Sunday evening

On Sundays, there's some time in the early evening I have the house to myself for a change. Tom is off setting up for the singer/songwriter night he books at the Longhorn every Sunday, and Emmy usually curls up for a nap in her little nest of blankets. I used to just make tea and watch TV (Downton Abbey night!) but lately I've been using the time to get things done, prep for the week, be productive in whatever way pleases me instead of whatever way it seems the house needs most. Conveniently, these things sometimes coincide, maybe because giving yourself permission to do whichever piece of work you'd like first, makes the whole thing easier. I turn my New Yorker short story podcast, or an episode of Fresh Air or This American Life, up loud enough to be heard over the dishes, and slowly and sloppily make my way through them, wiping the counters at the end, gathering up all the dishtowels for a load of laundry to be finished later. Sometimes I'll roast a cauliflower, or some baby broccoli, or cook a little pot of rice to pack up for lunch for the week. It's just nice, that's all.

Four is the new...

I can't believe that the twins are four.

I mean, I can, and every day they have some funny new behavior or expression that confirms that they are evolving. Last night, for instance, when they were opening their gifts, Thomas kept saying 'Oh my!!!' or 'Oh my goodness!!!' with such frequency and enthusiasm that Eugene and I were looking at each other wondering - where did that come from? Max, meanwhile, displays a lot of the tendencies that I had at that age. Singing, dancing around, making up elaborate stories. I wouldn't be surprised if he announced his desire to be a singing dentist soon.

We've had them in nursery school/ski school this winter, while I am teaching snowboarding at Mount Snow, and they have been such little troopers about it. I feel some mom guilt that not only am I working during the week, but on weekends as well, but for the most part the time at the mountain is great for us as a family.

I see the boys learning how to socialize and behave in a school setting. I get to do something that I love, whether it is teaching, taking a clinic or just free riding. Eugene gets to get out and see friends, have some fun and even hang out with me, sans twins. And then there are the sunny days, when we pick the boys up early from Cub Camp and take them over to the learning area.

I will sit at the bottom with one of the boys, a container of popcorn and some juice, and we cheer Euge and the other twin on as they take the chair lift and ski down together. It is such a perfect moment of happiness for me, I find myself thinking - here we are, this is the point of everything else that I do.

Thankfully, it is not the only moment that I feel that way. In fact, the twins inspire a lot of that thinking.