Molly Piper

Recently  I had the distinct pleasure of meeting my online friend Marla Taviano!

Marla was in town for a speaking engagement and found a few minutes to stop over at my house and chat! It was a blast. I’m sooo glad it worked out for her to come!

We sat in the gorgeous fall afternoon and talked blogging, speaking, life, schooling… like old/new friends.

Then all too soon, it was time to go. Which of course means “Get a picture! We have to take a picture!”

Then we started talking about how funny it is to meet people in real life from the internet and how they always surprise you in some way or another–height, voice, accent, hair (aHEM… Shaun Groves). It was at this exact moment that I turned to her and said,

“Yeah, I knew you’d be tall. How big are you?”

Then *SNAP!* goes the camera.

Thankfully we had a good laugh about it. Marla has a sense of humor (thank GOD!) and didn’t get offended by my blunder. I guess I’m so used to talking to toddlers that I forgot I was talking to an adult!

The internet has made the world so small in some ways. Personally, I’ve had good experiences meeting people from the internet, which was such a scary no-no thing 10 years ago.

I’ll never forget hearing about what BooMama said right before the Compassion Bloggers reunion last December.

(And you have to conjure up your best deep-South accent)

Well, y’all…time to go meet up with a bunch of people we met on the internet…”

Have you met up with online friends in real life (IRL, if you will)? Does it still weird you out?

I haven’t done a “Blogs I Read” post in a really long time. Time to change that!

I’ve been telling my friend Jill that I want to link to her blog for ages now! I’m just waaaay behind on all my blogging goals, so here it is at long last.

If you like children’s literature (or your kids do), you should check out Orange Marmalade.

(Jill is the third from the left. Aren’t they a great-looking crew, by the way?)

Why you should check out Orange Marmalade:

• Jill’s really smart about lots of things, including children’s literature.
• Jill has had a faithful career as a home school mom to those four kids, and they did lots of reading together.
• She showcases a wide variety of books for kids, most of which I would’ve never heard of without her!
• She offers suggestions for poetry, nonfiction, holidays, etc.
• She writes thoughtful posts about plot and why she likes the book.
• She usually includes what age she’d recommend the book for.

So hop on over and check out her literature selections for kids. I think you’ll be really happy you did.

I’ve heard about a million theories about how to avoid crying while chopping onions. Unless you’re like my mother, who doesn’t cry when she chops onions (I didn’t know that was even possible), you’re looking for something that actually works.

Perhaps you’ve found something already, but personally I don’t want to have to hunt down my goggles every time I need to chop an onion. Or one of these:

I want little effort, lots of payout.

I’ve been browsing articles about why onions make us cry, and it’s a about some crazy acidic compound in the onion being released into the air and irritating the lacrimal glands (the ones that produce tears). “Very scientific, Molly…”

So what you’ve been waiting for… (the imaginary voices ask me all kinds of questions that I feel obliged to answer publicly)

“How do you do it, Molly?”

Ladies & Gentlemen, I present to you…The Molly Piper Onion-Chopping Method!!!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• lungs
• a mouth

As soon as you’re gonna cut that bugger, start breathing deeply in and out through the mouth ONLY. Focus on mouth breathing for the entire time you’re cutting and working with the onion. Rinse your knife, cutting board, etc. as soon as you can and you should be good.

(Note: this may be one of the few times in life that being a “mouth breather” is acceptable.)

Also, I use my Pampered Chef Food Chopper pretty religiously when I chop onions, just because it’s faster. I quarter them and chop the heck out of them! (That might be my favorite Pampered Chef item of all time, but that’s probably another post.)

If you deviate back to nose breathing, you’ll start crying. Just get back on track with the mouth breathing and the crying should subside. This has been my method of choice for years now, so I hope it works for you too!

Do you have an onion-cutting tip to share? Let’s hear it!

This morning when I was taking Orison to school, Morrow was hanging out with our nanny. He told her, “I hear the ferlickity truck!”

Any guesses?

After a few more questions, she deciphered that he was saying recycling truck!

Later in the morning he was telling her about a movie and kept talking about the “Colosorus.” [kuh-LAH-suh-rus]

He was talking about a rhinoceros! Cute!

He also says “Tamorine” for submarine. And he has “tamorines” on his Pull-Ups (which he’s still using. Because he’s still not fully trained).

All of these things are too cute for even this Speech Language Pathologist to correct, except maybe that potty thing (still working on it-ARGH!)!

Also, if you know me in person (IRL if you will), you know I’m a word-clipper. My BFF Danielle and I have been like this since college. It’s a mother’s pure joy to know her children are following her example.

Morrow’s been known to use “fave” for favorite and “Sars!” for sorry.

Be still my heart. This kid is too much. I think I might cry tears of joy the first time he uses “adorbs!”

[photo via]

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.

