Molly Piper

So I’ve been using a new computer lately that my son Orison designed and made himself. Impressive, right?

Flip it open…

He’s even concerned for my safety while using this largely untested prototype:

I’ve been doing all my blogging on it lately…

I have horrible dry patches on my hands in the winter. There are a couple isolated spots that get really irritated and sore (probably eczema).

Of course it doesn’t help that I have to wash my hands every time I turn around, changing 2 sets of diapers and taking Morrow to the potty (and then there’s cooking, doing dishes, taking myself to the potty…). You get the picture. My hands are wet all the stinkin’ time.

I’m trying to use rubber gloves while doing dishes to see if that helps at all.

But I’m also considering trying those overnight moisture gloves. Have any of you tried them? Do they work? I think you put some lotion on and then put the gloves on?

I have to be very careful with what lotion I put on my hands, as well. It can’t have any fragrance or dyes. If I use regular lotion on my hands in the winter it burns like crazy!

A friend of mine suggested shea butter for lotion, but I don’t know if that has fragrance. If so, it’s a no-no. (ha! a rhyme!)

Anyone have a good fragrance-free, dye-free lotion for hands they’d recommend?

Also, don’t forget to weigh in on the gloves! Should I try them?

I broke one of my cardinal rules, friends. You know, the ones that you yell at all your other family members for breaking? And then, one day…you do it?

Okay, here it is:

I opened a 2nd gallon of milk when there was already another open.

[GASP!!!]

This is a serious infraction. Serious.

My OCD can hardly handle this.

What are your household cardinal rules? Ever broken one yourself?

I think it’s good to have rules. I also think it’s good for me to break my own rules sometimes, because then it destroys that I’m-so-awesome-at-following-rules pride thing that I can so easily go to (have you picked up that I’m a “good girl”?)

It seems like often when I’m about to RAGE with anger at someone in my family about SOMETHING they did that they SHOULDN’T do (leave a wet towel on the floor, open 2 milks, leave dirty clothes lying around) I’ll find a pair of my dirty underwear on the floor within minutes. Minutes.

Welp, that’s a pride-buster.

I’m not saying that happens every time and I’m always super patient and gentle with other people when they don’t follow my rules, I’m just thankful for the times I do have some victories from God to give grace to the people I love most.

ME!!!

Morrow had his first day of preschool today! Can you believe that?!?!

He went to a little open house last week to get ready, and today the little church bus came and picked him up right outside the house!

He had a little difficulty separating at the open house last week when the parents went across the hall for a meeting and the kids stayed to play, so I was trying to be really, really upbeat this morning to keep him from getting nervous.

We’d talked and talked and talked about how fun school was going to be, so I thought it might be a little counterproductive to let him see me bawling (I saved that for when I got back in the house). And I wasn’t the only one with tears (a certain male in the 30-34 age bracket had some moisture in his eyes too)!

Here he is, all excited to get buckled in for the ride to school!

When I got off the bus and waved to him I could tell he was about to cry, but according to one of my spies, he’d recovered just fine by the time they got to school.

When he got home he told me, “I loved playing at the park! I held onto the rope!” (which is what they use for crossing the street to get to the park).

I can’t believe he’s this old, and I can’t believe how quickly time goes by, but I also feel lots of joy and hope for this new step.

YAY for Morrow!

We’ve been home from Pennsylvania for just over a week or so, and life has been insane.

Here’s a little info on my life:

• Trying to get Morrow (almost 3) potty-trained. Now some of you might think, “He’s a boy! Don’t even worry about it til after they’re 3.” I totally get that, but little man can go to preschool this fall if he’s potty-trained! Mama would LOVE 2 mornings a week with just the twins!
• Had our roof redone last week. We were very thankful for insurance paying for the roof that was damaged last fall in a wicked windstorm, but the subcontractors didn’t do a good job and now we’re trying to figure out how to get that fixed. Such a headache. So if they have to do it all over again, then we have week #2 of pounding and therefore, jacked-up naps for the little ones.
• Cadence had a bout of Roseola this past week. She was so sick, poor baby! She didn’t want to be held, she didn’t want to be put down, she just didn’t want anything, but yet she wanted everything at the same time. I’m exhausted.
• I have more paperwork than the president, I think. Back-to-school paperwork, insurance paperwork, other medical paperwork, car recalls… garrrr!!!

Okay, vent is over. Thanks for letting me do that. I feel better now.

