The Things I Don't Do

"I'm all done. I've completed EVERYTHING there is to do and I've got nothing left to finish," said no mother, ever. And definitely no quad momma, ever either.

There's always a list five miles long and growing, either in the form of three haphazardly scribbled notes on my kitchen counter or a buzzy, distracting mental list in the back of my mind. Which must be why my brain short circuits a few times a day. I feel like my phone when it blinks annoyingly at me and tells me I'm running low on storage space. Join the club, buddy.

There are those incredibly sweet people out there who think I'm super mom or ask how in the world I "get it all done?" Yes, I raise four babies, I make all their food from scratch most of the time, I take them out for little adventures and field trips or to eat lunch as a family, I run this blog, I work occasionally from home (I'm a writer by profession), I'm building up to relaunch my Etsy shop where I sell handmade jewelry, I'm decorating and managing a new-to-us home (much larger than I'm used to and a lot more upkeep *happy sigh*) and all the other odds and ends that come with family life (doctor appointments times four, vet visits for pets, home maintenance, yard work, etc.). I'm nearly constantly in motion from the time I get up to the time I go to bed, and I determine how many glasses of wine to drink each night by how fast my left eye is twitching at day's end. More twitches equal more wine.

Right now, the babies toddlers are teething again and I can barely put them in their play room and walk three steps into the kitchen before I'm back in there dealing with a grumpy kiddo or separating an all-out toy fight. Even with a fully baby proofed space, Kailey is constantly showing them things I forgot or overlooked and didn't think she could climb. Then when all are appeased I return to the kitchen but can't remember what I was originally going in there for and spend a couple minutes trying to remember then decide to start on something else and riiiiighhhttt when I'm about to do that, someone screams again. However, there are shortcuts I incorporate into my day—many without really acknowledging it—that help me survive. I don't do it all. Hell, I barely do any of it some days. Inspired by a recent post from furniture painter, decorator and homeschooling mom Shaunna at Perfectly Imperfect, here's a list of things I don't do, however honest (and slightly embarrassing) they may be.

~ I Don'ts ~

*I don't brush my hair every day. I just don't. It's long and curly by nature, so most of the time it gets wound up on top of my head in a big messy mess and that's where it stays. Occasionally I'll braid it. For special events, I'll blow dry and straighten it.

*I don't always brush my teeth before I go to bed.

*I don't always clean the kitchen at the end of the day. Many, many times I turn off the kitchen lights and pronounce the day is done. When the babies are sleeping and one of my favorite TV shows is on the DVR and my husband and I are both tired, I leave the dishes where they are, I turn away from the dirty counter tops, I don't pull the laundry out of the dryer and we retreat to our living room and relax.

*I don't spend all my spare time running errands and, instead, order a million things on Amazon. We even get ziploc bags and toothpaste on there. Cuts down on time spent in the grocery store.

*I don't change clothes when I wake up sometimes. On more occasions than I care to admit, I put on a fresh t-shirt to sleep in at night then add yoga pants or workout shorts in the morning and wear that all day. There's a sick satisfaction in the evening when I go to shower and drop my clothes in the dirty laundry, knowing they've been used to their fullest and deserve a good wash. Ha.

*I don't diet. I just don't. (Though I try to eat more of exactly what I feed the kids since I make sure they have a balanced meal plan.)

*I don't take the kids with us every where we go. We try to get them outside of the house at least twice a week and sometimes going for a walk has to count. The husband and I are very strategic when we do plan outings to help it go smoothly and ensure the babies get the most out of it. Occasionally they come with us to Costco or Kroger or for lunch with grandparents, and we are becoming more brave about attending family and friend events, but those are also kept to a limit.

*I don't drink coffee. At all. I love the smell of freshly brewed coffee but don't like the flavor, plus it makes my stomach hurt. While I have a fully-stocked Keurig for my hot teas and for family to enjoy coffee, I drink Coke most mornings. One Coke a day and that's it.

