Yesterday I was in the basement trying to organize our playroom. While I was putting away some of the babies' toys, my hand brushed against a spider. Specifically, it brushed against a black widow. Oh, I'm good at spotting those nasty, shiny, black creatures with the telltale red hourglass. In 25 years, I had never seen a widow. Then we moved to Georgia. We had them in the kids' sandbox, in the garage, and all over the backyard. Just never in the house, fortunately.
In Arizona I freaked out when I saw one on the front porch and I made Jason smash it. When we got to Virginia I kept finding them in the yard. One day I found one in the basement and I found one upstairs. I chalked it up to the fact that this house was a foreclosure that sat vacant for several months before we moved in here. I figured they'd clear out when we cleaned and unpacked. Not quite.
Needless to say, I called Jason in near hysterics. I was ready to buy a new back door, call an exterminator, or just sell and move out. Jason talked some sense into me (as usual) and I just decided to weatherproof the back door. That and clean up the 2,000 toys that were strewn about as if a tornado has struck our basement.
It took all morning, but I got it cleaned up. It helped that we'd gotten several inches of snow on Saturday and I'd decided we weren't going to church. We stayed home and cleaned. And painted.Have you ever tried to paint with 6 young children under foot? No? Well, then you are smarter than me.
My sister-in-law, being the fabulous and generous person she is, came to help. We painted some of my foyer and the family room. It's amazing how a little paint can cheer a person up. I woke up this morning eager to start the day. Now I just need to paint the other 15 rooms.For now, I'll settle for this!
The snow made our Saturday more adventurous as I was planning to drive up to Baltimore for a birth film fundraiser for ICAN of Baltimore. It's been a long, long time since I've done anything "birthy." For awhile, my heart wasn't in it. And of course I've just been so busy trying to survive and all. But I was able to be a part of a panel of women who spoke after a film screening of "Singing the Bones." The film was great and it was more exciting when the power went out several times in the middle of the show. I had the babies with me and they were so quiet, just nursing for most of the entire 2 hours.Afterward, we discussed twin birth, homebirth, and the state of modern obstetrics. I got to share a bit of my story and my journey to homebirth, specifically the HBAC of Leila and Sarah. I sat next to a lawyer (and pregnant mom) who works with CIMS and had to giggle. She had a copy of Jennifer Block's book "Pushed" which actually has a very brief mention of my birth in it.
I also sat next to a fellow twin mom who had her twins at home 2 years ago. We know each other from several online forums and through our local multiples club. It was so awesome to see her twin toddlers climb onto her lap and demand to nurse together as she was speaking. Such is life with twins!
When we left the film screening it was snowing heavily. My mom had taken Matthew, Joshua, Leila, and Sarah to have breakfast with Santa at Ft. Meade. They had a great time and they picked me and the babies up. As I drove my mom back to her house, the snow kept coming. My kids were freaking out! Remember, we moved from Maryland when Matthew was a baby. Since then we've lived in California, Texas, Georgia, and Arizona. My kids have never lived in a place where it snows. Our cat had never even seen snow before! It was awesome!
And yes, we got our tree. (More about that tomorrow!) I decorated it but "forgot" to put the star on top. I'm saving that for Jason. every year he lifts up one of the kids so they can stick that star up on the tippy top of our Christmas tree. This year they think he's not going to be here so I told them I wasn't putting the star up yet because I can't reach. Little do they know...
