My mother in law saved a little bit of everything. I know that cleaning her things out after her passing was a huge chore and took quite a while. But, oh! The treasures we found! One of my favorite things we found were baby clothes that belonged to my husband and his brother! The twins had already outgrown most of them by the time we went through those particular boxes, but they’re still so much fun to have.
Recently, my sister in law found racing suits that our husbands wore when they were little! We’re guessing they were about 2 years and 8 months old respectively in the pic, which was taken in 1989.
My husband and his brother in 1989
My Father-in-Law worked for Goodyear at the time, so the shoulders have Goodyear patches on them and of course the helmet in the original pic is a Goodyear helmet. One of the neatest things about that is now that my FIL is racing again, we have recently acquired Goodyear as a sponsor of the Lear Speed team! What an honor to have things come full circle!
B age 3
Since Daddy’s suit is for an 8 or 9 month old, we borrowed his brother’s suit to take pics. We were able to grab a few at the Pueblo race with Papa Boyd’s race car! The boys were thrilled and did NOT want to take it back off!
T age 3
I know the boys’ Grandma Lorri would have LOVED to see the boys in their uncle’s suit! I am thankful that she saved precious items like this that we can use to honor her memory.
My twins’ cousins: L age 4, K age 6 months
My SIL went so far as to remake the original pic, and I just LOVE it! Especially K’s smile! He quite enjoys pretending to be his uncle!
Thanks for coming along to see a little bit of our family’s history today! You can check out the Lear Speed team on Facebook to learn more about our current racing season!
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There’s a popular athletic brand that has the motto “Just do it.” You may know who I’m talking about. While intended to be an encouragement for athletes, I really think this motto really would better fit new moms, or moms of littles. Maybe moms of older kids, too? I don’t know much about that yet, but I’ll let you know in a few years.
Why do I say this? Well… because (at least for me) the first few years of motherhood make it hard to do things. Just getting out of the house is a marathon by the time you’ve changed diapers or helped littles use the potty, gotten everyone looking somewhat presentable, out to the car, buckled in, and remembered to pack the diaper bag or your purse full of snacks, water, and supplies for any and every situation that may come up while you’re out. It’s a little nuts. By the time you’ve accomplished getting everyone into the car, it feels like it should be time to take a nap (for mom at least!). Not time to drive TO the event, whatever it may be, and expend more energy, then pack back up and get everyone back home.
Yet, even with that daunting task of getting everyone in the car ahead of you, Moms, do it. Just get out. I can’t take credit for this thought though. A fellow twin mom stopped by one day to bring me the twin breastfeeding pillow she’d sold me. And when she dropped it off (she’s definitely a true mom friend if she knew not to expect me to be able to come get it!) she told me the best advice she had for me was to make myself get out of the house with the twins. Let me tell you – it’s terrifying to take 2 newborns into public. Not so much because I didn’t want people in their faces (it was winter so I was able to keep them pretty well covered and out of sight) but because they needed to eat every 2 to 3 hours and nursing 2 at once was a task all in itself. Plus they cried a lot, I was super tired, etc.
I took her advice seriously though. My mom went with me the first several times to help load them up and care for them. I think our first outing was to the mall to get me a few new clothing items for my new mom bod. We definitely went with a purpose and shopped as quickly as possible. We did have to walk to the other end of the mall to look at another store but never stopped to talk to people – I just kind of yelled answers back at people: “Yes! They’re twins!” “2 months old!” “Sorry, can’t stop to let you look at them, we’ve gotta keep moving before they get hungry!” Strangers have a lot of questions about twins, btw. We even scoped out a little area near the dressing room where we could stop to nurse if needed, but those little fellas did amazing. They were still quiet when we were done, so we raced home and were there for our next feed.
It felt so good to just get out and do it.
Exhausting? Yes! Terrifying? Of course! Empowering? Absolutely.
Now that the boys are 3 we’ve done so much more than I would have guessed. We have taken them to visit my husband’s side of the family – 3.5 hours – countless times. We’ve gone on 9 hour drives to Texas and Colorado half a dozen times. And in fact, we have even driven to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway which is at least 16 hours one way and flown with them to Florida. All of these trips were daunting, and there were moments during each trip that we didn’t enjoy, but do I regret any of them?! No! We made awesome memories on each one.
