ChezPerky

While I wouldn’t wish a catastrophic house fire on anyone, particularly a family with triplets perilously trapped inside the house, I have to say, I have been honored to have been able to work closely with my friends who recently lost their house to fire. I’ve told you about them. It’s been amazing to see how tremendous the efforts to help this family have been. I’ve been proud to be a member of my Parents of Multiples club, and to see how quickly we can come together as a community to help them. I have been overwhelmed with the kindness and generosity of my triplet mom friends from across the country who have pitched in to help. I have watched with wonder as offers of helped, and donations have poured in to help this family rebuild their lives, slowly but surely. It has been unbelievable to be reminded of the goodness of people, of the kindness of strangers and friends alike, and to see how perfectly a system can come together if we try hard enough.

Most amazingly, I am emerging from this with some of the best friends I could ever ask for, which is a bonus I never would have expected. First, the family who lost their home – while I was friends with the mother of the triplets, we knew each other primarily through our parents of multiples group – I am a board member who runs the monthly programs that she attends. Since we both have triplets, we always talk afterward. But now, we have an irreparable bond. Her husband, also, has become what I believe will be a lifelong friend. And her boys – well, they are something special. And many of the other local triplet moms have become much more close in the past several weeks, something which I never really expected. Oddly, while I’m very close with a LOT of triplet moms in the next state over (you know who you are!), I have only a handful of triplet mom friends here in my state/county. And now I’m getting to know all the local triplet moms, which is great. One in particular is now my new BFF and I can’t believe we’ve never been close before, considering how close she lives to me and how easy it would have been for us to have been in touch all through the last year when my kiddos were first born. Better late than never, I say. Now we are inseparable and on the phone/email/facebook constantly. J

And finally, the kindred spirit I’ve mentioned before. Like my BFF Triplet friend, there’s really no explaining the bond I have with this kindred spirit. We had an instant bond from our first email exchange. Because of our involvement in the relief efforts, I swear we exchange at least 600 emails a day and we’re on the phone with each other at least 20 times a day. We finish each other’s sentences. We answer emails from the group email account before the other can get to them. We read each others’ minds. We delegate to each other what we know we wouldn’t trust anyone else to do (the only other person we trust to delegate to? My triplet BFF! Duh!)

Just when I thought my kindred spirit couldn’t get any better, I received a package in the mail yesterday, when I was feeling lower than low. I’d cleaned up more puke and nasty diapers than I knew what to do with. I was feeling gross and I was praying for sleep, but knowing that the monsters angels were unlikely to nap again given that they’d slept for four freakin’ hours that morning (about double their normal morning nap time). I was covered in goo. I was so icky. But I checked the mail anyway in hopes of a pleasant surprise and I got one! There it was, a package. A package with the logo from the company my kindred spirit works for. “That’s funny,” I thought, “My kindred spirit works there…” And lo, and behold, when I opened it up, there was a tiny little box inside with a short note from this dear, sweet woman, whom I have yet to meet face to face – and the most beautiful, perfect, amazing gift I have ever received (well, actually, my four children are the most beautiful, perfect, amazing gifts I’ve ever received, but aside from them…).

A necklace with two pendants: a cape and a tiara. Inscribed on the cape? “I am fairly certain that given a cape and a nice tiara,” and then you turn it over and it says…

“I could save the world!”

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Now, honestly, this here post would have been better off written in the summer, back when the cost of gas was significantly higher, but I was busy, you know? I mean, I’m still busy, but when is that ever going to end? So here’s the thing: I don’t get why people whine about the cost of gasoline. We Americans have it pretty easy, after all. Have you SEEN what a litre of petrol costs in the UK? Seriously, don’t do a google search on that one, because I’m not sure your little hearts can take it (and to my friends in the UK – bless you for not whining about the cost of petrol, because honestly? I’m about sick of hearing about it on this side of the pond). (Okay, I’ll save you the trouble, last I checked it was £1.46 per litre, which if you convert to dollars, then to gallons, carry the 2, account for my bad math skillz, subtract 70, add the cosign of 84, and turn around three times clockwise, I think converts to a little over $8 per gallon, so suck it up Americanos)

Now, here’s something to actually complain about – have you seen the cost of a gallon of MILK? A gallon of whole milk costs $3.75. That’s for plain, boring whole milk. If you want 1% milk, it’s going to run you $3.99. Now, say you want organic milk – now it’s going to cost you $5.79 and up per gallon. That’s for the store-brand organic variety, by the way. No fancy-schmancy organic varieties here. What if, like my husband or the J-man, you can only tolerate lactose-free milk? Well, then you’re looking at $4.39 per half gallon or $5.99 per 96 ounces.

Now seriously – with the cost of gas here in my neighborhood hovering around a dollar and a half per gallon these days – well, I see nothing to complain about. Heck, even when the cost of gas was hovering closer to $4/gallon, I’m not complaining, but that’s because I’m a giving soul who has better things to complain about – like the cost of milk. Honestly, I couldn’t figure out why no one else is complaining about this! I looked in my refrigerator and saw the piles of money staring back at me – mocking me, mostly – and I was mortified. Where does it all go?

And then it hit me – NORMAL people aren’t filling three toddler’s tummies with milk every day. Plus a five year old. Plus a 6’2″ giant. (Me? I don’t drink milk – you couldn’t pay me to touch the stuff) As it happens, the triplets aren’t drinking much milk anymore, not comparatively, anyway. They drink about 10-12 ounces per day, each. But that’s upwards of 36 ounces per day just for the babies. Plus whatever the J-man drinks. Plus whatever Seth drinks. Plus whatever goes into anything I cook with. We’re going through several gallons of milk per week. I’m guessing… that’s probably not normal, is it?

*Note: When I told Seth I was going to write this post, he said I had to look into “milk price supports” which just got me all kinds of confused and made even less sure I understood the whole issue. Suffice it to say, whether or not the government is artificially inflating the cost of a gallon of milk and whether or not it is for good reason IF they are doing so and whether or not that money is doing good things IF they are doing so, well, I’m still whining about the cost of a gallon of milk this week, because, by golly, I can. And next week, I will stop whining about it, because I’m sure I’ll have something better to whine about. I’m sure you all have perfectly good reasons to tell me I shouldn’t be whining about this and blah blah blah. WhatEVER. I don’t feel well and I spent my week getting puked all over. Give a girl a break, will ya?

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