I used to know what my opinions about things were. And some days I still have a decent handle on it. But on others, I'm a mess of conflicting emotions about stuff. Today is a snow day. I feel really weird about it. On the one hand, it's annoying, because instead of a half day in which I can do work, I have to try to cram it into a smaller window of time. On the other hand, I'm weirdly happy that they have some nice fresh snow to play with. This is beyond bizarre; I stopped enjoying snow around the same time I started having to drive in it.

Then my son came down with a sudden and gross stomach bug. I was somewhat relived he had it on a snow day, because otherwise it would have happened while he was in school and I would have had to bring him home. And who knows how much work I would have gotten done at that point. See, when I have less time, sometimes I can actually get more done.

When you're hanging out with your little kids sometimes really little, sometimes older you get these flashes of insight into what they're going to be like in the distant or not so distant future. Sometimes it's a certain look they get. One that is so adult and clear that you are taken aback by it you can see before you the adult they are going to be, right before they spill their milk all over the dining room table.

Other times it's an attitude or a tone of voice that jet-propels you into exactly what you think the teenage years are going to be. Sometimes it's a casual dismissal of your foolish suggestion.

I'm not a hoarder, but sometimes it's difficult to tell. Being sentimental, it's really hard for me to throw certain things away especially when it comes to my kids. I still have scribbles they did when they first started using crayons, and I don't want to chuck them.

Then they started school, and the projects started rolling home on a weekly basis. Now I'm so inundated with sentimental items I could scream. I may have screamed actually. This is not the first time I wished I was a more organized person, nor will it be the last. And no, this isn't a story about how I magically clean my house though there are times I get it to passable.

Over the weekend I saw 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens,' which allowed me to pick up my nearly-revoked nerd card and continue on my merry way as a happy geek don't worry, just in case there is still someone out there who hasn't seen it, there will be no spoilers here. But it was awesome. I cried entirely too much at points where you aren't necessarily supposed to cry like the opening credits. But whatever.

This is also the soonest I've seen a new release since the kids were born. It hadn't even hit the second run yet. Well, it probably would have if it had been any other movie. But it wasn't. It was still playing everywhere. That's another point in my favor.

In 2014, we received a board game for the kids from my cool sister-in-law who lives down in Mass. I remember taking it out of the box and scrambling to understand the basics while the kids were all grabbing at different pieces. She grinned as I fumbled with the directions and said, 'I just make up the rules.'

It was some of the best advice I'd ever heard about gaming with young kids.

There's a lot to be said about the isolation of parenting. About how much you give up for your kids and how much they change your lives. There are many, many great articles about it. But this one is more about how they made me a more creative person.

You lose large swathes of free time when you have kids, especially if you have three kids at the same time.

In the early times, you go through the motions of many of the holidays with the kids: it's less for the kids and more for you. As they grow, they catch on to what's going on and begin to anticipate each holiday in question. And there will come a time when you hit the sweet spot that moment when they understand what's going on and are excited without getting crazy. This was that year.
Everything about the holiday season was awesome, from picking up the Christmas tree to putting up the lights. Everything was met with gasps and coos from the kids. One of my girls would walk around the house and wish everyone in the room 'Merry Christmas!' If no one was in the room, she'd address her stuffed animals, or the Christmas tree itself.

All is quiet in the house. Husband is downstairs with the kiddos and I'm upstairs enjoying a good morning. I decide to go downstairs to grab a cup of coffee.

I creep, avoiding the stair that squeaks, but it all goes to hell as I get to the gate at the foot of the stairs. It doesn't matter what room they're in, it doesn't matter if there's music playing or if they're enjoying breakfast. When that childproof gate opens, I hear, 'MAma!' followed by an avalanche of pitter-patters. I've been made.

I see my husband in the living room, feet up on the couch reading a book. (I've also caught him grading papers, reading magazines or otherwise being left to his own devices by the threesome.) While I'm soaking that in, I'm being surrounded and petted by sticky hands and charming little voices asking me to 'Bah-kah,' which is toddler-ese for 'Mother, please read to me the volume dedicated to various vehicles known as the Book Car (or car-book colloquially).'

Schedules are big deals to parents. With newborns, it's getting them on a sleep/eat schedule. Then a napping schedule. You always have to be thinking of scheduling appoints, play parties (the term playdate makes me gag. Not that play party is much better, but it's something), walks, bedtimes, everything.

When the kids were little and much more suicidal, scheduling anything while they were awake was different. Now that the fear of certain death has been tempered somewhat by experience (they learn that standing on the chairs and leaning forward to grab something off the table is not just a bad thing because Mom gets mad, it's a bad thing because it hurts when my face connects with the table top), I can start doing things around the house when they're up.

Unhelpful help seems to be a contradiction in terms, but it isn't. It's an old concept. I mean, which road is paved with good intentions, after all?

We have all received items that were useless, redundant, or so complicated that the item which was supposed to help ended up simply getting in the way.