Weekend Update

Well, 2013 is starting to wrap up and all in all it has been a good year.  The girls turned 5 years old this month.  I lay with them the night before and was a bit misty-eyed as I said good-bye to 4 y/o Addi & Lili.  I really loved those two.  It was such an amazing age of innocence and wonder and rapid growth. Watching them begin to make sense of the world around them, of action and reaction as well as their theories for why the world works the way it does.

Overnight, they seemed to age a full year in those few hours.  They are so smart and mature. They know things I never thought they had been exposed to and have a much vaster understanding of the world around them than I ever would have imagined.  They feel like tweens with eye rolls and "Whatever"s, playing Barbies and talking about boyfriends and going on dates, they feel like twenty-somethings as they talk about their feelings and how they are doing something nice for me because they just love me so much, or that I just need to "get over it already", etc.  It's bittersweet, really. I feel so sad to see my little girls growing up knowing that some day they will be too big and mature to snuggle and read with me, to let me hold them in my laps, to beg to be lifted up, etc. Yet, I feel so very blessed and privileged to be here with my children as they go through this stage, to watch over them and help them.  Not all parents get that opportunity.  Not all parents have healthy kids that can run and jump and give them migraines!

Perhaps its getting to be home with them more that has let me see more of the wonder that is my children.  Don't get me wrong, we've had some trying days.  For the first week I chased my tail like crazy! I felt like I was walking behind a tornado trying to repair the damage. I'm used to a job where I just take it as it comes. You prioritize and you do what needs to be done as you do it.  No structure.  So, luckily I have a Type A persona living deep inside of me who stepped up and came to the rescue.  I searched Pinterest (YEAH!) for some ideas and then made and laminated (yes, laminated) a weekly cleaning schedule & daily time schedule, I searched for meal ideas and made a list of go to items, I started really using my typed grocery lists, I set a half million phone reminders for watering plants, library reading times, and other odd tasks.  So, it's been more like organized chaos, but it feels good.  I now have a small list each day of what laundry and other jobs I need to tackle making the day seem more bearable (which you can see here if you are so inclined.)

Otherwise, we have been working hard on spending time together.  We've been baking bread weekly, baking cookies, playing board games like crazy, swimming, swimming, swimming, and we even went bowling!  Not bad.  Holidays have been making the time fly by and we have been blessed to get to spend time with our extended family, including Auntie Erin who has been up from California.

So, all in all, life is good and we are adjusting to a whole new pace.  We have days we find out what CLEARLY doesn't work and we make adjustments and try it again.  Nap time has been replaced by quiet time and we are currently working our way through the "Ivy & Bean" series that the girls were recently gifted and often "play school" where the girls have dubbed me "Miss Awesome".

The girls did tell me the other day that "this is the best daycare we've ever been too!"  Now how can you argue with that?! I am, after all, and I quote "The best mother that we ever did have!"  Gotta love it!  With 2014 right around the corner I am very happy to say that I am entering the year with no regrets!  Now what more could you want than that?