But you know what? It’s not always the huge outings/trips that are the scariest.
Last year some of the children’s leaders at our church approached me to see if I would teach a class at Vacation Bible School. We had never been ANYWHERE by 9 am 5 days in a row. But I said yes. And we did it. The twins got sick Monday night of VBS (it’s a M-F morning program) and someone had to teach my class Tuesday morning… but by George, we got through it and the rest of the week was a success.
This year when they asked me again, it was much easier to say yes. I knew it would be hard and we would be tired at the end, but we did it. We were almost late a few days, but we did it! No one even said anything negative to me the days that the twins and I walked in flustered, cutting it just a little close on time. I appreciated that so much! They understood I was doing my best, and I was in class and ready on time, and that’s what mattered!
For the sake of reality, you should know that I also say “no” to many things I want to do or that are available for me to do. We definitely cannot and should not try to do everything. But don’t say no to everything that scares you. Get out of the house, and go do things! If your kids yell a little too much and don’t listen and you have to leave early, it wasn’t a failure. You still tried it and did it!
I want this post to encourage you that even though there are things that are hard as moms, and even when they don’t go perfect – like VBS when my kids got sick or we ran late in the morning – it’s still worth it to get out and do them! Don’t try to do #allthethings, but do get out and do some things! You got this!
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Today, when the first day of VBS was over and I had picked the boys up from nursery I sank to a stool in the library. This morning totally wore me out! I finally garnered enough energy to go, but needed to take the boys to the bathroom before we got in the van.
That’s where the trouble began.
“But I don’t have any potty in me!” whined T.
“I don’t want to put my shoes on and go home!” cried B.
My mom helped and we eventually got the 2 dissidents to the bathroom. They chose their own stall (that’s super important) and we began the process of going potty. It’s not easy or simple, you know. It’s a whole process that begins with choosing which is the perfect stall to use and ends with washing and drying hands and soap and water everywhere. Surely you moms & dads know what I’m talking about?? Or maybe it’s just us. Sometimes I feel like taking 2 3 year olds to the bathroom is an Olympic event. And we train for it multiple times a day.
Anyway.
We had no sooner each chosen our respective stalls when we heard B began to bawl. He’d pinched his finger in the door trying to lock it and now the world was ending. I guess I wasn’t the only exhausted one because this kid could not handle life anymore. I tried to comfort him but he could not move on from the horror of the pinching. He cried while going potty. He cried while washing his hands. He cried while gathering our things out of the library. He cried when we headed toward the door.
But when I took off my name tag to put on the registration desk – I didn’t want to forget it in the morning – he wailed.
“You have to take it with us!!” – B
“No, I need to leave it here so I don’t forget it!!” – Me
“Noooooooooo! You have to take it with us!!” – B
I finally gave up trying to reason with him, and I carried him to the car while T tagged along with us. The crying did not stop through the parking lot. The crying did not stop while we buckled into our car seats. And the crying did not stop as we headed to grab lunch. (“BUT I DON’T WANT FOOD!”)
Once he finally got food he calmed down. I guess he’s like me and hits a wall of hunger and all of a sudden everything is not ok. Boom. Instant. Not ok. Hangry.
We made it home in a much better place (we also saw Mimi’s van, many crane trucks, a truck pulling a house on a trailer, a firetruck, a backhoe, and a couple tractors on the way home, which helped).
We got in the door. Everyone was calm. We sat down and to finish eating lunch. I thought we were totally in the clear and that everyone was over the events that happened right before lunch when I heard B say, “Mom?”
“Yes?”
“But why did you have to leave that [name tag] thing there? You neeeeeed it” – B
In the words of the vultures from The Jungle Book: “Now don’t start that again!” Oh, the joys of being a mom to inquisitive boys!
