hibernation

Ha! Had you going with that resolution in January, huh? Well, I had myself going, too. Even bought a little journal to jot down the quick things that happen during the day so that they're not forgotten. What I didn't know when I decided to blog more often is that even though the girls are so much easier to care for -- they can eat more food, they can walk, they can communicate, they only nap once a day -- at the same time, we're all so much BUSIER! Someone mentioned to me that I "shouldn't plan on getting much done in the next 18 months or so", and I'm feeling lately that she may be right. These girls of mine are busy busy busy and don't care a bit about any form of "no", other than to giggle and dive with renewed relish into whatever action got my attention. Not only have I not been blogging, I haven't been on facebook for more than a grand total of 10 minutes or so in the last two months, and that was mostly to check for news and pictures of a friend's new baby! I haven't been emailing, I haven't been uploading pictures, I haven't been baking bread, and I just started the taxes last week. What a whirlwind.

So what I think I'll do, to go along with my efforts to clear out the clutter of my life, 5 minutes at a time, is to start from where I left off (all the way back at Christmas!) and go from there. Of course, the girls have changed so much since then that I'll have to throw in a recent picture at the end of the post.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas this year was being snowed in. We didn't drive our cars for over a week, and were super lucky that the worst of the snow arrived during the week that Francois was on vacation from work. So, we played outside in the snow, hunkered down in our warm house, cooked yummy winter fare in the crock pot, and sat around playing and talking with each other. Amazingly, we never lost power, so in more ways than one it was the best possible way to be snowed in. Francois and Simeon walked to the food co-op when we needed some groceries and a neighbor down the street gave F a ride in his truck to the farmers' market, so we even had fresh oysters for Christmas Eve dinner. It was a fabulous, relaxing week.

Here's Simeon discussing Santa's cookies (and a carrot for Rudolph):



...and the girls, so busy chewing on their stocking stuffers that eventually we had to take the toys away so that they would eat some breakfast:


There are a few more pictures here at flickr, including some glassy-eyed twins before their nap -- so weary that they cried and cried at seeing the new clothes from Grandma Jane and wouldn't quit until they were *wearing* them, gosh darn it. Also a shot there of Simeon at his school Christmas program, held in January b/c of the weather -- his favorite was singing "this little light of mine" while holding a glow-in-the-dark star on a popsicle stick, with the lights turned out.

Finally, here's some recent pictures of the girls:



What was Eloise so concerned about? I'm not sure. ... maybe she knew I hadn't blogged since January. :-)