Perfecting Imperfection

This week has just FLOWN by!  I am not sure what is going on bu I feel like I'm about 2 hours behind all the time.  I think it was the time change (Damn Daylight Savings) but I also think it's just that there aren't enough hours in my day anyway.  Yesterday, I ended up being late getting both of my classes dismissed.  I also was 5 minutes late for the twins' doctor appointment this morning and I mailed my PaperbackSwap books a day late . . . it's just been that kind of week.

I thought I would use my What I'm Lovin' Wednesday post to just share some pictures I have been snapping with my new camera.  I am REALLY loving my camera.  It's a Nikon D5000 and I am really starting to learn how to use a lot of the features.  I'll try to add some that my FB pals haven' seen yet, too!  Although, I'm loving sharing pic on FB these days, too!

Nate has he most beautiful eyes and light, soft skin...

David's new thing is feeding himself - he won't let me feed him at all anymore!

Nate showing off his muscles!

Dean's face ALWAYS has something on it...in this case it's Chocolate Chip Cookie

Dean recently noticed his belly button...is that diaper full or what!?!

Danika loved spending a little time outside on Monday!

Then she was all tuckered out!

SUCH a Daddy's girl...

Relaxing in the big red chair.

As much as I love looking at other people's meal plans, I just am not that excited about sharing mine lately.  It's not that I don't have it planned...it's just that I have other things I want to talk about!

This weekend was a pretty good one - other than me being sick and spending most of yesterday upstairs in bed or in the bathroom.  TMI?  Sorry.  I'm finally feeling better today but yesterday was awful.

So, if I was so sick why would I say that this weekend was a good one?  Well...because I got to look at these faces -


I was so proud of him!  I was nervous that he was going to act like he does when I cut his hair at home but Nunnu said he was perfect!  He also took him to Sonic for lunch and to Sam's Club.  Nunnu said he was really well behaved and Nate said he had a great time.  He even said to me the next day, "Mommy, I think Nunnu liked hanging out with me yesterday because I really liked hanging out with him."  *sigh*  I want to freeze time and hold on to this sweetness.

So...I must have felt like taking pictures today because I have some to  share with you!

First...remember when I did this post for Say Mmmm?  I talked about making some grub for the Super Bowl?  Here's pics of the ones I made for lunch with the leftover ingredients!



Totally yummy, right?

Remember my last post about Duct Tape and Velcro?  I figured out that I can get about 40 minutes of peace if I just give in and strap them to chairs and let them beat up  play on my table!



I also want to share this awesome Valentine hairstyle for little girls!  Here's the practice pic from our morning try out of the hairstyle.  We are going to redo it for her party tomorrow.  It was SUPER easy!!!



I also stumbled across this awesome post today - and pulled out my #6 plastic cups to decorate with the kiddos!  (Who knew #6 cups were made out of the same plastic as shrinky dinks?!?)






So - that's it for now!  We had an awesome day playing at home and just hanging out - tomorrow we start early Valentine Celebrations with Danika's party at school...then Nate's on Friday!  :)

Here are a few more pics of them doing their cards last night - Jerry is such an awesome dad!

Love this one!

I thought I'd share some pictures I took yesterday while the "big" kids played with Jerry in the snow.  Jerry had to take the garbage out - which meant the kids wanted to go with him and play in the snow.  They were out there for about an hour...which was enough time for them to turn rosy cheeked and sniffely.

Things have been going really well. Much better than usual, in fact. I have some ideas as to why ~ which I will share in a minute ~ but it makes me a little nervous because, well...I'm a pessimist at heart.  I try - believe me I try - to not think that way, but if things start going really smooth or really well I tend to brace myself for some bump in the road, minor (or sometimes major) catastrophe...in other words, I wait for complications or issues or anything that will take this nice and easy pace I'm going at and throw it into a tailspin.  Yep ~ I'm a pessimist.

That all being said - here's what has been working for me the past week or so.

