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Dawn of the Dead

Yes the title of this blog is a direct reference to a movie surrounding zombies. The Chad and I are huge fans of horror flicks and zombie movies are some of the best (*cough…worst) movies around. I mean anyone who is anyone has seen a B rated zombie movie and laughed, or you got hooked on the A&E series, or maybe your kids talk about zombies with their video games (*cough…not my house).

But there is one thing that I will attest to with zombies, despite their total non-existence, is that I know they are attracted to noise. Lots of loud, obnoxious, even just muffled noise, zombies are attracted to noise like a moth to a flame. So I am going to ask you of a large favor in the event that one day our world were to ever become overrun with brain eating, flesh munching, scavenging zombies.

But let’s look at this noise issue. Seriously my kids are prime zombie dinner. I kid you not, from the moment my Seth-en-stein is awake his lips are a running and he is on his way to verbally vamoosing you, honestly the words leave his mouth so fast you can hardly answer the first question he vomited your way let alone the next. Up next is Little Bitty who is the house manager and has a shrilling scream that would break the most finest of crystal if the right pitch allowed, so come on zombies….we are just sitting ducks waiting for you just on these two alone. Finally we have The Boy and The Dog….mind you the dog snores worse than any human. In fact someone asked me what the rumble was….I had to confess it was my English Bulldog snoring…no rumble. I am left now with the boy who if you asked him to be quiet would argue the art of being quiet just for sake of debate.

In the event of a world zombie domination

AVOID MY HOUSE!

Yes, avoid my house because my family will be the first victims because my children cannot shut the fuck up for more than one point one milliseconds. The fighting, screaming, whining, crying, carrying on is going to be a zombie magnet and we can guarantee to be zombie dinner. Thank you and best wishes.

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Choosing Childcare, Preschools

Upon the birth of my first child Grant I was a mess for weeks scrambling, literally, at the last minute attempting to arrange and interview child care centers and preschools. My poor son, at the ripe age of five weeks with a neurotic mother, scared sick about leaving her child with anyone else but his parents. Even the sole time my mother watched Grant so that The Chad and I could attend a work dinner was sheer horror for me. I was breastfeeding and it was time away from my baby.

However, my fears were lessened as I began to research schools and childcare centers. I read articles online about credentials the centers had yielded, affiliations, complaints and where to find those complaints (which will vary by state), I researched whether they were part of a food program, the security measures they had to keep my children safe from predators and while in their care, and the staff to children ratio.

Who would have dreamed that childcare considerations were so in-depth, labor intensive, and quite frankly a science?

I had no idea. In fact when I first began seeking out childcare for Grant I went off of the brand name centers that were familiar by sound. Later I found I was unimpressed, annoyed, and rather disdained by the level of service these “brand name” childcare and preschool centers offered. The treatment was comparable to walking onto the sales lot of an auto dealership, vultures, waiting to pluck at their prey when they are most vulnerable, pushing for a “tour” based on their schedule and not yours, more concerned with enrollment and cash flow than the needs of my child and myself. One center had the audacity to advise me that they would not let me visit the center unless I had an appointment, needless to say I felt this organization had something to hide if I could not just drop in as I felt my schedule allowed, they were discounted and removed from consideration.

My research and extensive notations about the various facilities soon became a bullet point checklist:

  • Accreditation – was the school accredited in the state, nation, how were they officially recognized as a facility and learning institution.
  • Safety – was the facility safe for my child (now children with the twins), keypad entry, camera’s viewing the classrooms, licensed facilitators and caregivers.
  • Convenience – was the center convenient to my hours, schedule, location, were they accommodating to my needs and those of my children.
  • Curriculum – did the center provide a curriculum of learning and or child interaction no matter the age to aid in the development of my child.
  • Cost – the nitty-gritty is that cost is a huge factor in choosing a childcare and or preschool. Even if the cost is low, do the other bullets add up in the equation regarding curriculum or learning, safety, and accreditation, the same can also be said for the higher priced “brand name” and or boutique childcare centers.
  • Happiness- is my child happy here, am I happy they are here, do the staff interact with my child in a fun and loving fashion, yet educational and assertive to establish healthy boundaries.

While each parent’s decision in choosing a childcare facility and or preschool may vary, the fact of the matter lies in that as parents we choose what is best for our child, children, and our families. Each family varies with their needs, whether they be a special needs learner, a child with allergies, and or our children need a level of interaction to stimulate their learning and childhood experience, the choice in a childcare facility is not one to be made hastily.

