Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep (and some photos!)

I give myself a 6.5/10 for this week.  It had some good stuff, some nice stuff, and a LOT of kid stuff (Time log notes that I did 77 hours of active parenting this week, and 53 hours of sleep, which still leaves 38 hours of other things in a week.  But... I like slightly more other things).  Also this is the weird thing about time, that I had a FULL TIME JOB of time left over after watching kids and sleeping.  It's weird that a full time job is considered a big deal and yet 40 hours a week can disappear without me even noticing it.

As I keep saying - life is going to be so fun someday!  All these kids will be great someday!  But right now, a week off school and a week off nursery and a week where lots of stuff is closed = a long week.  That said, we did have fun things, of course.  Christmas was pretty nice.  We stayed up late (7:15pm!) playing board games (Poop Bingo) with the big kids.  The babies are solidly on one nap a day, which has sometimes lasted up to 3 hours.  We can leave the house in the morning (or have to leave the house in the morning, whether we want to or not).  It didn't rain.  It was cold and foggy though:

Reading

Very slowly reading The Dead Romantics still.  I got my copy of The Most Wonderful Crime of The Year on Libby and downloaded it so I need to get reading.

Andy and I started watching A Man on the Inside which is taking some reading time, but it only has 8 episodes so we will probably finish before the new year.  Enjoying so far.  Ted Danson is great, always.

Sports

I am still making a lot of effort to make sports time, although I am tired and unfocused and mostly doing it for the "streak" at this point.  Which is dumb, but not exercising is also dumb right?

Also, I donated blood on Christmas eve, in the morning.  I made sure to get my exercise in before I donated, but I think bodies and muscles need blood (note: I am not a doctor) because I have been way more easily fatigued since donating blood.  I knew I would be tired, but I'm a bit surprised on how long its lasted.  But also, my life might just be tiring.  

One of my life goals is to donate the same number of pints of blood as my age.  Women can only donate 3 times a year, and I calculated that I'll catch up to my age when I'm 55 if I'm able to keep donating at that rate.  

Anyways:

• Monday
• 30 Minute Holiday ride with Robin Arzon
• 20 Minute Pilates with Kirstin McGee
• Tuesday
• 30 Minute Sundays with Love with Ally Love
• 10 Minute Lower Body Stretch with Matty Maggiacomo
• Wednesday
• 15 Minute Lower Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 5 Minute Core with Ben Alldis
• 15 Minute Pop Ride with Ben Alldis
• 5 Minute Lower Body Stretch with Ben Alldis
• Thursday 
• 20 Minute Full Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 10 Minute Full Body Stretch with Ben Alldis
• 1 hour walk in lame weather with sad babies
• Friday
• 20 Minute Pop Ride with Tudne Oyeneyin
• 5 Minute Post Ride Stretch with Ben Alldis
• Saturday
• 20 Minute Upper Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 10 minute Postnatal Core with Emma Lovewell
• 5 Minute Upper Body Stretch with Ben Alldis

I haven't really got a regular time to exercise.  Options are:

Morning.  Babies are generally sleeping or at least in bed until 6:15.  But... i am so tired.  Also excercie in the morning makes me hungry and tired all day

Midday (during baby nap).  Probably the best for energy levels, and I always feel great after, but it ifeels like the only hour of the day where one can accomplish anything in household management (Laundry, putting clothes away, writing a blog post, updating budget, Doing dishes, sorting kids toys, putting things back where they belong, writing emails... all of it.  Also I share this time with Andy and babies only nap a guaranteed 60 minutes (usually at least 90) but even if we split the time 50/50 (because one of us needs to be watching big kids) it's just not a lot of time

Evening Everyone is generally asleep by 7:30pm and I can theoretically do sport from 8-9 every evening but it's really hard to motivate myself.  I do motivate myself, but it's not the most inspired workouts ever.

I am hoping when I start work again (which is the 6th of Jan - Christmas breaks from school are LONG!) I can either do my sport in the mornings or at my lunch break. A day of work takes far less energy than a day of watching kids.  Until then, moderately consistant home exercise is probably good enough.

Sleep

This morning I slept until nearly 6:30am which a massive sleep for me.  I did wake up at 5:30 as usual, but decided to close my eyes for a few minutes and opened them with Andy sorting the babies at 6:30 and the big kids still asleep.  Miracle!  My average is 7.75 for the week, which has to be a recent high for me.  Not getting up in the morning to do anything = more sleep.  But also, less me time.

Some photos

Today during baby nap, instead of exercise, and while the big kids watched the Grinch (the animated one, a Christmas favourite now), I sewed Isaac's ripped jacket hood back together.  I don't like sewing or fixing kid stuff, but it's getting cold and I'm tired of seeing this broken jacket on the to-do list, and also I couldn't be bothered to drive it to our local sewing lady to fix.  So, TA DA:

It's not sewn particularly well well, but it is attached! Isaac said he doesn't mind the white thread showing.  I think my third grade sewing class skills really shine here.

In December Andy and I ordered new socks from Stance.  I really like Stance socks.  New socks are cozy. Rainbow socks are great.  I like my socks:

That's all for this week.  I hope you had a great Christmas (if that's your holiday jam) and otherwise if you have a bunch of kids at home and no childcare then please know I SEE YOU.

Contentious Christmas Conundrum - Santa

We have never done "Santa" before.  I always figured other people were making a bigger deal of Santa than needed, and I was just being so cool about Mr. S that my kids figured out it wasn't a big deal. My six year old has always been delightfully unaware.  