If you have a son, or multiple sons, or have been around little boys for any number of minutes, you know that boys are… just boys. They are loud. They are intense. They talk about the weirdest things. They like to make messes. And they are the sweetest, most encouraging little beings on the planet. Case in point. I had moved some of our play equipment around in the backyard, because it seems like the boys like to play on new things… or on things that look different and new. I try to move toys around inside the house on a regular (read: random and when I can remember to do so) basis, and I thought I’d try this technique outside, too. Well… imagine my surprise when I was out mowing the other day and looked up to see my cheering squad leaning over our 6′ fence! I couldn’t even be mad, though! Not only was it extremely energizing to hear “Good job, Mommy!” a hundred and fifty times in a minute, but I also could keep my eyes on them the entire time I mowed instead of needing to take frequent breaks to make sure they were still happily playing! The frequent thumbs-up and smiles were a huge positive, too! What a win-win situation! 🤣
My biggest fans!
Now, of course, I need to make sure they don’t climb over the fence when I’m not looking. Time to rearrange the backyard again, methinks! 🤪
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Full Disclosure: Links in this post may be affiliate links. I use these to help keep my blog up and going! I appreciate when you use my links to purchase products (and I know you appreciate knowing it doesn’t cost you any extra!), and I also appreciate you hanging out and reading my blog! Also, find my deal page to see great deals HERE!
Since I was out of town and didn’t get a Product Review Wednesday blog posted, I’m going to share this tip with you today! I thought more people knew about this, but recently found out a lot of my mom friends didn’t know… Did you know that you can get a free “Puppucino” from Starbucks for your kids or pets? Well, you can! It’s a little cup with a dollop of whipped cream and it makes them sooo happy!
For budgeting reasons I try not to go to Starbucks very often, but when I do go I don’t always want to buy something for the twins, too. Is that mean? Lol. The great thing is I don’t have to buy anything for them and we can still all leave with what we want! I just ask for a “Puppucino” for the boys and the barista puts some whipped cream in a little cup for FREE! What’s crazy is each time we go I ask them to make it SMALLER. They like to spoil my boys with more whipped cream than they really should be having and it cracks me up.
The other day my Mom called me and said she was having a fun day with the twins’ cousin K and wondered if we wanted to do something. I wasn’t sure we could tag along because I needed to go to the grocery store. Well, even though I usually use grocery pickup (Walmart’s is always free, or I use Dillons/Kroger’s if they have super good coupons specific to pickup) because it’s hard to go to the store with two 3 yr olds, my mom talked me into going to the store with them. So, instead of TWO 3 yr olds we went to the store with two 3 yr olds AND a 2 yr old 🤪.
We wanted to make it a fun adventure so we stopped by the in-store Starbucks first, of course. Each of the kiddos got their very own FREE Puppucino and Mom and I got our favorite drinks. Mom’s still learning her favorite drink but mine is a black & white mocha half caff… in case you needed to know 😉
The only negative to our awesome plan was that the kids were pretty much done with their whipped cream by the time we got our drinks… and thus hyped on sugar before we even started shopping.
Ya know, you live and you learn. To be honest, they actually did a great job. It went really well. I think K kept my boys distracted and they were good little shoppers. It just makes a better story if I act like a martyr pushing 3 cousins around. 😂
Oh, another random tip is that our Dillons (which is a Kroger brand) also give kids free fruit to snack on while you shop. So after the Puppucinos were gone K and the twins got to munch on orange slices.
It turned into a fun adventure for the kids and I got my grocery shopping done, so I call that a win! Does your local Coffee Shop or Grocery Store have a similar option for kiddos? Never hurts to ask if you don’t know!
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I remember the moments of literal insanity from lack of sleep during that first year. More than once I thought my baby was purposely being mean to me by waking back up just when I’d laid down. It was rough (is the understatement of the century). The hardest year of my life.
I remember choosing on their first birthday that year two was going to be better. I was going to get out more. I was going to start living life again instead of just surviving. And it wasn’t easy, but we did. We started going to the zoo with friends. I took them grocery shopping (oh that one time I forgot my wallet…) just to prove I could. Our double stroller barely fits through doorways and is no fun to maneuver by myself, but we got out and we did things. Everyone warned me that when they started crawling and walking that life would get harder, but I loved it. When they were mobile they could follow me around and I didn’t have to carry two babies around the house. Year two was rough, but we did it. And enjoyed it.
