See?

Happiness is also meeting a long-time blogging friend in person.

Happiness is also looking taller than said friend. I’m not really. I just had on my big brown boots with my outfit even though the weather is refusing to be fall-like. Where is fall? The temperatures are not making me happy. I’m sweating. In fact, the You Capture challenge for next week is “the feeling of Fall.” If the temperatures don’t drop, the only feeling I’ll be feeling is grumpy! That would make a lovely picture, no? But we’re going to a Pumpkin Festival this weekend so I’m sure to come away with something. Right?

Go visit I Should Be Folding Laundry for more happiness.

I got things read for after-bath (jammies, tooth brushes) before I ran the water for their bath. I helped remove clothes. I chased naked butts into the bathroom. I had every fiber in my being planning on taking the quickest possible bath in the history of all baths ever. But then they started to do this. (Ignore boogers brought to you by aforementioned teething.)

And this.

Yes. They made bubble face goatees. Without my goading or prompting. In fact, LittleBrother did it first and then BigBrother followed suit. I found myself laughing despite the general feeling of ick that had been following me around for most of the day. And suddenly my focus was not on rushing bath time, teeth brushing, jammification, story reading, prayers and tucking in. I let them splash for awhile. They got too much water on the floor. I laughed with them and my shirt ended up splattered with the happiness of two brothers in a bubble bath. And while I didn’t magically feel better, I was able to smile and enjoy the rest of our evening together.

I know I’m supposed to be raising them to be well-rounded adults who can appreciate the beauty in life… but sometimes they’re reminding me to stop and do that very thing. I mean, bubble bath goatees? When was the last time you gave yourself a bubble bath goatee?

Wouldn’t this life be a happier place if we all took time for bubble bath goatees?

The other day, while waiting for Santa to arrive on a fire truck, FireDad and I took some silly pictures. We do this a lot. I don’t know why. Perhaps because we’re silly. In fact, we’re still rather silly for one another. Through the sleepless nights, diapers, work drama, missed holidays due to work (and associated drama), postpartum depression, arguments, grumpy pants and general boringness of life… we’ve somehow found a way to stay silly with one another. Which is good as life can be far too serious sometimes. It’s good to laugh with one another.

We’ve been through a lot and, no doubt, there are things ahead that won’t be as funny as this series of pictures. But I think we both feel very blessed to be heading into each day together. We’re not perfect. But finding the humor in our mistakes has brought us thus far. Looking at the joy in our eyes, I have hope enough for the future.

Happy Anniversary, FireDad. You’ll always be my hero.

This can get hectic. And it’s hard to travel back and forth with small children at times. No kid likes to stop playing with gifts they have received from one grandparent, put on a bulky coat and go to another’s house. And I like to sleep when my belly is full, so putting on my own coat and traveling down the road isn’t my own idea of supreme fun either.

As I was grumping and grouching about this before Thanksgiving rolled around, it finally struck me how truly lucky we are in this way. In essence, I was complaing that… we have too many family members.

This seems like something absolutely silly to complain about when written out in that fashion, doesn’t it?

As you may recall, I lost my first grandparent, my grandfather, this past September. His absence was noted on Thanksgiving day as we sat at the table. And as Christmas rolls around, the grandfather who looked so much like Santa is even more deeply missed. All the same, as lucky as I have been, these two little boys are even luckier. They have: two maternal grandparents, two maternal paternal great-grandparents, one maternal maternal great-grandmother, one maternal maternal maternal great-great-grandmother, one paternal grandmother, one paternal grandfather and step-grandmother, two paternal paternal great-grandparents, and one paternal maternal great-grandmother. Then there are aunts, uncles and a long string of great-aunts and great-uncles. And cousins, 1st cousins once removed and 2nd cousins.

I mean, I still have a great-grandmother. Who is healthier than the lot of us combined, folks! We are so very blessed!

