what's up weekly. (Finally Starting to Feel a Bit Normal!)

Well, hello friends!  What a difference a week makes!  Last Friday, I was a little at my wits' end - exhausted, dealing with back pain, feeling stressed and depleted.  This week has been a radical improvement.  The babies officially turned three months old, and that must be the magic number because they're all of a sudden settling in to a really manageable routine.  (It doesn't hurt that I polled many of my large-family-mom friends with twins and got some solid sleep training pep talks.)  It's incredible.  They have been getting up for the day between 6:30 and 7:00, and then on a very predictable three-hour schedule through the day.  I'm having to wake them up from most naps! And then they're down for the night between 7:30 and 8:30.  I'm only up with them once a night now, and things feel so much more manageable.

I also got us in for chiropractic appointments.  Todd took some time off work on Wednesday so he could drive us into Kansas City, and the babies and I got adjusted.  Good heavens, I am so glad.  I feel a million times better!

Other than that, I don't have much to report.  I feel like I am finally getting caught up on the house mess that accumulated during late pregnancy and those first postpartum weeks.  I'm hopefully getting a sustainable system in place that's allowing me to tackle most of the bigger things so the baseline state of our household is not quite so grungy.

Speaking of grungy, our garage has gotten out of control.  It wasn't great before, because we use our garage for a lot of things and I haven't gotten adequate storage systems in place out there, but it was getting really bad with the chickens out there.  They kick up shavings that go everywhere, and the kids would spill food or water when trying to care for them.  Plus the stench that they developed once out of that cute little baby stage has been unreal.  But they were still pretty young to put outside in the coop, even if it had been secured since the racoon busted in, which it hadn't yet.  

So yesterday I put Atticus to the task of troubleshooting what needed to be done to secure the coop.  He planned out how he would rebuild the door, we went and grabbed a few supplies, and I left him out there to execute his plans.  He got it done in under an hour; I was so impressed.  And the door he built is way better than the one that I had built before.  We got an extra latch on the inner coop door as well, so things should be safer now and we officially moved all the chicks out there last night.  You might say they flew the coop and we are now empty nesters.  You might say that if you were a dork.

Um, what else?  The big kids have kept up with school, Atticus has continued his mowing jobs and farm work.  We're headed to a pool party tonight for a friend's birthday.  I've also been diligent with my Ab Rehab workout program and am starting to see a bit of improvement in the mirror. And other than that, not much to report!  I have been exhausted, so I'm going to head to bed now.  

Enjoy these sweet photos of the kids playing together this week!

Sunrise bubble machine.

Never too old to play G. I. Joes.

Have a great weekend!

what's up weekly. (Groundhog Day.)

Guys, I have never in my life have procrastinated on writing a blog post like I have this one.  Not for any major reason, I just keep looking at the blank screen and then feeling paralyzed and then finding something else to do instead.  Now that I've put it off for the last hour, I am going to put theoretical pen to theoretical paper and just write this thing and then go to bed.

The reality is that life has been just wild around here lately; or, anyway, it has felt that way.  I am desperately trying to get my feet under me with the babies' nursing and sleep schedule and managing my "free" (read: nonbreastfeeding) time, which is still very limited.

Last week, I had to move the babies out of their swaddles because they kept figuring out how to roll to their tummies while in their swaddles and sleeping in the SnuggleMe pillows.  Horrifyingly dangerous.  So I removed the swaddles and the pillows.  But then I didn't feel super safe having Eulalie still sleep in our bed (her pillow had been between me and Todd, and Knox slept in a sidecar bassinet on my other side).  But the bassinet wasn't big enough for both of them, so I set up a pack and play in our room, but it also wasn't big enough for both of them to sleep in.

Knox "saw" Eulalie for the first time this week!  He noticed her, and wouldn't stop staring and smiling.  She still hasn't "seen" him yet.

So suddenly I found myself moving them to the nursery overnight much earlier than I had expected or wanted.  On the plus side, they sleep well enough in the crib (they share it for now), and because they have each other, the move has been without the angst I often feel when previous babies have been moved out of our room to sleep by themselves.  But, on the flip side, I'm going back and forth between bedrooms all night because twins need me all night.  Knox doesn't need much, but Eulalie is still a very restless sleeper, and their schedules don't always sync, so it's a lot of up-and-down each night.  

They're settling in to a bit more of a predictable routine, going to bed around 7:30, getting up various times at night, and not getting up for the day until at least 6:30 (that last bit is an imposition on my part - often they're wanting to be awake shortly after 5:00, but that is not morning, so I don't indulge that whim).  They've been on a 2.5 hour schedule during the day, but this week I've been trying to move it to a 3-hour schedule to buy myself a little extra time between feedings.  You'd be amazed at the difference a half-hour can make in morale.