Around their second birthday I realized I needed to start doing something out of the house. Their attitudes were normal 2 year old attitudes, but double time. Some days it was more than I could handle. I decided to go back to work PRN. Somehow taking care of someone else’s babies during the day made me super excited to return to mine. The boys grew even closer to their Dad, their Mimi, & Grace, who all take care of them while I work. Life was busier and thus harder, but it was good.
We are now smack dab in the middle of year four. I have two 3 year olds around constantly. Neither of which EVER stop talking or asking for things (how many times a day can 1 child say “Mom, can I have a rolla bar please?”). I’m not the best mom. I don’t handle the constant of two little ones perfectly. But there are these moments that make me stop and catch my breath. I can tell that I’m starting to see why God gave us two babies at one time.
When they sit down together and have a 3 yr old discussion without fighting, it’s the best. When they happily play together, there’s nothing like it. When they have conversations or tell jokes or laugh with each other, it makes my heart pause to try to take it all in. When they haven’t seen each other in 30 seconds and giggle and hug because they’re so excited to be back together, my momma heart just about bursts. This morning they were outside playing in pajamas that don’t match, wearing their shoes on the wrong feet, just the way they like it. The breeze is cool and the temperature is amazing, and they were playing so happily together my heart almost couldn’t take it. It was a gift from God and my boys and it made my heart swell.
I still believe it’s a choice we have to make to thrive when life is hard, instead of just surviving. This is not something I have perfected by any means. And I still look back at that first year and wonder how we ever made it. The only way we did was by relying heavily on my mom & other family, friends, and God’s grace to make it through. Having moved past that it’s amazing to look ahead and see that my boys are growing into smart, kind little men with generous hearts towards others. I love seeing the things that delight them. My heart hurts when they are hurting. And I’m slowly learning that though I may never fully know why, God knew what he was doing when he gave us twins.
As I’ve thought about this post, I want to add a little bit to the end of my blog… to hopefully encourage YOU if you’re going through a hard time! It won’t always be this way. Things change, kids grow, jobs aren’t always the same. I would encourage you to reach out to God, and family or friends that you trust to help you get through it. Tomorrow will be different. Next week isn’t going to be the same as today. And by next year you might not even recognize yourself. If you need someone to specifically pray for you right now, please feel free to comment here or message me via my facebook page. I would be happy to lift your name to God to help you get through whatever you may be going through. Hugs, to you, my reader.
Full Disclosure: Links in this post may be affiliate links. I use these to help keep my blog up and going! I appreciate when you use my links to purchase products (and I know you appreciate knowing it doesn’t cost you any extra!), and I also appreciate you hanging out and reading my blog! Also, find my deal page to see great deals HERE!
I was 100% out of commission on Tuesday. We had a busy weekend at the race track and I didn’t sleep well (I never do when we’re not home! WHyyyyyy). We got home late on Sunday but I felt ok. I worked 14 hours at my “real” job on Monday. Once again I was tired, but I felt alright, and went to bed as early as I could. Tuesday morning I woke up and knew I didn’t feel great, but thought I’d be ok after napping for a bit. Nope. After my nap a full on migraine hit. I’ll spare you the details, but when my headache gets that bad my stomach gets upset and it’s not very fun. Luke came home at lunchtime and worked from home, and I slept until 3 pm. I think I could have slept all day, but at least at that point my headache was better and I was able to stand up.
I had a huge to-do list for yesterday. Laundry, cleaning, blogging, finding & posting deals. My body had other ideas. I think I just did too much without enough rest and everything shut down. I’ve only had 3 or 4 major migraines in my life, and this was one of them. I’m super thankful it didn’t last longer, and that I was able to function a little by afternoon. However, it wasn’t fun.
I’m sharing all this not to make you feel sorry for me, but more just to say that it’s HARD when life throws you curveballs that you have no control over. Tuesday was rough. I feel like I just lost a day. Then the past couple days have been rough because the boys have had rougher attitudes since they got to watch a lot of TV on Tuesday and kinda eat what they wanted (granola bars… they would live on granola bars if I let them). Now there are rules again and that makes for some unpleasant attitude adjustments.
