New Years Resolutions, Sweet Videos & Organizing

It's taken about 10 days but I think I've finally made some headway on my New Year's resolutions. Normally I don't make resolutions to begin with—I prefer to just look forward to whatever highlights we have planned for the year and continue my eternal efforts to improve on my diet, health and family life—but this year I was led to make two specific promises. The most important is a spirit of gratitude. A friend of mine wrote a recent blog post about focusing on gratitude in 2015 and it only further spurred my thinking on the topic. I've always prayed frequently and am constantly thanking God for our blessings, be it our healthy babies, a nice home, the husband's job and so on.

Raising quadruplets certainly comes with its fair share of stress and exhaustion. At the end of each and every day, I am completely emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted. Two and a half year olds bring on endless questions, tantrums, emotions of their own, energy, defiance and the wonderful will to learn and experience. All great things and all things that require constant attention! But instead of letting my frustrations and tiredness enter all my prayers, I'm trying to focus on thanking God for something good right then and there. Rather than automatically venting about the stress I'm under or constantly asking for answers or help, I want to first come to Him in a spirit of thankfulness and find those things that I would otherwise so quickly overlook. Thus far, it's been both refreshing and beneficial. To find all these things that I am grateful to have in my life or that I appreciate at that particular moment is both positive and uplifting.

As any parent can relate, one moment your kids can be driving you absolutely bonkers and the next minute they can be doing the sweetest thing in the world and make you wonder why you ever stopped smiling. It's the crazy parental pendulum swing of emotions and all that pendulum swinging can wear a momma out! And then my quads all tell me how they're best friends with each other and my heart wants to explode...



...or Trystan recites her ABCs!! I am one super proud momma! About a week ago she started singing the alphabet song, but she'd never really gone past A-B-C and then all the sudden she kept going and sang the entire thing!



The second thing I resolved to do was become more active on my blog! I was doing so well for awhile, even after the babies were born, but the past year or so things have slowed down for me online as life has sped up. But I really enjoy my blog and don't want it to fall by the wayside. It's enabled me to "meet" so many wonderful new bloggers and keep all our family and friends in the loop. It's also been valuable for new quad moms who find out they're expecting four and immediately begin googling "quadruplet pregnancy." Connecting with these new quad moms and adding them to our close-knit network has been a lifesaver for many, including myself. I couldn't keep my sanity without having my quad mom BFF's and group to talk to daily!

Last night and today, I've been able to get started on some New Year organizing, too. Not really a resolution but certainly something that's been on the to-do list for awhile. Our baker's rack in the kitchen serves as the headquarters for all things kiddo-related from medicine, cups and plates to snack cups, puzzles and bibs. Keeping all the sippy cup straws and lids organized was about to drive both myself and the husband absolutely insane and I finally came up with some new containers and a system that works. Complete with some simple handwritten construction paper labels. Fancy, I know.

The quads went down for naps after a mac and cheese lunch and I hit the couch for a few to work on some new listings for my Etsy shop, Texas Take, while simultaneously crafting this blog post and watching some Jack Ryan. Chris Pine apparently has his eye on the blinged-out Mickey Mouse necklace I designed for a friend's triplets upcoming birthday!

Clearly I also have some Christmas decor still up, which is next on my list to pack into the waiting bins that I unloaded from the attic this morning. We never rush to take down the holiday after its over but it also always ends up being February before the last of my Christmas cards make it down from their display. I have no shame, y'all!

After that, while the babies hang out in the play room (or possibly careen around the house with their shopping carts picking up groceries—aka their felt play food they've stashed everywhere), I'm organizing all my jewelry supplies to store in my new storage cart from Ikea that my same triplet mom friend told me about. She knows I love everything turquoise and she always has the coolest gadgets and tools. She's also a master cookie maker and churns out delicious and perfectly decorated treats from her own shop, Sugar Coma Cookies (she's also on Instagram!). They're now a tradition for the quad's birthday and my annual quad mom BFF trip!

Speaking of sweet things, the kids have also been doing more imaginative play and I love it. While Kailey might be trying my patience and my willpower lately, I captured her sweetly rocking her baby doll and singing to it in her little rocking chair.

She must be picking up that sweet nature from somewhere, right!?
Happy 2015, y'all...

P.S. As I beef up my blogging for 2015 and you've got questions or topics you want me to cover, recipes to share or more, leave your ideas and suggestions in a comment or send me an email! (There's a convenient little form on the righthand sidebar to type in a message.) Thanks!