Excuses? They're Like...Well...You Know...

What can I say? I've failed. Again.  Pretty much like every diet I've ever tried, I haven't stuck with it.  It's odd considered my propensity to read a ton of OTHER blogs that I can't sustain my little ol' blog here.

I'll be honest.  Between working full-time, driving theDynamic Duo to and from daycare, trying to put together a semi-nutritious dinner for the whole family, and trying to keep the house from literally imploding, it's tough!

I've got to wonder how all these other awesome Mom Bloggers make it work! Hell, it's all I can do to stay awake past 8:30 each night (though, with the longer days, it's become a bit easier).  Of course, these are probably the same women that embark (with success, no less) on every.single. Pinterest pin and have the beautiful pictures to prove it!

Maybe I'll just use this blog as my own personal sounding board.  I used to be creative.  I used to know what I was doing.  Now? Now, I have no idea.  No idea what I'm doing raising my kids.  No idea what I'm doing professional.  No idea who I really am. I'm just making it up as I go along.  I'm not bitching, just stating the facts.  With that said, I love my life - every chaotic, messy, disorganized bit of it.

I'm not publicizing that I've put this post up, much like my last post.  This way, when I inevitable fail to post AGAIN, no one can hold me accountable. Except for myself.  Of course, I'm the harshest critic of all.

Snowmageddon 2013 - We Made It To The Other Side!

Snowmageddon 2014 is still upon us,  is finally over! Is it totally cliché to refer to the past week's weather as Snowmageddon?  I'm so unoriginal, I know!

I wish I could say I feel your pain if you were bored out of your minds - but it was really such a pleasant experience for our little family and I was fortunate to have some great extra bonding time with the kiddos! Of course, if we were STILL stuck inside a full week later, I might be singing a different tune!

I like to think I'm prepared all the time.  Sometimes I fake it really well.  As it turns out, I arely have it together (I'd love to know what parent does). In fact, preparation is NOT a word in my typical vocabulary (as much as I try to be prepared on a regular basis, it rarely actually happens!). Not this time, folks!

I knew we I was going to lose my own sanity if I didn't have a game plan for different toddler-friendly activities during the "break).  I spent a full week searching Pinterest relentlessly for  toddler-friendly activities Brooke and Aiden would enjoy, and hey, if they learned a little gross motor skills to boot, double bonus.  I knew we'd be stuck inside for at least a few days, and NO WAY was I going to be caught with two 18 month olds with nothing to do!

In the end, we ended up stuck inside for five days and spent our days doing a lot of really fun activities - the kids, hubster, and I all had a blast!  For one full day, I was actually caught up on laundry.  It was such an unfamiliar sense of completion that lasted exactly 24 hours, as the laundry hampers are once again overflowing!

Anyway, below are some great pictures of our daily activities during Snowmageddon...Snowpocalypse...Polar Vortex!

Making cupcakes.  The real job here was to keep the Dynamic Duo from eating all the batter!

It was WAY too cold to go out and play IN the snow, so we brought the snow in to us. 

Playing with their new "laptops" from Nana and Papa.  Yes, I'm aware of the gender crisis occurring here!

Sensory activity fun! Hey, I can't help it that my son prefers to be naked most of the time!

We had our first voyage into snow ice cream making.  It was freaking awesome!

So yea, maybe we DID turn a box into a "car".

Is This Thing Still On?

Check, check - one two, one two.  Is this thing still on?

I know, I know - I've done it again.  Completely abandoned "the blog" after a few posts.  I don't suppose you can even call this a blog anymore - that would requiring it on even a SEMI routine basis.  So, because of that, I'm not even going to post that I've updated "the blog." 

My New Year's resolutions 2014 included getting my s#!t together...that includes this blog.  So, here is my resolution: I will update the blog at least once a week. Until I can do that on a routine bases, I won't advertise that I'm updating at all - let's see if I can make this commitment to MYSELF stick!

Toddler Problems Tuesday

Welcome to our first "feature" here on At Home in the Burbs....Toddler Problems Tuesday!  Parents, admit it - when you're kids are throwing a fit or getting themselves into trouble, sometimes all you want to do is laugh and take a picture.  I.CAN'T.HELP.IT. At least 5 times a day if you ask my kids, I'm the worst mom in of the year.

 

Each Tuesday I'll add a post with picture from the previous week showcasing just how "miserable" I've made my kids of the last week....or pickles they've gotten themselves into.  Yes, I DID just say pickles they've gotten themselves into.

 

 We forced him to get his hair cut. And sit in a cool rocket chair. And watch cartoons.

 "Oh, man.  I'm stuck in this truck! How'd THAT happen?!"

 

 She had to share her chair with her brother. 

 

 I wouldn't let her drink Mountain Dew.  Most of you have seen this one on Facebook.

 

Daddy wouldn't let him pull the iron off the ironing board and on to his head.

Let's Get Organized!

Picture me dancing around to Olivia Newton-John as I type this: "Let's get organized! Organized! Let's get organized! Let's go get organized."  Here's hoping someone else get's that reference!