There was a bright spot in our rough day though. My dad stopped by in the evening after I was feeling better, and the boys asked me to build with them using our magnetic tiles. It was a lot of fun to just sit and build things together. I’ve been wanting to get some of the name brand sets for my boys like this really cool one from Picasso Tiles, but have been waiting for a sale. Right now we have 2 off brand sets, and we love them! They were $10 or less each when I purchased them and have been such a huge hit in our house! (Set 1 and Set 2 we own). I will definitely be getting more! If you haven’t tried them yet, I’d definitely recommend a $10-$15 starter set, (and then you’ll be hooked)!
I don’t have any exciting words of wisdom to end with, but I do want to encourage you today! Remember that it’s ok if your day doesn’t go your way. And if your house is a mess because you didn’t feel up to cleaning. And if your children watch a little too much TV. Haha!
Annnnnd… If you do need something to keep them busy other than the TV, I REALLY recommend grabbing some magnetic tiles. Follow my FB page Fun2Find Deals for more deals! I post deals on magnetic tiles and so much more!
How often do you clean your Makeup brushes? I currently need to wash mine again! A quick google search says once a week is ideal to clean our makeup brushes! I am definitely not on top of it like that, but I have learned a few things trying to keep mine clean.
Keeping makeup brushes clean is super important! Not only can makeup buildup in the brushes be irritating to our skin, but it can also be a breeding ground for bacteria! Even in my 30s I get the occasional breakout, so I try to do everything I can to avoid them when possible.
A silicone cleaning tool is super helpful to get the makeup out of the bristles without ruining the brush! I currently have one very similar to this one. You can hold it with one hand and the brush with the other. I like it and think it works well. I recently also saw this silicone mat! The cool thing about is that you can just lay it in the bottom of the sink and you don’t have to hold it.
The other thing I make sure I have on hand is a good makeup brush cleaner. Harsher cleaners can mess with the bristles. There are some good reviews on using Dawn dish cleaner and Olive Oil, but it was easier for me personally to just get a cleaner that I knew was safe. There are all sorts of price points out there, but of course I tried to get the best deal. I’ve been very happy with this one! I also use very little of it at a time so it’s lasted me quite a while! (I bought it 2 years ago and still have quite a bit left… maybe I should clean my brushes more!)
If you’re just interested in my tips for cutting hair or the list of hair cutting tools we’ve acquired, scroll down to the bottom!
If you expect this to be a feel-good story of how to save money by cutting your boys’ hair, you will be sorely disappointed. This is the true story of how this mama is trying to save a few bucks, and the adventures that lie therein. 🤪
Our story starts out a happy one. A friend of the family cuts hair and offered to do the boys for only $5 a head. To me that’s a steal of a deal. I definitely felt like she was being cheated by only charging five dollars. She did their very first haircut, and did a great job! She was even able to withstand their moving and crying, and Troy quietly crying “help” the whole time. 💔 Aunt Tiffany gave them a haircut too, when she was in town. She also had to listen to Troy’s tiny cries of “help” the entire time she cut his hair. (It was the sweetest, most heartbreaking thing in the whole world!). These ladies are my heroes. All I had to do was hold my child still and comfort them while their locks were tamed. Until the dreaded day when the sweet gal that cuts the boys hair told me that she was about to have another baby, and was going to take a break from haircutting for a while. My world was shattered. And, if she’s reading this, she’s welcome to go back to cutting the boys’ hair anytime! 😆🤣
While there are other options for haircutting (I know not everyone would charge the $17/head that the local children’s salon does 😳), my husband and I decided that it would be cheapest in the long run for me to learn how to do it. Yet, you have to understand that this is not a straightforward task for me. I have a history with cutting hair. Not a good one. 💁🏻♀️
There was a time growing up, I was in junior high or high school, that my dad decided that I could learn how to cut hair and save our family lots of money. I have 5 brothers. That’s a lot of haircuts! He was even willing to be the guinea pig for me to learn on. I was game! How hard could it be? We didn’t have YouTube for an example, and I had never really watched a man’s haircut before. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. This didn’t bother my dad, he was all for it! The way he saw it, after a couple bad haircuts I could take over all my brothers’ haircuts and it would be all worth it.