Be sure to weigh in on all of the factors when choosing a childcare center, and furthermore, rely on your instincts. While the consideration may sound hooky or even mystical in nature, a parent has a form of sixth sense when considering care, welfare, and well-being of our children. Choose a facility that will work with you, your family and especially your child. For more information, visit your local department of health services to research a childcare facility and their operations and visit Primrose Schools to read about the various options to weigh when researching a childcare facility.What are some considerations you look to when choosing a childcare facility? What sticks out as a sore thumb or red-flag in your decisioning?

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Primrose Schools. While I was compensated for this post, in no way has my opinion, experience, or knowledge been influenced and or biased, but purely an informational post.
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Organic Pancakes Recipe

organic pancakes, gluten free pancake recipe, vegan pancake recipe, organic pancake recipe

Sunday mornings are a ritual family breakfast for our family. Generally a large breakfast and one we all enjoy together. This last Sunday was pancakes, I love pancakes and I love to mix up my recipe ingredients to try a new spin. My newest addition made this batch, light, buttery, and fabulous with some fresh fruit. Even better….these pancakes are not out of a box and the cost is less than $2.00 for the these tasty delights! I have even updated to include vegan, gluten free and dairy free pancake options. Continue reading “Organic Pancakes Recipe”

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Not easy being Green

USDA Organic, organic, Karie Herring, thefivefish.comMom’s and folks galore find the most amazing topics in life to argue about. Stout opposition. Blatant bullshit. Mindless minutiae. But let’s get to the brass tax of some largely misunderstood and widely misrepresented information. The Green Movement. Even more so, the whole organic movement and the stout opposition to HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) among mommy bloggers.

But a lot of folks are mislead or are completely uneducated about organic, certified organic, certified free trade, USDA certified organic, heirloom and the like. The business and marketing about organic is confusing to the layman and its marketing and a lifestyle choice to those who fully embrace, understand, and know the true meaning of going green and choosing organic. Let’s place a bit of fact or fiction regarding organic, buying organic, what organic really means, and exploring the full realm of the Big O and what the general public is probably not fully aware surrounding our friends at the USDA.

FACT  or FICTION? : The top foods you should buy when buying organic are milk, meats, produce, and grains.

FICTION.

Organic is a lifestyle. PERIOD. Much like dieting, smoking, drinking, whatever your vice, choosing to purchase USDA Certified Organic foods is a LIFESTYLE choice. Suggesting to buy specific items is sheer bullshit. However, you can find a fantastic list of items that are believed to be the dirtiest (riddled with pesticides and considered high on the GMO list) in your produce section on this article by CNN and you can also read it on the great not for profit site. Furthermore, take a good look at organic and standard produce. If you love your California avocados and are willing to buy them at 2 for $1.00 when in season, by all means. But don’t stray away from your organic either. Take a gander, are the prices comparable? If so, then the investment is worth the small price difference.  But if the price difference is rather considerable, then hold off until the item is in season or buy standard. Again a pure choice. Organic is reasonably priced due to the fact that the items are harvested when they are in season, much like when your flowers bloom and based on the location of the farm with the season. When in doubt though, buy US produce as the cost will be a bit less due to the fact less travel was associated with the delivery.

FACT or FICTION: Milk should always be bought organic because of all the hormones?

FICTION

Again a matter of lifestyle. However, many dairy farmers are pushing that they are not using hormones or are hormone free because of the startling study found by researchers that these hormones are being carried into more than just milk. But into our bodies and our children which is believed to induce premature puberty in young girls and androgyny in some of our boys. Furthermore, with the recent events in Japan, be wary of your “California Cows” or those from the Pacific area since radiation is first found in milk of cows from the grass they eat….that goes for Organic too. Moooo-ve on over Pacific and Pacific Northwest.

FACT or FICTION? : There is only one organic.

