close your office door and then read this...

maybe I am really behind

and you've already seen it

but just in case you haven't, shut your door and brace yourself

To the Childless People Wondering Why We're Such Losers

I cry/laughed
it was amazing
I can't remember the last time I did that

okay if you don't have a child, it may be more like a swift kick in the teeth, but maybe then you'll get us, just a little bit more.

now that that's out of the way, I hope you had a wonderful father's day....

I know we did.

what happens when you don't blog for two months

first you feel guilty

then you miss it

then you just ignore the pull of the computer altogether

email... what's that?

then you do the following and try not to feel guilty about choosing it over everything else:

consume mass amounts of starbucks via ice coffee (don't try it unless you want to become an addict, you've been warned)

watch all the episodes of Homeland and then get mad because you have to wait until the fall to see more of it

attempt potty training

learn about a magical three day method and then stop what you are doing

feel your jaw drop open for the tenth time that day because one of your daughters has just said yet another new word

go to the park

go back to the park

maybe we should just live there

plan three vacations

one in which involves a week away with just your husband

take three weeks to actually click through to book that trip because does that make me a terrible mother?

order new bikinis because the ones you have will not work with this twelve year old body you seem to have developed post twins because I'll be damned if I don't look good while I do exactly nothing but lie on a chair and drink pina coladas for one week

do more yoga in the span of two months then you've done in the past year

crow headstand crow... I've missed you

run, gym, run

try my best to parent without the goal being to control... I will not try to control my children... I will not!

clean

the type of cleaning where I am scrubbing at the floor on my hands and knees for the fourth time today

more cleaning because you get rid of your cleaning ladies now that you have more time to clean

read

lots and lots of reading

like a book every two days

the latest... The Sea of Tranquility... definitely worth reading

then you write 70 000 words give or take because a week before april started you decided to do camp nano

and still haven't finished a first draft

but i will

that's what I am thinking right now. I am on the computer... I should be writing not blogging

but I miss it

I wish I didn't because then I would still have more time for the everything else

but I do

I feel like I dropped half of me off back in March because blogging is almost like having two sides of you that you have to maintain

the everyday breathing, walking, parenting, wife-ing, daughter-ing and friend-ing you and then the virtual you

I miss all of you

and if you could just send me a synopsis of your life to my email once a week that would be fabulous

because then I might have a shot in actually getting to it

but I don't see that happening so I will have to make do

with not knowing, but hoping that everyone is off living 

and if you've made it this far well then good for you

now if you could just go and send me a quick email getting me up to date on your last two months that would be much appreciated!

(i am not kidding)

a day in the life of

my life these days

is filled with little girls, laughing, chasing, spinning, messes, snotty noses, teething, running, loving

my life is a perpetual routine

it begins at 5:30 am and ends somewhere around 10 pm

my day... not theirs

I have stuck to my getting up early plan and am usually up by 5:30

I usually do a yoga video, but sometimes I just park my butt on the couch downstairs and read

Sometimes I cook something (okay like twice ever)

Sometimes I try to write... but at 5:30... my brain just tells me no

Usually I eat

and lately I have been eating this

quinoa boiled with cinnamon sticks + unsweetened coconut + banana + flax seeds + blueberries (added a day after I took this pic) + brown sugar (also added the next day) + unsweetened almond milk

the first time I had it I had to repeat... it's good, it's good, it's good for me!?

the second day I gave myself a break and added the brown sugar and blueberries

now it actually is good and mostly good for me

tip: cook it ahead and refrigerate it (1 cup uncooked gets me four days of breakfasts)

tip: do not give it to your nineteen month old's without supervising them closely... you will be picking it off the floor for an hour

fast forward to 7 am. I have usually showered and am busy getting ready. Andrew wakes up the girls and gets them dressed

7:15ish am we're walking down the stairs and headed right for the highchairs

alice and isla breakfast time

some point before 8 am. breakfast over, cleanup hopefully over... eagerly await our daycare friend

doorbell rings, squeals all around

and off they go... playing their little hearts out

8:30ish diaper changes times three

9 am morning snack

whenever that's finished and the kitchen does not look like a disaster zone... outside we go!

now that the snow is showing signs of leaving us we are heading to a wet and messy park... but i will take it because spring... it's coming

10:30ish am we're back inside and diapers are getting changed once again

now is the part where I get to make lunch while simultaneously watching the three little ones empty toy after toy from every room on the main floor.

11:15ish am chow time

noonish... at this point on great days lunch is through and the floor does not show traces of a triple toddler food throwdown

on less than awesome days I remove toddlers from highchairs and bring them straight to the playroom, closing the gate on the mess that I will face once nap time commences

diapers times three

12:15ish pm we're upstairs, we're trying to climb into our cribs, we are ready for naptime

read a book, night night

me: big sigh

oh where to begin

the possibilities are endless... well not really

clean up, vaccuum maybe, fold laundry, make my own lunch, when did I last eat?... right 6 am

yoga... maybe, read... yes please

2:30 or 3:00ish pm and they're up!

diapers

snack

waving byebye to our little friend

4ish pm shall we go to the park again or to the grocery store? or we could really live it up and head to starbucks

(cinnamon coffee cake is their fave)

4:45ish pm dinner time (theirs, not mine)

5ish pm Daddy's home (thank god)

5:30ish pm up up (translates to leave the kitchen in ruins and climb the stairs as fast as we can)

cue the sillies 

... running the hallway, stripping off their clothes... playing on mommy and daddy's bed

6ish pm bath time

this is daddy's department. he is the bath time guru and I put together diapers and clothes for the next morning and on good days also make headway on the mess that is our kitchen table / floor / frantically run around the house putting every toy away and removing all big toys from our main room

6:30 pm night night

6:31 pm glass of wine time

okay I am kidding

I wait a while longer for that

the evening... oh those are ours

this is where the army like routine ends

as long as the days can be

they never seem to feel like work

maybe it's the tutus

maybe I just tell never allow myself to think of it as work

either way, it's our life

the weekend I was supposed to be a woman

A few weeks ago my phone rang. It was mid morning and I was doing my usual mid morning thing... chasing after three 1.5 year olds. My parents were on the line, both of them and they sounded a bit funny... in a good way. They proceeded to inform me that they were sending Andrew and I away over night and that they would be staying with Alice and Isla. I won't lie... my eyes... they got wet... from the almost tears that almost spilled. That night away, it would be my first since the girls were born.

Fast forward a week and a half.... Thursday morning... early. Enter the flu... the stomach flu... shit that sucked. But hey, it would only last 24 hours right.... right.... right.....

Wrong. 

I got all mind-over-matter on myself and I was good right... right...

So Saturday morning came and off we went to Montreal.

We went for lunch... I tried to eat.  We window shopped. We headed to our hotel in old montreal. The Nelligan to be specific. The last time we stayed there was when I had just started our IVF protocol... more than two years ago.

Coles notes version. I almost simultaneously cried and puked during dinner out at Holder in old montreal. The nightclub across the street from the hotel kept us up until 4 am. Andrew got the flu on the way home.

Fun times had by all. 

clearly the universe was not prepared for my spending one night away from our girls... I get it... lesson learned.

and in my attempt to keep this mildly positive... here are the pictures... I don't even recall taking...

One surprise... there is now a White in old montreal. I have been to and love the White in Toronto. If you are getting married and live in this part of the world... go there.

Happy Tuesday!

well hello there

You might think that I have been in hiding.

Maybe I have.

Or maybe we had a mad case of the stomach flu + an escape to montreal that wasn't + a side order of colds all around.

That's what we had, what we've been living and I would be lying if I said that it didn't suck... because believe me... it has.

Now last night I polished off a plate of Chinese food and today, life gets back on track today.

I was up at 5:30 and on my yoga mat five minutes later.

On the more fun side of things, I did manage to read through about five books these past couple of weeks. I am more in love with my kindle + goodreads every day. Are you on goodreads?

Of course every book I read reminds me that I should really be writing more instead of reading.

But I just chalk it up to research.

We also finished up Dowton Abbey.... dammit is all I have to say about where it left off.

Now we are five episodes into Homeland. So far, so good.

How are you doing? Do you share my desire to whip out my blow dryer and melt all of winter off my front lawn?

Happy Friday