Wow it is hard to believe that almost a month has passed since my last post!  Time really does fly when you have twin toddlers, a household, a yard, and work to take care of!  I have to admit that I have missed checking in on this space, so here is my first post to try to get out of my summer vacation rut and back into blogging world.

First, I have really been struggling with the identity of this blog.  Am I here to document our crazy daily lives so that we can look back one day and say ‘Holy hell how did we survive that?!”?  Or to chronicle the lives of our little ones so that when they ask us one day, we have a place to go for answers, considering what a whirlwind their babyhood has been so far?  Or am I here to help other MoMs, to hold hands and try to lend some reassurance to those who are walking in the shoes that we have already been in?  I really have no idea where to go from here, so I’m going to continue sharing stories and items that are helping us get by, and hopefully someone will stumble upon this little slice of Internet that I have claimed and find it helpful one day.

That all being said, I was hopeful in January that with the girls turning 2 that I would be able to turn this little Blog into a side business of sorts.  My hubby and I invested in it, and truth be told, between teaching high school and raising twins, I just don’t have the time or energy to update it as much as I would need to in order to make back the money that I am spending on my domain name.  In January, when I am due for a renewal, I’m thinking that we will head back over to Blogger with our new content, so that we can save some much-needed $$ for next summer.  It makes me sad, but having a free space to share my thoughts feels a lot more liberating and a lot less high-stakes.

This summer has flown by. We spent a few days and then a full week at the beach house, a few days with our friends lakeside, more than a few days on home improvement projects (all of which involved a new coat of paint), a few days potty training, and a bunch of days lounging around the house, waiting for the heat to break. I also spent a lot of time messing around in my flower beds, and I’m hopeful that I’ve laid the groundwork for prettier beds next year.

Emma and Jane had a lot of ups and downs this summer. Toddlerhood has not exactly been easy for them so far. Last summer I worked on words with them, learning how to identify objects by name and how to speak in simple sentences, and how to walk and play together. This summer I’ve been working on how to voice frustrations, listen to directions, and ask for help.  I’ve cleaned up what feels like a million scraped knees and iced a trillion head bonks.  We also had to teach them how to sleep late, as getting up at 6:15 every morning while on vacation wasn’t looking too good to me.  It’s been a rough ride, but we are getting there.

I am proud to say that Emma is almost daytime potty trained.  She gets through most naps almost dry, and can wear big girl panties the rest of the day with very few accidents!  Jane is almost ready to START.  She sees her sister going potty and she wants to go, too, which I guess is what it’s all about.  More on potty training in a later post, as I feel like it deserves is own post.

For the rest of the summer, well, we have about 2 weeks left, and I plan to spend it enjoying my daughters, my friends, and my home.  Once the school year starts we tend to move in fast forward, and although I NEVER feel like I get everything that I wanted out of my summer, I feel like this was a pretty good summer.  From a night or two sitting around our fire pit to swimming in our friends’ pools, to birthday parties galore, we have tried to squeeze every last moment that we could out of this summer, and I think it’s been pretty good to us.

I’m hopeful (again) that I will be able to update this space more frequently in the upcoming months.  I have some pretty good posts planned,  and although this school year is looking like it may be challenging with a new classroom, new classes, and SGOs, Jane and Emma are not going BACKWARDS in age, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to slow down a little bit to spend some time breathing with my hubby and my kids.  It really is true what they say — once you have kids, time starts rushing by.

Hope you are having a great summer, friends!

The End.