2011 in one kinda long post

2011 is closing up in just a few days.  Looking back at this year, it’s been a crazy one, full of ups and downs and in-between.  In case you missed anything that happened with a Dolli Family this year.

In January Isaiah started Mother’s Day Out, which we refer to as school.  He loved it from the first day.  It took me a bit to adjust, but I really enjoyed spending some time with just the girls every week.  And since they still took two naps, the beginning of the year held a lot of extra time for me.  Man, I miss those Tuesday and Thursday morning naps! My favorite posts are Experts are Idiots,  God Given Best Friends and Not so Alone.

February was weird, I’m not sure why.  I was off, and it showed a little in my blogging.  My computer crashed, and we lost a lot of photos and other things, but luckily most of it was backed up.  It had some pretty good parts too.  My sister visited for a whole week, and Jon and I went to San Antonio by ourselves for 3 day.  Oh, man that was an awesome weekend, one that I hope to repeat some time this year.  My favorite posts are Sibling Rivalry, Twin Style and Identical Love.

March was hard.  Actually, I’m pretty sure this whole year was hard.  As I reread some of my old posts I’m reminded of just how worn out I was.  Taking care of two big babies that can’t yet walk or communicate effectively what they want is exhausting.  My favorite posts from this month are And Then I Changed my Mind and One Year ago Today. 

April brought with it more everyday drama, but it also brought Easter, Spring and a fresh feeling.  The girls were 10 months, going on 11 and I felt like I could see the end of the tunnel.  My favorite posts are The Yellow Car, or Why I’m not a Better Mother, A perfect moment, and When They Start Talking, look out!

In May my beautiful daughters turned one year old!  I was excited and overwhelmed.  I filled the month with themed posts titles Celebrate One! and shared my space with some of my favorite bloggers.  Some of my favorite posts from this month are Lessons from Year One: Problem Solving, Celebrate One by Leigh Anne, First Call to Poison Control by Amanda.

Summer was welcomed in the month of June.  I was excited about the change of season, especially since I had made it over the one year with twins hump.  I was sure that the rest of the year would be significantly easier.  Ha.  Yeah, that didn’t happen.  I shared about Ky and Cadee’s Birthday party, and how my Children were trying to kill me. Favorite posts from this month are Being a Big Brother, Another reason I dress my Twins the same and A Chance Encounter.

In July Jon and I celebrated out 5th Wedding Anniversary and I continued to be baffled at just how hard it is to socialize with The Other Mom’s.  I did my first comic strip style post with  Mr. Mischief's No Bake Cookies, and realized just how hard juggling Productivity and Motherhood can really be.  My favorite posts from this month are What’s her name? and His World.

The fall brought a new, more ridged routine and an overall dive in writing and blogging.  One that I still haven’t fully recovered from.  The problem stems from the dropping of naps.  The babies dropped their morning nap in the fall and Isaiah basically dropped his afternoon nap. While he still takes a couple naps each week, it’s not consistent on a day to day basis.  So I don’t have any chunks of time during the day to sit down and write.  Also, having 3 mobile children running around trashing my house creates a lot more housework for me.  I can’t believe how much more time I spend just trying to keep this place from falling apart!  As I go back and read posts from this past year, I can really see how much my writing has taken a hit.  I am hoping I can break this writing slump soon and get back in the groove again.

Some of my favorite posts from the fall are Just Sisters, Not Twins and Rare. 

November and December brought with it a little more blogging consistency with my series Lazy Mama for the Holidays, but I also dropped a the 52 Weeks of ME! Challenge (which MandyE took over).  In late November I started working on a review blog This Blogger Makes Fun of Stuff.  I also struggled a bit to throw together two holidays for my little family.  Some of my favorite posts from the past two months are Twin Love, Finally, The only way out is Through, and Self Control and Christmas.

Overall, 2011 has been a pretty good year, both in the Blog world and in real life.  I’m excited about 2012 and will be changing my editorial calendar.   I am dropping the Lazy Mama series completely.  I prefer the old, pour your heart out style of writing to the how-to kind.  So I will be getting back to that.  I will have a goal of 3 good posts a week along with 2 posts per month at How Do You Do it and a weekly post at This Blogger Makes Fun of Stuff.  I will be doing a weekly bullet point post, probably on Saturday or Sunday.  I know they are not the most fun thing to read, but I really enjoy going back and seeing what was happening in months and years past.  I write for you guys, but I also write for me.  I love being able to see how far we’ve come, and the bullet point post is a great way to dump all the family stats and facts in one place.  I will also be doing at least one picture post a week, because really, who doesn’t love a picture post? 

Finally, I want to thank you all for sticking with me.  As promised in my blog title, I’m still working on it.  I know my posts aren’t always the most smooth, best edited pieces out there, but that’s not my goal so I’m OK with that.  Thanks for understanding when I vent, or drop challenges, or don’t show up on twitter for a week.  Thanks for coming back and reading when I totally drop the ball for weeks or stop checking my email.  Thanks for encouraging me, asking questions, and reading.  I appreciate all the comments, all the encouragement, all the tweets.  You guys are awesome, and you helped make my year.
I can’t wait for 2012!  It’s going to be awesome!