Northwest Moms

Man, it’s been a good few days! I’ve done some sewing (Taggie-style blankets for the boyos and their stockings–I sewed side-by-side with my 9-year-old daughter, doing Jonathan’s while she did Jesse’s)…some calligraphy (a piece commissioned by my mom to give to my dad for Christmas–big and BEAUTIFUL, I’m so glad that after so long a hiatus I can still do good work…some decorating (all done!) and some cleaning (the house is not a disaster, yeah!)…my Christmas cards…and today I’m doing the boyos’ ornaments, plus one for my 13-year-old who somehow doesn’t have a specific ornament of his own on the tree while the other older kids all have two or three from various sources. One thing I’ll be trying for the first time today is image transfer using acrylic gel medium, onto wood…Here’s hoping I figure it out quickly!

I’m looking back over what has been without a doubt the weirdest year of my life, and feeling very grateful for every bizarre development!

Beautiful, healthy sons…I’m grateful now that I was wrong and it wasn’t perimenopause.

My husband’s job. Stable, flexible, and sufficient income…and he’s made it through the toughest year of his career.

My other four beautiful children. My little mini-mother…my loose cannon…my confident and funny senior who is beginning to show little flashes of real maturity…and my eldest, who has this endearing way of asking to hold the babies as though they are my personal treasured jewels instead of his own little brothers.

My three oldest friends: One I married, one is visiting for Thanksgiving, and one is far away geographically but right beside me in every other way, as I am her. My friends from our old town and my friends here. And others I’ve connected to on Facebook.

Facebook and the Utne Cafe and email. Being in touch.

Old-school handwritten letters and the friends I have who love them as I do.

Writing, period. Pens. Clean paper. Stationery stores. Bookstores. Oh, and bakeries!

Hot water. Hot showers, hot baths, hot tubs.

Hydrocodone. Because a separated shoulder HURTS.

Handel’s Messiah. As a symbol of all good music, and as itself.

The fact that the only way I can stop this list is by deliberately stopping, because I will never run out of things to put on it.

This morning I bought all-you-can-play passes for the twins. They cost a total of $30 and are good for a month. During that month, I can take the boys to the PlayCare staffed by mostly mature women (where today the staff:child ratio was about 1:3) every single day if I want, for up to two hours.

Two. Whole. Hours.

I worked out, I swam some laps, I sat in the hot tub. I picked up two happy babies who had played, napped, and eaten. I ran into a friend and visited with her. I had a snack at the cafe.

And I’m going back three times a week.

They’re both asleep.  At the same time.  It’s amazing.  So what am I doing?  Not sleeping like all the twin moms and twin books recommend.  Not doing housework, which the moms and books warn against being tempted to do (who is tempted to do housework, I’d like to know?)  I’m blogging.  Blah, blah, blahgging.  But I had to get this out because in a week and a half the kids all go off to school.  I will be alone with the twins six hours every day.  And I’m not seeing how this will work.

I’m sure it will work, somehow.   But today…I can’t figure out how.

Nine or ten months.  That’s how long most twin moms said the Double Snap n Go would be useful.  Knowing my propensity for producing very large progeny, I backed it off to six or seven months.

Wrong.

How long did my boys fit in their baby carseats?  Well, technically, Jesse still does–but Jonathan outgrew his at three months old.  Goodbye, carrier carseats.  So long, cool stroller frame.  Adios, ease of transport.

The new carseats are ginormous.  The new stroller is awesome–for the street and the beach, that is.  But definitely not for the library, fabric store, two schools and Super One.  It’s big, it’s heavy to load and unload, and it doesn’t fit through the doors.

So today I made a mei tai.  It was a somewhat frustrating project, as (in my usual style) I couldn’t just go the simple route, but had to combine four different patterns/plans in an attempt to get the best of each into a single carrier.  Also, despite all the warnings to use heavy fabric, I think I should have gone with something lighter.  Not lightweight…but lighter.  I used a soft denim, but it’s not *soft* soft…just soft for denim.

Add the very basic machine on which I sew, two intermittently fussing babies, three nights of limited sleep and four absent or only semi-helpful older kids, and, well, it’s amazing that I even got the thing done. 

But it’s done, and it will do.  I can put Jesse in it and push Jonathan in an umbrella stroller on those days when my errand list means getting in and out of the car several times.  Maybe it would have been better just to buy one, but hey, I saved at least $40 today by making the dang thing myself.

Ah, the first post.  What should it be about?  I consider and reject a dozen concepts and in the end, I have to leave because one of the babies is crying, the youngest teenboy needs to eat before he goes to a beach party, the girl wants me to start sewing the mei tai already so she can watch, the eldest teenboy is MIA, and the grown-and-flown boy…well, he’s not calling, but I’m sure he’s doing just fine out there on his own…