Life happenings

I finally went to a twin mom's group last night (yes, the kids are nearly 14 months old). It was okay, thankfully my expectations weren't that high. They are having a big sale in a few weeks, so much of the talk was about that. It's like dating never ends... It isn't difficult meeting people, it is just difficult meeting like-minded people who don't make you feel like either you or they are crazy. Sigh...

The kids are still on two daily naps, which really limits our ability to do activities, as they always and everywhere seem to be scheduled during their prime sleeping hours (not something I'm willing to sacrifice) but I'm working on getting us to classes and the library now that they are bigger and will likely be dropping one before long. We are so excited for pool season to start, I so hope they like to go. While we have one in our neighborhood, I've been doing recon and will be taking them to a few of the many nearby with more and earlier morning hours, toddler pools, and splashgrounds. I can not wait.

I'm busily planning a million things: my impromptu (and as yet unplanned) trip to see my best sister (and another of my best friends) in NYC this weekend, multiple grandparent visits, a trip to the sugar bush and Easter stuff, and hopefully a getaway for the four of us to somewhere warmer before Spring. I could seriously use a few more active hours every day, I really need to find sitters that I love so that I can get more done. In my free time. I used to think that moms who stayed home AND had help were lazy or something, but now I realize that it is very difficult to do everything by yourself while caring for two small children.

This winter has been a joke, yet again, and while I hate to complain when so many people have way too much snow and cold for their liking, that is after all one of the things that makes Chicago Chicago, having seasons that is. We've gotten just a few inches of snow all winter, like last year, which now is gone from the warmth and rain. No snowmen or sleigh for us... :(  I may just send the feet for the wagon back to LLB.

The kids teethe like crazy, I can hardly keep track. He's got one molar now and more of them on the way. We are going to the dentist for the first time in a few weeks, which should be interesting.

Happy Mardi Gras! :)

...And Taxes

Somehow my last two posts ending up being about the tragic deaths of two young mothers (cheery stuff, sorry), so any way is up from there right?  Somewhere above that is filing one's taxes... As much as I love eye candy, (not to be a Debbie downer but) we're all about real life over here, not a bunch of motherhood and Photoshop BS (you mean you don't glow like that as you scramble about in your yoga pants?)

Well, I guess the kids kinda glow when the sun comes in the picture window.  Close enough... ;)

Anywho back to taxes...  Do you file your own?  Have/pay someone else to do it for you?  Owe?  Get a refund?  What do you do with it?  Pay bills?  Save?  Go shopping/on vaca?

I've always done my own, but then we did the accountant thing for awhile when we started our own business (which ended up being more of a PITA than it was worth in the end), and now we do them on our own again.  These guys offer an easy and free/low fee service to file online, though there are many options out there.  It is really handy to use the same software/site every year because you don't have to reenter everything, just update it when you get your year end forms.  Even with a small business, it is not that bad doing them yourself, though I admit to being a numbers person. 

We used to owe (a lot) being DINKs for so many years, and then last year got our first refund in a long time.  We updated DH's W-4 withholding (and I didn't work outside of home) last year, but apparently it didn't take (and we didn't notice/follow-up w/HR), so we ended up with an even bigger one this year (oops).  I know better than to think this is a good thing, but what are you going to do, I've had other things on my plate.  If you like to get a big check at the end of the year, decrease your withholding/increase exemptions on your W-4, set up an auto deposit to a savings account and you get the same (plus interest and the liquidity during the year) in the end.  Even having less withheld so you owe is a better deal, assuming you have the money saved.  I guess the good news is we have an unexpected windfall to go to my car, my IRA and the kids' 529s.

Happy Filing! :)

When the heart of a home is gone

Last weekend, DH gave me the day "off" and I spent a whole six hours away from the kids, the most yet. It was nice to get out, but it also reminded me how much of my mental space they now consume.

One of the places I went to was Hinsdale, which is a haven for teardowns, but has an adorable historic downtown with several cute shops (now minus Lilly) that I used to get to on a regular basis and a few new ones I hadn't yet.  It is also known among followers of Giuliana & Bill Rancic as where they recently flipped one of their several investment homes.  Driving out of town, I happened past the Greek Revival that was the feature of the late designer Marija Stephens's blog "Holding Court" (which has been taken down, but the tribute blog "Holding Forth" has it now). I wrote about her passing here back in 2010...

