i heart orange

spring!

 
Yesterday we took advantage of the (mostly) nice weather and took a walk...I'm really ready for spring/early summer. I'm sure that it'll soon be too hot for a mid-afternoon walk and I'll miss the cooler days of early spring but right now I don't want any more snow!! We had a great weekend - which really started mid-week with a dinner with friends, movie night the next day, a little work, visit from out-town-family, dinner with friends, and book club! We selected a book a short stories, which was relatively hard to find but enjoyable. (I forgot how much I like reading short stories, much easier to keep up with!) Hoping for some nice weather this week and especially this mother's day weekend. Hope that you are enjoying spring wherever you are!

visit

A few weeks ago two of my oldest friends happened to be in town at the same time from (Northern and Southern) California. We decided to take advantage of the happy coincidence and have a birthday brunch/impromptu baby shower to celebrate the occasion. We had a very relaxed lunch of pizza and cupcakes and were fortunate enough to be joined by all of our Moms, a husband, my Dad, and three little people.

Both of my friends moved to Colorado and to my elementary school in the fifth grade. During lunch my friend's Mom told the story of her first day at school, when she dropped her off in my classroom I eagerly jumped up and down and said, "We are going to be friends!" Probably not the best way to make a new friend...I guess I decided to skip the meeting, getting to know each other, and sharing some laughs, that typically preceeds the declaration of friendship. Though, clearly, at that moment, I didn't know that not only would we be friends, but we would be lifelong friends, I can't help but smile at the simplicity of my statement and about how true it was.

Our other friend joined a few months later...and twenty five years of sleepovers, sharing books, writing letters (some from one foreign locale to another...), making mix tapes, visits (we haven't lived in the same town in over fifteen years), junior high, sharing secrets and dreams, movies, hikes, soccer practices, a race or two, weddings, meeting each other's babies, smiling, telephone chats, emailed pictures, high school, movies....we are still friends.

We may not talk everyday or share every detail of life with one another, but we know all of the important stuff about each other. No matter how much time passes between our visits it feels like we've just seen each other from the minute we sit down. It brings a lot of comfort to me to know that though we may not share a zipcode, they are always there for me to celebrate or to lend support.

And when I saw my friend's two year old daughter give my nine-month old son a kiss and his twin sister a hug my heart almost exploded with happiness! I hope our children continue to know each other as they grow up. More than that, I hope they, too, get to look back at twenty five years of friendship with someone.

april, already?

First, I would be remiss if I did not express my (belated) sympathy for Japan after the tragic earthquake and tsumani in March. You may have already donated, if not: here are links to the Red Cross and to UNICEF. Or you can purchase Songs for Japan from iTunes, $9.99 buys you 38 songs from various artists (U2 to Lady Gaga to John Lennon) - all of the artists, etc. waived their royalties and the proceeds will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross Society.

I have been missing for over two months...again. Though I have all sorts of excuses, I have missed you and I hope to post more often in the near future. (Yes, I realize I have said this before...) In any case, it has been a busy two months: an unexpected trip, illness, but also plenty of happy occasions as well. I have read some books that I recommend, seen a few movies that I don't, and have enjoyed the spring-ish weather as much as possible.

I am still struggling trying to get everything done (organizing project overwhelm and await) and spending time with friends and family...I suspect this is an on-going struggle.

we all have 3s

Happy happy! I hope you had a happy holiday and new year, I know I am very behind in my well wishes! Our holiday was great; we spent lots of time with family and friends (many who were visiting from out of town), toasted the new year at 3:00 p.m. (we were home by 5:00), watched Season 8 of 24 in a remarkably short time period, and have spent the last few weeks trying to honor one of our resolutions: spending more time with those we love! We've met friends for breakfast, been brunch guests, and shared some dinners! We even managed to sneak out for a date night. My brother's family came to town for a weekend and my adorable three year old nephew made cupcakes with my Mom for our birthday...2 M&M's because it was 2 people's birthday. (Although he had a hard time understanding the concept of twins. When I told him that me and his Daddy are twins he said, "No you're not, you're not two mans!" Apparently there are a set of boy twins in his daycare...He also pointed out that we all have 3s in our age.) Our birthday was fun, we had a nice family dinner on our actual day and the next night we were able to enjoy a fantastic meal at our favorite restaurant, thanks to our parents and family friends for watching all of the children!

