Q T Pi

There’s really nothing cuter than a little kid with a missing front tooth, is there?

February 8, 2010. arwyn dae. Leave a comment.

What a Way to Make a Living

So, I’m sitting on the couch with my laptop while Lokie sits beside me with a bowl of raisins and watches Sesame Street. I have no idea what I would do without Sesame Street and I never want to find out. She can say Abby, Ernie, Elmo, Cookie and I don’t even feel bad that several of her vocabulary words are cartoon characters. Arwyn learned to count by watching Sesame Street, so if it was good enough for her, it will work for the baby too, right?

Enjoying this time with her while keeping one eye on the clock. One week in to my new working gig and it’s a crazy new world. Run here, run there, drop off kids, pick up kids, laundry, dishes, learn a bunch of new crap, try to remember things that I’ve long ago forgotten, feel like a moron, try to remember who has the kids today so I don’t go to the wrong place to pick them up, pay bills, overdue library books, little sleep, lunch money, packing bags, throw something frozen into the oven and call it dinner, somebody let me off this ride!

It has so many good parts: I’m working! And making money! I’m learning something new every day and no one here thinks of me as a mommy. I’m using my brain for something other than creative ways to sing the alphabet song. But there’s a trade-off, you knew there would be, there always is. I’m so packed-to-the-gills busy my head spins and I don’t know how people do this. I’m not even working full time and in one short week my life has become an insane merry-go-round with no signs of slowing down. I’m stretched thin and I know some things are going to have to bend or give or let go completely. And I’m struggling to make sure that none of the important stuff slips through the cracks.

February 5, 2010. 9-5. 1 comment.

You’re Soaking in It!

This is why I do not ever paint my nails. The last time Lokie went to Aunt Banana’s house, I took the time to give myself a manicure. Two coats of polish plus a topcoat, and less than 24 hours later this is what my nails looked like. All of the wiping bottoms, washing my hands, washing dishes, etc. that I do on a daily basis is hell on the nails. Where’s Madge when I need her?

January 30, 2010. i do stuff, leta joy. Leave a comment.

An Announcement

No, I’m not pregnant. Yes, I’m sure.

It seems this stay-at-home mama just got herself a big ol’ freelance gig. What this means is I have spent several stress-inducing days fielding and making phone calls and sending emails, frantically trying to find care for my girls in one week. Thanks to the wonderful generosity of friends and family, I think we finally have all bases covered, if I can just keep the schedule straight. For the next three months I will be working 5-6 hours per day at the office. This is a huge change for our family and I’m anticipating some growing pains along the way. I start on Monday. Commence freaking out.

January 26, 2010. 9-5. 1 comment.

Things I’ve Broken:

1. While taking down the Christmas tree this year, a new blue glass ornament that I bought in New Harmony in November. And I couldn’t even blame it on the kids.

2. Possibly a few hearts, over the years. I’m sorry about that.

3. The plexi-glass in my parent’s front door. My parents have a rustic wooden home and my dad cut out horse shapes from their super-thick wooden front doors and covered them with plexi-glass. One late night I rode home from a road trip with my sister, brother-in-law, and their two young sons. My bro-in-law fell asleep at the wheel and we sort of side-swiped a semi. No one was injured, thank goodness, but I was completely freaked out. I puked by the side of the road. When I finally made it to my parent’s house I couldn’t get my door key to work and started banging on the front door, breaking the plexi-glass in the process. I made my mom sleep with me that night. This happened several years ago and I’m pretty sure the broken piece is still there.

4. A perfect set of white bowls from Williams Sonoma. They fell out of the cabinet as I was putting dishes away and shattered all over our tile floor. Only one bowl from the set remains.

Inspired by Andrea’s year of lists.

January 14, 2010. babes in blogland. 1 comment.

:: Sisters ::

Day two of no school due to snow. A couple of inches of the powdery white stuff shuts this town down. I’ve enjoyed having Arwyn home a few extra days, though it does stomp all over any “me time” I might have while she is at school soaking up all that knowledge. We’ve baked and made a few paper projects (mostly things printed off the computer, nothing fancy), played the wii, watched many, many cartoons, talked and tickled, giggled and laughed. And because I know I’m not fooling anyone, I’ll admit we’ve also griped and complained, fussed and snapped. I’ve broken up squabbles and threatened time-out more than once to each of them.

It does something to me to see them play together, or overhear them carrying on a conversation. It softens those cold, hard and darkened spots on my heart. To know that they will have each other to lean on, that they will grow up with that special family knowledge that no one else will have, that they can give something to each other that even I cannot give them, makes me so thankful, so happy that we had another baby and that each of them has a sister.

Someone please remind of me this the next time they are screaming at each other.

January 8, 2010. arwyn dae, introspective, lokie rai. 1 comment.

41/365

196. A warm & toasty house on a blustery cold day

197. New projects

198. Cleaning, purging, rearranging

199. Reading

200. Sunshine

January 4, 2010. grace in small things. Leave a comment.

Brand New Year

I recently purchased a new calendar for the new year. (I got mine here.) Yes, I know I have iCal and all that, but I need to see things written down and sitting in front of me. Lame perhaps, but it’s the only way I remember anything anymore.

If you aren’t familiar with them, the basic concept of the Listography books is: your life in lists. Each new turn of the calendar page gives you a new list to fill out. I really like to fill things out and I am a huge list maker, so this is right up my alley. Some of the lists are funny, some are wistful, some are thought-provoking. I’m not a big resolution maker, but I can make a list. The first page reads: List your goals for the upcoming year. Here’s what I wrote down: