It's My Birthday -- Get Busy

It's my birthday! This is a BIG event in my house. It's my favorite day of the year. Okay, Christmas is up there too, but this day is all about me! I have to admit I do enjoy holidays that are just about me. Today I'm.... gasp!... 32 years old. This seems impossible considering it was just yesterday that I was celebrating my 21st birthday in typical college fashion. I am edging closer and closer to my mid 30s, so surely I must have matured from that sorority girl whose only care was what outfit to wear and what boy to crush on (okay, that's quite an simplification of how I really was, but looking back it seems that my drama du jour was pretty insignificant).

So if I could speak to that 21 year old (if for no other reason than to warn her of the wicked hangover she will have the day after her birthday), here are some of the things I'd like to teach her:

• Stand up for yourself more often
• Don't trust guys who continue to disappoint you
• Spend more time with your grandparents, they have a lot of life experiences that could help you
• Stop being so insecure (this one is still a work in progress)
• Take some marketing/PR/business classes to see if anything else interests you
• Don't use your credit cards like it's free money -- you will have to pay them back someday
• Listen to what your parents say, chances are your dad is ALWAYS (and annoyingly) right
• Don't settle for anything less than happiness (in work, in relationships, in life)
• Worry less about what people think about, well, EVERYTHING
• Take a minute to soak in all the amazing experiences you are about to have

And finally...

• Hang on to that nice guy who takes you out to lunch the day after your 21st birthday. Even though you'll be too hungover to even think about food, you'll laugh. A lot. Soon you'll realize he's more than a friend. If you're lucky, he might even ask you to marry him about 5 years later. If you say yes, you'll have the 3 most amazing daughters and a love that even Shakespeare can't fully describe.

Crazy Chaos

Chaos. This is my life now. Sometimes it's a good chaos with my toddler laughing loudly and the twins being alert but happy. However it's not usually that sweet. Here's a quick example from Monday morning. I woke up right before my husband was leaving for work (he usually gets up with the toddler so I can grab an extra half hour of sleep since I'm up more frequently at night with the twins)... and the rush was on! I had to get my toddler fed and dressed and get the twins fed in time before I had to get everone loaded up in the van to take the Bean to preschool. I was pumping breastmilk for the twins while feeding my toddler cereal all while trying to keep one of the twins from screaming her head off while the other twin slept peacefully in the swing. I don't just have 2 or 3 things happening at once. I have 47 things happening at once.

I don't think this is anything extraordinary. It's just the life of any mother. Every mother. It just seems magnified or multiplied exponentially right now because I'm dealing with 3 kids under the age of 3. Things will settle down. Eventually. Right?