In other news:

• We had car trouble when we were in Denver that resulted in a $280 repair bill. Welp, when I went to have the other recalled thingy done, they told me that the part we had repaired in Denver was recalled and so we could be refunded for that work! YAY!
• The weather in Minneapolis has been super dreamy–nothing higher than 85 since we’ve been back and then down into the 60s at night. GLORY HALLELUJAH!
• Morrow’s kinda getting the potty thing, by the way. Not 100%, but improving steadily.
• We have a wedding this weekend! Our dear friend Bethany is marrying her Jon, and we couldn’t be happier! So happy, in fact, that Morrow will bear the rings and I will sing! HOORAY!

Okay, gotta run. Naptime’s over!

I had all these grand delusions that I was going to write handwritten notes to all the people who’ve helped me survive this first year with twins. Guess what? When you have 4 children ages 6 & under, you don’t have lots of time for such things…

So I’ll say it here for any who want to read…

If you’ve helped me in any way this past year, you’ve made this possible. You’ve helped these babies go from the tiny little helpless babies up there to the bouncing, vibrant, living babies they are. You’ve helped me keep them alive. This is no small thing. I’m grateful for life.

I’m grateful for the partnership of countless others to fold laundry, iron clothes, wash dishes, babysit, bring us food, buy me groceries, make us peanut butter, change diapers, hold babies, care for them in the nursery, mix bottles, pick up car pool, make us laugh, feed babies… this list is endless, it seems.

The past few years have been needy years for us. First we buried a child. The couple years following that were a nightmare in so many ways. We needed so much support to get through. And then we go and have two babies at the same time. More needs.

It’s deeply humbling to be so needy, knowing you are so dependent on other people for so many things. It’s not always easy to ask for that help. Thankfully so many of you haven’t even made me ask, you just jumped in with both feet and slogged through it with us.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I don’t think they get it yet, but Whitsun & Cadence thank you too. I think they like life so far.

So remember when I asked you if car toppers or car backpacks were preferable? Well, turns out God had another answer. I should’ve known better than to just give two choices.

By the way… isn’t it just kinda like God to color outside the lines like that? Kinda like, “Uh-uh, Molly Piper, I will not be bound to just two options for getting you and your family to Colorado. Uh-uh.” (Sometimes God’s a little sassy like that with me. Trust me, he needs to be.)

Turns out God had a hitch mounted cargo rack in mind! I didn’t list that as one of the options on the previous post, because, well…

1. I forgot they existed.
2. We didn’t have a hitch on our Swagger Wagon.

But God had other plans for that too! Many of you reminded me that cargo racks did indeed exist and testified to how great they worked for all of your travels, so I started looking into getting one. But then, someone offered to loan one to us! SCORE! So all we needed now was a hitch on the van.

Our friend Andy had just put a hitch on his Sienna, so he had the tools and the know-how, so he offered to help mount it. Turns out what we thought would be a one-hour job turned into a 3.5 hour job…but… Andy (his ever-patient self) made it happen. Thanks, Andy. You rock. Hard.

I’m just so happy that we’ll be able to pack most of our gear on the outside of the van. There’s something severely claustrophobic to me about riding long distances with the car packed to the ceiling and all around my feet. I hate it. So here’s hoping I can breathe a little freer this trip.

I’m just so thankful for small (huge?) provisions like that. We had very little money to spend on a packing solution, and this was seriously awesome. Hopefully I’ll feel the same after 14+ hours of traveling. Hey, at least I’ll have leg room! And I’ll be sure to bring my ear plugs!

Sssshhhhh! Sssshhhhhh! Do you hear that?

No? No?

That my friends, is the sound of SILENCE!

I survived week #1 of summer by getting copious amounts of library books for the boys! When we got back from the library earlier this week, I think they sat silently on the couch like that for at least 30 minutes. And in mom time, that’s like 3 hours. I’m not too sure about the conversion, but that seems about right.

So my second strategy for surviving summer is:

BOOKS! GLOOOORIOUS BOOKS!

• There’s really no need for a list here. I just like making them.
• Lots of books (I think we checked out 23 last time)!
• Go to the library often! Kids looooove new books!
• I’ll stop making lists now.

In the past I’ve sworn off of the library (for short amounts of time) because I would spend hours trying to locate that one last book that somehow got shoved into another book and then reshelved. Or stuck between the bedframe and the mattress. Gaaarrrr!

However! I’m trying to be better about keeping the kids’ library books in the library bag. Now there’s a concept! I’ve also been trying to get the boys into the habit of returning the book to the bag when they’re done with it. If this plan succeeds I might get a few hours of my life back. Okay, probably not, but I might save on gray hairs. I’ll take what I can get.