*I don't worry about laundry stains. It's a weird thing, but it just doesn't bother me. Stains happen, especially on the quad's clothes. So I spray them with organic stain remover when I get around to it and just hope for the best. Oddly enough, the majority of them wash clean without a problem—even bright red berries smashed into a onesie.

*I don't rely on always having people around to help me. I know that I can make it through an entire day on my own with all four kids and I can do that however long I need to. I can load them all into the car myself and run drive-through errands or go get a Coke or something if I start to get stir crazy and need to leave the house. That said, I'm blessed to have a very supportive family and super-involved grandparents for the quads that come around willingly—especially on and off during the week when the husband is working and barely sees the babies before bed. And we found a wonderful nanny that we now have two mornings a week.

*I don't beat myself up when I feel like I didn't get it all done. Recently, I've begun working out again. I had grand aspirations to work out three times a week and thought that was fairly attainable. It's harder than I thought and some days I'm so tired and sore just from handling the kids that I can't even think about it. But I let it go because it's all a process and every effort counts - even when the effort was nothing but good intentions!

*I don't (or try not to) work until I drop. There's no point in running myself into the ground day after day after day. I want to be a good mother to my kids and be involved in what they're doing on the daily and I don't want to get so caught up in remedial tasks like laundry and dishes that I wear myself out and become oblivious to the little things I enjoy so much. Some days this is easier said than done!

*I don't wear makeup every day. Thought I can't imagine this is much of a surprise after my confession about how long I wear a t-shirt! If we're going somewhere, then I do put in a little effort, but many times a hat will do me.

*I don't deep clean my house. Granted it's a new house for us and there's still dust in places from the repair work we had done prior to moving in, but I do maintenance cleaning. Eventually we'll hire a maid service to come once a month and when that happens, I'll smile a big fat happy grin.

*I don't usually go to bed early. The evenings are my time to spend how I choose! A late errand, working on a deadline, dinner with the husband at home, catching up on our TV shows or renting a movie, running out for frozen coconut yogurt (my newest obsession) or whatever. When we sleep trained our kids, we put them on our schedule. So they don't wake up at 6am! My alarm clock goes off at 7:15am and then I'm up and running.

*I don't wash my hair everyday. Since it's thick and curly, I can get away with washing it two or three times a week at most.

*I don't hesitate to feed my kids Chick-Fil-A. It's the one fast food restaurant that I feel provides somewhat healthy and otherwise respectably prepared food and we eat it about once to even twice a week. Generally, Chick-Fil-A runs are reserved for when we (me with the husband or my nanny) have taken the kids out somewhere in the morning and are barely getting back in time for lunch. This saves me time and effort once we're home, food is ready to serve!

So there's you an honest list of I don'ts. What don't you do?

P.S. All photos taken by yours truly at a recent indoor play ground outing with the quads.

P.P.S My Stella & Dot online jewelry trunk show ends at 11:59pm CST Sunday, Aug. 18 and so does my Stella & Dot giveaway! Click here to shop online and here to enter my giveaway.

{Home Decor} My New Gallery Wall

I absolutely love having photos around my home. I often tend to buy new frames for new photos, versus updating framed pictures I already have. Personally, I like seeing a mixture of old and new images that remind me of times past as well as more recently made memories and milestones. Lord knows that with quadruplets, there's plenty of those to go around these days!

It all started with three black frames showcasing three of my favorite photos of the husband and I together during our college years. I had them hung in a horizontal line across my bed in the San Marcos town house I shared with my BFF, Lisa, for the last two years of college. From there, in our past two homes, I slowly added to my black frame collection and amassed a miniature gallery collection.

After we moved into our current home, I quickly decided the downstairs hallway was the perfect spot—I could see the pictures every day, and guests could easily view them as well, since they're next to the laundry room and downstairs bathroom. I hung the "B" on the wall first then hung the frames one by one as they made sense to me. I did contemplate laying them out on the floor first in the pattern I wished to hang them, but I didn't really feel like taking time for the extra step (it was only a matter of minutes before one of the babies would start protesting from the play room), so I just went with the flow. I really like how it turned out and am so happy to see my photos on the wall again! Plus, I have three new frames to fill with new images and look forward to having fresh pictures in rotation.

