Yes, folks, it's game night

A small glimpse, for your entertainment, of what family game night actually looks like at our house...

*It's Sara's night to choose the game, and, inexplicably, she pulls out Monopoly. She does not like games that require much sitting still and decision making. Especially Monopoly with SEVEN people. But she says excitedly, "I pick Monopoly!" We believe it has something to do with the enjoyment of lining up piles of money.

*I finish reading my Newsweek article while Eric passes out all the money and Levi sets up the cards. I consider this a great perk of being The Mom. The Mom is not in charge during game night. She has just cooked The Pizzas.

*Leah makes it exactly two rounds. She frowns deeply when we pull $200 from her stack for the income tax and frowns even more deeply after we tell her she can't roll the dice in a manner as dangerously as she did the first round. She tells me she wants to be on my team and that I can have all her money, then exits to go play "kids and dog". Jesse leaves one round later.

*The rules are, whoever has the most assets in one hour is declared the winner. Delaney immediately leans toward hoarding, and considers it beneficial when she ends up in jail twice. Levi refuses to believe that the game will actually eventually be over, and is torn between buying more properties and (strangely) asking to mortgage them to get more cash (what are we teaching him?). Eric can't roll higher than three all night unless he's landed on my electric company and has to pay me four times the roll. So, even though this never, ever happens, I get lots of doubles, buy everything I can, zoom around the board and end up winning.

*My first property purchase of the night, on my very first turn (I'm usually a conservative Monopoly player), brought this winning quote of the night from Levi: "Wow, $150, are you sure? That's a lot of money for a mom."

Which one of these is not like the other...

...which one of these, doesn't belong?*
Read these quotes from yesterday and see if you can guess correctly:


"Mom! Levi got hit with the binocular-thingys!"
"That cat is using our screen for a claw sharpener."
"Jesse spilled milk on me. But it wasn't my fault."
"Honey, there was a small explosion in the office."
"Do I have to use soap in the shower?"


*Bonus points for finishing the lyrics of that song in the comments!

Times Two

When you have twins, life slows down considerably. We went from two children to four children and my patience for the everyday details of life got quite the workout. I distinctly remember thinking that first winter, I can't imagine them being older, like, five.

And today, by the grace of God, here we are. Time has actually sped up now, and we even find ourselves trying to slow them down, holding them a little longer. Five children between ages 3 and 8 is a very sweet spot, and I'm trying to sear it into my ever-addling brain. As Sara said today, "I'm going to miss you, four."

Happy 5th birthday, twin-o's!




P.S. For those who are interested, the twin's chosen birthday day menu:
Breakfast: Blueberry muffins, bacon, donuts, orange juice
Lunch: chicken nuggets, french fries, cut-up apples, water
Supper: crock-pot pizza, cauliflower salad, garlic bread, Darn Good Chocolate Cake (white version) with strawberry (Sara) and chocolate (Jesse) ice cream

My post-holidays Holiday

This is exactly what I needed this week. We're not hitting our regular routine again until Monday, so I've been methodically cleaning each room, purging and organizing as I go. I have five willing participants who like the cleanliness and new arrangements, but only one of them is showing the true organizational gene so far. "What can we sort now, mom?", Delaney asks first thing in the morning. "Can I stop playing and help you organize?" That's my girl.

Some results of my therapy...

...a clean and sorted school area:

...a place for every single winter glove, hat and scarf, finally:

...and a to-the-corners, inside-the-cabinets, even-the-top-of-the-refrigerator clean kitchen:

So, if you're thinking about visiting us in 2008, tomorrow would be the day to do it. Everything may not be this clean again for another year. And now, when we are in the midst of the messiness of real life this year, I can pull up this post, inhale deeply, and remember.