[photos by Katie]

My lifesaver babysitter has been up to her old tricks again! Yesterday she got these pictures of our 10-month-old twins!

A little about Whit:

• He’s our needy baby. Which wouldn’t be a big deal if he were a singleton, but attention’s kind of at a premium with twins (and two other small kids). His neediest time is from supper time until bedtime, so I think if I just keep him on my hip in the Ergo then he’ll be fine. That’s my theory for now.
• Although he’s needy, he’s also very amiable when he’s happy. I think it’s just that he’s social and loves to be with people. When he’s happy and has people to entertain him, he’s probably my giggliest baby. Go figure.
• Whit is standing and cruising along furniture.
• He’s a super-fast crawler.
• He prefers pureed foods. Anything solid he’s not as big a fan, even if it’s something delicious. Silly kid.
• If you say “ET phone home” and stick out your finger, he’ll stick out his (see the bottom right picture).
• Seems to understand some simple words (play, no, jump, yay, his name, Cadence’s name, brothers’ names).
• Says “ma-ma-ma” a lot. I’m not sure if it’s 100% meaningful, but I’ll take it!

A little bit about Cadence:

• Such a happy girl! Very content to play with toys in the crib, in the play gate area (more about that later).
• She started crawling a couple weeks ago and is getting faster & faster by the day. She pulls up onto her knees but doesn’t really attempt standing (yet).
• Loves every food she’s ever been given. If I don’t spread the Cheerios out on her tray she’ll have a huge handful before I know it!
• Responds to “Pat-a-Cake” with big smiles and claps.
• When you sing a song, she starts singing “Aaaaahhhh” really softly. It’s soooo cute!
• Sometimes she’ll wave and say a word that sounds pretty darn close to “Hi!”
• Also seems to understand simple words (same as Whitsun).
• Mostly says “da-da-da.” Again, not sure about the meaning of it, but Dad’s happy to claim it as his own!

I’m really hoping to get back to sharing some more Twin Survival Tips soon, just to let you in on what life is like now that they’re a little older. I’m so busy actually surviving that I find little time to blog about the survival.

Also I’ve been having trouble with my blog feed. I’m working on getting it fixed. Some people are having trouble viewing my more recent posts and receiving my blog updates through Google Reader. I’ve found that Safari is not working right (not sure why yet). But at least for me, Firefox is working and you can see my more recent posts. I’m trying to get it all resolved so we can be a blog family again!

So I have this one friend…no, I guess I should say we have this one friend. No, I guess I should say we have these three friends…okay, this is already confusing and you probably don’t care.

But do you have one of those friends who’s an incredible gift giver?

Our friend Roger and his daughters Eden and Sierra are insanely good gift-givers. And I hesitate to name names because I don’t want them to get all self-conscious and feel like they might not be able to maintain their level of awesomeness now that Molly’s blog readers know about it! But I do want to name names because they’re amazing. They deserve some kudos/props/w00ts/whatever-the-cool-word-is-now.

For my birthday I got this:

From top to bottom you spy with your little eye:

• Row 1: a Bedazzler. Yeah, that’s right. I now own a BEDAZZLER!!! How did that take 32 years? And yes, it’s a stud setting machine. You know you’ve always wanted one.
• Row 2: A book called “Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys,” which is a peek into the real-life stars of the 1970′s TV series. Shaun Cassidy, baby! Then there’s a box of fettuccine (I’ve heard it’s tradition to give people fettuccine for a 32nd birthday). And then the Shower Floss, a device that can be attached to your shower head for in-the-shower flossing. I mean, why didn’t this take off?
• Row 3: A mystery book about the Partridge Family. Seems to me like this was a Sweet Valley Twins predecessor or something similar. I’m looking forward to reading that one. Then there’s a little jar of Bedazzler studs for my first project. And of course, a Quaker Chewy granola bar.
• Row 4: A brand-spankin’-new Wendy’s polo shirt. I have no idea how they scored that one, but I’m forever grateful. And inside the polo shirt, they had wrapped up a book I really wanted.

True confession: I’m not a very thoughtful person. Well, maybe it’s more that I think of things I want to do, and then I’m bad at the execution. So I’m always in awe of people who are good gift-givers. I want to be like them!

Who are the good gift-givers in your life? What was a thoughtful gift you received?

And if you don’t want to answer that question, then tell me what kind of item you’d bedazzle if you had (insert Oprah announcer voice) a BEDAZZLER!!!!!!