Fragments for Friday

I've been meaning to blog at least 3 times this week, but haven't had a chance to sit down and type it out.

Thank goodness for Fragments for Friday!

It's a great way to quickly jot down what's been going on in your life.  My friend, Suzy, over at Not a Fertile Myrtle offers you the chance to link up and share your Fragments for Friday.

 Here we go...

• On Thanksgiving, I ran my first 5K race.  The Gobble Wobble was a ton of fun and I didn't walk once!  It was an amazing feeling to cross that finish line!
• This week has be crazy busy, and with the time of year, I know it's only going to get worse.  All good things to be busy with, like MOPS, friends, and my Tastefully Simple business but I'm exhausted.
• The twins have kept me on my toes this week.  First, they decided to empty my wallet on Wednesday, while I was in the bathroom.  It needed done, and boy, were they proud! Lucky for me nothing was lost.
• It's official, I can no longer take a shower, if I'm home alone!  Big Boy made his point yesterday, when he pulled down the gate to the kitchen, opened the fridge, removed a dozen eggs, and proceeded to place them in a large glass vase.  At least I think that's what happened...I was in the shower!

At least they weren't all over the floor!

• If you're looking to get some holiday shopping done, you should head over to Suzy's adoption website.  She's holding a Fund Our Family auction and all the proceeds go towards their adoption fund.  I donated a yummy item...check it out!

That's all for now.  I know I'm missing some things, but I'm outta time to type!

So, what's going on with you? 

Honored To Be Giving Thanks

For the past several years, my friend Julie Arduini, has turned her blog over to her readers in November.

The reason is two fold, she gets a chance to share others stories of thankfulness AND she can focus on completing her NaNoWriMo project for the year.

I always look forward to reading the posts she has selected, as I enjoy seeing what others are thankful for.  Every year, I think, "I should really submit my story...", but I never seem to do so.

That changed this year.

Once the call went out for submissions in September, I carved out a small window to sit down and write why I was thankful.  After writing it, editing, and re-reading it numerous times...I finally got the guts up to hit the send button on the email.

I thought I was going to puke.

Within a few hours, I had an email back from Julie, thanking me for my story.

I am honored to have been selected to be 1 of 30 people giving thanks publicly on her blog this month.

My post is being featured today, and I'd love for you to check it out!  You'll find it here.

Halloween Fun

Halloween was delayed, thanks to super storm Sandy, although we didn't have anything but a little wind and rain. 

It didn't deter the kiddos, though, and they had great fun in November running from house to house and yelling, "Trick or Treat!"

Ok, ok, so the twins didn't really yell it out, but Miss O. did. 

It was the first year that the young ones did understand it.  We would get to the end of someone's driveway and Pretty Girl would yell, "Treeeeeeaaaat!".  I couldn't get her to say a word once we were on a doorstep, but it was cute. Since it was an abbreviated Halloween, we only did the street that my in-laws live on, so we let the twins walk this year, instead of riding in a wagon.

My Rapunzel, Lady Bug, and Spider came home with way too much candy, but were all smiles!

Fragments for Friday

Suzy over at Not A Fertile Myrtle has joined up with Lexy at God Uses Every Tear to create Fragments for Friday.  The idea is that sometimes you want to share some things on your blog, but they just don't seem like a full post.

That's where Fragments for Friday comes in! 

• I reside in what was considered a swing state for the election.  I can not tell you how happy I am that my home phone has not rang once since Tuesday afternoon!  The calls were riduculous.  All hours of the day, at least 10 a day for the last month. Can you say overkill???

• For the life of me, I can not keep up with the dishes in this house anymore!  I think it's because we've made a concious decision to eat at home more, but it's crazy.  If I don't run the dishwasher once a day, I can't find my sink the next morning!

• Nights have been a little stressful.  After 3 consecutive mornings of having Big Boy scare me to death by climbing out of his crib, we decided it was time to convert the twins' cribs to daybeds.  Big Boy is sleeping like a champ, but Pretty Girl is still getting up at least once a night.  At least it's 50% of a success, right?

• This week has been busy!  It's one of my 2 weeks a month for my work from home gig, but I also had an event for my Tastefully Simple business, too.  Never heard of Tastefully Simple?  Oh, man...such good stuff.  And everything takes only 1 or 2 ingredients from your pantry.  Check it out, here.  Yum!

• Best part of the week was tonight.  Miss O.'s school had a Mother-Daughter event at a local roller rink.  The theme was 80's and we had so much fun!  I picked up some fake neon hair extensions, some leg warmers, and some hair scrunchies for us.  Miss O. let me do her hair and makeup and we had 2 hours of just girl time.  Pictures to come ;)

Do you have some fragments to share?  Link up with Suzy or Lexy.  The link stays open through Sunday!