🍂 🍁 I remember it was a cool fall afternoon we went outside on the front porch for me to learn how to cut his hair. I started out doing really well actually, for as little experience (none) that I had. It didn’t look half bad! Until, I accidentally cut above one of his ears too high. It kind a made him look like Dumb and Dumber on that side. OOPS! I felt really bad and wanted to fix it! I figured it looked bad for the ears to look uneven, so I cut the other side to match. Essentially I started with a decent haircut and completely decimated it. Not only that, but my dad was a deacon in our church, and had to be up front in the church to help frequently. He was unable to wear a hat during church, so the entire congregation had the perfect view of the beautiful haircut I’d given him. That was the one and only haircut that I ever gave him.
Fast forward a few weeks later. We decided that I surely must be better with clippers than with scissors, so I was assigned the job of cutting my youngest brother’s hair. How hard could it be to buzz someone’s head? Once again, it was all going fine until I clipped his ear. He kept complaining it hurt and I kept telling him nothing was wrong (we were out on the porch again so he couldn’t see what was going on!) and I finished the haircut quickly while trying to stop the bleeding. My brother never let me touch his hair again. And that was the end of my haircutting career.
Now, 20 or so years later, I once again am tackling the task of family haircuts. There have been tears (from both the boys and I). There have been injuries (mostly me cutting myself). There have been really really uneven bangs and horrible fading in the back. But there’ve also been a few good haircuts and lots of learning! And perhaps I’m getting better each time? I’m not sure yet… 😁 Either way, we’ll try this for a while and see how it goes. If I never improve at all, we may go back to having someone else cut it. For now, we’ve saved quite a bit of money already, learned a little, had some fun, and it’s been a good adventure. Well, it’s all been good except for #3 below ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Here’s a list of mostly helpful tips I’ve learned over the past year of cutting two 2-3 yr olds’ hair.
Use a distraction (think Kindle + favorite show). This is necessary. Also, sweet treats like fruit snacks or M&Ms when they sit still are a MUST! 📺
Have a second person there to hold them when they’re little. I usually cut the boys’ hair by myself, but every. single. time. I remind myself I should wait until Luke is around the next time. 👫
Do not trim around their ears with shears on Christmas Eve. (Ok, quick story. Skip it if you’re in a hurry! I usually refuse to cut their hair unless we have a few weeks until the next major event so it will have time to grow out a little if I botch it completely. However, I hadn’t had time to cut it leading up to Christmas. My sister in law wanted a picture of the boys in front of the Christmas tree so I decided to just trim it up A LITTLE bit above their ears before baths/pictures. It was actually going great. I was so proud of myself. Until… I felt it happen before I saw the blood. I snipped the TINIEST piece of skin off the top of my son’s ear. Did you know that ears bleed a lot? And it takes a lot of pressure to get them to stop? I’m so thankful my brother in law was there – he’s a doctor – and he was willing to help out by putting NewSkin on it and super gluing the area… but we couldn’t get it to stop bleeding. It took at least an hour for us to get it to stop – partly because it just bled a lot and partly because when we finally did get it to stop bleeding and started to put NewSkin on it we scared Troy and he slapped our hands away from his ear and hit his ear and it started bleeding again… so by the time we finally got it to stop bleeding and got some sort of a sealant on it, it was super late and the cousins were in bed and we were all super exhausted. Never again will I do a haircut on Christmas Eve!🙄).