FICTION

The truth of the matter is that everything is organic. *gasp! Yes, we are all “organic” material, made of matter and the like. CERTIFIED Organic, the big green you see above, is delegated into several different categories and let me just paint the picture so you understand how each applies to just a few of the different delegations of the “organic” umbrella:

  • Certified Organic – this can be QAI and USDA certified. Both of these require rigorous and in depth investigation of the farms, the product, the water source, the cleanliness, the soil testing. Not a stone goes unturned in these certifications. However, the USDA is rather more intense requiring a farm to be clean for a minimum of five years during review. The soil, water, produce, the entire farm is tested to make sure it is clean of pesticides, hormones and additives. A farm generally has to be clean longer than this time in order for the life cycle of pesticides to die off, if they ever. Furthermore, rigorous maintenance and fees are applied for being USDA certified. Not to mention the handling on these farms is not your standard handling which is why the costs may be realized to be higher. But you are what you eat right?
  • Heirloom – I could live and breathe heirloom if allowed. Heirloom is exactly what it sounds like. These are seeds and produce passed down from generations. You will see a good portion of EU (European Union) countries have heirloom produce. Native Americans here in North America have heirloom seeds and produce. Heirloom produce is open pollinated and are a hybrid. By hybrid, these seeds have naturally cross pollinated and albeit evolved through the ages. They are generally pesticide free and are not what a layman may consider a perennial or annual. These beauties are tasty, gorgeous, and unique all their own. What people do not realize is that seed producers and sellers generate seeds that only germinate once or maybe more but after that the fruit/produce becomes bitter due to the genetic engineering of these items. Which makes heirlooms all the more in demand.
  • Organic – just about anything can be called organic. It just cannot be called “certified” or you start getting into an ugly marketing and disclosure issue with the feds. Organic is a way of farming, period, and again everything is organic matter/material. So items can be considered under the “organic” umbrella in a range anywhere from 70 to 99% organic depending upon the ingredients and the way the ingredients are grown. However, in order to slap the old green seal of approval onto the foods you eat, those foods must have passed the rigorous testing of the USDA and the Organic Program which certifies that the farm is still an active clean farm from the water, the soil and the environment in which it operates. See all my aforementioned regarding the cleanliness of these farms and you can find more at the USDA Organic site.

Just know that Organic truly is a lifestyle. No one will look down their nose at you for the food choices you make, and if they do, well maybe they ought to look at their own lives before passing judgement on yours. Life is all about choices and as parents we try to make the best choices we can in life and as long as you can say you are doing what you can for your children and they are healthy, happy, productive people then what else can we ask for as parents. Like Kermit the Frog always said, “It’s not easy, being green.” Nor is life easy as a parent, when we brought our special packages home we were never given a manual for handling them, so we make our own rules and manual up as we go along all the while learning from our mistakes, because if we were all perfect, we would never know to learn.

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Staycation – Retreat on a Budget

Admittedly the Southwest Airlines commercials speak to me. You know the slogan right? “Wanna get away?”

My rhetorical question in return is “Does the sun rise in the East?”

staycation, hotels, hotels.comAs a mother, adult, and former traveler extraordinaire, I love to get away. But who says you have to reach the far ends of the Earth, comb the beaches of the Caribbean or peruse the boutiques of Europe to consider being on a retreat or to enjoy a vacation. Let’s revisit the first word of this paragraph which will segue into my explanation for a retreat. Mother. Yes, I have child or children in my case, which can often cause a serious reduction in travel. Why? You ask. Well my main reason for a reduction in travel is due to the birth of my twins. You see traveling with two infants and the entourage of gear required for their care could be equivalent to a domestic safari of sorts. However, now that they have evolved into walking, talking, and may I add talking again, little people travel has become less cumbersome. Nonetheless difficult though when you are now the minority and children are the majority.

Additionally, taking trips sans kids can also be difficult. Finding adequate care takers and or family willing to assume your children for a day, week, or even a few hours can be a rather disheartening to the couple wishing to have adult relations outside of the home where they can once again enjoy the company of their date. I know the hubs and I daydream of what life was like without children when we traveled and literally those memories are now daydreams for us.

But we are not letting the days of whine and runny noses get us down! In fact, my mother was so kind to gift us for Christmas gift cards for a weekend or night away from home. When we opened the gift and read the note, the feeling was much like letting the crazies out of the asylum to run the streets for the night. We could taste sweet freedom once again. In fact we got so caught up in getting away we couldn’t decide where the hell to go!

Have no fear though, the hubs is a resourceful geek of sorts. Bless him for having a Hotels.com account where he has been booking almost all of his travels for business, since he travels every other week he has become a domestic expert of travel accommodations. When the time came for us to book our retreat away from the kids, we looked at all the local resorts and spas within the Phoenix metro and downtown area. Finally we found a resort, spa, and casino close to home and even better, the price was right! So the hubs booked us a night at the Radisson Ft. McDowell Resort and Casino.

