Please excuse my long absence.  It’s been ranging from 65-85 degrees here and I can’t bear to sit inside for more than an hour. I think I have Spring Fever.  In my defense, I’m not the only one.  Two little people have been known to grab their footwear and declare “Oos!” before I’ve even managed to get pants and a shirt on them!  Staying inside is tough and since our only computer is a desktop… well you follow the logic 🙂

So anyhow, I have this song playing over and over in my head these days.

The chorus goes:
“This is the stuff that drives me crazy.
This is the stuff that’s getting to me lately.
In the middle of my little mess,
I forget how big I’m blessed.
This is the stuff that gets under my skin,
and I’ve gotta trust You know exactly what You’re doing.
It might not be what I would choose,
but this is the stuff You use.”

I like it so much because it’s totally where I am right now. I can’t tell you how many times in the last year and a half I’ve had to beg people to call me so I could find my phone. Or how many times I’ve woken again in the middle of the night in impatient frustration that these girls just won’t sleep and cried loudly “How long, Oh, Lord!”

This is the stuff You use.
All I can do is just keep counting the ways I’m blessed.
 #1642-1735

• Talking over a problem with Nana
• Tears- the release
• Nan prayers
• Hope
• Half asleep naps on the couch while girls ‘drive’ cars
• Long Naps
• First 100 Words Book– it’s an obsession.  Between it’s size, the objects, and the words, it hasn’t grown old.
• February Thunderstorms
• Mashed Potatoes
• The creativity of cooking
• Getting cabinet doors, dry diapers, and a wandering shoe inside before the rain came.
• The $119,000 Wind Chime: a joke really as it was on the tree behind the house when we bough it
• Linen for Living History Farm costumes
• Bronwyn signing “Food”
• Naps for babies and Mommy
• Aeralind and Bronwyn finally figuring out how to get on the tall slide platform
• Aerie pushing Bronwyn down the slide
• Y childcare
• An opportunity to serve Becca
• Little crossed ankles
• The ability to sweep multiple times a day
• Lemonade while stuffing envelopes
• Amber’s spontaneous gift
• Kate’s offers of help
• Squealing babies
• laughter
• stacking mega blocks
• 1 hour just lying on the floor with the girls.
• Having plenty in the freezer to finish an extra week with no grocery money spent
• Sewing “Princess” dresses
• Looking forward to photographing a newborn girl!
• Knocking lady bugs off my lens case
• Talking to 5th grade Chella about the true purpose of dating (finding a spouse, marriage). She was resistant, but seeds were planted. God will do the growing.
• Library borrowed NCIS to snuggle with Derek during.
• Getting 6 things at the consignment sale that would have cost me at least $185 new for a grand total of $26.50. I love the UMOM consignment sale 🙂
• Talking to so many interesting twin moms while helping with sale set-up
• Derek taking the day off to be with the girls
• Naps
• Beef 🙂
• Butternut squash soup
• A husband who is so strong in my weak areas–Remembering the girl’s medicine, changing over loads of laundry, etc. and who is so willing to serve me in those ways
• Carol flat on her face in joyful prayers
• Turning cartwheels at SCORE
• Catching up with Autumn and offering her encouragement about the 1st trimester blues
• Rest. Sweet Rest.
• Strawberry season
• Meeting Terry-Jo (so sorry if I get your name wrong) a blog reader sent here to read about food allergies
• Canned Tuna
• Grace even when I’m faithless
• Grace-filled courage
• Swimming Laps
• A husband who gets up at night with me
• Pumpernickel bread at the Church for free
• Honey butter slathered
• Nursery workers
• An unexpected bronwyn Please
• Bronwyn scrawls all over my gratitude journal
• Hearing peepers
• Renewing my drivers license for 10 years
• Bologna and cheese sandwich: a taste of childhood
• Tree flower petals falling like snow
• 18 months with my precious girls
• So much fun at the living history farm volunteering
• Girls running crazy circles through the cabin and the yard
• Bronwyn cuddling with Mary in the cabin
• Calling an impromptu Scottish dance
• Aeralind laying on a bed of ticking, cuddling a rag doll exhausted.
• No self- destruction despite being up one hour after usual nap time
• Graham crackers
• Long, long nap from the exhausted babies
• Catching up with Jen and Abel
• Chick-fil-a with friends
• Laughing at girls with bendy straws
• Jen hugs
• Redoing shots I missed at a newborn shoot
• Grace from the family involved
• Talking to Ali and seeing her maturity in a hard decision
• Snuggling with a very gassy Bronwyn
• Watching their vocabulary explode
• Wondering when their verbal skills will catch up to their auditory skills
• Aeralind following complex 2 step instructions with glee
• The bathtub- I can’t imagine conquering some of these blow-outs without warm running water
• Ripe pears
• Cheery blossoms
• Blueberry covered babies
• Orange Shoes
• Frozen Meals defrosted
• 1st coat of primer on cabinet doors
• Inexpensive fruit at the farmers market
• Browning “blowing” her nose
• Planted peas and beans coming up in the garden
• Volunteer pumpkins (?) and tomatoes coming up in the garden.  Volunteers always do so much better than transplants.
• Slurping spaghetti noodles as a family
• Reassuring hugs and prayers from my husband
• Best, most helpful, long suffering, hysterical husband in the whole wide world!