and they cried the ENTIRE way home.  Then, there was iPad drama.  After school is usually very intense, because they are tired but also sort of restless.



4:30ish pm:  BUT, there are sweet moments too.  Here's Violet kissing my leg.  She's currently in a kissing stage where she blows kisses to everything and everybody.  When she's not mad about something, that is.

5:00ish pm:  We all hung out outside together, because I am trying to soak in time with them.  Here are our kissing faces, and we took a walk/wagon ride with middling success.

(That picture is while the twins pulled the girls which definitely had highs and lows.)

6:00 pm:  John and I had a CFA Dedication Dinner for the new CFA opening up in Little Rock this week.  Got to love when Operators are twinning.

7ish pm:  It was at the Castle on Stagecoach Road, which I have seen, but never visited.  Now I want to go back!

After the Dedication Dinner, we headed to our small group to see our friends and share a little life.  I forgot to get a pic, but it was great to touch base in the midst of this busy month.

11:31 pm:  I ordered the Falling Free book by Shannan Martin on Kindle so I will have it for my trip. I am so looking forward to reading it!

I leave for Rwanda in less than 24 hours.  I did so much before our DR trip that I have felt *mostly* calm about it, except that I keep randomly crying.  I am planning to blog about the trip while on it, so check in for posts from Rwanda!

24 ON 1: DAY IN THE LIFE

Since our summer is wrapping up - less than two weeks now! - I wanted to document what a "normal" summer day has looked like for us this year.  Every year really is so different, but this post will capture this season pretty well.

8ish am:  This is what my back porch almost always looks like right now - towels and swim suits drying and waiting to be put back into use.



9ish am:  We dropped the twins at therapy, and the girls and I headed into my workout class.  There was some whining involved, which you might be able to pick up from Lily's face in this pic.  🙈😝😂

10 am: Picking up the twins from therapy involves all kinds of movement.  So much so that this picture is blurry.  I'm so thankful for their speech therapists who are helping them learn how to communicate!

10:20 am:  We headed to the pool to meet up with friends and celebrate Bella's best friend's birthday.  Bella created this card for her and explained that she wanted to help Taylor learn math.  So she wrote out math facts for her and left room for Taylor's older siblings to add more if they saw fit.  😂 Bella is definitely ready for kindergarten. 😳

12ish pm:  Adult Swim/Lifeguard Break and lunching on towels with friends.  This scene sums up summertime for us.

Between 12 and 1:  My kiddos have loved the pool this year.  The girls both enjoyed jumping off the diving board for the first time this day.  Lily doesn't like going under, so she managed to stay above water by jumping with three noodles.  I overheard her tell her cousin last week that she doesn't go underwater because, "I really like breathing.  I just like breathing a lot."  😂

(Violet in goggles got me all 😍.)

(William's favorite friend by a landslide, and this five year old is SO SWEET to my three year old.)

After 1 pm:  It was time to head home, and I caught this moment with all of our minivans opened and being loaded at the same time.  👊

Around 1:30ish pm:  Summer afternoons often find me still looking ragged in a swimsuit and not showered.

2ish pm:  My plants are still alive, but I often move them in the afternoons to get them a little more sun.  Plus, I have actually watered them this summer, which I'm sure has contributed to their overall lifespan.  🙌🙌🙌🙌



3ish pm:  After I showered, I sat down to work on the mountain of paperwork that has been required for preschool/the government.  Bless my doctor's heart - I gave her a lot of extra busy work.



4ish pm:  Everybody's up from "nap" and wanted to eat dried mango.  Who can blame them?  That stuff is tasty.



4:30ish pm:  Violet always wants to "hold you couch," and since I am counting down the days til preschool with sadness in my heart, I was happy to oblige this request.

5ish pm:  Violet did let me get up, and I wanted to capture the fact that she actually will sit and watch cartoons for any length of time past 10 minutes.  Though obviously screen time is not the best - it certainly comes in handy when I need to cook dinner without the most helpful three year old ever!



6:15ish pm:  Eating dinner as a family usually means that John and I eat dinner, and then we spend the next 20-30 minutes "encouraging" the kids to eat the dinner.



7:15ish pm:  We went outside to make a video and found a package on our front porch containing some Izard Caramels.  I've found a new product to love. 😋

7:45-8ish pm:  Sweet bedtime moments.  We don't always get them, and I'm so glad when we do.

(Lily was telling me that she looked like a "little teenager" with her shirt tucked in.  Not sure where this idea came from. 😳😂  Glad we are a ways from that still.)

(They love brushing his hair.)

8:30ish pm:  I walked past the new bags and realized all over again how quickly school will be upon us.  I do love the new bags, and I'm glad, because I have a lot of days to look at them ahead of me.



9ish pm:  John and I synced up calendars and realized that we are pretty well booked through October. 😳😝  The fall will be full - a ton of fun, hopefully - but for sure full.  Also, gotta love the scribbles on the planner.



10ish pm:  I capped off the night with the season finale of the Bachelorette.  Bless JoJo's heart.  It's always so dramatic, and I enjoy the escape.

That wraps up this summer edition of Day in the Life!  School is knocking on our door, but we've still got some summer fun ahead of us.