Don’t cut their hair with a 2 weeks of the next major event. This gives it time to grow back if you butcher it. 🔪
Cut outside! If the weather is nice enough, I cut their hair out on the back deck. This makes clean up a hundred times easier! The only problem I’ve had cutting outside is that my child screams “HELP!” loud enough for all the neighbors to hear. I also trim their nails outside when possible (I learned this from my SIL!). ☀️
Pay someone you know and trust to cut their hair and watch! Ask questions! Have them show you technique if they’re willing. If you don’t have anyone you can ask, then… 💇🏻
Watch YouTube videos. There’s a ton out there! I didn’t find any at first for cutting only with shears, and I quickly learned why. It takes a long time and using clippers on one of the longer settings does almost the same thing- at least in the back. I still use shears on top to try to keep it a little longer. 💇🏻♂️
Get the proper tools. I tried cutting with sharp kitchen scissors the very first time and it was horrendous. Don’t do it. A list of everything we use can be found at the bottom of this post. ✂️
Use clippers around the ears and in the back. I learned the hard way that shears are super easy to clip the ear with, and they take a long time in the back. The Wahl clippers we use even have an ear attachment – that of course I still made look bad the first time I used it but am getting better! 🖇
Have bandaids on hand. This is kinda tongue in cheek but I’ve actually cut myself when they move WAY more than I’ve cut the boys. 🤕
If you think it looks bad and want to cut more to fix it, STOP! I accidentally cut Troy’s bangs way too short one time. It was kinda on purpose, I thought they’d look better that way, but then I kept needing to even them out and cutting one side a little shorter and they got waaaay too short. I’ve found that if I don’t like something, to stop and walk away. I can always fix it the next day if it still looks bad. After I’ve thought about it for a while it usually doesn’t look as bad as I thought and I can see what I need to do and what I really don’t needto do but just thought I did. 🛑
I usually give a bath or shower right after so they won’t be all itchy! Even with the cape we now have, hair just gets EVERYWHERE. 🚿
It’s ok to laugh at yourself! They’re just little boys and they look cute even if I’ve botched their hair! I’m not a beautician, I didn’t go to school for this, and I’ve only given around 10 haircuts in my life! It’s really ok to not be perfect. 🤭
I don’t even know how to explain what being a mom is like, but I feel like this picture is a pretty good description.
This was my view this morning as I tried to go to the bathroom. We’re talking a quick trip to the bathroom to use the toilet. Nothing else. No shower. Not washing my face or doing my makeup. This is the setup that happened in the minute or two it took me to sit down and do my business. Yes, of course, and wash my hands afterwards. And then I had to run grab my phone to take this picture.
I was sitting in the living room with the boys. I didn’t announce I was leaving the room. I didn’t tell them what I was doing. I just got up and walked away to quickly use the toilet and return. No sooner than I had taken 3 steps toward the bathroom I heard the noise level behind me change. I heard little steps following behind, making sure to grab things they would need for our bathroom adventure on their way.
T’s choice was a chair and a book. He sat and read (with his backpack!) while I peed. B, however, went all out. He grabbed a pallet, a book, a blanket, and his bear and literally took a fake 10 second nap -that’s all the time he had left by the time he got himself situated- while I was in the bathroom.
This is my life! This is a Mom. A boymom. A twinmom. Every mom. I walk away and they follow. I open a bag of bread to make toast for breakfast and I immediately have two scientists observing and questioning my every move. I take a deep breath and they ask “are you ok, Mommy?” I take a step toward the kitchen and they ask “what are you making, Mom?”
My children never stop moving, never stop talking, don’t like to be alone – unless they’re trying to get away with something – and they even follow me to the bathroom. I’m not even a true introvert, but this all-the-time leaves no time for a quiet moment. That’s what it’s like being a mom.
Some days the constant is really hard. The everywhere, all the time wears on me. I often must purposefully remind myself that this is good. This is normal. All the questions are because they are learning. The following me everywhere is because they love me and want to be with me. And if I take pause and really look at this moment – it makes me laugh. Two little boys, setting up camp with their mama in the bathroom.
Last night, I was really tired. The boys were eating a yogurt snack before bed and I was getting ready for bedtime. They starting covering each other with the yogurt. It was all over their faces and hands, and in their hair. I wanted to be mad, but I couldn’t help laughing at them. And they laughed and laughed and laughed with me. I even tried to say “I am upset at you guys” but B told me, “You can’t be mad! You are like this” and showed me the funniest laughing face ever. It felt good to laugh and not be upset. It made cleanup easier, too!
I guess what I’m trying to say is that the round the clock, the all the time can be tiring. There’s good, there’s bad, there’s fun, there’s difficult, there’s excitement, there’s exhaustion, there’s constant. So remember to laugh a little- like my boys reminded me last night. And like this picture reminds me as well. Next time you’re asked what it’s like being a mom, just show them this picture. And then laugh. There’s just no other way to describe it.