And so, this holiday, and hopefully forever in the future, I hope to be less grumbly about traipsing from house to house. I hope to put on my coat with a smile, give a warm of hug of true thanks and make my way to the next house. Someday I hope to host holidays for my great-grandchildren. Or even my great-great. We are so blessed in this way to be five generations deep on one side. To have so many people to love us, to love TheBrothers. To have a place to go to celebrate a holiday, a birthday, a summer day, anything. To be able to call anyone family. And we celebrate that blessing in our lives this year.

Life is good when you have too many family members.

If this wasn’t a post about positivity and gratefulness, I’d be the first to list off every last thing that is wrong with our house. It would be a post that would take days to write because, as a perfectionist, I find fault at every last turn. Instead, I shall tell you some things that I adore about our house.

We have a red wall in our bedroom. I always wanted a red wall but neve got one because it wasn’t “my house” and something about living by their rules and, well, you know the drill. I think it’s gorgeous. I also love that we can decorate the half wall with the centerpiece from our Christmas-time wedding when the holidays roll around. It is as if it was made solely for that purpose. I love that the boys have a playroom even if I can still hear that very loud ambulance when I’m on the opposite side of the house.

I love our storage room and the fact that I am currently hiding Christmas presents in there (but recognize that won’t always get to be the case). I love our yard and how it’s just big enough for a playhouse, our slide and other toys. I love our apple tree and the pink blossoms it gives me every year for my birthday. I love our kitchen and the fact that I can make my family good meals within it. I love the refrigerator with all of the letter magnets and school projects and pictures and newspaper clippings and so on. I love our new programmable thermostat that FireDad lovingly installed to save us a little money. And I love the fact that we have heat (and air) so that we may live comfortably whatever the season.

I love that this is our home. I love that we have made it more than just a house. I love that we are improving on things in our own time, on our own watch. I love our house, our home. I am thankful for it and I celebrate it today.

Life is good in this house.

If you follow me on twitter, you know that last week was a very hard week. Not emotionally. Just in general. FireDad was gone, minus an appearance for one bedtime, six days in a row last week. I was exhausted after changing eighty-six diapers, running BigBrother to and from school while dragging a normally-napping LittleBrother along and generally being responsible for everything in our immediate world. When I get exhausted, I have a tendency to whine. As such, I do apologize to all of my twitter followers who had to endure my whining last week.

This week? Is not the case. Sure, it helps that FireDad will be present for a large portion of the week, minus his normal shift days. (Like today.) But after the conversation with my blogging friend, I am reminded by how grateful we are this season. This year. This life! And, as such, I am going to spend this week writing about that gratefulness.

I don’t know how well I will do, verbalizing it all. The sheer abundance of it all is somewhat overwhelming and therefore forming coherent thoughts, words and then sentences seems like a task in itself. But perhaps a necessary task. With the year winding down and the holidays upon us, it would be easy to just get caught up in the day-to-day hub-bub and forget to look around and marvel at all we have in our lives. And not just the physical stuff (though that’s great, too). But some “unseen” things that all too often get overlooked. But not this week!

Though it is somewhat saddening that I have to remind myself to devote time to discussing what is good and amazing in our lives, that I have to dedicate an entire post to explain what I will be doing this week so that my readers don’t think I’ve flipped my cork. (Or, so that when I read back over this in a few years I am not left wondering what made me so darn happy all of a sudden.)

But the truth is that I am happy. As a family, we are happy. And I feel like rejoicing in that happiness this week. Will you join me? Will you attempt to verbalize the things in your life which you are truly grateful for as 2008 draws to a close? Will you share your happiness with us? If you do, please let me know. I don’t want to miss a chance to help anyone else celebrate their lives.

Life is good, folks. Life is good.

I did, however, interview my good friend Ivory from The Trivial Pursuit of Happiness. It just seemed to be appropriate this week, no? Ivory is a great blogger, a mom of two girls whose ages are awfully close to TheBrothers and much more crafty than I can ever hope to be. Read on to meet her.

She gets asked this question all the time but I thought I’d ask for my readers: How did you choose your blog name?

