Friday Favorites

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!  We had a wonderful, low key holiday at home as a family of five.  I spent the entire day in yoga pants.  I live in yoga pants at home.  Really, I belong on an episode of 'What Not to Wear.'  

I cooked a 15 pound turkey for two adults.  The beauty of that is leftovers!  For days and days.  I made my Grandmother's sausage stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and bought a pumpkin pie from my favorite local shop.  The twinsies loved everything and gobbled it right up.  Big brother, on the other hand, reiterated everything was 'yucky.'  Repeatedly.  Nothing fills you with gratitude like spending time in the kitchen to hear 'it's yucky' 50 times in one meal.  Ahhhh, motherhood.  All kidding aside, it was a lovely day with my favorite people.  We played on the floor, sang songs and danced, and cuddled.  All in all a wonderful day.  I'm thankful for time as a family of five.

Today I'm linking up for the first time to another blog for Friday Favorites.  In honor of Black Friday shopping, I figured this was apropos.  I'm a big fan of inexpensive, quality clothing for the kiddos.  While I'll spend more money on special outfits for holidays or major events, day-to-day my trio wears comfy, cozy, and pocketbook friendly attire.   

ONE

Big brother is hard on clothes, especially pants, and I don't like spending a lot when they'll get ripped or stained.  Carters Microfleece Pants are perfect for him and only $5 today.  What a deal!

TWO

Carter's has amazing deals for Black Friday that I have to add another favorite.  Their Microfleece Zip-front Jacket is also only $5.  You can never have too many warm yet light jackets.

THREE

The twinsies can't be left out of the deals today, and Carter's has several great options.  I like to put the girls in casual clothes during the week, and this top has just the right amount of gold detail for a casual outfit.

FOUR

Since I'm knocking it out of the park saving money on the littles, I started looking around for workout pants for me.  I'm still determined to lose the baby weight.  These look like yoga pants met jeans.  Comfy but oh so cute.

http://athleta.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=1022683&vid=1&pid=819227062

Happy Black Friday shopping from the comforts of my living room!

Twin Mom Humor

Since multiples, and especially twins, are relatively common these days I never imagined the attention we'd get when out in public.  People are fascinated by twins it seems, and the questions strangers come up with never ceases to amaze.

"Are they twins?" is usually the first one I get.  Then followed by "are they identical?"

Lately I keep hearing "look at those twin boys!"  Even when they're dressed in head-to-toe pink or purple.  No, my twins aren't boys.  Evidently people haven't seen baby girls without hair before.

Last but not least I've heard "you have your hands full" more times than I can count.  Most of the time it's an innocuous comment from a well-intentioned stranger.  Other times, though, it's involved an eye roll and a look of disgust.  One day I was in Michael's craft store pushing my twins around a woman came around the corner and looked down at my daughters with such disgust that it shocked me.  Now that I think about it, maybe she was more disgusted by my unclean yoga pants and baby spit up covering my shirt…

Moms of multiples have to keep some semblance of a sense of humor.  Otherwise we'd lose our mind in the chaos and naturally overwhelming nature of keeping tiny humans alive.    

Everything Is Under Control, Right?

This morning was epic.  An epic failure that is.  Yes, I'm being dramatic.  Kind of.

Weekend mornings in our house are pretty chaotic with three kiddos under three.  Changing diapers, feeding breakfast, cleaning up the breakfast mess, and getting everyone dressed isn't for the faint at heart.  But I was determined to be organized and get out the door at a reasonable time to do something I dread - hit Costco on a weekend.  With an almost three year old in tow.

Much to my surprise we made it out the door and were well on our way to Costco when I realized problem #1 - I lost my Costco card.  Luckily a quick trip to customer service resolved that problem.  Then big brother and I made our way through the store as he asked repeatedly "what's this, Mommy?"  After hearing this question for the twentieth time in aisle #2 I started to question my decision to go on this adventure today.

