And since we've no place to go...

There's something about December that just begs me to stay home. I comply. Pretty much since the twins learned to crawl, I've been in the habit of leaving the house with them to do something, anything, every single day (well, weekday). Our schedule goes like this:

6:15- Joe and I get up and drag ourselves to the coffee pot and then do our own Bible time

7:30- B&E get up

8:00- We give the kids breakfast

8:30- Joe is usually gone for work by this time

8:30-9:30- B&E get downtime/tv time while I get the house cleaned and other odds and ends

9:30- TV goes off, I get them dressed and we head off to somewhere (errands, a play date, useless shopping, gymboree, take a walk, something like that) until about 11:30

12:00- Lunch

12:30-3:00- the twins nap, and I do every other thing that needs to be done during the day

3:30- B&E get a snack

3:45-5:00- we play outside, have some story time, do puzzles, practice "blanket time", or fill with other semi-organized activities

5:00- I make and feed the kids dinner

5:30ish- Joe gets home and plays with the kids while I make our dinner

6:00- B&E get another half hour of tv time while Joe and I eat dinner together

6:30- Family hang out time or kid bath time

7:00-Kids have nighttime bottles (I like to sneak in a little Wheel of Fortune whenever possible during this time...I figure it helps the kids learn their letters, right?...right??)

8:00- We put the kids to bed, clean up the house, hang out/play Yahtzee until bedtime, then we wake up and do it all over again the next day.

If you know me, you know I like my schedule. It works. It keeps most things predictable and keeps little busy bodies from getting into too much trouble. It keeps the days flowing by in an orderly sort of way so that each day doesn't feel like an eternity when I don't see or speak with one other adult. And this snow is REALLY throwing off my game! See that 9:30-11:30am block up there in my beautiful schedule?? I NEED to get outside of my four walls during that time. Last winter it was fine because the twins weren't moving yet and so I could sort of just move them from floor to chosen apparatus, to new apparatus, to lap, to floor, and so on throughout the day. But now that they want to run and play and bang on pots and pans, it feels pretty claustrophobic in here, even though there's only three of us. The snow is robbing me of my out-of-the-house time. I mean, I know I could bundle us all up and go somewhere we really don't need to go, but it's probably not worth it if it's going to take us an hour and a half to get where we're going and put all our lives in danger as well. So the last two days we've been holed up at home and I am just JONESING for a little trip to Target or the Sandbox. JONESING!

But alas, I have hurt my back and the weather is treacherous and the kids really are doing fine. So I'm on the couch with a heating pad, a cup of coffee, and Pride and Prejudice cued up in the DVD player. So for now, let it snow.

But ask me again on Friday how I'm doing.

PS...I'd like to add that we all lived through a killer Christmas tree attack this morning. Cassaras, 1. Tree 0.

a baby and a picture and a smooch and a blessing

Tonight while we were at our friends' house, during our usual Thursday night dinner gathering/chase all our kids around time, Brett found a picture sitting on an end table with me in it (well, I was in the picture, not the end table). And he picked it up and kissed my face in the picture, then put it down and said "mama, mama, mama" and smooched it again. It was unbearably cute and really made me feel like to him, I'm some kind of lovely hero. I want to really, actually be all the things he thinks I am. And that's why I wish every person could know the deep joy that comes with being a parent. It makes this:

totally worth it!