Hope your new year is off to a good start and that you are working on your resolutions (if you had any) and that you are enjoying time with those you love. Oh, and if you need a good book recommendation, I am halfway through this one and I am really liking it. (Hopefully I'll finish soon so I can start this month's book club selection!)

half done

As I'm sure it has been for most of you, it has been a busy couple of weeks around here. Over the last week we had some friends over for pizza and wine, I took a Photoshop Elements class (dearheart arranged it as my anniversary present - he stayed at home with the kids!), we saw a show, visited some lights, went to a few holiday parties, and different friends brought over pizza again last night!

In the meantime, we've been trying to get ready for the holidays...as the title of this post reflects, I am about half done with everything. The lights are on the tree, but not the ornments. Most presents have been procurred, but they are not yet wrapped or shipped. We received our holiday cards yesterday, but they haven't yet been addressed, stamped and mailed! In the midst of all of this happy chaos, dearheart and I are trying to start our own traditions and to enjoy our first holiday with the twins! We are looking forward to a busy weekend ahead - visit to long time friends and another holiday gathering, checking some things off the list, and enjoying a decorated tree and a cup of hot chocolate (as with so many other things, I have the ingredients ready and waiting...) Here's hoping you, too, are enjoying the season!!

keepsakes

Today's post is inspired by something I just received in the mail! Our family has been lucky enough to celebrate the birth of four little people this year and I wanted to do something to commemorate  those births when it came to the holidays. Unfortunately, I'm not as crafty as my sister-in-law, but I did spend some time browsing the web. I ordered some personalized ornaments from Paloma's Nest (introduced to me by my aforementioned sister-in-law who sent deaheart and I a bowl on our first anniversary) for the twinkies and our niece and an ornament our nephew can personalize himself (with the help of his parents, of course). And though I am typically pretty sentimental, I must be feeling very sentimental as I also took advantage of an online sale at Snapfish and ordered some photo ornaments for the twins as well. It probably had something to do with the fact that this is the first Christmas and because I just pulled out the box of Christmas ornaments dearheart's Mom collected over the years and gave to him...

everything seems better when there's something baking with cinnamon in the oven

We have had a good and fairly busy weekend. It started with my monthly girls night - we went to a holiday craft fair on Friday and had dinner afterwards. It was great to catch up! On Saturday we tried to get a picture of the twins for our holiday card (it is nearly impossible to get them both looking at the camera, nevertheless smiling, at the same time!) and I ran errands for the better part of the afternoon before coming home to try to get through some of the piles of mail before cracking open a bottle of sparkling wine a friend gifted us awhile ago and settling in with a movie. Sunday morning we took the twins out to breakfast and I worked on the holiday card (just uploading and arranging pictures, I'm not ambitious enough to make my own cards...), cleaned the house, and ran a few errands while dearheart baked snickerdoodles for me to take the cookie exchange at book club! This month we selected an entirely new genre: comedy and read Sleepwalk With Me: And Other Painfully True Stories by Mike Birbiglia. One of my fellow bookclubbers likes to listen to NPR's This American Life and heard the story that the title refers to and thought it would be a nice departure from some of the serious books we've been reading lately for the holidays. It was a pretty funny book and a quick read, but it was mostly nice to catch up with friends, eat make-your-own pizza and try out everyone's delicious additions to the cookie swap. Only a few more hours of the weekend left...the twins are asleep and I'm thinking about an early bedtime, too.

coco

I have an aversion to period movies (both past and future), animated movies, and science fiction films. I know, I know I'm missing out...I have plenty of friends who are film buffs that try to talk me into watching certain movies. And, sometimes I cave and I'm glad that I do because I would be missing some of the greatest movies of all time. Somehow the movie "Coco Before Chanel" ended up in my Netflix queue. I suspect that it was in the Movies You'll Love tab because I am a fan of french acress Audrey Tautou (if you haven't seen Amelie, you really should) and that I added it to my queue, even though it was a period movie.

When it arrived, I wasn't sure dearheart would like it and, in my effort to keep new netflix coming, I managed to watch it (with my 4 month old daughter) while wating for dearheart to come home from work one evening. I'll admit I knew nothing about the life of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel which probably made it even more interesting for me, but I really, really liked it. I thought the costumes and the scenery were beautiful and it was good to listen to french! My only complaint is that the subtitles were half cut off on my television which was a little annoying. If you are interested in Chanel or fashion, I would recommend adding this to your queue.

