Look, I blogged!

Well, team, it's been a while. Like seven weeks. Forty-nine days. Well, fifty now - I started this last night, haha. Don't worry, I'm armed with excuses:

Excuse #1. 

Carma is a leech. As in, she's like suuuper attached to me 24/7, and she's not the biggest fan of the computer. Well, that's a lie - she loves the computer. When I'm on it, she shuffles right over and starts bangin' on the ol' keyboard as soon as I pick her up. Alas, not terribly conducive to blogging. Also, she's not a super big fan of sleeping at night. She prefers to take light naps, preferably while touching me. And have I mentioned Jack? He's also pretty into having me within arm's reach all the time. I don't know, sometimes at Costco I play the game where I push the cart ahead a bit and then "run" to catch up to it... maybe Jack and Carma take that game more seriously than their crazy giggling would imply? Maybe we haven't watched the "Grown-ups come back" episode of Daniel Tiger enough, and Jack thinks that me sitting at the computer is some sort of gateway drug to me sneaking out of the house, ne'er to return? Who knows.

Someday (like, probably soon) I'll have enough pictures of me with kids draped over me, asleep, to fill a book. And I will self-publish that book. Four copies. And I'll gift them to each child with a guilt-inducing inscription about how it was never a sacrifice to be uncomfortable or lose sleep, because snuggling with them was so, so worth it.

So, bottom line here: hard to sneak away to the computer; I used to blog a lot in the evening/nighttime but now I crawl into bed exhausted and hope that I can sleep for an hour before Carma realizes we're not touching and wakes up.

Excuse #2.

In mid-February, I started watching a cute little girl four days a week. For 7-9 hours a day. And now my friend Maren is my hero because HOLY MOLY HAVING TWINS IS RIDICULOUS. Ashtyn is way cute, and for the most part it's pretty chill unless we a) have to go anywhere (I tried Walmart once and literally cried in the aisle - now we stick to Costco and their blessed double-buckle carts) or b) I try to get anything done.

Bottom line here: my productivity in every area of the house has plummeted, haha, buuut I mean, it does make for some cute pictures of two little girls so close in age!

Excuse #3.

the Nampa Library re-opened! In a new place! And way bigger! It's seriously amazing, so beautiful and fun and at the opening ceremony they talked about how they wanted it to be a 'destination' now - and it totally is. The library used to be a stop on our list of errands, like we'd run in and drop off books and grab whatever we had on the hold shelf. Now we allot time to stay and hang out and such! Super fun.

What impact does this have on blogging?

 Oh, just feeding my addiction to cute, sometimes cheesy, (clean!) romance novels. And really, the library can't be blamed entirely because some of them I've picked up pretty inexpensively for my kindle app or in paperback at D.I. But I do have like seven books from the library right now, haha. I can't help it, I am a total sucker for good writing and happily ever afters and just enough conflict in the story to make it interesting but not enough to hard core stress me out. 

Bottom line here: I will straight up admit there have been times where I technically could have used a free hour to blog, and instead opted to read. #sorrynotsorry

At this point, I know that everyone is nodding along, like, "Seriously Jana, how do you find time in the day to shower or eat lunch, let alone blog?" Well, good news, I've been workin' on some solutions. (Also, I mean, showering every day is not suuuper necessary, right? Water conservation? Today is Earth Day...)

Solution #1.

the Izatt household has been in rearrangement mode the last few days, switching around rooms and such: Jack and Carma are moving to the back right bedroom, the guest accomodations are moving to the bonus room (where our new piano is! People, I have SO much to catch you up on!), and the computer has been returned to its original location in the playroom:

This is how I graduated from college after having two children: writing papers and doing homework while little Clyde and little Will played right next to me. It was moved to the guest room a few years ago, but now it's back here, which is perfect for letting my fan club co-presidents (Jack and Carma) be right next to me while I sit and blog!

Solution #2.

Starting next week I'll go back to just having these two yahoos to look after during the day:

Which should lead to a little bit more wiggle room during the day to blog (I have no problem neglecting my own kids to blog - I mean, do they want their childhood recorded or not?? but I feel bad not giving someone else's kid my full attention) OR get other things done and free up my evenings when the kids are in bed and Chuck's out doing church/Scout stuff.

Although, school is almost out and then I'll have all four yahoos all day e'ry day again:

But I mean, obviously that should be no problem, haha!

Solution #3.

Willpower. I'm going to look into getting some. But don't worry, I won't waste it on silly things like "not eating Costco-sized bags of chocolate chips by the handful" - I will reserve it for prioritizing my day: blog before reading, reading before laundry ;).

Okay, so there you have it! Prepare to be regaled/bored stiff by my blogging again! We got almost four months to catch up on! This is going to be great! Probably!