Case in point: when Isaac turned 3 he really really wanted grapes and Banana for Christmas.  He opened his grapes and banana with glee, then took it to the kitchen to eat it and forgot about the rest of the toys.

When Lilah turned 3, she had a wish list that included "A giant dolls house, a scooter, two chocolate cakes, dolls"

For me, Santa was NBD (no big deal) because growing up I celebrated Hanukkah and not Christmas, so all Christian things (Santa included) were not for us.  We never had an opinion on the reality of Santa, because we had eight nights of presents to look forward to, so dudes coming down other people's chimneys were not particularly interesting.

I resolved that we weren't going to be a Santa family.  We have a Christmas tree (very little this year, because twins). 

Santa seemed like extra effort I didn't want to go to, and neither did my husband.  Do you have to write "to kid, love Santa" on a card?? Do some presents come from parents and some from Santa?  Do we have to hype up Santa?

It turns out, we do not have to hype up Santa, or do anything Santa, to bring the magic of Santa to live.  Although Andy did sprinkle some toast crumbs around the fire place (to look like soot) and I did throw the reindeer food in the compost (It got eaten!).

As we put out the presents I asked Andy if we needed to write "From Santa' on one. "no" he said "kids don't read labels, and they don't care"

And it's true! They don't' care! they saw a bunch of presents and thought Santa had come.  Maybe I'm going down a path of chaos and lies, but it's cute.  And low effort.  And I guess we are a Santa house now.

How Santa is your house?  Am I telling lies to my kids such that they will never trust me again or am I bringing the magic to life?  Or am I teaching them that they inferred "Santa" and it wasn't my construction at all, and perhaps giving them an early lesson in perception bias?  Or, perhaps more likely, am I overthinking it all?

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep

I almost forgot it's Sunday today because my mind is fully in "Christmas Break" mode.  It's not the relaxing breaks of 30 year old childless me, or the stressful breaks I hear so much about, but it's definitely not normal life either. This week was extra awesome as I had 3 days off work WITH CHILDCARE which was amazing amazing amazing.

Reading

I finished reading Real Americans.  It was good, but definitely not super memorable.  I've just started reading the Dead Romantics.

I was hoping for The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year but it didn't come through my Libby holds in time.

Sports

I really like exercise, and it turns out that when given days off to do whatever I want, I want to do sports.  Most of the below is Peloton, unless obviously not Peloton.

This week I learned that Imagine Dragons did a lot of songs I like.

• Monday
• 30 Minute Holiday Ride with Ally Love
• 45 min Intervals & Arms Ride with Tunde Oyeneyin
• Tuesday
• 90 minute Gym with Gym Buddy
• 30 Minute Classic Rock Ride with Jenn Sherman (live!)
• 5 Minute Post Ride Stretch with Jenn Sherman
• Wednesday
• 45 Minute Your Day One ride with Robin Arzon
• 30 Minute Holiday Full Body Strength with Andy Speer
• 10 Minute Density Full Body Stretch with Andy Speer
• 10 Minute Relaxing Meditation with Aditi Shah
• Thursday
• 30 Minute Hamilton Ride with Robin Arzon
• 10 Minute Imagine Dragons Cooldown Ride with Bradley Rose
• 30 Minute Wicked the Movie Yoga Flow with Aditi Shah
• Friday
• 30 Minute Holiday Ride with Cody Rigsby
• 15 Minute Pilates with Kirstin McGee
• Saturday
• 5 Minute Warmup with Ben Alldis
• 20 Minute Benchmark test with Ben Alldis
• 10 Minute Full Body Stretch with Ben Alldis
• 20 Minute Imagine Dragons Ride with Sam Yo
• Sunday
• 20 Minute Upper Body Strength with Ben Alldis
• 30 Minute Feel Good Ride with Ally Love
• 5 Minute upper body stretch with Ben Alldis

It was a really fun week of sport for me.

Also, gym buddy and I snapped another post workout pic together.  I'm not sure where I'm looking.

Sleep

It turns out, when I replace work with exercise I sleep pretty well. I've had an average of 7.33 hours this week.  This was helped also by the twins deciding to finally sleep past 5am.  We have had a few mornings of 6am and even one 6:30am wake up!  I was so surprised to wake up and see the number on my watch start with a 6.  I haven't slept in until 6am in... years.  It was a christmas miracle.

Also I am really sorry if the text formatting on this post is weird.  Blogger is great until it isn't, and I am too tired to figure out what went wrong with my font.

Are you enjoying time off?  Is it Christmas holidays for you now?  Do you like doing lots of sport or not lots of sport?

2024 Goals in Review: Family, House, Professional

 Last years goals were broken down by Personal, Professional, Family, House, and Fun.  I wrote about Personal and Fun here.  Let's move on!

Family

• Contact everyone in our will about the will
• Done! 'Make a will' was a goal for about two years.  Now it is made, and in the right place, and the right people know where it is.  It seems like the UK is less complicated than the US (or maybe we don't make enough money for the will to have as many decisions?) but this was actually somewhat easy and also now it's done.
  
  
• Make a Charcuterie board  
• I made a few and consider this done.  This summer party board from July 2023 is probably the best:

• Walk up a local mountain with Andy 
• This did not happen.  By the time we could take the babies out for enough time to go up a mountain the weather was not good enough.  And I didn't really *want* to take babies up a mountain.  I'll move this goal to next year.
  
