Saturday Snapshots: From Red Cross to Red Stripe

Sarah's donation...
Darren's concentration...

Daddy's skillful snowy navigation!

Such are the views of our weekend---how's yours looking so far?

Post a picture...or two, or three...and share a glimpse!

Marvel, If You Will

After being told he had to wait at least one day between wearings of his favorite comic character- adorned tee to school:

Darren: "Mom, you know I am kind of like a superhero..."

Mommy: "You are? How?"

Darren: "You know, with my tae kwon do skills and my sweet hair..."
He's on to something; Kryptonite doesn't stand a chance against the buzzcut.

At the thoughtful invitation of fabulous photographer (and friend!) Cecily at My Chaos, My Bliss, we're playing along with Photo Story Friday. Go see the incredible images and play along!


Hosted by Cecily

Way Back When-esday: Authors and Ancestors

Dateline: January 27, 2009

Twins' Age: 7
Papa's Age: 92

Exactly one year ago, the kids' awoke in a compositional mood: Darren reinterpreted The Three Billy Goats Gruff, while Sarah leaned autobiographical.

Afterschool, Papa was treated to a reading of the writers' most recent works.

What memorable image(s) makes your mid-week wonderful? Dive into those digital photos or scan a scrapbook find and play along with Way Back When-esday. Be sure and link back to participate in the web-wide reverie...and leave a comment when you do!

Not too late to win one of three copies of Twinspiration! Leave a comment here, and you're entered!

Makes My Monday: Septuacentennial

It's the sweet 700.

Seems like both yesterday and an eternity of yesterdays ago this blog began. Today, we're 700 posts in.

Naturally, the doubled baby books are no closer to being completed than they were when Twinfatuation debuted; but the day-ins and day-outs affectionately documented here will hopefully supplement Darren and Sarah's early histories to their eventual liking.

In honor of this momentous occasion, Double Daddy and I will give away three copies of the first tome for which our twins served as multiple muses, Twinspiration: Real-Life Advice from Pregnancy through the First Year. (Hopefully it's entertaining if you have twins, if you don't have twins, or even like to imagine what it might be like to have same aged siblings...)

Play along with Makes My Monday. Leave a comment. Follow the blog to see what happens beyond the septuacentennial. (Can you blame me for wanting to type that wild word one more time?) You'll be entered once for each of the aforementioned you elect to do. (If you are already a follower, please let me know in the comments so I can count you twice.)

To Twinfatuation readers past, present and future: thank you. What started as simply a means to remember became so much more...a connection to a wonderful web of amazing women. All of you Make My Monday.

New to Makes My Monday? Share on your blog what warms your week's beginning: Post a picture and tell the tale. After you do, be sure to link back here to share in the web-wide Monday fun. Don't forget to leave a comment for others...comments are always Monday makers!

Saturday Snapshots: Two Wheelers, Two Squealers

How's your weekend looking so far?Post a picture...or two, or three...and share a glimpse...

The Tears of a Cute Clown

Form of...She-Twin.

Somehow, I doubt we are the only family beset with bouts of the morning weepfest.

We try ever-so-hard to be sympathetic; but occasionally, the catalyst for the crying is so surprising, we have to endeavor to suppress the giggles.

This morning's provocations:

"But I don't like peanut butter sandwiches for lunch! They get all over your hands, they stick to the bag and they're too sweet!" (Cue tears.)

"These socks are awful. This part gets under my toes and is uncomfortable all day long." (Cue tears.)

"Why do I have P.E. and have to wear tennnis shoes on the day we are going to the pool? Tying shoes takes way too much time." (Cue tears.)

"No one saved me any doughnuts!"

...and here we were led to believe "too sweet" was an issue.

C'mon, make Sweet Sarah feel better. Tell on your wee ones. What are some of the surprising tear-inducers in your otherwise happy homes?

Way Back When-esday: Fake Flakes

Dateline: December 2005
Twins' Age: 4

When the real thing comes in short supply, leave it to the malls to work up some wintry weather. Watching our twosome delight in the white stuff---even if it tasted more like soap than snow---warms my mid-week.