The large picture of the babies is one I took of them at home myself and they were just over four months old. We'd barely gotten all of them home from the NICU at that time!

The laundry room is the first door on the left, the guest bathroom the last on the left and the door at the end of the hallway leads into the downstairs bedroom, currently used as a guest room and catch all for odds and ends as we continue to unpack.

I've had a lot of enquiries as to how the rest of the house is coming along, and it's a slow but sure process. Getting things on the wall has been a huge leap in progress! Here's a current view of our messy-lived-in-still-being-unpacked living room and dining room, with a view of the wet bar as well!

Slow and steady wins the race, right?! :)


P.S. Don't forget to shop my online Stella & Dot trunk show now through Sunday, August 18! And enter my giveaway for the Stella & Dot Pippa necklace, too!

Today...

Today I am a happily tired mother of four. I will smile when I hear my babies cry and holler from their play room and I'll smile even bigger when they laugh and babble. I will not complain about cleaning up food on the floor yet again or having to carry them all to their cribs and making four trips up the stairs. I won't become frustrated because it's hard to get things done, I'll be grateful I have so much to do. Today a fellow quad mom went into early labor and lost her four sweet babies and my heart breaks for her. While I keep her in my thoughts and prayers constantly, I also thank God for my own four miracles over and over...

{Weekend Recap} Aquariums, Swimming & 2 Happy Tails

It's been a fabulous weekend. The kind where you sort of lose track of time and instead lose yourself into the memories you're making, the smiles you're eliciting and squeels of delight made during first experiences. It started Saturday morning when the husband and I painfully creaked and groaned our way out of bed and into the kitchen to make breakfast for the fab four, then dressed and fed them before we loaded up the suburban and headed off to the Dallas World Aquarium. When we pulled up, there was already a crowd of people making their way to the entrance and my stomach tied in knots immediately. We had brought the quad stroller because we haven't bought new twin strollers yet (our other twin ones are just for infant car seats only), and I knew it was going to be close quarters inside. Something always grips me with a little trepidation when I'm about to go into what I know is a crowded place with my four babies and a massive contraption. Quad-claustrophobia, perhaps? I don't know. But my chest tightened and my stomach flipped as we parked and got everyone out and strapped into their seats. My husband asked if I wanted to abandon our plans but I said, no, we need to have these experiences and the babies need to get out and see things!

We made it all the way inside the aquarium and had already earned about 52 smiles from passersby and aquarium workers, all who were so polite and opened doors for us and the stroller, or pointed out where the elevators were or grinned at the babies and carefully stepped out of the way so we could pass. I started to relax and by about half way through our journey, all fear was gone and I was really enjoying things. We only had one comment bestowed upon us and the man was very courteous and told us were we amazing. I made sure to look him right in the eye when I sincerely thanked him for the compliment.

The babies were perfect. They looked around at all the people, the animals and the scene. It was like walking through a jungle in the first half of the trip, with exotic birds and even an anteater, an alligator and fast-swimming otters. One came right up to the window and sort of waved at the babies and they were enamored! And in front of a large fish tank, the round fat manatee rolled its way in front of us and even the husband and I were fascinated. I had been wanting to go to the aquarium for some time and it was so nice to enjoy our trip and also share the experience with our kids. Plus, it was complete with a lunch run through Chick-Fil-A on the way home and they gobbled up their chicken nuggets and fries before a solid two-hour nap. Success! Well, partially. Because when we got home we realized I'd managed to lock us out of the house. I flipped the deadbolts on the front door then locked the garage door behind me when I headed to the car. We have some rekeying to do, since it turns out our master key doesn't unlock the garage door. Or any of our back doors. Awesomesauce. My handy engineer husband sawed off the door knob to the garage door and knocked out the lock, replacing it later that day. In the meantime, I set up camp on the front porch with the crew and fed them bites of french fries and sips of lemonade until we were in!

