my manifesto

Taking care of the people in this house is my priority.  Not cleaning.  Not cooking.  Not laundry.  Holding a baby, feeding a baby, walking back and forth with a sad baby, reading the entire internet while nursing two babies through a growth spurt...even if that's all I do all day, it still counts as getting something done.  Lounging on the sofa with my toddler is also getting something done.  Taking a nap is most certainly getting something done; napping with a baby is getting two things done at once.  If it's a choice between making dinner and having a happy quiet afternoon, I'm not making dinner; frozen pizza is five dollars well spent.  Television isn't the greatest thing in the world for a toddler, but it's a lot better than any alternative I can come up with for those times when both babies are insane and I need to help them through that somehow.  Likewise, it's totally not ideal for one of the babies to spend half the day in the swing, but when there isn't a workable alternative then that's the way it has to be and there's no use getting too upset about it.  Let me re-emphasize that for my own sake:  it does not matter how much something sucks (Joseph doesn't have enough playdates, the dogs spend all day outside, a baby is sometimes left to cry while I deal with somebody else's needs, the bathrooms are gross, etc) because if it's the best we're capable of then that's all there is. 

OK, now I feel better.