What memorable image(s) makes your mid-week wonderful? Dive into those digital photos or scan a scrapbook find and play along with Way Back When-esday. Be sure and link back to participate in the web-wide reverie...and leave a comment when you do!

Makes My Monday: Protecting Pictures

As my beloved laptop seems to be losing life, she offered up enough ooomph for me to pull prized pictures to the safety of a portable hard drive.

This post? Netbook composed and posted while our long-suffering, dutifully laboring Toshiba rests for the night. Knowing irreplaceable images are preserved and retrievable Makes My Monday!

New to Makes My Monday? Share on your blog what warms your week's beginning: Post a picture (especially since some of us can't!) and tell the tale. Then be sure to link back here to share in the web-wide Monday fun. Don't forget to leave a comment for others...comments are always Monday makers!

Inhale, Exhale...

How close I came to titling this week's edition of Saturday Snapshots My Twins Suck, but could only imagine the likes of what Google, Bing, et al would send my way.

How's your weekend looking so far? Post a picture...or two, or three...and share a glimpse...


In addition to sharing the snapshots, here are Six Words for this Saturday:
"Twins' Routine: Orepred, Zithromax, Albuterol, Nebulizer."

Bad Haiku: The Loveliest Legumes

Frankincense. Gold. Myrrh.
Lovely tokens to be sure,
Yet not my dream gifts.

This week in the mail
An unexpected package
What could be inside?

We've had some rough weeks
We wouldn't dare to deny
But we're hanging tough

Yet as good friends do,
They brighten the toughest times.
Boy, this present did!

So what was inside?
TWO POUNDS OF CIRCUS PEANUTS!
My favorite food.

A gesture so sweet
From dearest Laura and Matt
My heart overflows

P.S. Seriously, the circus peanuts affinity is genuine. This is the 6th post referencing them since this blog began. Go figure, and go read more bad haiku at Laura's Catholic Teacher Musings.

Rhyme Time: Sublime or Crime?

My penchant for hyphens and alliteration does occasionally provoke a literary pet peeve response in some. However, there is one facet of wordplay that pushes my bleeech buttons: rhymes that really don't. Hymns are notorious for it...attempting to connect "again" with pairings like "gain" or "plain."

This morning, over breakfast (English muffins with butter, sugar and cinnamon), the word "cinnamon-y" was used. Say it out loud. It's fun! Now say "an anemone," as in the under the sea residence of Nemo.

We're stumped! Do they or don't they rhyme? Cinnamon-y and an anemone...

Your thoughts?

Please comment with your "Absolutely, yes! One of the best rhymes of all time!" or your "Are you kidding me? No way!" The results will be placed in a bar graph (which both second grade twins are now capable of creating using researched data) to be shared at a later date.

Way Back When-esday: What Do You See?

Dateline: August 2002
Twins' Age: 11 Months
(Darren requested the age for this week's edition: zero.)

Nearly eight years later, Scott and I both can likely recite Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? from memory. Sarah's story happy hand and Darren's cross-legged listening make me want to read it to them over breakfast tomorrow. Now where did I put those high chairs?

Play along with Way Back When-esday!

Dive into those digital photos or scan a scrapbook find. Tell the tale and place a post on your blog. Be sure and link back to participate in the web-wide reverie...and leave a comment when you do!

**Friends on Facebook playing along with FB's "Wayback Week," feel free to add your FB link to the Mr. Linky below! You're more than invited to play along the other 51 weeks of the year here...on Way Back When-esdays!**

Book Title Noir

Received or bestowed, books tend to be a preferred gift for me.

When my beloved 93-year-old grandfather was in the hospital over Christmas, my much adored and ever-humorous husband pointed out the potential misinterpretation of the token (by one of his favorite writers) I'd selected as his holiday gift:
When this incredible book arrived---one I'd ordered for myself at the suggestion of the amazing Judy of TwinSpin---yet again, Scott questioned the title...or at least its punctuation/word placement....

