Hitting the ground running, almost literally.

I say almost literally because overuse of the term literally is something that annoys me and yet I am guilty of it as well.

These days--they fly by. Another week gone and I can usually barely remember it.

Yesterday I was awake at 4:15 am and running outside, headlamp strapped around my waist, by 4:31. So that I could be back by 5:15 in time to get a shower and get myself semi-ready/presentable by 6 am, when the hubs would leave for work and the babes would be awake and our day would begin. This morning I was running by 5:15, which felt late!

I don't do this often. I usually run at 7 pm, headlamp strapped around my waist, in the dark, right after they lay down for bed. Which means eating at 8:30 pm.

Yesterday after my run I fed them breakfast, then loaded them up for our weekly grocery store trip, list in hand, recipes and meals for the upcoming week planned. While they had their morning "rest"-->we don't do morning naps anymore but they still get to watch one Baby Einstein for 30 minutes in the morning whilst drinking delicious whole milk from a sippy cup--I cooked two meals that are currently in the freezer and we will eat this week. We eat each of them twice--thank God for a husband who doesn't mind a repeat--so I do not have to cook during the week. Then I let them in the kitchen to play with various kitchen utensils while I cleaned and scrubbed my destroyed kitchen.

Then we had playtime together. Oh the playtime! They are both walking/toddling and just delight in themselves when they take steps all around the room. It is a thrill to see.
During their nap it was housecleaning--dusting, toilets, vanities, showers, sweeping, baseboards. This morning it was vacuuming and steammopping to get ready for a playdate; I have to do that when the hubs is here because the kiddos are scared of the vacuum cleaner. Our daughter was a crankypants during the playdate and it had to be cut short, but it is what it is.

Oh yes, because I miss baking I decided to make homemade peanut butter cups yesterday (they're giant, though you can't tell in the picture) and last night I made homemade truffles for a friend's sister's wedding shower.

Work days aren't any less busier--up at 5:15, play with the babies from 6 to 6:30, out the door by 6:35, work at a frantic pace seeing patients all day with only a 30 minute lunch so I can leave 30 minutes earlier to get home to play with the babies some more (and who am I kidding--I never get a real lunch at work anyway because the patients, they just.keep.calling), make their dinner, clean up, get them ready for bed, read to them, rock them, put them to sleep, go running, get cleaned up, iron my clothes for the next day and then thankfully--THANKFULLY--there is food already made and we watch TV like two zombies while stuffing our pieholes.
I am not trying to say I am busier than anyone else, I know I'm not. But sheesh, sometimes the pace feels ridiculous. I do go to bed by 9:30 every night or else I would never make it. I don't run every day but at least four to five days per week. I don't always bake but I do enjoy it so I try to fit it in as part of my own personal therapy. We try to see friends but we rarely do, need to work on that. We're signed up to be back at the homeless shelter soon and that's a refreshingly good thing. We're back to going to church, our absence because of their morning nap and my fear of our son biting another child now ended, another refreshingly good thing.

It's no wonder the weeks just zip by.

So right now this very second I am going to just sit here. Maybe read, maybe just stare out the window at the lake (did I mention our neighbors cut down a tree and now from our enomormous front windows we are rewarded with a beautiful view of the lake we never knew we didn't have?) Close this post, click publish and just rest. Because they are still sleeping (have to love that longer afternoon nap) and as soon as they wake up, it all sort of starts up again.

But at least I've already run, because if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to enjoy these.