Having two bouncy seats with twins is an absolute necessity, in my opinion. Of course they’re helpful for when they’re little, just because you can’t possibly carry or wear two babies all day long (especially if you have older children and/or you want to get anything done in your home).

Many people use bouncy seats when the babies are little, but I found that with twins I used them until 11 months!

Here’s the evolution of the bouncy seat for multiples:

• Infant (0-6 months): I used them for a place to set the babies down during wake times. I also used them for feeding. I would sit between the bouncy seats and administer the bottles. It was a crazy time, but not as crazy as nursing both (which I only did for about 2 months). So if you’re bottling (formula or breast milk), just kinda wedge yourself between them and hold the bottles for them! Whit especially needed the incline of the bouncy seat because he spit up so much.
• Roller stage (4-12? months): When giving two babies a bottle at the same time, it’s impossible to keep them from rolling over. Once they start holding their own bottles (mine did about 6.5 months) it gets easier–kinda. If I tried to hold both of them in this roly-poly stage, I’d be covered in formula and literally involved in a 20-minute wrestling match. Not too great for bonding.

When my babies were 10 months, they knew when bottle time was coming! They would see me getting out the bouncy seats and start doing that excited baby giggle-cry. Then I would strap them in, and they’d start kicking their feet like mad (still doing the giggle-cry), and then I’d pop the bottles in their mouths! They were so happy that way, and able to get the calories they need by focusing on bottling.

So if you want to survive feedings as twins get older, I think dual bouncy seats are very important. Beg, borrow, steal… (okay I’m not really promoting theft, it’s just an expression) but have two bouncy seats.

Other twin tips

• Use Earplugs as Necessary
• Cook Meat in Advance
• Snacks for Mom
• Easier Bathing
• Boon Squirty Spoons
• Dry Shampoo
• Hair Tourniquets
• LOTS of Burp Cloths
• Surviving Spitty Sheets

What do you give a dead child on a birthday, when everything parental inside of you wants to shower that child with sweets, excitement, gifts, delights?

It’s been four years now, and I still have a desire to buy you something, Felicity. (Will that ever go away?)

It’s been four years now, and I wish I could see your eyes light up with excitement over the decorations in the kitchen for your birthday breakfast. (I wish we were busy tonight with last-minute birthday preparations, instead of sitting here writing blog posts.)

It’s been four years now, and I often find myself wishing I knew what you’d like. (Would you be a chocolate cake girl like mama?)

I’ve been working on this scarf for myself for months, Felicity. Months. The hubbub of our lives prevented me from finishing it until this week. So now it’s my birthday present–to you…for me; for you…to me. I don’t know…

But I love it. And I know I’d love you more.

Daddy calls it the “Starry Night” scarf. I like that.

There’s been a lot of dark nights since we lost you, no stars in the sky. Just the black expanse. I remember one night a couple weeks after you died, I was out in the country and we turned the light off to sleep and it was so dark I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. That was year 1 and year 2 without you. So dark. So paralyzingly dark.

But then, just like a night sky, stars began to appear, little glimmers breaking through the pitch. They’ve lit my way a bit. They’ve taken the edge off of the darkness. They’ve shone some beauty into something so horrific I thought it might swallow me whole (and at times, wanted it to).

So for your birthday I’m gonna wear the Starry Night scarf. It’s from me…about you.

Someday we’ll see the stars together the way they were meant to be seen.

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!

Here in Minnesota we have a thing called a “Golden Birthday.” I’m sure it exists in other places too, I’d just never heard about it until I moved here. So a golden birthday goes like this: if you’re born on the 4th of the month, your golden birthday is when you turn 4.

I was lucky, because my birthday’s on the 23rd, and I found out about the golden birthday when I was 22 (phew!).

I’m proposing a Golden School Day…

• 1st day of 1st grade? Golden!
• 2nd day of 2nd grade? Golden!

…and so on.

But seriously, I’m just very glad that Orison had a great 1st day of 1st grade. He’s totally excited to be back at school, and that’s one of the best things a parent can hope for, school-wise.

How’d your kids do going back to school? You doing alright, moms and dads?

So some of you know this but many of you don’t.

In college, I took fencing for my required gym class. And I didn’t do it because I had to, I did it because I wanted to.

Penn State (at least at the time) had an excellent fencing program, and I was always fascinated by the sport and wanted to try it! So I did it!

(Sidenote: This is why I love large universities. You can explore nearly anything. There’s the running joke that you can take Underwater Basketweaving if you so choose.)

By the way, I loved that class. LOVED it. I know there’s fencing here in the Twin Cities, and I should probably get my kids in it some day. I’d love being a fencing mom.

My little Whit-man might be ready.

“Yeah, I’m figuring out this walking thing, so might as well have a sword in my hand, right???”

(Thanks, Katie, for the photos!)