Life as a non-Ginger among Gingers...

I've been toying with the idea of starting a blog for a few years now. My first thought has always been, when and where am I going to find time to do it, and my second thought is that I'm a [former] math teacher... Writing isn't really my thing. However, this crazy life that I'm living right now as a stay-at-home mom with a three and a half year old and a one and a half year old is not going to last forever. This is just a brief phase in my life and I need to share some of the happenings of our days and my thoughts and feelings as a full-time mom. As a wise woman once told me, "The days are long, but the years are short." So, here goes nothing! 

I'm mom to Curly Girl who is three and a half wonderful years old (hear the sarcasm in the word wonderful?) and Ginger Boy who is one and a half. Three and a half. What an age! We thought life was difficult with the 'terrible two's'. Hah! They really were not all that bad compared to these nameless three's. We're getting through, with a lot of patience and discipline and more patience and a really good sense of humor. I'll miss these days one day. 

Both kids have red hair, taking after their wonderful father, Darling Daddy. Hence the name of this blog. I kind of stick out when I'm with the three of them. I'm sure some people question whether or not I'm their mother when it's just me and the kids at Target. I can assure you that I am. Carried and delivered both of them. I earned that right to be called mom! Even though they only vaguely resemble me. 

I'd always been told growing up that red hair had a lot to do with a fiery temper. I believed it to be true based on the red heads, my sister included, that I knew. Until I met my husband, Darling Daddy. He changed my mind. His temper was not at all fiery and he was actually the one who calmed me down and kept my fires under control. I was thinking how great it was to have such a laid-back husband with a calm demeanor. Enter two red-headed children. The fiery temper (or shall we call it passionate? Intense?) theory is correct. Darling Daddy is somehow a fluke red head.

A little bit about more about me and the person I've become over the past three years as I've completely changed roles from high school math teacher to stay-at-home mom of two toddlers... I want to be a hippie. Deep down. Darling Daddy makes fun of me for this and tells me I never will be, but I'm going to try, gosh darn it! I've tried to become more natural over the past three years. We do cloth diapers at home (for the most part), we have a reusable role of paper towels in the kitchen, I make our laundry detergent and I only use Method soaps and sprays for cleaning. I like to bake with and use coconut oil, I'm finding more uses for vinegar and apple cider vinegar, and you will not find a lotion with parabens in this house! Do I buy all organic? Well, let's just say that if we weren't living on a single income I would be. But we are, so I don't. Maybe someday.

I also really like to run. And strangely enough, as active as my two little red-heads are, they really like to be in the double stroller while I run. I recently decided that I'm going to run my first half marathon this fall. I knew that training for such an event would take discipline and time, and wow, it surely has. Especially when your training has to take place while taking care of two littles. Darling Daddy is out the door between 5:30 and 6:00 most mornings to get to the YMCA for his own workout, so I have to figure out how and when to run with the kids. For the most part, it works well. Like tonight. Darling Daddy wasn't going to be home until at least 8:30 and it was 4:30 and I hadn't run at all yet and needed to do at least 6 miles today... Ugh. Double stroller, all 100 pounds of it, it is! We chugged away for an hour. Luckily there's never a quiet moment, thanks to the constant soundtrack of who knows what, coming from Curly Girl. We used to listen to the Frozen soundtrack every run, until Ginger Boy chewed on my iPod touch and killed it. I'm not sure which soundtrack is worse. And can I also say that I now know that chafing is a real thing. A real painful thing! I only get it a little bit on the inner thigh during long runs, but I can feel for you guys! 

Well, I have given you a lot in a first post. I'm hoping I can be regular about this! Enjoy reading!