The Trivial Pursuit of Happiness is my daily reminder that in our house, you don’t have to pursue happiness, it chases you from room to room.  I can’t even begin to imagine all the time I’ve lost in this life delaying joy – I will be happy when we can buy ____, I will be happy once I finish _____, I will be happy once the girls stop ______. Every moment is an opportunity to be happy, but I forget this on an hourly basis. Thankfully, my girls are always willing to teach me again.

Do you feel that blog name fits you now? Have you grown into more even since Alice’s birth?

I think the change came more when Ella was born, than when Alice was. Obviously it takes more patience and Mama-Zen to look at two screaming children and see the potential for joy, but when I think about my life before I was a mother, all I remember is wanting to run and run and run into my future, so that I could look back on that time and understand who I was. As a mother, I have stopped running away from myself, both because I have finally found something I love doing (most days) but also because you can not hold a sleeping child and want them to grow up faster.

Post-interview FireMom note: the above point ties in very well with what I said during yesterday’s Love Thursday post. Perhaps this is a theme I should explore a bit more.

What’s the best thing about mothering two girls?

No question, it is seeing them become sisters. When I was tiny, I used to tell my family that God gave me the choice between three families, but I chose my family because my older sister needed me. Sisterhood is something that I hold close to my chest, because it’s the one relationship I’ve seen last through generations – my grandmother and her sister, my mother and her sister, and my sister and I. When Alice was born a girl, I felt that thread lengthen, and I thanked her for choosing us, because we did need her. Don’t get me wrong – if Ella and Alice are like my sister and I, they are going to knock each other out a few times before they realise how much they need each other, but it will be worth it.

What’s the hardest thing?

The hardest part is balance. Balance between their needs and mine, balance between being a wife and a mother, balance between trusting the universe to keep them safe and fearing that it’s not enough. Every day I feel the seesaw tip one way or the other.

What advice do you have to parents about who are about to parent two children?

Buy a bigger coffee pot, and leave your pride at the door for the neighbor to pick up when they come over to cook dinner. I was so sure, since Ella’s first few months went so well, that this time it would be even easier! I… was wrong. I was so wrong. I can not even begin to tell you how wrong I was. With two under two, there was no sleeping when the baby slept, there was no plopping the baby in the sling and walking to Subway for a sandwich if I was hungry, there was no time to just sit and get to know her. I kept waiting for it to get easy, because it had to eventually, right?

This is where I had to remind myself constantly to see the value in these moments, because if I were still waiting for it to get easy, I would have put on my shoes and caught a bus to anywhere a long time ago. It hasn’t gotten easy, but it has gotten fun.I’m not waiting around for happiness – I’m getting down on the floor with it and letting it tickle me until I can’t breathe.

Post-interview FireMom note: Do you know how good it feels to see another mother verbalize these thoughts? Again, perhaps another theme I should run with in the near future.

So, you’re crafty, what are you making right now?

Right now I have a small mountain of projects to try and finish before Christmas, but at the top are birthday dresses for the girls, since their birthdays are in less than a month (December 8th and 9th). I don’t have pictures yet, but two words: Tutu skirts. Weeee!

Advice to the non-crafters among us who aspire to be as awesome as you?

Ha! I guess just be flexible with yourself. I finish maybe half of the projects I start, because I usually get to step two before I a) get distracted by something shiney, or b) get lost and throw it into the bog. Sometimes things come out to be finished, but most things get pulled apart and used in a different way.

And that, my friends, is my friend Ivory. She’s a wise soul and I have learned so much from her over the years. I have not, sadly, magically become crafty just by association but I’ve definitely learned other things. As the Pursuit of Happiness week comes to a close, I encourage you to jump over to her blog, say hello, subscribe and/or follow her on twitter. I enjoy the daylights out of her and only lament that she lives so darn far away.

And? Pursue a little happiness before this week ends. You deserve it.

(Side note: My Flip is still broken. I’m hopeful for more sign language next week. Sigh.)