7 Quickety Quick Takes

Happy Friday!  Happy long weekend!  Happy Quick Takes!

 

--1--

 

I have a confession to make:

 

I still use Google Reader.

 

You know how everyone has been switching to Feedly or Bloglovin' or Ye Olde Something or Other?

 

I hate them all.  I just want my Google Reader to stay the same, because everything else just gives me STUPID PARTIAL FEEDS!  I DO NOT WANT TO CLICK OVER TO ANOTHER BLOG because half the blogs I read are too fancy with their formatting and it takes forever for me to scroll through them unless I read them in Google Reader.

 

So I'm hoping that Google changes their minds and lets us keep the reader?

 

--2--

 

I added social media buttons to my sidebar!  They're blue and very pretty and if you need realtime John Paul updates or just want to stalk me all over the internet, you can follow me all the places!!!

Am I supposed to make a facebook page now?  Because I feel really awkward every time I share my blog on facebook because I think people don't really want to know...  Thoughts?

 

--3--

 

I bought another swing for the babies (used).  We have one and it's pretty much the only place they'll sleep during the day, which means that if Elizabeth decides to take a 3-hour nap, I'm stuck trying desperately to nurse Mary Claire to sleep that whole time and end up just sticking her in the swing the moment Elizabeth wakes up.  Which means they almost never nap at the same time, which means we pretty much never leave the house because somebody is always asleep and NO WAY am I going to mess with that!

 

I have taken them a few places though, and I'm pretty proud of it - so far we've been on a walk around the block (.7 miles, so a LONG walk), to Trader Joe's, and to the Farmer's Market, just me and all 4 kids!  And ALL the trips were successful! 

 

But it's still a lot of work, so I'm gonna see if I can just host a trillion playdates at our house this summer so that I don't have to try to get all the kids out of the house all the time...

 

--4--

 

This article about yelling was really powerful for me - I try REALLY hard to be patient with the kids and to encourage Andrew to be patient when they do ridiculous things, and I think it's incredible how you can see the compassion this teaches our children when they get older. 

 

I'm not perfect - I certainly resort to yelling more than I'd like, but it's absolutely always just a quick fix, and I'd like to think about how a patient approach to parenting can mold my kids into such incredible individuals:

 

"And that’s when I started to cry – not so much about the three chapters, I knew they could be rewritten – my heartbreak was more of a release due to the exhaustion and frustration involved in writing and editing a book. I had been so close to the end. To have it suddenly ripped away was incredibly disappointing.

 

To my surprise, my child reached out and stroked my hair softly. She said reassuring words like, “Computers can be so frustrating,” and “I could take a look at the time machine to see if I can fix the backup.” And then finally, “Mama, you can do this. You’re the best writer I know,” and “I’ll help you however I can.”"

 

Yeah, I teared up.  Go read it!

 

--5--

 

 

A friend of mine just made us a beautiful mei tai and get this:  IT'S REVERSIBLE with STAR WARS on the other side!  I haven't let Andrew wear it yet though, because I love the girly blue flower side so much!

 

I need to work on how exactly to cross all the straps to make tandem wearing easier, but it's definitely less bulky than the ergo-mei tai combo here:

 

 

--6--

 

Selfies!

 

 

Once again, proof that the twins look nothing alike!

 

--7--

 

Elizabeth is getting perilously close to crawling. 

 

I think we'll still be safe for another week or two, but this is one major reason why my blogging is going to take a serious hit - the babies are rolling all over the place and want me on the floor playing with them, plus they don't nurse for the marathon sessions they used to have, so I don't have nearly as much "sitting on the couch not being able to do anything" time - I know my mom will be sad, but I'll try to take plenty of pictures to make up for it!

 Check out more Quick Takes at Jen's!