  
• Get baby passports and renew Isaac's passport
• Done! This is especially good because Isaac is going to Sweden next year.  Kid passports last 5 years and I wish I had just renewed Lilah's passport at the same time because it would have been super great to have all kids on the same passport cycle.  Top tip for kid logistics, have all kids born in the same few months.  It really pays dividends in tiny logistical puzzles.
  
  Also, the kids currently only have British passports.  US passports need to be done in person in London, and taking 4 kids to London has felt basically impossible.  Getting their US passports will be a goal for 2027, before our (hopeful) next US trip.
• 
  
• Take kids to the bank
• This sounded boring so I took it off the list
  
  
• Open bank accounts for Audrey and Nora
• I had an empty account which I renamed "Audrey and Nora" because my bank currently isn't doing child savings accounts.  Goal done enough I guess?

Professional 

I had four vague "get in touch with x y z person" and "think about what I want to do next" goals.  It was not easy to make professional goals with 6 week old twins.  I am super pleased that I was promoted this year.  While I know my current professional foundation is a bit rocky (maneuverings of a large company) I think I can use this year to take a step back and try to make things easy on myself.    Sometimes not knowing the "next step" is probably better than reaching for some path that may or may not exist.  

House

• Get quotes for home improvement
• I can't even remember what I wanted quoted or what home improvement I was thinking about.  We did pay to have two rooms painted, but that probably wasn't on my radar in January.  I guess I did this?  I really wish I knew what home improvement quote I was looking for.
  
  
• Buy fire extinguisher
• Bought! done!
  
  
• Donate unsellable baby things
• I got rid of so much this year, and sold a lot too.  I still have four large boxes to sort: one box of sentimental things (mostly halloween and and americana), one box of reusable nappies, and two boxes of "ready to list on vinted".  It's been great to get rid of so much baby stuff.
  
  
• Add Photo tiles to wall
  
• I have no idea how I accomplished this this year, but it's done! We have a photo wall in the dining room now (it turns out it's hard to get a photo of a photo tile wall):

Mostly I am glad that 2024 is over.  I know I'm not meant to wish years away, but in case I haven't mentioned it recently, newborn/infant twins are really really hard.  It's fun to look back and realize I did do something this year, besides endless nappies and staying up all night.  It's nice to finish some small goals. 

Did you have any major home or family goals this year?

2024 Goals in Review: Personal & Fun Goals

 Last years goals were broken down by Personal, Professional, Family, House, Fun.  How did I do???

Personal

• Only Own Clothes I love and fit in December 2024  
• This will be a whole post someday but I have done really well on this.  I got rid of loads, I bought new things that suit me, I own some nice sweaters now.  I still am keeping a few things that I don't currently wear but might someday.
  
  
• 1 Rachel Thing a Month
• Yes! February's thing was taking a bath, but I also had a few pedicures this year, and my first ever facial. I found a lady near me who does amazing reflexology.  I know this is all very 1% of me but for the first few months of the year it was super hard to find Rachel time and I'm glad I made something happen once a month. 
  
  
• Regular Strength Training 
• Is once a week regular? I guess so.  I need to figure out how to structure this goal better for next year
  
  
• 4 Parkrun 5Ks 
• Yes! I did 4!
  
  
• Join Twin Club
• I did this. I went to two twin events.  I will probably not do much with the twin club but it's nice to have one.  I also joined Twin Trust, which is an amazing charity for parents of multiples and someday I will do some sort of charity fundraising for them because they are awesome. One of the things they have is a hotline for twin parents to call about literally anything.  It's open from 10am to 1pm and 7pm to 10pm, which is such a perfect "I have small children" phone support time
  
  
• Find a good lipstick for everyday 
• I got a Ilia lipstick I love.  I don't yet wear it everyday, but I own it, so goal completed.
  
  
• Run a virtual turkey trot or christmas race 
• I did a turkey trot soundtrack to a Parkrun, so that counts right?  Someday I will do an actual Christmas parkrun again
  
  
• Learn to eat and drink slowly again 
• Not really. I eat really really fast now.  Not as fast as when I had teeny babies (once I ate a giant salmon salad in under a minute) but really really fast.  This is a goal for later.

Fun

• Watch 2 Movies 
• I watched 7 movies this year.  Highlight was Everything Everywhere All At Once.  That was a good movie!  I also really liked Hidden Figures and Moneyball.
• Read 50 Books
• I'm at 44 books now, so I'll probably finish the year at 45.  I read some great books this year too.  August was by far my favourite reading month:

Stay tuned for Professional, Family, and House goals!  Mostly the fact that I survived a year of baby twins is a pretty big success, so anything else is a major accomplishment.  

Did you have any "fun" goals this year?  

5 Photos on a Friday

I know you have anxiously awaited an update to my tablecloth post.  We now have a tablecloth, sourced by Andy. I mean, Llamas and Cacti would not necessarily be my first pick for our sort of fall-farmhouse aesthetic, but my number 1 priority with this decision was that I did not make it.  And I didn't!  Also this tablecloth is hemmed to the right size, not just cut wonky by me, so I am doubly impressed by it.  

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I had a week off work this week, which turned into 3 days off work because two of those days involved watching children, but one of my major life goals for my "week off"  was to watch a Christmas movie.  And I did! I watched Our Little Secret.  It was kind of stupid, of course, but I liked it.  There wasn't really enough Christmas for me.  If you are going to pick one not-very-good christmas moive with Lindsay Lohan I would recommend Falling For Christmas instead.

