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Do you ever stop and wonder how your life could have turned out differently if things would have happened another way?

Do you ever wonder what life would have been like, if the girl in 6th grade had not broken your heart?

Do you ever wonder what life would have been like if you had gone to a different college or gone to a different bar on New Years?

Do you ever wonder what life would have been like if your parents had not gotten divorced?

Do you ever wonder what life would have been like if your loved one had not died?

You can what if your life away and you can wonder how things would have been different. But would you really want them to be different?

I can not imagine my life any other way, ok, if I won the lottery, then that would be cool, but I would still have my wife and boys.

Do you ever wonder?

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One of my resolutions for the year, is to do a 52 Week Challenge and trying 1 new recipe a week.  I am trying to make a new recipe each week and not only make 1 new recipe each week, but also cook enough for a few additional meals for left overs.

Follow my journey with these recipes here.

 

 

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There is nothing harder than when your child is sick. And it is even worse when there is really nothing that you can do for them.  For the last several days, both of the boys have been sick, low grade fevers, coughing, etc. We took one to the doctor, because he was the one demonstrating the signs of a cold.  And the doctor basically said that as long as he was drinking fluids and his fever was below 103, we were good and that it would just run its course.

But it doesn’t change the fact that it is hard to watch your child being sick. All I can do is hold him, keep giving him fluids and hope that this cold goes away sooner, rather than later.

In doing some internet searches, I did find a few possible home rem-ides that we did try to help as well:

  • Vicks Vapor Rub – both on their chests and feet, especially at night.
  • Humidifier and we have a Vicks Vapor strip in the humidifier to keep mist going.
  • A little honey in their juice – this is supposed to help coat their throats for the coughing & it is recommended that you brush your child’s teeth after doing this.
  • Take a tablespoon of Vicks Vapor Rub and a tablespoon of water and place it into the top of the Scentsy candle holder.

Have any of these worked? Who knows? But if it helps just a little bit to take away my kids sickness, then I am willing to give it a try. I know how I feel when I have a cold, but I can verbalize how I feel and what hurts and that I don’t want to eat or drink anything, but the boys can not. There is nothing worse than watching your child being sick.

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I am often asked what the hardest part about raising twins and I don’t know the answer? I don’t, because I don’t know any different. The boys are so different, which I love. One loves to be off by himself and figure out blocks and stacking and putting shaped blocks into the container, over and over again. The other, wants to be right in the middle of everything and doesn’t want to miss a thing.

Last week, one of the boys was up coughing at 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep.  So he and I went down and slept on the sofa. Was that hard? Absolutely. It isn’t comfortable sitting up and sleeping, but it helped him sleep. It helped him be comfortable and not coughing. And I got to hold my son. I got to watch him sleep. I got to hear his first words of the day, as he whispered Dad when he realized that I was holding his hand.

Hardest part of raising twins? No clue? I am loving every minute of it.

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This past weekend, the boys started refusing to eat and I stood in front of them and just figured that I would give them forks to see what they would do.

Well, to my surprise, that dinners feeding turned into a lot of fun, because they sat there and figured out how to feed themselves using a fork. The excitement that they had when they were feeding themselves was classic.

Another chapter in their learning has started.

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I learned a valuable lesson this weekend from my mother and that is that you are never too old learn, especially when you are a new parent.

I should start this off by stating that my mother has been a elementary school teacher for 44 years, so she knows a little more about children than I do.  So, while I was feeding the boys the other night, one kept dropping food on the floor and I kept repeating the word No to him. And then he did something else and I said No again. After a few minutes, my mother spoke up and said to me, that it would be better than telling them No all the time, to say “we do not drop food on the floor” or “we do not hit our brother”. And it got me thinking, it makes sense. At some point, the boys will grow numb to the word No if they hear it all the time.

I am really trying to make it a point to now, explain what they are doing or why we do not do something, instead of just saying No.  It is a hard habit to break, but thus far, they seemed to have responded thus far.

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Well, it is that time of the year again, to make our New Years Resolutions.   Have you thought about what your goals will be this year?

Will it be the normal, lose weight? Be in a better financial position?

Sure, we will all focus on those things. But what about, helping others? What about doing good and being a better person?

So this year, as you look at your New Years Resolutions, think about things that you can do and more importantly, think about goals that are attainable.  Goals that are attainable are more than likely attainable, then goals that are not.

Today is a new day. The beginning of a new year. Make this year count. Make this year, the best year of your life.

Happy New Year.

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Some times in life, you have to fall off the grid and that is exactly what I am doing. Every year, I try to do something for me and that is taking time off. Taking time off to evaluate where I am today, where I want to go tomorrow.

One of my closest friends is a psychologist and he has always said, you have to take care of yourself first and foremost, because if you do not, no one else will.

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Now that the first round of Christmas has come and gone (my parents are divorced, so we get 3 Christmas’s), we have already put the new toys out for the boys and have started taking some of the ones that they do not play with anymore and gotten ready for Goodwill. Yes, it is a good tax write off, but it is more importantly, a chance to help a child that might be a little less fortunate to get some good toys at a reasonable price.

I really want to raise the boys that as they get new toys, that they will take their old toys and give them to someone else. I want them to start at an early age to be humble. To understand how fortunate they are and how not all kids are that fortunate.
So, as we prepare for Rounds 2 and 3 of Christmas this week, there will be a lot of little boys and girls in our area that will be able to benefit from my kids toys. And as the boys grow up, they will go with me as we take the toys to Goodwill, so that they can get an idea of what giving back is really all about.

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