catching up

  Two days ago, while the girls and I were on a very chilly and blustery walk, I came upon a new street in our neighborhood. This street was the street P-dubs and I should have moved to. Almost every house on the street had their Christmas wreaths still up and a few even had lights and inflatable figurines in the yard. We would be over achievers on this street. Or at least average-achievers.

I distinctly remember sitting on the couch the first week of February last year, each snuggling a sleeping baby, and every once in awhile hearing an ornament slip off a branch of our very dry tree and bounce across the floor. I would make a mental note to pick it up later. But, not right then. I was too busy. 

Well. Wouldn't you know? We moved ourselves right onto a street chock full of over achievers. The type who have their Christmas lights all set up (but NOT turned on) a few weekends before Thanksgiving. The type that leave their fall wreathes up but I swear have the Christmas replacement right inside the door ready to be switched as soon as the last bit of pie is eaten. The type who have green, freshly manicured grass all year long. {How is it green?!?} The type who wash their car every weekend. And their screen doors every other week. Oh, and the front porch rocking chairs, too. We are not those types of people. We love those types and, in college, I was one. But, now, we are just not. Last year, our Christmas tree went up a little over a week before Christmas. And didn't come down until February. And my car hasn't been washed since goodness knows when. 

Our whole street isn't this way. But we are conveniently located at the end of the street with the highest concentration of over-achievers. On one side we have the retired military, law-enforcement, spy-on-you-with-our-creepy-flower-bed-owl-that-mysteriously-moves-its-head-yet-you-never-see-it-actually-happening and on the other side we have a frazzled family of five with one member lovingly dubbed 'Dennis the Menace' by the rest of the street. We are a happy middle ground. But it appears that our neighbors to the right might be rubbing off on us. Our tree was up the weekend after Thanksgiving and down right after New Years. That thing barely got a glimpse of January. And it made me wonder if we were starting to get the hang of this crazy twin life and if we were starting to catch up with the rest of society. 

Or maybe not. To keep myself humble, I feel I should mention here that there is still a pennant banner from the girls' birthday hanging in our dining room. It kind of...goes? And our walls are still mostly bare. We have maybe four things hanging up. {Five, counting the banner.} We haven't finished painting. We honestly haven't even finished unpacking a couple boxes. {Guess that stuff's not exactly needed. Hmmm?} But maybe this year is the year. For catching up, for settling down, for enjoying these moments with our girls without sadly unseasonable Christmas ornaments bouncing across the hardwoods. Maybe I'll get around to posting first birthday pictures and setting up their playroom and hanging pictures. But maybe I won't. Maybe I'll just spend another year learning to be their mom, being thankful for a husband that works his tail off to make our little life possible, and taking walks on my new favorite street.