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Strava sent me a "year in sport" thing.  I am really surprised that it thinks I ran 120 miles.  I think that must be a mistake.  I can remember doing 4 parkruns this year, which is 12 miles, but I can't really think of where the other 108 miles may have happened.  

I am really really enjoying the Peloton, I am sure most of those miles were Peloton related and therefore happened in November & December.

I have some vague fitness goals forming for next year.  I will run the Cardiff half, but I am contemplating an outcome goal of "Run the Cardiff Half in 2 hours 10 minutes."  I have never run a half faster than 2hr 30 mins.  The related process goal would be "train for the half marathon" which I also have never done before... when I ran half marathons I just generally did a fair amount of social running and occasionally ran a half marathon.

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We have too many small children to have a christmas tree this year.  Here is our very small christmas tree.  We told the kids we can only get small presents to fit under it.

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Tis the season for holiday cards!  We managed to get ours printed and they arrived today, which means some might make it to their destinations before Christmas.

In the spirit of process vs outcome goals, I will consider these cards a process goal.  The goal was to make a holiday card.  The goal was not, for instance, to have the holiday card contain the names of all of our kids:

I guess when you have this many people in your family it's hard to get all the names onto one card.  If I had ordered earlier I could have reprinted.  But for now, hopefully no one actually reads the cards, right?

[This is better than when I ordered birth announcements for the twins and spelled one of their names wrong.  We did have to reprint before sending.  Maybe I should give up on cards...?]  

2024 - Budget and money stuff in review

I know it's only the 16th of December, but budget is on my mind.  

We keep a family budget, which I track in excel.  We break our life down into the following categories, and I've stuck the yearly percentages next to them.  We don't really track our income, but just ensure that it is less than our budget.  We do periodically review our budget to make sure it's realistic.  

I know excel isn't the most advanced budgeting software there is, but it works for us.  I also like recording our spending line by line because it helps me remember where money went, and sometimes I get to doubly enjoy something.  For instance, when recording my chocolate hazelnut hot chocolate, I momentarily re-enjoyed the memory of my chocolate hazelnut hot chocolate.  It was a good hot chocolate.

Also, this doesn't include retirement as that comes directly out of our pay checks.  Here is what we spent in 2024:

Grocery (11.5%) - This is usually our weekly grocery delivery, and then other one off purchases like bulk flour.  It includes any food we buy to prep and eat at home, but does not include anything we buy while out and about (which would be dining out)

Alcohol (1%) If andy and I go out for a drink together or get beer to drink in the house then this goes into the Alcohol budget.  if we buy alcohol separately or buy a beer to drink with friends then this goes into our own hobbies budget.  Sometimes a bottle of wine slips into the grocery budget though.  Perhaps next year I will put alcohol into grocery and add a "rachel and andy fun" budget which could include drinks together?

Bills (30%) This includes Mortgage Water, Gas, Electric, Council Tax, Car Insurance, Home insurance.  Mortgage is about 70% of the bills budget.

Dining Out (2.2%) This is for when members of our family go out to eat together.  It doesn't include us going out alone or with our own friends (that goes under our own hobbies budget)

House (6.75%) I can't really think of our big house expenses this year.  Andy gets some plants for the garden.  We had two rooms painted.  

Clothes (2%) We realized recently that most of our clothes were from living in the US, which meant they are approaching 10 years old, so we've tried to upgrade our wardrobes a bit this year

Misc (1.8%) The bane of my existence category?!  Includes the kids photo albums and family photo albums.  Christmas cards.  Donations to charity.  What is misc? 

Transport (2.75%) this one is low this year because I wasn't commuting to work while on maternity leave.  My commute is £35 a day.  This is one reason I don't go into the office much

Rachel & Andy Hobbies (9.5%) I mean, it's our hobbies.  We keep it seperate on the spreadsheet.  Mine covers my gym membership, Peloton, massages, getting my nails done.. my things.  Andy spends his on bike stuff and beer.  It works out.

Entertainment (1%) This covers local memberships (for instance the castle memberships) and also any TV (we have Disney+ at the moment)

Kids (4.5%) Many kids expenses.  Isaac's scouts membership.  Kids bikes if needed.  Some kids clothes? Swim lessons.  Gymnastics classes.  One-off trips to soft play. 

Childcare (24%) This was low this year because I was on mat leave.  Next year it's closer to 45%.  Childcare basically feels like college - an investment in my future earnings.  It's slightly less fun than college, but about the same amount of crying.

Gifts (2%) all gifts.  Also sometimes if we buy someone else food it can go on gifts.  Things that are nice for other people.

Health (1%) Dentist appointments, misc medicines.  Physio.  the NHS is free at point of service but sometimes it's better to pay for health care than wait for healthcare

And that's our year in money stuff.  I guess real numbers might be more interesting than percentages?  We are lucky that we don't worry about our spending, but we also don't have any big spending goals right now.  We are not going on any holidays.  We are not moving house.  We have no major home projects coming up.  We cancel Disney+ periodically to see if we still use it.  Our kids are in a not-very-expensive phase of life (except childcare), and we are in a somewhat housebound phase of life, so thankfully money is not the thing keeping us from doing stuff.  Our life set-up is the thing keeping us from doing stuff.

Do you budget?  Do you track income or spending or both?  Are you saving for anything big?

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep

Two posts on a Sunday! What world is this?

Reading

I am reading and enjoying Real Americans.  I got a good warning in my blog comments about this book, which I really appreciate, because I am keeping my expectations low.  Because I know and adore this commenter I am pretty sure I will finish the book with the same general feeling.  Either way, I am actually making progress.