First of all, I've been doing FlyLady a lot more frequently...in fact ~ I would say I'm using routines and schedules everyday.  With routines and schedules come a little bit of peace ~ I know what should be happening when and I'm prepared for what is coming up next.  A big PLUS is that my house is actually kind of ... clean!  I knew having a clean house (with as little clutter visible as possible with 4 kids under 5) made Jerry a lot happier...a lot less stressed.  I didn't realize, though, that I would feel a lot less stress, too!  That I would actually feel more at peace and that having less mess and clutter just made me want to keep cleaning!  Funny how that goes, eh?

One problem with that is. . . well, it's left me a lot less time to do things I really enjoy that aren't necessarily things that are productive.  Like...ahem...blog, read blogs, get on facebook, sign on to TweetDeck - heck, I've had my laptop OFF for the last 2 days...and it's been pretty nice.  I missed it though ~ so, I'm going to have to find a way to squeeze it into my schedule without messing up my schedule.  I'm seriously contemplating waking up an hour early (which would be about 6 am) so that I can have an hour online before my day "starts"...

I also bought a new dry erase calendar ~ totally inspired by my friend Christina.


And a new set of shelves for the basement ~ it took the place of 2 VERY cluttered and overflowing cabinets...which in turn was able to free up space to organize more things!



My husband is a real trooper because all this energy and cleaning and organizing has cause projects galore for him!  Sunday involved him tackling this baby:




While I worked on my Control Journal!  I had the same routines written down that I had before the twins were born and obviously some things have changed.

So ~ there you have it.  I feel like some kind of switch has been flipped...or I finally woke up or something.  I feel like I've finally realized that this is what I should be doing.  I look at my mother and my mother-in-law and wonder if this happened to them, too.  I admire both of them so much because they get things done.  They don't complain and they don't take a break (at least not a long one) from doing things.  I'm wondering if they hit a point like I'm at right now where they realized that things go smoother and work out better if you just keep at it...just keep moving.  Don't wait or put it off...it's just easier if you take the 10 or 15 minutes to do it right now.

I guess I may still be a pessimist, but it looks like my procrastinating ways are OVER!  :)  There may be hope for me to turn to optimism after all!  I mean - look at these kiddos...they look optimistic, don't they?







 

Let me start by saying the D-Listed Blog Party ROCKS!!!

I solemnly swear, with all my heart, that I will visit each blog that came and visited mine...eventually.  :)  All of you who commented that you don't know how I do it - eh, sometimes it takes me longer but I eventually get the job done!

I had a wonderful moment tonight.  A moment where I was able to just enjoy what I was doing - of course at first the 100 things I have to do (finish book club book, visit blogs, do dinner dishes, finish laundry, watch Glee, look at school stuff, fix my BlackBerry, etc.) were running through my head...then I started thinking about the 100 other things I wanted to do tomorrow (clean cobwebs out of corner of kitchen, write some emails, more laundry, finish bedrooms, wash sheets, what's for dinner?).   Then I just stopped.  I actually kinda, almost cried.  Finally, I closed my eyes and took it all in.

Here is my Baby Baby -


He is not a snuggler.  He is lovable and adorable but he just doesn't snuggle.  He's too busy to snuggle.  He's always on the move and when he's tired he just can't seem to get comfortable until you put him in his crib...except for tonight.  Tonight, he actually cried when I put him down!  So, I picked him back up and rocked him a little bit...and he snuggled with me.  My non-snuggler wanted to snuggle with me.  I had a hard time, at first, relaxing.  Then, I started thinking about how very soon he will be like this....


Too big to hold in my arms so easily...too big to rock to sleep.  My twins are the perfect size right now...they will be for a while.  I don't remember a whole lot about Nate and Danika at this age . . . I remember being tired.  I remember rushing it.  I remember thinking, "Oh, it will be so great when they can talk and tell me what they want or what is wrong."  I remember thinking, "Man, I can't wait until they can walk on their own and I don't have to carry them everywhere"  I remember thinking, "Gah!  I just wish they could play by themselves for an hour so I could get something done".