I was leery to say the least since the resort’s casino was known for being less than favorable. However, after reviewing the beauty shots of the resort on Hotels.com I was put more at ease and looking forward to our night and almost half day away from the kids to reconnect. I was put at even more ease when I saw the total cost of our sans kids retreat. $89 a night! With a sleep number bed, hot meal where I wasn’t required to cut anyone’s food but my own, no fighting kids for my own bed and pillows, and no worries of who would drive home due to the fact we both had some juicy alcoholic beverages. We just walked from the resort’s restaurant to the elevator and then to our room, a most pleasant evening, to which we retreated to enjoy additional quiet time as adults, reconnecting. Furthermore, we got up early enough the next morning to drive home but detoured for some breakfast at a local cafe.

Needless to say I was stoked we were able to get away and even better, Hotels.com helped us to stay on and within our budget, but were able to stay in a five star resort all  the more. Have you ever thought about a stay-cation when you cannot always get away for an extended vacation? Do you have the same struggles of child care when wanting to go on a date night?

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Mom Sells Weapons of Mass Destruction

Recently I found a new calling in the employment realm. This has been a truly liberating change in fields and needless to say I rather find living on the edge to be totally sexy and intriguing. My new job, in addition to all my other career paths, is as an arms dealer. Yes. I kid you not. I deal with weapons of mass destruction.

You see these two WMD’s are probably the safest on the market as well. You can keep them in your home without permit and their expiration happens at around the age of 18. You avoid the whole fallout issue as you would with standard nukes, the 10 mile safety radius, cancer, however, these two do not come without a price. Their side effects include headache, exhaustion, sleepiness, irritability, agitation, the uncontrollable urge to curse, this is all the effect on you….but if you want to clear a room or destroy one, these two are the weapon of choice.

In fact, they are so powerful, we had to keep them behind bars.

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Nintendo America Superb Customer Service

Customer service is vital for the success and or failure of any organization. Not to mention that customer service is a huge selling and marketing point to consumers. I am one to rant and rave about terrible customer service by companies and their employees. My recent trip to my local Mesa Starbucks resulted in me never visiting that location again due to an assistant manager (sad that managers have this poor customer service) by the name of Sean who treated me like I was a third rate citizen and argued with me despite my simple request. Sigh, I digress because my focus is about fantastic, exceptional, no questions asked customer service where an organization values their customers.

This Christmas Big G was given Guitar Hero Heroes of Rock for Christmas in addition to Sonic and The Dark Knight and other miscellaneous games on behalf of family to play on the Wii. Our family LOVES, let me stress, LOVES our Wii. We workout to the Wii Fit and love the sports games and Mario Cart to name a few favorites, and we enjoy a family game afternoon where we all get involved. So when Grant got these cool games to enjoy all for himself (and mom and dad when he’s not looking) we immediately wanted him to play the games and get his initial fix. However, the poor guy did not get to enjoy his game at all. When we loaded the discs into the Wii we received an error.

We thought nothing of the error at first because the boy had lost his privileges to the game console for a bit. Maybe the unit just needed a good cleaning and maybe had an excess of dust or just needed to be rebooted. After these trials had failed we resorted to our owner’s manual and then to the web. These fixes did not bring our poor Wii back to life.

Finally the hubs called Nintendo America to find a service center or more information to find out where we could get our Wii repaired. The service specialist on the other end of the line told us that we would be better off just sending our Wii straight back to Nintendo to have it repaired. Furthermore Nintendo added that the shipping to them and back to us was included along with the full refurbishing and repair of our Wii. They would tear apart, clean, rebuild and make sure the entire guts of our Wii are in proper working order for us to begin enjoying our Wii again.

More so, we sent our Wii in and within two weeks we receive our Wii delivered UPS to our doorstep. Nintendo America told us that the repair would be six weeks so the delivery was a great surprise to us. Now here is the best part…the cost. The cost was totally minimal, $92 for us to have our Wii cleaned, repaired and the guts all in working order and all the shipping costs. Needless to say I had to brag about how awesome and wonderful Nintendo was to us and our Wii.

Thank you Nintendo.

For anyone who has trouble with the Nintendo gaming consoles or their personal gaming unit be sure to contact Nintendo before you waste your time and money with the traditional repair centers.

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Healthy Homework Habits

Education is such a vital aspect in my family’s home that may be overlooked when considering the health and overall nature of fostering healthy learning. Our worlds are so technologically driven that even the most necessary evils, computers, e-books, and e-learning environments can be damaging or even cause a hindrance for our children’s learning curves.