So later I looked up what happened to the house and since I've apparently let my sub to Chicago Home lapse, I had missed this story from last fall.  Marija hadn't yet finished their family home she'd designed from the ground up when she was tragically killed in a car accident, so her husband had a friend of hers (Julie Edelmann of Buckingham Interiors) finish it before he sold it and moved with their two young children to my old neighborhood in the city before the story ran.  He'd written a beautiful final post on her blog about her and their life and their dreams and the house.  It is a lovely home, but when the heart of a home is gone, it is of course just a house...

  



Wanderlust: What Happened to Lady Sybil on Downton Abbey?

As someone who had lots of issues getting and staying (and then getting un-) pregnant, I obviously give thanks regularly that I am lucky enough to live in the 21st century (and have access to high quality medical care).  A friend of mine from college, Veronica, who is a Harvard trained OB/GYN/MPH and often Africa bound-Doctor without Borders, wrote about last night's episode of Downton Abbey on her blog.  Warning if you didn't watch it, it was very very sad...

There were also teasers that Lady Mary and Matthew may be having trouble getting pg.  Stay tuned...

Wanderlust: What Happened to Lady Sybil on Downton Abbey?: (WARNING: This entire post is a spoiler if you are not watching Downton as it airs in the US) ************** On tonight's Downton...

If you are in the market for an all terrain double stroller...

We've really enjoyed our Bumbleride Indie twin and they've been slashing prices lately (a new model is coming out) to even less than we paid last spring for ours.  Zulily has them now for $440-$450, which is crazy.  They also have the single Indies. 

We love ours in Ocean, but I have a sweet spot for Seagrass (but I thought it would get too dirty), and the other colors (Walnut (natural edition), Fog and Jet Black (movement edition) Lava, Red, and Aqua) are nice too.  It is the top rated double by Consumer Reports and several other reviewers (like Babble and Baby Gizmo).

If you need an invite to shop Zulily, click here.

Three years, 13 months, and three days

I just realized that I've been blogging over here for three years...

I guess this brings up my overall conflicted feelings about blogging in general.  I started when I was neck deep in infertility treatments (which obviously by definition are very self centering) and involved in online networking with women in a similar situation. It made sense, though I will just never been a good ole AWing blogger. I used to have all the time in the world and it was helpful to me and hopefully helped some others who have gone through similar situations. 

Now we and many of them have families and many of them (and some others who don't yet) have stopped blogging.  Others have chosen to make a job out of it, leveraging their family lives into an income stream since they are SAHMs.  I find it funny sometimes when people say they blog for themselves or their children, because obviously there is something very exhibitionist/voyeuristic about the whole thing and it obviously takes time away from them.  But sometimes I look back at old posts and wonder if I'd remember any of it if it wasn't written down.  I follow a lot of design blogs too, but inevitably the southern sorority girl end up coming out of them and I find myself wondering why I even bother, since I already know what I like and we have nothing in common other than a natural inclination to pretty things.  So I don't know that I'm going anywhere, I guess I will remain conflicted.

The twins turned thirteen months yesterday. We had a quiet Sunday at home, though we took them out on Saturday for a rare trip to the mall with both of us and had dinner at the Nordstrom's cafe (which I love) which somehow DH had never been to. I hadn't been for a long time and they had a blast as always, devouring the better part of a Margarita pizza by themselves. They eat so much and are so skinny it is crazy, they must have inherited the tapeworm that my family always used to tease me about having as a kid. I thought this was funny as a kid too, until I looked up tapeworms in one of my mother's medical books, they are totally disgusting.

 We love these bibs, they are by Green Sprouts.

And the fish tank in the Nordie's kids' shoe dept...

DH just realized that he has President's Day off this year, and instead of suggesting we take a long weekend as a family, he told ME to take a long weekend. And since this would not happen with me at home, he gave me a pass to go away sans kids. So I got a ticket to go to NYC for three days. I am excited, haven't been there or anywhere w/o them for a year and a half, though I'm guessing that just sleeping in like would be so nice is not going to happen. I already get up before the kids. We'll see if I can turn off and have a short respite.

Happy Inauguration Monday!

The twins' (a bit) bigger kid rooms

We separated the kids into their own rooms last spring when Alistair's noise making was interfering with Marielle's sleep. They both sleep much better now, but I joke it was his way of getting his bigger boy room as soon as he could, since the room we had them in was destined to be hers.

