The baby has stolen my brain!

Well, except buying the hardwoods for the living room, dining room and family room, we really did nothing this weekend. We have 56 boxes of hardwood in the living room and front hall - yikes, it really looks like alot!! So I have nothing else to write today, so I am just going to cut and paste what I wrote for the twins club newsletter this month. It seems like I am cheating by not writing something new, but I am so brain dead, I have no more interesting thoughts. I swear, this baby has stolen my brain!!!

I love Thanksgiving! I love that one time per year I can eat all the Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and Pumpkin Pie that I want. And the calories don’t count . . . don’t I wish! But after all the food we eat the most important thing that we have are our families. Since we live in Georgia and all the rest of our families live in either Virginia or Scotland we have a rotating visitor schedule for the inlaws and my parents.

We decided after the kids were born that it would be too difficult to travel for all the holidays so we invite the family here to Alpharetta. Of course, our house is too small to fit everyone at once so we use a schedule and everyone gets an event per year, either the girls’ Birthday, Thanksgiving or Christmas. It works well and the girls love to have the visitors and each holiday is an intimate visit with family.

But even with just a few visitors at a time, I still feel that holiday crunch. That feeling that I just don’t have enough time to get things done and the deadlines are approaching fast. When I get stressed out, I hear these words come out of my mouth, “Not now, Mommy is too busy.” At first, the words seem easy and I can get the dishes done, the emails written, or make dinner faster. But what am I doing? One day after telling the girls I was too busy washing the dishes to play with them, I saw two sad little faces stare up at me. I heard a little voice in my head ask me what was more important at that moment, the dishes or my daughters? I put down the dirty pan, and joined the girls in the creation of a play-do grocery store.

The sounds of whining kids getting under my feet in the kitchen were replaced by the sounds of calm and laughter. The dishes were sitting in the sink, but I was sitting with the girls really being the parent that I want to be, one that lets my kids know how important they are to me. Especially during the holiday time it is hard to stop and not be too busy. But the holidays are all about family and how we should be thankful for the time we have with them. So I invite you, when those inevitable words come out of your mouth, “Mommy is too busy now,” stop and breathe, then put down what you are doing and enjoy your family. I will be enjoying my family this holiday season and maybe, eating using paper plates!