The picture of my nearly-empty bottle of Chanel No. 5 is of the only thing I own, or will likely own, made by Chanel.

balance

So, I have recently become a mostly-stay-at-home-mom (mostly because I still work 10-15 hours a week on projects at my old job) and am working on finding that ever allusive work-life balance. Being a full time mom is a different kind of challenge - the rewards are more obvious (a smile or a laugh from one of the twins) and it definitely requires the ability to multi-task, to be flexible, and to get things done quickly when necessary. Though I am very appreciative both that I am able to spend the bulk of my time with the twins AND that I am able to stay on at my old position for 10-15 hours/week because I enjoy the work and the outside-of-the-house responsibility - it has been hard to find time for both. I know that I am new at this, that it will become easier and that routines will emerge, but right now I sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed. (I'm not writing this to complain as I realize that LOTS of mothers have to be full time moms and work full time outside of the house!)

During the past few weeks I've had to develop systems for the (seemingly) never-ending set of daily (and weekly and monthly) tasks. To do this, I started a list with all of the things I want to accomplish - some are tasks that repeat daily (laundry, dishes, etc.); others will need to be repeated weekly or bi-weekly (washing the floors, vaccuming, etc.); others monthly; and some are just long-term goals (things that I want to or need to get done). I am now working on creating a master check list (each page represents a week of tasks) that I can check off tasks as they are accomplished. (I am clearly a goal-oriented worker...) The photo of my bookshelf is at the top of this post because it is something I see every day and though the books make me happy (I am also a reader), they also remind me of projects yet undone - I have to move the books so we can use the bookshelf for another purpose - and goals yet unaccomplished - I still haven't read all of the books on my shelves!!

I know my real responsibility right now is to take care of my mostly-smiling, sometimes unhappy new favorite people. I'm hoping my task system will allow me to feel accomplishment and not feel overwhelmed at any given time. I've very deliberately built in "tasks" that I also enjoy apart from the kids - like baking once a week, etc. (I haven't written down all of the fun tasks like watching mind-numbing TV every once in awhile or reading a magazine, but be assured, there is time for those things too! Everything in moderation...)

And, right now, I am going to try to make a conscious choice to see the books not as just one more unfinished project, but as they are to me - enjoyment and a window into different places and different times. And I hope this post can inspire one of you to step back for a minute and walk your dog or kiss your baby or pour a glass of wine and relax for a little while.

he was like a tortured genius...

when it comes to making mix tapes

Awhile ago I found myself wandering around our favorite liquor store, when I was still pregnant and had time to wander around, and I came across this bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon which had two things going for it: a great name (yes, I do sometimes judge both bottles of wine and books by their covers) and it was on sale!

I am a HUGE fan of mix tapes and though I know it refers to the B SIDE of the casette tape (which I could also discuss, but I digress), not the mix tape specifically, I had to buy this bottle. I intended to share it with my brother (referred to in the title of this post and picture) when he was visiting in August, but we spent the bulk of our time at our parents house and I didn't have the bottle with me. Dearheart and I drank it sometime in the last month and it brought back many memories...of cassette tapes and, more importantly of the mix tapes of my past. I could go on and on about the meaning that mix tapes/CDs have played in my life...they've been given to me before long road trips (mostly when I was in junior high and I was stuck in the back of the station wagon driving somewhere for spring break), post-break ups, and mailed to me when I was far away.

As I said, my brother was a mix tape genius and I was a happy recipient of tapes (often with creative titles) when I was away at college and in the Peace Corps...he spent a lot of time on those tapes, sometimes they had a theme that I had to guess, like all of the songs on SIDE A had piano in them, etc. Unfortunately most of those tapes are no longer in my posession and, even if they were, how would I listen to them?? So, it was probably fitting that my brother (along with dearheart and another good friend) spent HOURS creating a song playlist for the dinner hour of me and dearheart's wedding.

I can't write this post and not comment on the mix tape master and one of my favorite authors of all time: Nick Hornby. Our relationship started when I met record-store employee Rob in High Fidelity (which I bought  in the Logan Airport when I was waiting for a much delayed flight) and has continued through the rest of his fiction. I would be remiss not to mention Songbook which is full of essays conveying the importance of the perfect mix tape. I could gush and gush...I just love him.

I am, right now, listening to a mix CD that one of my best friends (and one of the first people I exchanged mix tapes with in junior high) sent me for Thanksgiving. (Isn't she thoughtful?) As I look over at my sleeping twins, I know they will never appreciate the work that we put in creating the mixes of my youth - not only selecting songs but making sure that there was enough room for each song on each side of the tape (it was poor form to cut off a song) and paying close attention to start and stop songs at the precise times. (Remember having to fast forward tapes to find the correct songs? The CD really made the mix tape easy...) But, I'm pondering if they, too, will find the joy of a mix (CD, iTunes playlist, whatever it will be then...) prepared by someone just for them?

All I can say is: I hope so.