Also, my reading is picking up because I've mostly stopped sleeping through the night again.  But 30 minutes of 3am reading isn't the worst hobby in the world.

And apropos of that, I dowloaded an audio copy of The Menopause Manifesto.

Fascinating so far! Why is puberty all "blah blah blah exciting times!" and menopause is all "oh the horror?"

Also, I have been thinking a lot about how women experience life differently from men due to hormones, and how those difference play out in professional and career space.  In general men function at steady state productivity but female cycles mean that women have more and less productive times, increased and decreased cognitive function, and basically a completely different skillset and toolbox to approach life.  If one of the reasons women don't excel in careers is because of this hormonal fluctuation (or rather, the social pressures put on women decrease their successes and make the "default" state male) THEN shouldn't postmenopausal women be basically killing it professionally?  Shouldn't' they be the most experienced, the most capable, and basically the best of what we can offer the world regardless of gender? 

That thought needs more forming. But it's coming.

Sports

• Monday 
• 45 Minute Your Day One Robin Arzon Ride.  I think these rides are why I got a Peloton.  Goal setting and riding and Taylor Swift?  YES PLEASE
• Tuesday
• 30 Minute TTPD Ride with Robin Arzon.  This was the first bad Peloton class I've ever done.  The instructor didn't seem to have a plan or know the words and it was just.. cringe.  I really like Taylor Swift.  I did not like this class
• Wednesday
• 20 MInute Climb Ride with Jenn Sherman.  Fit in during a big computer update at work.  Busy!
• Thursday
• 1 Hour gym with gym buddy.  He made a "8 days days of Hanukkah" ladder where we did the following, but each time added another exercise, so the first set was 10 burpees, the second was pushups and burpees, the third was chin ups, push ups, and burpees.
• 10 Burpees
• 20 Push ups
• 15 Chin Ups
• 20 Ball Slams
• 2 Sled Push
• 40 Bicycle Kicks
• 40 Mountain Climbers
• 20 Squats

That was it for the week.  I do not know how to fit exercise in on Fridays or Saturdays or Sundays unless I do 8pm workouts and I cannot seem to manage those on the weekends so here we are.

Sleep

I've averaged 6.83 hours this week.  This is probably why my cognitive situation is not great.  Evenings have been busy and I have also done some evening sports, and Andy and I went out to dinner, and mostly I don't feel like being in bed before 8:30pm.  Someday I will sleep more.

How was your week? How is your sleep? Have you ever done a "12 days of christmas" ladder type workout?

A Day in the Life: Saturday December 14th

Want to see a day in the life?  Possibly not, but here we go.  Saturday 14th December.

5:15am  Audrey awake! and Nora awake too.  Andy and I take babies downstairs and sit with them in the lounge.

6:30am Breakfast (bagels with egg and cheese). 

7:15am Clean dining room table and floor.

7:20am I have a sneaky shower while Isaac plays upstairs and Andy watches babies and Lilah

8:00am Realized that it wasn't raining and the sun was almost out and this may be our only opportunity to try for a family photo this year or a christmas card.  My mom came over and I quickly bribed the kids with early morning advent calendar AND potential hot chocolate to get dressed in semi-matching clothes (not the yellow and pink squirrel dress for lilah, and not an actual Christmas jumper for Isaac).  20 minutes later we had a passible family photo.

This is not the best photo, but it is a photo:

9:00am We did not take the big kids to swim lessons because they are also exhausted due to end of term tired.  Instead, we went to Costco

Costco is a weird one here because most stores have "own brand" food which is cheaper than buying in bulk.  However, Costco is definitely cheaper for some name brand things.  These are some of our Costco buys:

Maple Syrup - 1 L for £9

Organic Canned Tomato - 12 cans for £7

Bagels - 1 dozen for £5 (because they're good, and we cant get good bagels here)

Philadelphia Cream Cheese - massive tub for £3.50

Croissants - 12 for £5

Paprika - Giant thing for £3.50

Giant cheese - £7

Because taking 4 kids to costco is chaos (this is the first time we tried it, but taking 2 was chaos so 4 was going to be more chaos) we came in with a list, got exactly what was on the list, and got to the check out 20 minutes after we entered the store.  My mom was there (she's the one with the membership) so she was able to add a few extra things, and I grabbed a giant box of Amaretti biscuits because CHRISTMAS

9:45am finished at Costco (no one was at the check out yet, because it had only been open 15 minutes) 

10:00am kids enjoying a £1.50 hot dog.  This seemed slightly more sane than a slice of pizza, and far more sane than the dude already eating ice cream at 9:45.

10:30am Home from Costco.  Kids enjoy the remainder of their hot dogs and the hot chocolate I had earlier bribed them with for photos. 

10:35am Clean dining room table and floor.

11:00am Baby lunch while kids play/argue in their room 

11:40am Clean dining room table and floor.

11:45am Put babies down for nap.  This is our first day trying one nap day, so we have kept the babies up past their usual 9:30 first nap and are hoping for a longer midday nap.

12:00pm Start working on Holiday card with morning holiday photos. Kids playing quietly upstairs.  Moment of calm and the thought "this is getting easier! I can't believe I can do something I want to do in the middle of the day! crosses my mind"

12:15pm Kids start arguing.  I decide we can put on a film while the babies are sleeping. 