Anyway.  Things are hopefully moving in a good direction.  I told a friend yesterday that I feel like three months is when you start to feel desperate, and four months is when babies settle into a groove, so you spend a month in a sleep-deprived hysteria, trying to impose order on the chaos, just for it to sort itself out eventually without you.  That's where we're at.  Add to that the fact that my back is outrageously out of alignment and 100% of the time feels like molten lava and also like someone continues to overwind the music box, and you have yourself a certifiable mess.  BUT one that will work itself out eventually.  (Well, the sleep deprivation/chaos issue.  The back problems seem less willing to negotiate peace.  If anything they're getting more hostile over time.)

This girl giggled once this week!

Beyond that, Ophelia has officially potty trained, the big kids have kicked off their school year, and we're playing Mama Hens to nine pubescent chickens.  (We gave half back to our friends, and are waiting to see how many of these remainders are gals.)  Todd spent a day in Columbia for a work meeting.  I have also been trying to get a handle on the house and the schedule and my eating habits, as well as teaching the oldest four some expanded cooking skills, before the school year kicks off.  It has been just wild.

The weather cooled off for a bit this week, which was welcome respite after such a hot stretch.

The kids have been doing well with the work load, and I have enjoyed the "soft launch" of school.

The chickens have moved to an all-inclusive resort in the garage.  They spent some time outside in the grass today and seemed confused/thrilled/nervous/adventurous.  The boys got the coop cleaned this week, but I will need to secure the door where the racoon broke in before we can move them out there.

This kid, I tell you.  She has taken so much longer to train than my other kids, mostly because I haven't had the bandwidth or the discipline to just sit with her in the bathroom for hours on end over the course of a couple days.  So days stretched to weeks.  But I think we can safely say she is now trained!

So far, my breakfast kids have learned to make scrambled eggs, stovetop oatmeal, baked oatmeal, sausage and gravy, and cheese and sausage biscuits.  My lunch kids have made everything from roast chicken, to pulled pork, to homemade soup.  Next I need to teach everyone to make bread, which will open up even more options.  It's been good, but the menu planning fatigue has hit hard - I have never had to think much ahead for breakfasts and lunches, and have always streamlined this part of life by keeping options very limited.  It has definitely complicated things to add this in each day.  But I'm glad the kids are learning to cook, and they're glad for the increased variety.

And last new item of note, I've begun a diastasis recti/Ab Rehab workout program, though I'm moving slowly through it as I don't have guaranteed time to work at it each day.  But I'm feeling hopeful - it already seems to be helping a bit, and Lord knows I can use the help.

With all the changes happening around here, I am happy to note that not everything is different.

We still anchor our weeks around our regular weekly happenings: Milk pickup on Tuesdays, Atticus' mowing jobs through the week, Pizza and Ice Cream Night on Fridays (or Psalm Sing once a month), Men's Beer and Books, Atticus' farm work on Saturdays, Sabbath Dinner on Saturday nights, church and rest on Sundays.  

The kids are still hilarious.

Finneas painted Oey's face.

They're also so sweet.

Found this photo on Callista's camera reel.  I LOVE it.

Now, I'm headed off to try to get a little sleep before Babies happen and we begin the dance all over again.  It's starting to feel a bit like Groundhog Day.

what's up weekly. (again! for the second week in a row! i'm on a tear.)

TWO FRIDAYS IN A ROW?!?! I must have my life together.  I must really be killing it.

Again, the babies are in bed as I write this, as should I be, so I'm going to try to give you the rundown as quickly as I can so I can go conk out for a few hours before I'm back to "the Endless Grind," as Penelope calls nursing twins.  (I will say, though, the Grind is less Endless at night most nights - they're usually only up once.  Thank the good and gracious Lord.)  But stuff has been wild around here lately, and has only been picking up momentum, so it's going to have to be a pretty brief flyover because I'm exhausted!

I am getting better and better each day at doing One-Baby Things with Two Babies.  Nursing, holding, carrying.  My sister recently sent me a twin baby carrier, so I will get to cut my chops on that at church this weekend.  Things feel a little more natural and less "doubled" each day.

The babies and I joined the FAL (Family-At-Large) for a little while for Sunday night movie night.  That's one activity I haven't been able to return to in full yet, but it was fun getting to join the gang for a little bit before they watched Avatar.

If only Knox was scooched over a bit!  This might have been the first photo with all ten (TEN!) of them.

The kids celebrated Jenny Geddes Day by launching water balloons at Todd, as is our custom.  