We were swiftly moving through the store, at least as fast as you can go with a toddler and a cart full of stuff, when an older man stopped asking if I dropped a hat a few aisles back.  While I wasn't looking big brother tossed his favorite blue hat out the cart.  Much to my surprise, this kind man went searching for the hat and told me to keep shopping.

After an hour of shopping I made my way to the checkout line, and the cashier rang up all $350 of my stuff.  How much of it I needed and was worth the money was questionable at best, but at least I was ready to go.  Riiiiight.  I handed my credit card over to the cashier and was greeted with words I didn't want to hear, "we don't accept Visa or Mastercard, ma'am."  Cue the deer in headlights look on my part.  I searched my wallet for a debit card (oh yeah, the one that went missing in my house weeks ago) or a check.  Yup, nothing there.  Only me, a very eager toddler wanting to leave, and an embarrassingly large heap of food that I couldn't pay for.

I took a deep breath and looked around me.  The cashier was growing impatient and the Mom standing behind me in line was glaring and rolling her eyes.  As if I had planned to create this situation on purpose.  Tears of embarrassment and frustration started welling up so I picked up big brother and walked out of Costco with no groceries and a little less pride.  As we walked out I heard on the walkie talkie the security guard was holding that a little boy's hat was found, and the manager came running over with big brother's favorite blue hat.

It wasn't the morning I planned on having yet it was a good lesson in kindness.  Whether you're a Mom of multiples or a singleton it doesn't really matter.  We're all just pushing ourselves through life trying to take care of our families.  My load was particularly heavy today for a variety of reasons, mostly because I'm deep in worry about health issues with our twins, and the judgement I saw in the other Mom's eyes stung.  When we see a stranger out and about, none of us know the load she is carrying that day.  Patience and a kind heart go a long way when you encounter a Mom struggling with a toddler throwing a tantrum or a cart full of food and no money.

Big brother and I brushed off the morning's frustration with a latte and his favorite banana bread at our local coffee shop.  After all, they take Visa and Mastercard.  

Holiday Bucket List

Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away.  My goal was to complete all my Christmas shopping by the time Turkey Day arrived.  I'm about 80% there which is pretty amazing given everything else on my plate.  I even already have my Christmas cards sitting here waiting to be stamped and addressed.  Given the fact last November I was only getting 2-3 hours of sleep at one time, it feels good to have life more under control.

Between now and New Year's Day time will fly by.  Our social calendar is quickly filling up with work and parties for the kiddos.  It's all great fun but it's easy to get so caught up in being busy that we don't do all the things we really want to do.  That's why I'm crafting a family holiday bucket list.  It's an experiment to see if it helps us stay focused on some fun things in the midst of all the holiday craziness.  Drum roll please…

1.  Photos with Santa - last year the twins were too small and fragile to go out during cold/flu season.  Then when we took big brother to see Santa he was closed for a 90 minute lunch break.  Santa was a bah-humbug last year.

2.  Drive-through Christmas light display - a town nearby has a great light display in their park and a festival with rides.  

3.  Train display - Big brother is in love with everything choo-choo related.  He'd love to visit one of the holiday train displays in our area.

4.  Art project - I'm no Pinterest Mom.  In fact, I've never done a single project with the kids based on a Pinterest idea.  Big brother would enjoy doing an art project, and I'd like to have a momento to keep.  Win-win.

5.  Bake cookies - last year was too busy with newborn twins to focus on baking.  It's something I truly enjoy, and I want to start creating traditions with the kiddos.  Big brother is at the age he'll enjoy helping a little with cookies.  

It's not an overly ambitious list, but it's a start.  You gotta start somewhere, right?

Not Enough Hours in the Day

Clearly I need to figure out how to make time to write blog posts.  Maybe my blog should be called 'Managing my Time' instead of 'Managing Multiples.'  There's never enough time in the day for everyone's needs let alone my own.  I know, I know.  Wah, wah, wahhhh.

This weekend I'm going to sit down to wrap my head around what I need to get done, what I should get done, and more importantly what I want to get done.  Taking the time to write and explore some creative ideas is something I want to do, but it hasn't been bumped up to the 'need to do' list.  That needs to change.  Soon.