 Posted to facebook 2 years ago, but still applies. This is why our house is a disaster, why the lawn looks like crabgrass, why the roof has mounds of moss, why the siding is dirty, why the piles of laundry look like leaning towers of Pisa, why you may need plastic gloves to enter my bathroom, and why we don't have a lot of extra time for stuff other than our kids right now: Chris and Lena hit their Morning daddy and me yoga at We Rock the Spectrum - Buffalo Southtowns, then Ben and I met up with them for some kids' gym time together. After that, we decided we were all starving, so we headed of to lunch at Aunt Millie's Family Restaurant. After lunch is naptime, so we took the chance to drive out to pick up our eggshare at Farmthisway (and comment on our dream house, plans for the future, which bill to pay when, what birthday party comes next, etc. Our only time to talk without our children interrupting...because even bedtime doesn't allow for adult conversation when you have a child who doesn't sleep.). Now it's almost 4. I've been sitting on the couch for 2+ hours, snuggling with my child who will nurse/sleep on my lap until he's 2, maybe more from the looks of his needs... He hasn't slept all week and won't let me out of his sight. He's anxious and twitchy. His body and brain are growing. I know it's normal, but it's hard. Chris is outside with Lena. 50 hours of his life are spent away from these kids, 50 hours away from two of his favorite people on Earth and he still somehow manages to cram in as much quality time as he can every day...every single day. Bath time, night time reading, putting Ben to sleep (for the 1st round): all duties he takes on to give me a break and to give our kids dad time. He does this all after working at a kind of difficult job...and when I say difficult I don't mean it in a "can you handle it?" kind of difficult, but in a "holy shit, Chris's job is so cool! I can't believe how smart he is!" kind of difficult. I know he comes home needing to rest his brain for 3 seconds, but can't. I know it's normal, but it's hard. So when you have that inclination to worry about your grass or your laundry or other people outside of your immediate family, prioritize.  
When we started out our own parenting gig we had big ideas: no plastic, no chemicals, lots of child-centered routines, whole organic foods, lots of breastfeeding, and independent play. Sounds perfectly holistic, right? We found ourselves a little sidetracked by the shear plethora of really noisy, really annoying toys from big brand names gifted from well-meaning family and friends. Despite the piles of beeping and booping plastic, we noticed that our kids were drawn to everyday household utensils and cheap crafting supplies. Who knew?! Welp, here are the Top 5 Toys My Kids Loved That Weren’t Toys:
The longer we do this thing called parenting, the more I feel like we're able to confirm our initial feelings: it doesn't have to be so complicate.
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