Our chicks hatched.  Of course I only got photos with my phone.  Ugh.  I hate it when that happens.  But the long and short of it is that they started hatching two days early.  The kids said they were seeing pips in the shells that morning, but I didn't believe them because it was too early.  (Two days doesn't seem like much, but when gestation is only twenty-one days total, that's pretty significantly early.)  But they were right, and pretty soon our thirty-one eggs had manifested into eighteen chicks.  Many eggs didn't hatch at all, a couple showed signs of pipping but never made it beyond that stage.  We had one 'quitter' that had made good progress cracking the shell but then must've given up.

They lived very briefly in the house, but have since been moved to a kiddie pool in the garage because the noise, mess and heat from the heat lamp are just too much for the living room.

I played Chicken EMT for one little guy who had worked so hard to get out.  He had started early in the morning on Day 19 and worked and cheeped all day, but was struggling to get his head out.  I went to bed that night sadly figuring he would be dead by morning.  But when I got up, he was still fighting and cheeping.  So I texted my Chicken Friend to see what I should do, and she walked me through helping him.  It's a risk, but she reminded me that if I didn't do anything it would die anyway, so I wasn't actually risking his life and may end up saving it.  So I gave him a bath in warm water and picked the shell off (the membrane inside the shell had glued itself to his face and then dried, making it impossible for him to move his head in such a way as to get out), then I blow dried him.  He seemed like he might end up crippled, but by the next day he had fluffed out and rallied, and is still doing well.  The kids named him Noodle Neck and we're all hoping he's a She.

Another little guy got his head stuck under part of the egg turner (which I should have removed before hatching for this very reason) and I was pretty sure he was a goner.  But Finneas got him unstuck, and while the first day he seemed like his leg was damaged, he also rallied and is now fine.  The kids named him Little Scraggly; I call him Stanky Leg; and we are all hoping he's also a She.  

The other chicks we're hoping to keep are named Zebra, Popcorn, Arrowhead, and Smoky.   We're wanting to end up with 4-5 hens in the end, and all the rest will go back to my Chicken Friend's flock.

The same day the chicks started hatching, we started potty training with Oey.  It is going... okay.  She is (mostly) doing a good job of not having accidents, but she isn't relaxing enough to actually go on the potty.  Which means she's holding her pee all day until she's in a diaper at nap or bedtime.  Not an insurmountable obstacle to progress, but she's being stubborn about it.  We're a week in, and we've only had a couple of actual potty successes to celebrate.

Here we're all getting M&M's to help her celebrate her success.  I have some other adorable photos of our experience this week, but alas, the internet is just chock to the brim full of freaks, so I will be keeping those as part of our personal collection.

Meanwhile, Eulalie has decided to go on a nursing strike.  It was really stressful there for a few days because she just absolutely refused to latch.  So in addition to feeding Knox, I was also pumping when I couldn't get her to nurse, and then feeding her with a bottle.  Which then affects my supply, which then affects both her and Knox... I can see how successfully nursing twins can go downhill quickly.  Luckily, Todd was able to figure out that pretty forcefully patting her back calmed and distracted her enough that she would latch on, and from there she was fine with continuing to eat.  So that's what we're doing now while I hope she mellows back to normal soon.

Last Saturday, our church threw a baby shower for us and a couple other families who had babies around the same time.  I am frequently reminded of how grateful I am for our church family, and how glad I am that we moved here.  It has been the fit we'd been looking for for so long.

That afternoon after we got home, my aunt came by for a visit.  She and her daughters had come down from Iowa to spend the day in Kansas City, and they stopped by while they were in the area.  It was so fun to see them, and the kids all hit it off right away and had a blast playing together while Berta and I chatted and caught up.

I also spent this week prepping the kids for the start of school.  While my younger kids won't start until September, my high schoolers will start next week.  That means shopping for school supplies, planning the launch, assigning new chores, and actually training them in their new chores.  We got it all done but manalive.  Back to school time is no joke.  

The kids had a meeting with HR to prep for the upcoming corporate initiative launch.  In other words, they're getting their chore assignments.

Lolo and Finneas now share the job of making breakfast.  So they developed a few new cooking skills and learned a couple new recipes this week.

And other than that, we're all trucking along like always.  Atticus is juggling a lot of weekly mowing jobs as well as his farm job, so we've spent a lot of time driving him to work.  (And ironically, as a result, have had less time than is ideal for teaching him how to drive himself.)  

Callista has been obsessing over the babies, who feel the same way about her.

Juni and Laurelai have continued with their eye patching in the hopes that their vision will continue to improve.

Lolo spends her days in creative endeavors like baking and crafting.  Here she is a box troll.  Yesterday she was a stewardess.  The day before that she made cookie bars.  It's a jolly holiday with Lolo, no wonder that it's Lolo that we love.

Some of the kids have been listening through the New Testament together.

And more twin life because that's the good life.

And now I'm off, and I'm not even going to proofread because I need to go to bed.  So if there are typos, take it up with the Typo Police.  I'm off the clock.

See you next time!