I am in a mood, by which I mean I’ve got a serious case of the why-do-I-even-bother’s? Some days nothing feels as pointless as being a stay at home mom, especially when it’s February and we’ve barely left the house in days and neither kid is sleeping through the night and they openly scoffed at the super cute macaroni craft I was counting on to keep us from strangling each other on Monday. Stop rolling your eyes at me and make a damn necklace already. 

The second I pick up a room it gets destroyed. As soon as I make a snack it’s gone and Caroline needs “somethin’ else eat”. I get 90% of the clothes laundry done and realize every sheet and towel in the house is filthy and needs to be washed. 60 seconds after I scrub the bathroom floor Evan has peed on it. Again.

It doesn’t help that I am losing – desperately – the fight against clutter and kids’ toys. For every box I take to Goodwill or basket I drop off at the consignment shop with a note that says “DONATE ANYTHING YOU WON’T TAKE FTLOG GET IT AWAY FROM ME” it seems like 5 more things appear in the house. I am totally out of places to put toys, so piling them up and shoving them into corners is the current strategy and that strategy sucks. Permanent removal is the only feasible plan of attack. I need 3 uninterrupted hours, a dozen trash bags and a memory-wiping device so Evan doesn’t ask “Mommy, what happened to my broken fire truck? I LOVED my broken fire truck!!!”

But that’s not going to happen. Instead, I’m going to put clean clothes on children, wash dirty clothes, feed children, wash dirty dishes, put away clean dishes, clean floor, clean other floor, clean other floor, clean first floor again, wash dirty children, put children to bed, clean the kitchen, wash myself, collapse. Because even though at the end of the day I have practically nothing to show for it, I’m exhausted. And that’s the worst part – nothing to show for it. I don’t have a spotless house or an organized pantry or a freezer full of meals or anything else beyond a headache. How come I can never get ahead?

I realize most of my angst is a result of a long, cold winter and a particular stage of childhood that requires maximum assistance. (Obviously a newborn requires a lot more full-time care but a newborn is incapable of dumping 200 Legos out on the floor. I’m looking at a ratio here.) There’s only so many cleaning-up games they’re willing to play before they realize those aren’t very good games at all. Closeness and familiarity are the enemies this time of year and a change in routine is the only solution. We need to be out of the house, if only so I can end the day with the same mess I woke up to, not one that’s 10 time worse. I’ve pretty much given up on February and I’m hoping too much TV, too many granola bars and too many dust bunnies don’t do the kids any permanent harm for the rest of this week.

C’mon March, I know you can do better.

p.s. We did manage to get Caroline’s room clean today – floor vacuumed and everything! – which is enough of a dent in the disaster that I’m already feeling better. This is how the kids “helped” me clean:

Moping

Hiding

Posing

More posing

Reflecting

Rocking

Resting

Playing

p.p.s. The gingers can even make February bearable. I love them to pieces.

Snowpocalypse! Snowtastrophe! Snowmygod! But the most exciting part of this week was actually that Caroline started preschool:

Sunday:

Saving money on my grocery bill is my new addiction.

Pizza helpers

Her hair is getting ridiculous

Monday:

Twin jammies

Twin couch nap

Twin box playing

Tuesday:

This is how she lives her whole life

Puzzles are WAY more interesting than saying goodbye to mom

The non-snow we got on Tuesday seems like a joke now

Wednesday:

Back to their Olympic training

Weirdo #1 says “Take a picture like this Mommy!”

Weirdo #2 says “TAKE MY PICTURE TOO!”

Thursday:

I pulled up in front of the school and threw them out. They loved it.

I love the gym on base – totally empty at 9 am.

Emergency snow storm supplies: APPLES

Friday:

Caroline “fixed” a lawnmower

Evan ate cheese

I made “OMG” faces at the blizzard

Saturday:

Banana bread baking

Flying dog flies out of the snow once he realized how deep it is

Official toddler measurement: WHOA.

There’s still a travel ban on state roads and highways so we CAN’T go anywhere – not that we were the least bit tempted. We have electricity, Netflix streaming, lots of (boozy) hot cocoa and homemade pizza for dinner. E got home from work before the storm hit and gets to stay with us until Monday, so basically the storm is the best thing that’s happened in two weeks.

Did you take iPhone photos of your week? Link up with one or several below! Please consider joining, even if you haven’t done it before – it’s really fun!

Our week started and ended with the same friends, although as of today they’re off to Guam and my children are left saying “Guam Guam Guam is faaaaaar away! Guam Guam Guam!” Guam is a funny word.

Sunday:

Guest room bed bouncing

Good girl waiting for the service to start

That’s a waterproof, impact resistant camera. I’m not a crazy person.

Monday:

Ginger photobomb

She’s making snow angels. Don’t tell her it’s not working.

Evan asks me to take this picture every night.

Tuesday:

I asked her to stay in the stroller. This was her compromise.