Not this time, though - this time around I'm trying to hold on to every last second I can...I'm trying to suck it in...I'm trying to make sure it's seared into my memory.  I don't want to forget what it's like to hold my baby close to me and snuggle him while he drifts off to sleep.  I want to remember what that feels like.

Which is why I took 30 full minutes out of my evening and did nothing but snuggle my non-snuggler.  I held him a little tighter than I usually would and willed myself to remember that exact feeling....that exact moment.

I'm going to really enjoy this summer.  This summer is the last summer I will have babies..,.next summer I will have toddlers...I plan on stopping and smelling a lot more "roses" than I have before - I don't want to miss a minute...it's already going too fast!

This morning I just feel like writing.  It's too bad that a complete thought doesn't stay in my head long enough for me to develop an idea about what to write a stellar blog post about - guess this morning you will just have to settle for some random stream of ... randomness?

Let's start with the haircut - and let me remind you I HATE pictures of me.  Here are 2 versions of my new haircut...a better picture of the straight version and the curly version (in which my husband informed me I look like I came straight out of the move The Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler).

This is the straight version

This is the curly version

 I am happy to report that I was able to sort of, kind of, mostly recreate the straight look that my hairstylist did after I showered yesterday!  So, that's all I got on my haircut - probably the last time I'll mention it (until I get it cut again!)

Onward - watched Flash Forward last night and it made me nervous.  Next week is April 29th...well, not really but on the show it is and we will find out if everyones' Flash Forwards come true or if the universe is changed forever.  It's kind of a drama - in case you don't watch.

After watching Flash Forward I...well...it was 10 o'clock and I...WENT TO BED!  Never happens.  NEVER!  The thing is that Dean decided he wanted to wake up at 5:30 am Thursday morning.  I can't complain too much because he had been sleeping since 6:00 pm the night before.  The 5:30 am wake up call wasn't too bad...until about 7:00 pm last night.  I felt like I'd been hit in the head with a frying pan and just couldn't keep my eyes open.  I stayed awake for Flash Forward and then carried my tired butt to bed amidst protest from DH (not a lot - just a "You mean you aren't going to stay up with me to watch Down Periscope for the 25th time since we got married?").  He still needed a little extra time to wind down - he didn't get up at 5:30 am with Dean, though.


When I woke up this morning at 7:00 am, I felt like I slept in.  I felt like the kids let me sleep until at least 9:00 am and almost yelled to Jerry in the shower that he was late for work!  I couldn't believe how I felt!  I can't promise to try for a 10:00 pm bedtime every night - but I'm really going to give it a shot a few times a week.  I actually feel like cleaning today!  Don't really feel like making the grocery list, but it won't be too bad with the e-mealz menu...so I'll suck it up!  

Danika's Francie Pants came in yesterday ~ I think I may have been more excited than she was!  I won a Twitter party contest (the 5M4M UBP10 Twitter Party) and got a $40 gift card for Francie Pants!

I have one little girl, as you probably know if you are a regular blog reader, and I was so excited to be able to order something special for her.  We went to the website and picked out 2 pair.  The ones pictured below and some really cute pink leopard print ones.

Danika in her Francie Pants

I have to tell you, too, that I had AWESOME customer service, too.  Ciaran Blumefeld was the one who contacted me with all the info for the gift card and when I couldn't get it to work she was very patient and understanding and solved the problem for me!  I'll definitely be looking into getting Danika more Francie Pants and getting some for the other little girls in my life as gifts!

Finally - since I feel like being a blogger today, I'm going to join Friday Follow!  I haven't done this in a long time...but I feel like exploring the internet and checking out some new blogs!




Have a great weekend - the weather is suppose to be a little bit better here this weekend.  I can't wait to get outside again!