His query? "Are you sure there shouldn't be a colon after 'over?'"

Absolutely certain! Humor is a very well-documented and effective healing medicine...and trust me, my melanoma-murdering man has it in spades.

[FYI: We should get word Tuesday on when Scott's next surgery will be...hoping for ASAP. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.]

Makes My Monday: Thoughtful Thank You

You know those fill-in-the-blank thank you notes marketed to parents for their children, the ones reminiscent of Mad Libs: "Dear ______________, Thank you for the ______________. Love, ________________ " ?

Right from the get-go, they seemed too creativity-squelching. Too facile. Too limiting. While I respect the intent to maintain the mannered tradition of written acknowledgement, the pre-fab papers simply seem...wrong.

Granted, we're late getting our Christmas notes out this year, but when I saw this one from Darren to our neighbor across the street, how grateful I was we'd never succumbed to the too-easy temptation.

My little man's self-composed card of thanks Makes My Monday.

New to Makes My Monday? Share on your blog what warms your week's beginning: Post a picture and tell the tale. After you do, be sure to link back here to share in the web-wide Monday fun. Don't forget to leave a comment for others...comments are always Monday makers!

Bad Haiku: Cancer Too Courageous

Oh, melanoma
What are you even thinking?
Back in just six weeks?

Now pay attention:
Did you think we were kidding?
Cut you out before...

Not going to balk,
We will cut you out again.
No Mr. Nice Guy

Inhospitable.
No haven for terrorists---
And that's what you are

Dad is done with you
Don't think about coming back
Twin motivators

So cut you we shall
and then we will radiate.
Cancer, pack your bags.


For less militant bad haiku, be sure to go visit the lovely Laura at Catholic Teacher Musings.

Way Back When-esday: Tw-Inside Jokes

Dateline: January 5, 2006
Twins' Age: 4 Years Old

Taken as we were preparing to depart from the year's "Lagefest," a week of togetherness between Christmas and the New Year, this picture makes Double Daddy and I laugh everytime we happen upon it. While I am certainly curious to know what mischief Darren and Sarah were sharing in this moment captured, I'm happier yet to know it was a moment solely theirs.

Play along with Way Back When-esday!

Dive into those digital photos or scan a scrapbook find. Tell the tale and place a post on your blog. Be sure and link back to participate in the web-wide reverie...and leave a comment when you do!

Should Auld Resolutions Be Forgot

The concept of New Year's resolutions has always grated on me....

Each day, each minute, is a fresh opportunity to focus and redirect with vigorous enthusiasm our commitment to personal goals and self-betterment.

Now that our twins are 8, they're hearing TV commercials ad nauseum exhorting viewers to embark on all sorts of New Year motivated missions: to stop smoking, to lose unwanted pounds, to "be ready for intimacy." (Thanks a LOT, Cialis.) Aside from explaining topics I'd rather not to my kids, it hit me this year that we could easily dovetail some more positive/pro-active goal-setting with the timing of the New Year.

How about resolving to learn to ride a two-wheeler? To tie our shoes with greater speed, comfort and efficacy? (Thanks for easing our procrastination tendencies, Velcro closures and mock Vans.) To treat each other with kindness and support? No time limits, just some additional motivation to accomplish worthwhile goals in 2010. Think I'll also use extra care in how I address/word my goals for the new year---making sure they don't smack of superficial (re: "lose weight"), and instead are based in health (re: exercise more regularly) and happiness.

Have you thought about goals for yourself or your family in this new year...or tomorrow?

Do tell!

Makes My Monday: Pageant Postponed

The East Coast snowstorm December 18-19th was a welcome dose of winter, but it did cramp the Christmas calendar a tad. With our twins slated to play both the stubborn and the sacred, Darren and Sarah got the opportunity to play their parts last night. Mini-Mary and the mule Make My Monday.

New to Makes My Monday? Share on your blog what warms your week's beginning this first Monday of 2010! Post a picture and tell the tale. Then be sure to link back here to share in the web-wide Monday fun. Don't forget to leave a comment for others...comments are always Monday makers!