12:25pm Lilah walks into baby room and wakes up babies.  We were hoping for a 2 hour hour midday nap.  They have had about 30 minutes of sleep.  Babies are sad to be awake.  Kids are sad because they cannot watch a film.  Parents are sad for many reasons.

12:45pm Babies are definitely not going back to sleep.  Get babies up. Give up on making holiday cards.

1:00pm walk tired grumpy kids and parents to the local play park.  Pass a very underwhelming Christmas market

2:00pm Walk home from the park.  Babies are very sad because their hands are cold or maybe they are hungry?

2:30pm Baby and kids second lunch (??) Babies have peanut butter on tortilla and melon.  I cannot remember what the kids ate.  

2:50pm Clean dining room table and floor.

3:00pm Everyone playing in lounge with the new toy (a box) we got from Costco

3:30pm Big kids need a hair wash as they missed their Saturday shower at swimming.  We currently bathe the kids twice a week, Saturdays and Wednesdays.  Hair washes are on Saturdays.  It's not ideal.  While in bath I check for nits. No nits.  Yay!

4:00pm Isaac heads to grandma's house for a sleep over.  Misc playing with babies and getting Lilah dressed.  Babies have a snack

4:30pm Chop potatoes and parsnips for dinner and quickly put in oven for roast veg

4:45pm Put on a Winnie-the-Pooh christmas film for Lilah. All hang out in lounge watching film and playing.  

4:50pm Andy makes dinner and Cleans dining room table and floor from some snack the babies had at 4.

5:40pm Dinner time.  Veggie burgers and potato chips and parsnips.

6:10pm Babies upstairs, get into pyjamas and get ready for bed

6:30pm Babies in bed.  

6:35pm I take Lilah upstairs for bed while Andy Cleans dining room table and floor

7:00pm Lilah in bed.  Downstairs and finish cleaning up from the day

7:30pm Andy and I watch an episode of Man on the Inside.  It's kind of good.  We also eat tasty smoked cheese on crackers and I have a glass of wine because it's 7:30 and why not.

8:15pm Bedtime.  I read until 9:00 (Real Americans - I'm getting through it)

9:00pm Everyone falls asleep

How was your Saturday?  Want to come over and clean our dining room table and floor someday?

Thursday Thoughts and Rambles: Christmas, illness, money thoughts.

Dribbly Nora loves beads

Today was my last day in work until January.  I decided to take an extra week of leave (on top of the two for Christmas), because my head is done.  I am forgetting things & making silly mistakes, like bringing my headphones to the shop to pay for groceries instead of my phone.  Fun fact, headphones do not have apple pay.  Phones have Applepay.

The kids are mostly a shambles right now.  Audrey and Nora both have hand foot and mouth, though they are doing surprisingly well with it.  Lilah may have HFM, but she is not doing as well with it.  Also, I did not know Hand Foot and Mouth was a thing until I had kids, and I thought it was foot and mouth like the cows, but it is not that.  I am fairly sure we don't have Hand Foot and Mouth in the USA but the CDC disagrees.

My head is very full of thoughts and logistics.  We are hiring a second nanny, to cover the two days our other nanny can't work (it turns out, three days of childcare a week is not enough childcare).  It is a lot of mental load.  I have thought a lot about the "administrative overhead" idea - that each thing we take on in work has not only the work, but the planning and labour burden.  Childcare has a huge administrative overhead.  Nursery was tricky because we could get "the call" at any minute, and go from childcare to no childcare (illness, etc).  Hiring a nanny isn't like that, but it is having an employee, which comes with all the added people management and employer administration (not to mention taxes, pensions, maternity leave, holiday... we have to provide 5.2 weeks of fully paid annual leave every year).  It is, a lot.

Thinking I've been thinking a lot about how "unrelatable" it seems to hire a nanny.  Or a cleaner.  Or an interior designer, or decorator.   Why is the idea of outsourcing womens labour so "posh"?  No one says "why didn't your husband learn plumbing instead of paying a plumber!?" or "brick laying isn't so hard, lots of guys can do it".  But having an eye for the design of a house or watching a baby or spending an hour hoovering is all stuff we can do for "free".  Isn't "free" just "labour"?

Thinking I've also been thinking about money a lot, as we are in a very high spending stage of life right now.  We are soon putting together our family budget for next year, and it looks like 40-45% of our take home salary will be spent on childcare costs.  I know this is temporary, and high, but it also seems insane.  On the other hand, neither of us doesn't want to work, neither of us wants to spend more time doing housework and laundry, and having child care enables us to spend time with some of our kids more because we are not always doing things "all or nothing".  When we have full time childcare we won't actually need to spend every moment of our childcare time working, and we can hopefully fit more fun with the big kids (because you can't do as much with the babies), as well as some hobbies for ourselves.  

Hopeful I am hopeful that I can have a few days of quiet before the Christmas holidays.  It has not been an easy year.  My main goal, with 4 days of annual leave next week, is to sit in bed for two hours and watch a christmas film.  Wish me luck!

How much time do you take off work for Christmas? How many weeks (or days?) of annual leave do you get in a year? If you had a week of leave for yourself (the rest of your family still in school or work) what would you do?

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep

FIRST.  A long time a go (like, months, sorry!) I got the most awesome lighthouse postcard from Elisabeth and Kyria!  It was so exciting to get mail, AND to tell the kids it had come all the way from Canada.  Thank you Elisabeth and Kyria!

This week felt mostly like this:

I mean, nothing objectively bad happened, but the babies sleep was AWFUL, and we had some truly terrible family dinners.  I've always thought family dinners are important but this week made me think maybe it's just too much for two human adults to try and eat with small kids?  