Later that afternoon, the husband went to his parents house to pick up our two labs. They'd been staying there ever since we moved back to Dallas and were bunking in a too-small apartment. We've since closed up the apartment and ended our lease there and have finally emptied out our storage units completely. This was the last step! It felt so good to bring our "first children" home at last. The husband had installed the hot wire fence that runs around the backyard to deter them from digging out and prepared everything else for their arrival. When they came into the backyard, I was there to greet them and the babies all eagerly looked on through the windows of their play room, banging their hands on the glass and screeching. Jersey and Shiner explored the backyard and settled in with a contentment that seemed to say they knew this was home now and had just been waiting for us to bring them here. I believe Trystan got a leg-length of wet dog tongue when I took her out for a visit with the doggies later that day. :)

Saturday we lounged around and wore our PJs all day. After lunch and their nap (plus a short rest for mom and dad), we slathered the kiddos in tons of sunscreen and put on swim diapers and swim suits. Logan got her first ever pigtails and I managed to coerce a few strands of Trystan's hair into her first ponytail! The cuteness killed, it was the sweetest thing.

We loaded up our massive pile of baby stuff (stroller, floats, towels, food, drinks, toys, diapers...) and drove the five minutes to my girlfriend's house where she and her husband had graciously opened up their home so we could take the babies swimming. Several other of my best friends came as well and everyone was so helpful and eager to pitch in and help with the babies. We let them run around their living room first to get acclimated then put them in the pool for swim time. Trystan and Kailey ended up loving the water and splashed and dunked their faces in it later while the husband and a friend each held one. Logan relaxed in her floatie and Harrison enjoyed one-on-one time with me for awhile before agreeing to sit in his float and play with duckies. (By the way, big thanks to my friend Rusty for taking all the pool photos for us!)

Once everyone was pruny enough, the husband and I took them into the guest bath room and gave them the fastest baths ever done, dressed them in clean, dry diapers and put them in the quad stroller for dinner. They had grilled chicken, some apple cider coleslaw I'd made, blueberries and strawberries, avocado, grilled polenta, cookie and a little homemade coconut custard pie (my friend made two and they were delicious!).

By the time we hauled everything and everyone home and got them in bed, I was dead on my feet. So worth the trouble and a great first swim, but so exhausting! A good night's sleep must have helped because this morning I decided the babies should try their hand at painting for the first time—especially while I had my nanny around for a couple hours to help. Turns out, Logan does not like painting (so she wasn't in any photos, poor thing). I don't know if it was the texture or the messiness or just that it was something new she wasn't ready for, but girl screamed and hollered in her seat so I had get her cleaned up and hold her until we were done. Harrison actually took to the project and smeared paint all over two pieces of paper and Kailey also created two masterpieces, while additionally smearing paint on her hair and stomach and taste testing it a few times. Even though each time it was as unappealing as the last. Trystan poked and prodded at her paint until she held her hands up and admitted she was quite finished.

One not-so-bad cleanup process (thank God for washable paint), some playtime and a lunch later, the kids were off to bed and the Verizon tech was leaving after hooking me up with cable, phone and Internet. I am so excited!!! I haven't had cable or DVR in forever and we've been using crappy pay-as-you-go Internet since we moved to Dallas. At long last, I have all my shows, DVR capabilities and high-speed connections I've been missing. Plus my new vacuum cleaner arrived today (a simple Hoover Pet Rewind that we've had great luck with), a phone and new Aden + Anais crib sheets and sleep sacks for the babies that I can't wait to try. I got a great deal on them on Amazon and they're super soft.

In my opinion, it's been one of the best Monday's you can have so far and it's been 2.5 hours and the babies are just now moving around. Time for a kid-friendly TV show and snacks...

Happy Monday to you. ;)

{Quad Squad} Video Post!

What better way to update you on how the kiddos are doing, all the walking and running and pushing and pulling and playing they're up to, then with a video? Here's a montage of clips from the past few weeks of my adorable little 14-month-old sweet thangs. :)