today...

...is saturday. **UPDATE**

last night, i announced to ceily and eddie and even chris-y (every time i read this it makes me laugh. "what? you never call me that." maybe i should start...) that tomorrow, saturday, was going to be a cleaning day. we were expected at places starting at noon, and the hours leading up to that time were going to be used cleaning..."maybe even some dusting."

yep that's what i said.

chris-y told me last night that he and his boy (eddie) were going to play lacrosse in the morning. i replied that was fine they would have time to clean after the lacrosse.

those two boys are home now. noah has a fever. ceily was distraught her phone wasn't working and has been fixing the problem. chris is helping ceily...by listening to different songs she might like to load to her phone...lana is the only one "cleaning." she's unloading the dishwasher.

me? i woke up this morning and decided to read my sister, sierra's blog.

i've laughed, cried, laughed some more and decided i'm going to keep reading.

you should too.

from the beginning

it. is. awesome.

since we are not cleaning, i've been playing different scenarios in my mind, like:

1 i'll start cleaning the children's rooms myself. of course i'll charge a fee. that's what maids do. get paid for cleaning up other peoples' messes. i'm still debating on the fee to charge. i'm pretty sure it will be at least $15 per cleaning. (eddie and ceily are sooo on to this. eddie did realize he would have to work to earn the money. he's rethinking.)

2 if i charge per cleaning, then they need jobs. ceily is the only one remotely close to workforce age. this might not work.

3 who cares if all the rooms are a mess and stinky and gross and i can't believe they want to live in it. why should i care if they don't care?

4 but i'm the parent. it's my job to teach them that human beings don't live like livestock.

5 shoot. we'll just do it later. we have ALL night to clean.

6 i wonder what everyone will say when i announce i'm going to start charging them to clean their rooms because i-am-not-their-personal-maid-and-if-they-don't-clean-i-will-and-i-don't-come-cheap!! (this is where eddie admitted he stopped reading. said it was "boring.")

it's now 11:17. chris-y just announced it was time to get ready to go to grandma's house.

i have exactly one hour and 13 minutes to continue reading sierra's blog and get ceily to her basketball game by 12:30.

i love that today is saturday.

p.s.

we ended up cleaning that evening until about 9pm. decided to let the children decide where to go to dinner. BIG MISTAKE!! ended up at IHOP. i was positive chrisy (see. pretty funny.) was going to end up with food poisoning. one should never order medium rare steak at IHOP.

p.p.s.

when i mentioned to chris that i thought i was pretty funny, he just laughed.

one plus two equals five

when new babies come, they bring with them such peace and calmness. the world stops for a bit and we are able to drink in the beauty that is birth. a miracle of life. two babies double the peace and calm. i'm sure the babies parents are stressed...just a little bit. but, we can't ignore the feeling in the air when we study their tiny faces, and perfect toes and teeny fingers and eyes that blink, as they experience the new earth they are now a part of.

bo and sunday, the brand new twins that my beautiful sister summer carried for 35 weeks, are here and they are beautiful and perfect in every way. 5 weeks early. both over 5 pounds. both with darling faces that you'll swear would fit on an eggshell. both with dark, soft hair. both looking almost alike, but somewhat different, not identical. both too perfect for words.

after the babies shower on saturday, summer started having blood pressure issues. because baby A was breech, an emergency c-section was scheduled.

at the shower, my other beautiful sister sierra, had organized and arranged for mothers of twins and twins to share some memories or thoughts about being a twin or having twins.

we came away knowing that Bo(baby A) and Sunday(baby B) will love being twins. and summer will love them dearly, but they will drive her absolutely crazy.

i'm sure the crazy will be well worth it.

say cheese...

...pleeeeease lana.
smile.
just once.

first take

second take

first take: classic lana

second take: much better

pictures

now that it's half way into january, i can get to my december blogging.

december isn't the best month to blog. too many par tays!!

pictures #1

noah lost his first tooth in december. (i think. it could have been january.)

it was a teeny, tiny tooth. i should take a picture of the new tooth. it is a very, very large tooth. it's hard to imagine all his other teeth are going to fit...stay tuned.

picture #2

in december, i took a picture of this sunrise. (actually, it was january.)

every morning i wake ceily first at 6:30. i then trudge back to bed and try to sleep. but i know ceily isn't getting up, so i get out of bed again, and continue to wake her two or three more times. by 7 i head on over to eddie's room, turn his light on and tell him it's actually 7:30 and he really needs to hurry because he only has 15 minutes to get ready, eat breakfast and get to the bus. this makes for an immediate uncovering and jumping out of bed. i enjoy this method over the usual 3 times i have to go and re-wake the boy wonder. (ok i've only done this once, but it made me smile. and it was effective.) when the two are up i head downstairs to make lunches. this is the time i get to enjoy the sunrise. this day was cold and frosty. my bare toes left prints in the frost as i stepped outside on the back porch. this was the morning i set the alarm off as well.

picture #3

the snow came in december. the snow was beautiful and peaceful and perfect.

the snow did cause the schools to close for three days. three days before the children were to break for winter vacation. that was three extra days of winter break. three days to get the last minute christmas details done with 4 extra children tagging along. (i can recall one particular day when no one was to talk to me or touch me as we rode in the car...it's stressful trying to get it all done.)also three days to sleep in. three days to play. three days to drink LOTS of hot chocolate.

picture #4
these are the treats that were made for christmas gifts. teacher gifts to be exact. three entire days were spent dipping pretzels and caramel into chocolate. the treats were never given to the teachers. remember how i said school was cancelled three days early?

picture #5

this was the day in january when ceily was sick and lana was sick. they spent the majority of the day in my bed making pictures together. i love this one. love it. (they were big, fat fakers though.)

picture #6
christmas morning.

noah: "oh my gosh. that's a huge mess. that is soo messy."

me: "do you know who made that mess?"

noah: "you?"

my tradition

december is always fun. it's exciting getting ready for the big night. shopping, baking, wrapping, telling stories of the man in red, preparing to bring gifts. giving gifts to friends, family and others. listening to lists of wishes. thinking of personal wishes. listening to christmas music. every year is just as exciting as the last.

i have a personal tradition at the beginning of each christmas season. as i unpack the decorations and all the christmas books, i take time to sit and read The Day They Gave Babies Away. this year, i sat alone, cuddled up on my couch, and read about the 10 year old boy, who gave his sisters and brothers away on christmas morning because he had promised his mother before she died, that he would find good families for each child. as i was reading, chris walked into the room, beginning to ask a question. i looked up, with tears streaming down my face, he laughed, shook his head and walked away. this happens every year.

a couple weeks later, lana and noah sat with me, one on either side, and

i read the same story. of course i cried. "mom, i almost cried too;" said lana. noah had fallen asleep, and as he woke, he stated he was lucky he didn't have to listen and cry. (one day noah. one day...)

"mom, what are you reading? oh that book that makes you cry every year."

"oh, ceily said you cry every time you read that book."

"why do you cry? what's it about? what makes you cry so hard?"

no one understands my tradition of reading and weeping.

before i settle down to read, i always wonder if i will cry. i've re-read this same story, for years, ever since i was a little girl. at first my mom would gather us around her and read and weep. i would listen, and wonder, as my children do, why she was crying, reading the sad story. later, that one christmas came and my mother gifted me my own copy. i remember taking that copy, climbing into bed and as i began reading, i began crying, just like my mother.

i have read that same book every year since. i have wept every single time.

maybe next year, ceily and eddie will receive their own copies under the christmas tree. maybe one year they will understand.

for chris...

...because it's all about him