On Wednesday our nanny made a super tasty tuna pasta which the kids would not try, and then did a bunch of weird stuff with plain pasta.  On Wednesday I made a enchilada lasagne (a million times easier than this version).  And the kids only wanted to eat tortillas and cheese.  How long can a small human survive on just bread and cheese? I told them they had to have a plain bean and cheese wrap, which one child ate, and the other child picked all the beans out then said they were done.  BUT also my kids aren't done in the "I'll go upstairs and play" done - they're done in the "I'll make everyone else miserable whether I stay at the table or get down from the table" phase.  

Also, the babies didn't like the enchilada casserole, which is super annoying because they loved it last time and it was delicious.  So I shoved an entire dinner down me with grumpy babies and grumpy kids and then I was so grumpy as well.

Also, Audrey is still waking between 4:30 and 5.  Sometimes she used to sleep till almost 6 and in my head I thought she slept till 6 but I must now admit, like I did a year ago when they were 7 weeks old, there is no sleep after 5.  Never rely on getting sleep after 5am.

So besides being tired and annoyed, my week was fine?

Reading

I finished One Day In December and it was nice.  I dowloaded Real Americans but I'm not sure I have 11 hours to spend reading a book.  

My TBR is a bit meh at the moment and the ones I want aren't coming through fast enough.  I need to get on goodreads best of the year list and start picking some more.

Sports

I decided to try a Peloton challenge of exercising every day this month!

• Monday
• 30 Minute Hip Hop Ride with Cody Rigsby (Peloton)
• 10 Minute Core Strength with Adrian Williams (Peloton)
• 
  
• Tuesday
• 20 Minute Pop Ride with Kendall Too (Peloton)
• 90 Minute Hot Yoga with a friend (this was hard!)
• Wednesday
• 30 Minute Pop Ride with Jen Sherman (Peloton)
• Thursday
• 1 Hour gym session (upper) with gym buddy
• 20 Minute Focu Flow: Hip with Chelsea Jackson Roberts
• Friday
• Nothing, goodbye streak
• Saturday
• 30 Minute Indie Rock Ride with Mayla Wedekind (Peloton - Live!)

If I can do a "almost every day in Day in December" that's also good.  

Also on Saturday I was really pleased because I had the babies by myself and I saw a class was starting live at 9:30 (which is baby first nap) and I managed to get two babies changed and in bed for nap and change myself and get on the Peloton in 6 minutes.  After Peloton I managed to shower and change in perfect time to get the babies up at 10:15.  

This whole twin thing is super easy if you can live at 100% effort 100% of the time and be comfortable with success only 10% of the time even with all that effort (case in point - I wanted to ride during afternoon nap on Friday but Audrey woke up early and there was no other time in the day I could do exercise).  

[Alternate phrasing to that paragraph: this twin thing is basically impossible]

Sleep

Until Thursday I was at 7.1 hours average sleep, after an exceptionally painful 6.5 hours on Tuesday night (which resulted in me being so tired I missed a call in work because I knew I would be too tired to focus or be of any value).  I did other work in that time, but told the meeting attendees that I had a clash.  The clash was that I was too tired to pay attention ton an hour long call.

I decided to to revert to newborn life and start going to bed at 8pm again, so I've managed to claw my average back to 7.42 average, but 8pm bedtime is no way for a human adult to exist.

My line a day journal indicates that this time last year was the steep slide into twin baby horror; so while I am glad to not be reliving 7 week old twins, I am pretty sure that next year I will think "Man, I'm glad to not be reliving 13 month old twins!"

Maybe next year I will just plan not to leave the house after 6pm from November to Feb?  Maybe bears and other hibernating animals have it right.

How was your week?  Have you ever avoided a work thing because you are too tired?  Why is "I'm too tired" not an adequate reason to cancel all evening activities as well? 

Random phone photos and a long narrative on tablecloths

About a month ago Andy and I were walking and he saw this note on the ground:

On the other side it said "Relax More".  

"Who would have to write this list???" Andy asked.

"Me!" I said.  I feel so connected to this list writer’s life.  I hope they got their list done and didn't forget to relax more, or to make pulled pork, or to relax.

----

One morning I got a pen and decided to write a list of everything swirling in my head.  I set a 5 minute timer and I wrote three pages of things.  Some were to dos and some were thoughts, everything from "drop off parcel" to "find employers liability insurance" to "don't maintain friendships I don't need".  After writing it all out I at least realized why my head is so so full of things.  There are so so many things.  I'm not actually looking at this list again or trying to make a to do list from this list.  It's just, a list.  And because it's an impossibly long list with an impossible jumble of thoughts and actions I can just realize that I have an impossibly full brain full of thoughts and actions and that's just my current state of things.

---

My mom and sister brought me this from America and it is the best america fall present I could have received.  I love love LOVE trader joes and miss it all the time and especially in the fall.  I love pumpkin butter, I love those Jo Jos (also I love sugar) and I haven't made the bread mix yet but I know I will love it.

-----

We are transitioning babies out of IKEA high chairs and into their tripp trapp high chairs and I am SO EXCITED.  I have been tripping over IKEA high chair legs for 5 years now and I am done:

In addition to not tripping on high chair legs, the new set up means babies are at the table with us, which means we needed to extend our table.  Unfortunately we don't have a table cloth big enough for the extended table.