Being a product reviewer for 5 Minutes for Mom has its perks.

Who let the cat in the bag?

Wednesday:

Weekly allowance of Daddy

She’s rocking those glasses

Jellyfish love

Thursday:

I have a stick! In the house! This will end badly!

Guilty face

Apparently I was not the only one who didn’t feel like making dinner on Thursday

Friday:

Trapped behind a metal cage of emotion

TIME MACHINE PHOTO FROM 10 YEARS IN MY FUTURE

Toddler mono-kini = dead of cute.

Saturday:

15 minute cream cheese cinnamon rolls. 15 minutes to make them, I mean. 15 seconds to eat them.

Do I have something on my face?

Two cat pictures in one week?! Crazy cat lady alert!

 We’re going into week 2 of E’s crazy work schedule and so far I’m doing pretty well. The major reason I’m not freaking out is a spot opened up at Evan’s school for Caroline, so as long as I can get the immunization record from the doctor on Monday afternoon she starts school on Tuesday morning! My plan is to burn rubber out of the parking lot cackling maniacally and head for the gym on base, where I get 2 full child-free hours to take a class or restart C25K on a treadmill or just screw around on the elliptical trainer. Preschool isn’t cheap, but neither is a mental breakdown.

Also, I’m finishing up a few giveaway posts I’ve got in my queue, so if you like free stuff this will be a good month to be a blog reader. If you don’t like free stuff, come back on Wednesdays for nothing but cute ginger pictures.

Did you take iPhone photos of your week? Link up with one or several below! Please consider joining, even if you haven’t done it before – it’s really fun!

It’s cold in Connecticut. It doesn’t really matter HOW cold, since there isn’t some sort of contest for who-can-complain-about-being-the-coldest and once it gets down to below freezing everyone loses the contest anyway. As long as it’s too cold for outside activities my weeks are going to be especially uninteresting.

Sunday:

Self portrait in the crosswalk button (Evan and I walked to church)

It’s amazing how quickly I am turning into a crazy coupon lady

WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S BEDTIME????

Monday:

She insists these boots fit

Most amazing non-Disney animated film of all time

I took some pictures of a baby (not mine)

Tuesday:

She loves him…

…she loves him not…

…she loves him (and will copy ANYTHING he does).

Wednesday:

My kitchen window

I don’t even know.

She totally passed out while drinking my water

Thursday:

She is 1000x more fashionable than I am

2 year well-baby checkup

Pirate Captain Evan will drive his pirate ship into your face while you are trying to nap

Friday:

Stretching at Stroller Strides

Healthy choices are boring.

She electric! (Do do do-do do do, do-do do do do do)

Saturday:

It is hard to sleep in with this on your bed.

Look, Ma, no hands!

The casino might not be the MOST child-friendly place, but it is warm and good for running.

  E had to work today, but the kids and I met up with some old friends at Foxwoods for lunch and games and ice cream. It’s crazy to think when I met them I wasn’t even engaged to E and now between us we have 4 kids 4 and under. They’re moving to Guam in a few days (I am ONLY jealous because I’m so sick of the cold) so we’re trying to squeeze in another visit tomorrow – although Evan is going to be heartbroken when he finds out his new BFF can’t come to his birthday in April.

Did you take iPhone photos of your week? Link up with one or several below! Please consider joining, even if you haven’t done it before – it’s really fun!

Like I said on Monday, there was a lot of couch-and-tv time this week. When I go back through my photos and SEE it I always feel worse than when it’s actually happening – because when it’s happening I’m relaxing on the couch, so I don’t care. I think my goal for next week will be to leave the house with the kids every day, even if it is just to run out for more clementines (srsly, we go through a box every two days).

Sunday:

Bag lady

Fashion statement

Aladdin was a hit with the kids

Monday:

The kids discovered tins make excellent drums…

…and for some reason Caroline learned to plug her ears. Weird.

Tandem relaxation

Tuesday:

Mommy this is my rocket ship and I am going to blast off forever so good bye!

Snappy our turtle friend

Very proud of the bird feeder he made at school

Wednesday:

I managed to sort out enough of my old clothes to fill just ONE of the green tubs. It’s depressing to remember how cute I dressed in college.

Busted by a toddler with an iPhone

Bath time fun

Thursday:

Lazy Caroline was still asleep when it was time to take Evan to school

Posing for my picture

She undressed herself then sat in the timeout chair for 20 minutes. I have no idea why.

  Friday:

Weirdos.

Super weirdos.

More weirdos.

Saturday:

My little fox was annoyed we weren’t getting to the “an-mals” faster

I love them

Practicing her swimming

Pst, are we friends on Instagram? I tend to post my best iPhone photos over there because I can’t wait until Saturdays to share them but I hate to repeat them here in case people get bored. My user name is “bebehblog” and I promise I post very few photos of my own face.

Did you take iPhone photos of your week? Link up with one or several below! Please consider joining, even if you haven’t done it before – it’s really fun!