My 2017 Word of the Year - Confident

Several bloggers I follow have, for the past few years, chosen a "word of the year." I love this idea, and decided this year that I wanted to join in. 

It gave me the opportunity and motivation to really think about who I want to be and what I want to embody this coming year, and I feel oddly prepared for 2017. 

The word of the year that I've chosen is "confident." After a strange couple of years of feeling a little "off" with all of the changes in my life, I have resolved to tackle the coming year with confidence. A couple of close runners-up were "balanced," "powerful," and "secure," which I decided all feed into this idea of confidence.

I am choosing to focus on finding a balance between my housewife and stay-at-home-mom duties and my need to be creative. I'm choosing to project power as part of this confidence - I am capable in many different fields, and I am choosing to keep that at the forefront of my mind and my attitude as I approach this coming year's challenges. And I am choosing to lean on and stay rooted in the security that comes from having a happy and supportive family life, and the security in knowing who I am as a daughter of God.

This year, I will be confident. 

Have you chosen a word of the year? What will you be?

Merry Christmas from the Hodge Family

We took some fun Christmas-y pictures at our beautiful cabin in Gatlingburg this autumn, thinking we may end up using them on Christmas cards. We did end up hiring a duo of professional photographers (with good lighting, ha!) for Christmas card pics, but these pictures are too cute to not share anywhere! 

Merry Christmas, friends! Ethan, Abbie, Sam, and I hope that your Christmas season is full of peace, joy, and fun, and that 2017 brings abundant blessings.

"Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. (Luke 2:11)"

7 People on Your Shopping List Who Would Love a CARE Donation for Christmas

This post is sponsored by CARE but the content and opinions expressed here are all mine, as always. :-)

One of my favorite things to give as a gift is a donation in that person's honor, especially when I find a charity that I believe in and that I think the recipient would love as well. :-) So often around the holidays, trinkets and knick-knacks feel like they're taking over, and materialism threatens to overtake the warmth and love that the Christmas season should really be about. 

But donations are awesome, no-clutter gifts to give so many people in our lives! For example...

Tea. Earl Grey. Soap. (With Bergamot Essential Oil by New York Biology)

One of the items I’ve crossed off my 30 by 30 list is “make soap,” and it has been such a fun little hobby! A fun little hobby that has resulted in our household having way more soap than we’ll ever be able to use ;-)

My first batch was super-basic, just trying to learn the process itself, but for my next three batches, I’ve played around with additives like scent and exfoliants.  The second batch, I added peppermint and lavender essential oils, and ground oatmeal, and the third batch was a fun, seasonal apple cider soap.

The most recent batch that’s finished curing in my morning room is one I’m especially excited about – a soap made with earl grey tea and extra Bergamot essential oil… the Star Trek nerd in me has decided to call it “Tea. Earl Grey. Soap.”

Traveling with Toddler Twins: Pt 1: Planning Ahead

We recently returned home from our first vacation with our twins (Gatlinburg, TN!), and we had an amazing time! I have several posts planned about different aspects of our trip over the next few weeks, and today I’d like to start by sharing some of the ways you can plan ahead to have a successful, relaxed trip… it’s totally doable, even with year-and-a-half-year-old twins! 

Life Lessons from the Photos I Didn't Take

Last night, on my way to my twin mom board meeting, I had just gotten on the interstate when I caught a glimpse of the sunset out my passenger side window. It was one of those amazing, orange and pink, sky is on fire, makes you wanna pull over and gawk sunsets. Simply stunning.

And then blogger mode kicked in and I wanted a picture of that sunset SO BADLY! But I was driving, didn't have a passenger I could delegate the picture-taking to, and wasn't about to attempt it myself at almost 70mph. I knew by the time I reached my destination, the sun would've finished setting and the colors wouldn't be nearly as knock-your-socks-off, and I was frustrated. May have thrown a tiny tantrum in my head.

8 Things You May Not Have Known Twin (or more) Parents Think About

This morning we went to get flu shots (the grown-ups, the kids had already gotten theirs at their pediatrician's office), and when I got home, I breezed through what has become a pretty familiar routine, but one that I was nervous about a couple months ago.

I parked in our driveway (our driveway and garage were built weirdly, to the point that our van doesn't have enough room to turn and maneuver into the garage. It has to live outside, poor thing.), opened both automatic side doors, unbuckled Sam, carried him into the garage, snapped him into the waiting stroller. Then I went around to the other side of the van, unbuckled Abbie, grabbed my diaper bag and my purse, pulled my key out of the purse, got my drink from Panera out of the cupholder, shut all the van doors, locked the van, hauled all of that (including Abbie) into the garage, and closed the garage door behind me. I carried her into the playroom, dropping bags and such where they needed to go on my way, and set her down in the nice, secure, child-proof room. Then I went back out and fetched Sam from the garage where he was (thankfully, patiently) waiting in the stroller.

Why the elaborately choreographed kid schlepping? Well, I don't want to leave anybody outside and out of my sight line. We don't use pumpkin seats anymore. And my kids aren't walking yet. 

It's one of those things about having twins that I would never have thought of before I had mine... how to get everyone safely into the van when they can't walk yet. For parents with kids of different ages, if one child has to be carried, usually the others can at least walk to the vehicle with their parents under their own power. :-) I was thinking about this sort of unexpected little challenge in twin parenting the other day, and I reached out to some of my twin parent friends to see if they could help me come up with a few more examples, and I think we came up with a fun and eye-opening list. Some of them haven't come up with my kids yet, so I had my eyes opened a bit, too :-)

Preparing a (Spoiled) Pup for a Human Sibling (or a couple of them)

[This post includes an affiliate link - if you click through and make a purchase, it won't cost you any extra, but I'll make a couple cents. Thanks for supporting this blog!]

I've mentioned here many times how much we adore our dog, Charley. He was our first "baby" and taught us a lot about parenting, and when we were preparing to welcome his little siblings, he had one more parenting lesson for us: how to prepare and introduce an older sibling to a baby (or more).

We wanted to be sure to prepare him as much as possible before the birth and have a plan for helping him cope after his tiny fluffy world had been rocked.

What's Up Wednesday: September

Here's a fun link up I've wanted to join but always remember too late ;-) Yay for being reminded early in the day when I still have some blogging time left. :-) I used to participate in a style link up that Shay, Sheaffer, and Mel hosted, so I've followed all these ladies for a while... you should pop over and visit. Sheaffer's Bachelor/ette recaps are way more entertaining to me than the show ever was ;-) 

Annnnyyyyway... here's what's up with me!

TTC in the Rearview Mirror: Reflections on Infertility After 15 Months of Parenting

During the five years we tried to get pregnant, I had a lot of time to wonder what life "after" infertility would look like. I suspected that I would still feel infertile, that finally having children wouldn't be able to heal all of the pain or rewrite the part of my brain that identifies as infertile.

Now, as we celebrate the two year anniversary of our successful embryo transfer (September 25!), I have a little bit of distance on our childless time and felt like doing a little introspection on what has changed and what hasn't over the past two years since transfer and over the past 15 months since delivering our miracle twins.