I Might Be A Runner, Kinda...

Growing up I was very active.  I loved participating in sports. 

Three sports a year active all the way through high school.

Swimming competitively was my favorite, but I enjoyed softball and soccer, as well.

One thing I tried but hated?  Track.

I always joked that I wasn't a runner...that I would only run if I was being chased.

Truth is, I didn't like to run because I had asthma and running aggravated it.

Thankfully, I grew out of my asthma eventually.

I graduated from college and started working. 

Exercise fell to the wayside.

I met M., fell in love, and accepted his proposal.  We got married,  had Miss O. and continued to try and expand our family.  Exercise wasn't important, because I could always say, "Oh, well, I'll be pregnant soon".

Except, I kept getting pregnant, but losing my babies way too soon.

It's really hard to want to exercise, to be healthy, when you can't get past the pain your body is putting you through.

BUT, I did get through secondary infertility hell. With the birth of the twins, I made it to the other side.

Now that they are two, I decided it was time to get healthy. 

Time for a change.

Like I mentioned a few weeks ago, I started taking a running class at our local Y.  I've been surprised that I'm actually enjoying it.  I haven't wanted to quit, either.

You guys, tonight I ran for 27 minutes!

Granted, it was walk 1 minute, run for 9 minutes...repeat two more times....but I did it!

And it felt good...I might just be a runner after all.

Finding Rhythm

Tapping your foot along to a catchy song on the radio.

Clapping your hands together as you sing Pat-A-Cake with a child.

Feeling your heart begin to race as you prepare to speak in front of a group.

Life is all about rhythm.

When things are going good, a life rhythm is smooth and continuous, you might not even think about it. Things just click and work like they should.

On the opposite end, when things are hard in life, you feel clunky, like something just isn't fitting into gear.

The weird thing about life's rhythm is that you can often feel like it's smooth in one area, and super bumpy in another.

For most of the last two years, I've felt like my rhythm was like riding down a pot hole covered road.

The twins arrival was a dream come true, something that I had hoped for, wished for and prayed for.  That doesn't mean it's been all sunshine and unicorns around here. 

Any mom of a new baby will tell you, the first couple of months are just about survival.

I can tell you, that when raising twins, the first year is all about survival.  I'm so thankful that I took lots of pictures, since I don't have a lot of memories from the day to day doings that year. The second year was better, and I see glimpses of good things in this year ahead of me, before they turn three.

The problem with feeling like things are going well?  I've started to feel like I can be active outside of the house.  I'm involved with my MOPS group, on the steering team, I'm recording secretary of the local twins club, I'm attending a weekly Community Bible Study.

All good things.  Things that make my heart happy, give me a chance to interact with and support others.

I'm just struggling with finding my rhythm from adding new tasks and obligations to my daily schedule.  Add in Miss O.'s extra curriculars and we're a mess. For the first time, M. and I have moved from a paper calendar to go.ogle calendar.  It was needed, as it's getting too hard to keep what everyone is doing or where we need to be and when straight.

I know it will come, but I'm impatient on how long it's taking for me to feel like we've hit our rhythm again.

If you haven't noticed, I'm struggling with trying to get back into the routine of blogging, as well.  I miss coming to this space, and typing out my thoughts, feelings.  It seems like I have so much to say, but when I actually carve out some time to sit down and write, I end up starting and stopping, worrying that what I have to say isn't making sense or isn't good enough to publish.  As I mentioned to some friends today, I miss the days where I could just write, and not feel like I have a filter between my heart and my brain. 

So, how is your rhythm today?

Catching Up ~ Bullet Style

It's sad, really.

I get a whole new look for this place, and it's over a month before I post again. 

Something's got to give.

So, here's a quick update to how things are at Not The Path I Chose.

• I just started Week 6 of the Run to Lose class. I'm shocked that I haven't quit yet.
• The twins are busy, busy, busy.  I can't take my eyes off them.
• Miss O. has an activity everyday after school Mon. thru Thurs., this makes the weeks fly!
• Halloween is coming up, and for once I have all the kids costumes ready early.
• Both Big Boy & Pretty Girl were tested for speech delays. They both qualified for speech classes, but my insurance won't pay for any until January 1st.  Grrr.
• We had professional pictures taken at the end of September.  I can't wait for them to come in.
• M. about had a heart attack at the price of said professional pictures.
• I'm getting ready to host a Mystery Host Open House for my Tastefully Simple business, which means I need to really de-clutter the house!
• Corn maze on the calendar for Sunday, can't wait!

That's a quick recap on what's been going on here.  Hopefully, I'll be able to sit down and post a little more often.

Tell me, what's going on with you?