Speaking of full brains, I have aways ordered the table cloths.  We use the wipe down PVC ones because we have so many kids.  Last time we ordered was for our last table, which was oval, and extendable.  We had two tablecloths - one for extended and one for not extended.

When we switched to rectangle table, the small tablecloth was so battered we started using the big one and cut it down to size.  

Last night, I sat through the following conversation (this is probably really dull, you can skip to the bottom)

Andy: don't we have a big table cloth?

Me: we did, that's it

Andy: where's the one that fits the large table?  I'm sure we have two

Me: it was for the old large table and we cut it down

Andy: I'm sure we had two

Me: we did have two.  for the old table

Andy: What did we use for this table?

Me: the one that's on it now

Andy: but it doesn't fit the big one?

Me: no, because we cut it down to size

Andy: I'm sure we had two

Another family member: We can order another from dunemp

Me: We ordered these from Etsy

Another family member: I'm sure it was Dunelm

Me: it was etsy

Another family member: are you sure?

Me: yes. 

Another family member: I dont' think it's Etsy

Me:Here it is on Etsy

Another Family member: Oh maybe it was, but they sell it at Dunelm

Me: I think it's different on Dunelm

Another family member: Oh here's the receipt from Etsy.  but I think we ordered two?  And there's only one?

Anyways, the end result of this conversation is that Andy spent an hour not ordering tablecloths and I realized that I have spent hours of my life thinking about table cloths (I mean, not in one go, but over the 5 year course of using table cloths) and all this has enabled is other people to not think about table cloths at all.  I told Andy he is now responsible for table cloths and he lamented how hard it is but is fine to take on the job. 

I am going to actively look for more "table cloths" in my life to completely stop thinking about.

Also, as an aside, I watched Everything Everywhere All At Once and it was so weird and also I think it is one of my favourite movies.  Maybe 40 year old moms are the new teen girls?  I feel I really understood this film in a way I wish I didn't.

What's your table cloth?  What's a thing you have thought about and managed for years with low level effort that no one else really notices?  

Edited to add: Andy read my blog and feels he is not presented in the best light, so I will amend this in two points:

1 - The conversation may be more of my perception of that conversation than the actual conversation.

2 - Andy ordered 5 sample table cloths, which are tiny samples of a table cloth.  So he didn't spend an hour not ordering a table cloth.  He spent an hour working towards the ordering of a table cloth.  Which I also appreciate!

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep

This week was a much more... sustainable one.  I feel perhaps the last post should have been titled "Icarus Week" as I'm not sure what insanity prompted me to leave the house for social and sport on 4 of 7 evenings, after nights where I was randomly waking up at night, and during a buy week at work where I spend one day doing baby jabs (as in, two appointments, taking up 2+ hours of my work day).  

It turns out, condensing my 37.5 hour workweek into a 30 hour one, and then condensing that into a 25 hour one working around family commitments, is not really sustainable.

This week, although I had the ability to leave the house in the evenings, I did not. I didn't see my gym buddy because our schedules didn't line up.  I didn't see my mom sports buddy because I was too tired.  I did have a long planning session with Andy on Wednesday evening (there is so much to organize in life and kinds right now)

I did get out mountain biking for a WHOLE DAY with Andy and it was great.  We both took off work on a school and nanny day.  The last time we went biking together was March of 2023 and I was super slow and also knew I was pregnant but not yet aware it was twins.  Mountain biking while not first trimester twin pregnant is sooo much more fun.

Reading

One Day in December is cute.  Will they? Won't they?  I love how people write about how twenty year olds think about true love.  It's cute.

Sports

First, my gym session on Friday last week destroyed me and I could barely walk on Sunday.  New gym friend is very into gym, has a baby younger than the twins, and is super awesome, but my enthusiasm got the best of me and I lifted far more than I probably should have.  I did not do any sport on Monday or Tuesday because I could not really walk up stairs very well.

• Wednesday
• 20 minutes HIIT and Hills with Robin Arzon (Peloton, during a lunch break, good thing people can't smell me on Teams)
• Thursday
• 20 miles of mountain biking at our local trail center.  Pedaled up the mountain twice and took the uplift van 3 times.  So much fun.
• Friday
• Lots of walking
• Saturday
• Parkrun 5k! I managed my 4th 5k this year, yay! I also completed one of my yearly goals which was to do a Turkey Trot, and althoug
  h this wasn't on Calendar Thanksigiving I think it still counts because I listened to this Turkey Trot Track:

Sleep

This week I have a respectable average of 7.67 hours of sleep.  Andy has started tracking his sleep and has realized he needs 7.5 hours a night, so we are both being better about being in bed by 9:30pm.  It's a lot easier to be in bed by 9:30 when you don't do anything in the evening.  Mornings are not yet a viable "do something" time because Audrey still loves a 5:30 wake up, but I am optimistic that this is not my life forever and someday I can go back to waking up at 5:30 and doing sport, rather than waking up at 5:15 and watching babies and kids for the next 14 hours.

In other news:

This week Birchie has been posting her weekly eats and reading and workouts and watching for SEVEN YEARS now.

I used AI to plan our meals this week! Sort of.  I wanted to have hot dogs for dinner one night and I asked Chat GPT what side dishes went well with hot dogs and it said corn on the cob and also baked beans.  This dinner was a phenomenal family success.  This is the second real world application of AI in my life and if AI can do my meal planning then yay, sign me up for my robot overlord life.

Have you ever used chat GPT? Do you get overexcited at the gym and suffer from mega DOMS? Did you do a turkey trot this year?  Do you like leaving the house in the evening?