Luckily my seven, soon to be eight, year old son has not reached the peak of technology based learning for which I am ever so grateful. He is still at the stage of the essential basics for communication both written and oral that will foster healthy learning for his teen and adult years and something I will rally for through those learning years. However, while he is still in his elementary learning in life his dad and I do what we can to create an environment at home that is conducive to his learning and would be parallel to his learning in the educational institution. So each night when he comes home we ask if he has homework, even though we know the answer, we feel that asking him promotes the desire to learn and excel.

When homework is confirmed we like to create a healthy learning environment. Now most parents may think to clean off the table, maybe clean their room as to be free of distractions, maybe turn off the TV, some form of “cleaning” to create a healthy homework environment is perceived by a majority of parents. But as parents to a school aged child, and two more on their way into the educational system, we have found that the healthiest environment is one of consistency. Here are a few tips we offer as parents for creating healthy homework habits for our child(ren):

  • Homework should be done immediately when they get home from school.

We think that by completing homework right away is the most effective. The material is still fresh in their minds, they have not had the opportunity to decompress from their learnings and thus let this vital knowledge slip away from loose play with friends and or by joining the mass of zombies who log onto video games.

  • Homework is completed in a quiet and or relaxed environment and or setting.

As a parent to three children, of which is a set of troublesome three year old twins, finding a quiet spot in the house is much like building a rocket to land on Pluto. Fuhghedaboutit! However, we do get the twins involved in the quiet time by asking their big brother to read out loud to them if he has a reading assignment. This is a very healthy habit as he gets into the routine of reading aloud to hear himself say words and learn to speak clearly in front of others. Not to mention the captive audience of a pair of rowdy troublemakers who will learn by example.

  • Get involved!

Sometimes this is easier said than done with parents. We have busy schedules that are driven by work, kids,extracurricular activities involving the kids, PTO meetings, travel, dinner, and the rigmarole of  everyday life. But if we ask our children, “does your homework involve….(fill in the blank)” whether it be reading, writing, spelling, and or math we are showing that we too care about their homework and their continued learning path and no separation exists between school and home. That the two are congruent with one another. In fact, years of research have shown that when parents are involved in a child’s learning, through homework and school interaction, that children have “Higher grades, test scores, and graduation rates, better school attendance, increased motivation, better self-esteem, lower rates of suspension, decreased use of drugs and alcohol, and fewer instances of violent behavior” (Michigan Department of Education: Education.com, 2007). Those reasons alone should be a powerful initiative to get involved with our children and their learning.

Whatever your habits may be, make sure they are healthy for your child’s learning. Kids thrive on routine and positive affirmations. Really their homework time should not be a burden for them or for you. What would you say are some of your family’s healthy homework habits? What would you share with other parents that may foster healthy homework habits that will have a positive effect on their child’s learning?

“THIS IS A SPONSORED POST ON BEHALF OF CLOROX AND WHILE I WAS COMPENSATED FOR THIS POST IN NO WAY DID THE COMPENSATION DETER OR INFLUENCE MY USE OR OPINION SURROUNDING THE USE OF CLOROX PRODUCTS.”
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AM Radio

When I say AM I do not mean before noon I mean the opposite of FM, or the free radio not delivered via satellite. For those of you who are under the age of 30 this is a completely foreign statement. In fact AM radio is completely foreign to my children. Having a sad and startling revelation that my children will not know what life is like before technology. Hell I can even throw out to my kids that I used to walk a mile in the cold and freezing snow to get to the bus stop for school. Which I did for about two days before my parents ponied up and bought me a car since they saw how inhumane it was to allow myself and my brother and sister to walk a mile, down hill, in the cold, wet, freezing snow. Actually it was because we pitched a fit, but regardless, no more walking in the snow.

Today’s children and as I said before most people under the age of 30 have no clue what life was like without some of our common and everyday household items and necessities, and I have to laugh because they have no idea what some of these items were and how they were so “hip” and “technologically advanced” for their time.

Moms and Dads of my generation and my parents generation please laugh with me as I recall listening to 8-track tapes, 45’s, records (known today as vinyl), then into cassette tapes, watching movies on the Saturday night special to BETA and then VHS, when my parents got our first color TV from Montgomery Wards, we had an Intellivision (from Intel mind you….the company so renowned for their microchips) and then my parents got us the first Nintendo some years later, we got our first microwave that was the size of a Volkswagen where we could microwave our popcorn and no longer make it over the stove, our phone was upgraded from a rotary dial to a touch tone dial.