Like their shared nursery, I didn't have an overarching design mission in mind, though I certainly have a look that I tend to gravitate to and just buy (sometimes too many) things I like and they all end up all kind of going together.  I like and went with natural, happy, Indian/int'l, beachy/nautical/preppy, etc., with a focus on art and textiles.  No kiddie kitsch or themes, nothing branded, nothing that hurts your eyes to look at, no sets or otherwise too matchy matchy or anything completely impractical.  I tend to like higher end things (who doesn't, right?), but honestly the amount that some people spend on what is decidedly a temporary room is in my opinion completely ridiculous.  If my journey to a mom of two taught me anything it is the beauty of simplicity and voluntarily scaling back.

The twins' nursery/Mari's room is 11x10, and while that is on the smallish side for even a secondary bedroom, once we removed the second crib it opened it up, a lot. We've since added a wardrobe, since I got sick of dealing with having all of her hang up clothes in his closet across the hall, and wasn't in the mood for a demo into the guest closet. I've rearranged the furniture several times (as I tend to do), but the jr. high line up is where I settled since there were so many doors and drawers to accommodate it was just easier (and now everything is bolted to the walls, so there is no changing of minds).

I replaced the ticking stripe (which I love way too much) curtains from Land of Nod with the previous ones we had custom made in India (her room was previously our den, though I'd always planned for it to be a kid's room), since she liked to pull on them since they went to the floor. These are short as I'd always planned window seats under our very large and low windows in both the kids' rooms (hers will come later). She doesn't mess with these, though she loves to stand and look out the window.

The curtains' raised garland pattern

This recliner/glider is crazy comfy

The "new" old map of Bermuda

The wardrobe knobs

A wider shot

The rugs

The hall to List's room, from the chair you can see the map... :)

Her garland, chair, and round pillow are from LON. The wardrobe and throw are from IKEA, and I replaced the original knobs with bunnies from Anthropologie (where her fabric "m" is also from). The wardrobe art are gifts from her cousins and friends.  The berber wool carpet is Karastan (one of several remnants from our stair recarpet), which was previously in our office, where the wool roundie ended up. The new striped rug is from Williams-Sonoma Home. The map of Bermuda is from our trip in '09 (love that place) and needed a home when I put up a white board calendar in the kitchen. I feel bad that her map is so puny, given the mural we ended up putting in his room, but these will be well traveled children regardless.

Alistair's room was always meant to be a nursery, back when we thought we'd have one baby at a time. I thought it perfect for this since it is so tiny, only 10x9 (and that's rounding up!). Back when we first moved in and the whole house had white walls and beige carpet like a boring rental (ugh!), one of the very first things we did was paint it "Lamb" (back when Martha had colors at SW) and then got custom silk curtains made in India.  I didn't feel like repainting and it works, so that is what it still is.  There are a dozen names for the curtain color, I call it persimmon. While it is a challenge to do curtains for a new house that is not yet fully decorated, I figured orange, while not usually one of my faves, is one of the colors that could segway either to girl (w/pink) or boy (w/blue).  I was going for a complementary Aegean blue here, until the cushion conundrum introduced the navy.

The map is the most recent addition and looks like it was made for the room (it fits the length perfectly).  I have loved studying maps since I can remember, and given the kids' multicultural heritage, I figured with this they can see where their parents/families are from (it even has Nasik, India on it, where DH was born and his family now lives. :) ).

I thought this little room needed a statement piece and this fit the bill.  DH is not so secretly hoping it earns at least one of them a place in the geography bee and I'm sure it'll be one thing we replicate in our next house.  I was not looking forward to installing it when I realized it was like wallpaper (it is three huge slightly overlapping panels), but it didn't end up being that bad to put up (just prep/wash, tape, prime and paste up).  DH and I spent one (long) evening after they went to bed getting it up, with List in a PNP in the guest room next door.

I know these chairs are popular nursery items, but DH and I didn't end up finding it very comfortable (maybe because we are so tall, I don't know).

The closet

Over the dresser

More art from the nursery

His executive map mural is from National Geographic (now half off!) and the rug was in the twins' nursery and is from Dash & Albert. His room also has an IKEA Malm four drawer dresser (his in birch, hers in ivory), and an Expedit shelf (the window seat) with their baskets. The closet curtains (from several yrs ago, replacing giant old doors that were coming off their hinges and were therefore a hazard) are also IKEA, I just trimmed off the tab tops and used the enclosed hem tape to shorten up the top. The window seat cushions are from Company Kids.  The monogrammed pillow we had already is from L.L. Bean and the "a" from Anthro. His garland (now half off as well) and chair are also from LON. All other sources are listed in their shared nursery post.