 

Life with 1-year old twins is chaotic, to say the very least.  Most days, I'm lucky to make it to the office with my shirt on the right way (though not always smushed-banana or peanut butter free).  By the time we make it home after work and picking up the kids from the sitter, it's nearly 6:00pm and I'm frantically scrambling for something to throw together for dinner.  While we're on that topic, by the way, do any other toddler parents suffer from the we-can't-keep-food-in-the-house plague?  Pre-kids I religiously clipped coupons and categorized them, scoped out the best deals, and made some pretty decent dinners.  Grocery shopping these days includes rushing  through Meijer with Brooke (she's the most patient) while Brad keeps tabs on Aiden.  Needless to say, because of this fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants shopping style, most nights include some form of processed chicken, peanut butter and jelly rollups, or *GASP* frozen pizza.  "Mom of the Year" award I will NOT win!

 

In order to bring some BIT of organization to our lives, I am going to attempt meal planning.  Enter Ziplist! I'll admit it, I found this website on Google, but I'm officially obsessed.  Ziplist contains literally THOUSANDS of recipes - seriously - I was even typing in restaurant recipes to see what would pop up (Outback Steakhouse Alice Springs Chicken, you get in my belly!).  You can save recipes and create your shopping list based on recipe ingredients.  There's even a feature that allows you to create meal plans for each day of the week.

 

Brad and I have committed to sitting down together every few weeks and planning out our menus for the upcoming 2 weeks.  I think it will be a great tool for controlling the chaos, sticking to a budget, and adding some variety to our meals (seriously, one can eat so many chicken nuggets!).

So here's our "checklist" if you will:

1. Decide what sounds good. Browse recipes
2. Plan meals and snacks for each day at least two weeks in advance
3. Create a shopping list based on recipe ingredients
4. Search stores (also on ZipList) to find best deals

 

Check it out for yourself: http://www.ziplist.com - let me know how it works for you! I'd love to know your tips for organizing your life; feel free to share what works for your family!

 

 

Third Time's A Charm

My name is Jaymie and I have commitment issues.  I tried to tell you that in my last post some 9 or so months ago, so if you're back for more, you've got no one to blame but yourself.

 

Ultimately, I think the problem is that I'm scared.  Scared I won't be funny enough.  Scared my life isn't interesting enough.  Scared I'm not creative enough for blogging.  Deep down, I know none of these are true.  Why do  I want to blog?  Ultimately, I'd like a living, breathing, yearbook, of sorts, for our family.  Something we can look back at together and see what was happening in our lives throughout time.  Let's be honest, I'm not artsy enough for scrapbooking - so this could be my outlet.

 

I don't promise to update this everyday.  Heck, I don't even promise to update it once a week.  But I will update it, I can now promise you that.  You don't have to look at it if you don't want to; I will update this for us - for Brad, Jaymie, Brooke and Aiden.  If you're interested, I welcome you into our world - every chaotic bit!

I'm Back With A Vengence!

Alright, my peeps, I'm back. And what I mean by "my peeps" is the nine of you that actually look at this blog; or looked at it waayyyy back in the summer of 2011 when I made the promise to update this blog on a regular basis. HA! Suckers!! So, why did I give it up?

Well, I wouldn't say I really gave it up. I TRIED to tell you I had commitment issues, but nooooo, the nine of you kept reading! I blame it all on these two:

That's right. WE HAD BABIES! I mean, obviously, I didn't just pop them up in the Summer of 2011, thus ceasing all blog operations.  For those of you that follow my obsessive Facebooking (seriously, I have a heroin-like addiction to Facebook. It's deep and it's real!), these two cuties joined our family on July 9, 2012. 

So, why the long hiatus?  Well, getting pregnant wasn't exactly all wham-bam-thank-you-maam for the Huncklers (how's THAT for a visual!). The very Huncky Husband (you like that? ;-) ) knew before we got married that we wanted to start trying for a family as soon as we got married. Being as that we both come from VERY large Catholic families we never thought getting pregnant would be an issue. AU CONTRAIRE MY FRIENDS.  I think I alluded to this in a previous post (alright, like one of 4 previous posts), so I won't go into all the details; but what it all boils down to is that we decided to give a round of Invitro Fertilization a try. Just call us Bill and Giuliana (extra credit if you know who these two are) at the end of Summer 2011 hoping and praying that we might get pregnant with a future little Hunckler. If any of you have actually gone through the IVF process, you realize it's a mighty uncomfortable and mighty stressful process. We were blessed for IVF to work for us the first go around. Not only did it work, but it worked DOUBLE - we found out right around Thanksgiving 2011 that we were expecting TWINS.  HOLY MAMA! I'll go more into the whole process in a future post.

Flash forward nine months to this summer. On July 9, 2012 we welcomed Brooke Jean and Aiden Paul to our little zoo (seriously, two adults, two babies, two dogs and a cat).  We couldn't be more in love with these little blessings (not that they are that little anymore - they are growing like weeds!). They have changed our lives in ways we never imagined.  I for one, never thought that I would not be totally grossed out by another human puking in my hair; nor did I ever think that I would just wipe it out and carry on because after said puker FINALLY fell asleep I was too exhausted to shower.  I never knew I could love my husband more than I already do, but watching him love on his son (who is a little CLONE of his daddy) or tickle his daughter melts my heart into a little puddle of love everytime I see it.

Ok, I'm done with the cutesy stuff.  I know this post was a whirlwind, but give me a little credit - at least it was a post! Here's a truth - I know I will NEVER lack for subject material to post about; so stay tuned folks - it only gets better from here!  And now, cue the gratuitous baby shot. :-)