Not so adventures of the St. Clair clan...

    Some days I'm amazed that we make it to bedtime without the house collapsing around us.  Double bonus points if the house hasn't collapsed and we haven't seen the inside of an emergency room.  I'm not tucked under the covers yet, but today was definitely one of those days.   I may have mentioned before that our kids are...full of life .  They have a lot of enthusiasm.   Basically, whatever they do is at full tilt.  Play hard - sleep hard.  Except when they don't sleep.  Which unfortunately, is what happened today.  It was the epic, "Battle of the Nap" between the twins and myself.  I am not ashamed to admit that they schooled me.   Emerson has been pro at escaping her bed for some time, but after some "negotiations" early on, we convinced her that it was not appropriate to leave her bed unless she had actually slept first.  She plays by those rules (except when she does a pre-nap diaper fill).  Carter is in a bigger, higher crib and escaped

 It's spring.  Officially.  But unofficially it's been looking a lot like spring for the last few weeks.  Trees are starting to bloom.  Wildflowers are popping up everywhere.  The birds are singing in the mornings.  Deer are running through our yard constantly, and the turkeys are everywhere.   Last week we almost hit a turkey that was in the middle of the road.  I'm usually pretty cautious but this guy was at the crest of a hill, and I couldn't see him until we were right up in his tail feathers.  It didn't help that he wasn't making any attempt to get out of the road.   "He must be hurt," I told the boys.  "It looks like he's been hit by a car.  He is acting really weird."   We crept by him in the opposite lane.  I had nothing to dispatch him with and wasn't about to use my hands, so I wasn't going to stop.   As we passed Sawyer shouted, "And he's even got another turkey under him!" Oh.   "Aren't you going

 If my life-goal was making other parents feel better about themselves, I would say I'm pretty much dominating it.  It's currently not  my goal, but I'm considering changing it.  Call me dramatic, but today started off with a bang.   We have a routine on Thursdays that usually includes me running with my mom then dropping Sawyer off at school.  When we arrive at the school, which is really a church, we park right in front.  Fischer stays in the van with the girls and gets to listen to a kids podcast on my phone while I walk Sawyer to his classroom.  There is a teacher who lets us into the building, and I know she can see my van from where she is standing.  I don't worry about leaving the younger kids for the three or so minutes it takes me to drop Sawyer off in his classroom.   Today, I took an extra minute to talk to a friend and ask a quick question.  When I reached my van, Fischer was up in the front with the girls which I thought was odd.  As soon as I opened the do

 I have a friend who has been absolutely hammered by "hard stuff."  It's at the point where Hollywood couldn't even make a movie about it.  People would think it was too unrealistic.  It's been rough.  This week her family topped off everything with a severe case of the flu.  There has been vomiting in some capacity for a solid seven days at her house.  I felt terrible for her and her husband, so I did the only thing I know how to do.  I stopped by with a bag of food; just a few things that go down easy when your stomach is on the fritz.   I knocked on the door and when she answered, I handed her the bag of food and made small talk for a minute.  We said our goodbyes.  Then, I raided her garbage, took all of the cardboard I could fit into the back of my van, and drove away.  I made it about a mile before I realized, I'm probably the weird friend.   It's a label I'm willing to carry.  I got some really nice cardboard, and I may be back for another load.

 If you're wondering why my house looks mostly like this: I'll tell you.  It's because we have two two-year-olds who spend the hours between their nap and dinner trying to injure themselves and each other in constantly evolving and creative fashion.  There is no time for cleaning.  There is no time for looking away.  The boys have taken a backseat in the, "what's the quickest way to the ER" game and our  "twinsesses" have taken crazy to the next level.  I'm not sure if we are raising wild animals or little girls.  The jury is still out.   Here is a little glimpse into our lives.  Today, I saved Carter from dysentery when she tried to drink water from a stagnant mud puddle.   Immediately after that, she tried to rip duct tape off a leach line pipe...with her teeth.  Also, I'm not sure if eating wood ash off the hearth or drinking bath water can cause illness, but we will be finding out.  I really don't know where we picked this girl up. E

 I ate Robins Eggs for lunch today - not with  my lunch but for  lunch.  I also brushed my teeth at least four times, so whatever I may have lacked in nutrition, I made up for in fluoride.  Things didn't improve much with dinner.  I fell off the meal plan train.  I made it two days, and then we had hotdogs.  I'm riding high on corn syrup and nitrates.  No wonder why my day has been zero percent productive.    I feel bad.  But only because my stomach is churning and growling like a garbage disposal, not because I actually  feel bad.  My cup is half full...of water because I also drank too much coffee today.  Seriously though, things can only improve from here.  I'm out of hotdogs.  Tomorrow I vow to eat something green (that isn't candy coated).   Okay, okay, enough about me.   Here's something funny to change the subject.  Our boys earned a few dollars this weekend selling some of their kindling.  Fischer was anxious to spend his hard earned cash, so he put together