New Blog!

As many of you know, I’ve spent the last few years writing “Twins to Tweens,” talking about the tween years with my girls and the transition from being kid-twins to being slightly older “tween-twins.”

Well those days are over. My girls are officially teenagers – have been for several months now – and the tween has pretty much all leaked out of them. Now they are just teenagers.

So, I’m launching a new blog that will be more focused on something I have some very specific experience with – being a mom. It’s called “Being (Super) Mom” and you can find it at www.beingsupermomblog.com.

Join me and let me know how you (or your mom) are super!

I'll be sitting over here in the nerd section...

Have I mentioned that the girls are book-worms? And trivia buffs? And super-competitive about the daily crossword, sudoku and jumble puzzles?

Well, they are. And they didn't get it from me.

Pete is the game addict in the house. And it's no surprise he has passed it down to our children.

Every single day he does the crossword in the newspaper. But a few years ago, I distinctly remember one day that he couldn't find it. He was flipping through the paper, looking for the comics page where the crossword was, but it was nowhere to be found.

A few minutes later, he unearthed it from underneath the other pieces of the paper. And scrawled in kid-handwriting across three or four of the lines were answers to some of the clues.

"Who did this?!"
"Who's doing my puzzle?!"

Four little eyeballs appeared looking up, wondering what all the commotion was. Turns out they'd tried to answer some of the crossword clues themselves and filled a few in. I don't know if Pete was surprised, or proud, or if in that instance, he could see his daily puzzle flying out the window. All I know is the one time I did that, I got yelled at, so never again.

Thankfully, Pete went easy on them. And now on any given day, either of the girls will fill in some answers, but Pete typically finishes it up. They have also inherited his love for trivia, and have joined the Quiz Bowl team at school, in addition to downloading several trivia apps on their phones. They'll spend hours competing with each other or others online about all kinds of topics, from NBA basketball to literature, and one of their favorite topics: Harry Potter.

I guess I should be glad they aren't into something else less savory, but honestly I would be really happy if they would take an interest in some other topics as well, like cooking, or laundry, or the dishes.

Em

So. Much. Laundry.

This is a really big week for us – well, not me, actually – the girls have so much going on! And by default, I have lots going on. They have the 8^th grade field trip (an overnight!) to Atlanta, the Battle of the Books competition ("Maybe I can read a couple more books before Saturday..."), the start of Spring lacrosse practice, and a special youth group on Sunday night.

And in preparation for all of this, I’m – doing laundry. That’s right the key to a successful big week is having all the laundry done. Which is no small task these days with it being all cold and snowy outside all the time. There are so many clothes to wash it is nearly impossible to keep up!

Anyone have any good tips for getting the laundry done? This is one of the few chores where I don’t have any short-cuts. I do manage to sort: darks, lights, colors. Heck, we have enough red and pink clothes for their own load!

Here’s a picture of my very pretty laundry room, where I spend so much time! I'll spare you the "before" picture.

Shopping

Taking the girls shopping is always an experience. I still remember the very first time I ever had to perch myself in the dressing room on a chair and wait for them to come out and “model” their outfits for me. I was kind of in shock, because I remember that's what my mom did. I remember feeling old and privileged at the same time.

Until that day, I’d always brought home clothes, set them out, and they put them on and wore them. No questions asked.

All of a sudden, I had GIRLS. They cared what they wore, what color it was, whether it had enough sequins on it, the list goes on.

Now, several years later, I’m still finding a chair or just standing around in the aisle of the dressing room waiting. Sometimes with other moms.

We listen for the sounds of disgust.

And pray we hear those magic words: “this isn’t so bad.”

90-Day Challenge Update

I was overwhelmed with the response to my initial 90-Day Challenge post, and I want you all to continue to let me know how things are going. I am so pleased to have the support of my friends and am happy to offer support back. So don’t forget to tell me how you’re doing with your own challenges! It takes a village, right?

It is important to note that it is extremely cold in January in North Carolina. Some might disagree, but it’s my 90-Day Challenge, so I get to decide what cold is.

Because of the overwhelming frigidness, I’m running on days when it warms up a bit, or I go run on a treadmill in the gym. I don’t much care for the treadmill, but it’s better than freezing to death outside.

However, yesterday I ran outside in the chilly drizzle and found it to be, on the whole, not that bad. I guess last weeks snow and 7-degree morning showed me what real cold is and made it ok to run in 40-degrees and drizzly.

Also a major problem recently has been tempting food. I’m not even gonna tell you how much yummy stuff there was at the Super Bowl party at St. Marks. Well, actually, I am going to tell you: there was tons. Dip after dip of delicious cheezy goodness.

So as a result, I haven’t stepped on the scale yet this week. I’m going all salad-and-small-portions for a few days and we’ll see how that goes.

Em

I'm gonna go all crazy on these kids.

I’m about to go ALL KINDS OF CRAZY MOM ON MY KIDS.

“Why?” You ask. “Your girls are delightful – absolutely the sweetest!”

I’ll tell you why.

They stayed home all day today – slept in till 11:00 am they inform me. They didn’t do ANYTHING all day long.

Meanwhile, I went to work and WORKED all day. Then I came home to a disastrous house, with things all over the place – including this box of Rice Krispies – which has been sitting out open on the counter for over 5 DAYS. I had to do the dishes, the laundry, and figure out what to cook for dinner. And in the middle of it one of them scampers upstairs still in her jammies and un-brushed hair and asks, “How was YOUR day, mom?”

‘Scuse me for being a little touchy, but on top of all this, my husband decided to get on an airplane and fly somewhere today, knowing that it was going to start snowing. The airline cancelled his return flight tonight BEFORE A SINGLE SNOWFLAKE FLEW. And now I’m left wondering where in the world he will end up and if he’ll be home before Thursday.

So I’m a crazy mom and I have every right to be. Don’t mess with me until I finish this glass of wine.