Today we have cell phones, where my kids won’t have a clue what it is like to be cemented to a phone where your upgrade is a 20 foot cord from Radio Shack so you can walk to the bathroom from the kitchen to pee while talking to your BFF. Texting, well that used to be done via writing a note and we knew text as the small print on the bottom of the screen during your favorite show commonly known today as “closed captioning.”

The best part about cell phones is their evolution. From Motorola’s revolutionary brick to the new, hot, and one of the most wanted smartphones on the market that is just a bit larger than the size of a credit card, Motorola’s DroidX. Who would have thought that the phone with no more than a single hour of talk time alloted to it’s battery life could now allow you to touch the screen, download music, text, surf the web, and have a talk life of about five hours (if I am quoting this correctly.

Even more entertaining, my kids get in the car and are frustrated that the TV on their dual DVD screen in our Dodge Grand Caravan SXT is not a touch screen. They immediately touch it because they hope that if they touch it their favorite movie will start. Little do they know they have to ask mom (moi), well at least Grant is still aware of this, that mom controls the movie at the dash and in the cockpit of the van. They furthermore have no idea what life will be like without Google. Today at the quick flick of the fingertips you can find an answer to many of life’s puzzling questions, where in my day, you had to hit the books. You know the hard the cardboard and canvas binded, green, black, or navy colored books titled “Encyclopedia.”

Now here are my kids in action, having no clue what life will be like without the touch phone, touch screen, and what life would be like playing board games unless I absolutely force it upon them…but hey they don’t have an Angry Birds board game do they? I have a feeling it would not be as much fun as it is on the iPad.

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A Two and A Three

Time flies is a cliche at her finest. I am no fan of cliches, I think they are overused, lack substance, and well they are easy to use when you have nothing intelligent to say. But in the case of my children, time cannot stand still. Blogging I care not much for these days because let’s face it, spending all my spare time on the computer typing furiously about promoting another product, bashing people because of a lacking self-esteem (ahem), is rather, what would be the word…pathetic, and truly could be worthy of an intervention.

Although I work full-time and my children attend some of the finest educational institutions while I am at said job, my time is well spent with them during the time we are not apart. Soccer games, bike rides, hugs, kisses, coloring, reading, Lego’s and of course the token sibling fights consume the majority of our time. However, I have to stop and take in the sight of my children, survey them as individuals. I then am astonished at how much these beautiful little people have grown, changed, morphed, become more than I could ever dream of for such people that have blessed my life.

In as little as a few weeks the dynamic duo turn three. THREE! I am flabbergasted, astonished really because a time warp has taken place where just yesterday I started my blog while pregnant with the squids. Writing how I was still in denial that I was pregnant with two delicate lives in me, how could this pregnancy happen to me, would I make it, would they be okay.

Today, I write about how I hope they will be okay because may the powers that be protect these two little demons from the mommy wrath since they unloaded all the bath water, cup by cup onto the now flooded bathroom floor. Sigh.

But while I curse them for their behavior and the water and the mess I would never ask anything different. I have not been able to recall my memories of old when life was not consumed by children, their giggles, their screams and whines, and the precious moments of “I love you mom.” Recalling how boring life really was without kids, how I wasted money on frivolous minutiae. As the twin twosome turns three I am pleased to say that at least half of the duo is completely potty trained, ahem Sara….get a move on girly, they can recite their alphabet, count to ten, recall colors randomly, use manner like no one’s business and speak in clear and full sentences.

No let me take that final comment back. The twinsome cannot shut the eff up! I say this with complete love but they are blabber mouths, chatterboxes, motor mouths, these two command your attention when the topic arises. Their memories shadow any elephant, recall is amazing and would defy any statistician. I say this not as their mother, but as someone who is yet again astonished at the beauty and mystique of the growth of young children. How someone so fragile can grow so rapidly to function at a level that sadly most adults cannot operate. But with them turning three we have covered some major milestones that I am so pleased to have experienced in my life and as a parent.

Motherhood does not grant us beauty and serenity in the typical sense, motherhood is also not easy. I found however that anything that is easy in life is not of any value. So while I know these milestones have not been easy, we have experienced some major growing pains together and am thankful for the patience and love of my children as I know as they experience these same milestones with their children in our near future they too will be thankful for the patience and love given to them during those wonderful and thwarting years. I also know I would never ask to change anything about our lives, about my life with them. They are one of my life’s greatest challenges and as those who know me best, know I love a good challenge. With that, I am happy to take on the challenge of some more great years with the troublesome twosome, because I could not imagine life without these beautiful children of mine.