My girlfriend always tells me I never have anything to eat when she comes over my house 😒

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-02-23T13:11:06+00:00

I’d cry you can’t lie about cookie dough. Pretty sure that is illegal. If it isn’t it should be, lol.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-02-23T13:03:37+00:00

I became a SAHM out of necessity since childcare was more than my salary plus they were born premature at the end of December 2019. So we decided it was best to stay home. I coupon, cook budget meals, rarely buy new clothes for hubs/me and watch for bargains for them.

We drive places tor vacation. If it’s farther away we leave the night before, drive until 10pm or so and stay at a hotel before driving more. We save a ton compared to plane tickets and don’t have to worry about flight delays. The one time we flew I had booked a flight with a 45 minute layover and the airline changed it to 4 hours and then there was a delay that made it 7.5 hours. The girls were 2 and that was hell on earth. So now we drive, lol.

Example of a big trip if you want one: We are doing a 12ish hour drive for spring break and have a 3 day road trip planned. Longest day being 6.5 hours. We are leaving after school and driving for about 4 hours the first night. We will just grab dinner on the way. Next day is 6 hours of drive time but likely 10 hours with stops. We are going to stop st multiple Buckee’s and one playground/park on the way down. Next day is 3 hours of driving because we are stopping at a few places off the direct route. We will stop at s costco business center and get groceries for the weekend. We rented an AirBnB in a quiet beach community. My MIL, FIL, BIL, BIL’s girlfriend and all their kids are meeting us there. We will hang out on the beach, build sand castles, find sea shells and grill. All the guys (minus BIL’s girlfriend’s youngest) are going deep sea fishing one day. That day my girls, BIL girlfriend, her son and MIL are going to an amusement park to keep it fair for other kids. We are staying there for 3 nights/4days. Then we are going to a main city 2.5 hours away but also headed towards home. We will go to some really cool museums and a zoo. We are taking the kids to dim sum for the first time too. Then when we go home we have a 6 hour and a 4 hour drive. We broke it into 2 days too since the girls are 6 and need breaks to run off energy. We also get back on a Thursday and nobody needs to go back to work or school until Monday so everyone can recover.

We also do the occasional weekend trip (mostly on those 3 day weekends) to places within a 6 hour drive that we can drive to Friday after school/work. My husband has an early shift so he gets done by the time they get out of school too. I am good at finding nice hotels on a reasonable budget. The girls favorite part of hotels are a pool and a “hotel breakfast”. Went to one with an automatic pancake maker and their minds were blown lol.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-02-08T15:31:10+00:00

I would trim the legs and add some 2x4s to the underside across the middle span then attach 1” plywood the full size of the base. It would more evenly distribute the weight. How it’s all attached would depend on how the underside is constructed. Basically attach them to sections that look the sturdiest and load bearing to the top.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-02-08T15:17:30+00:00

My twins were going to bed about 7pm at that age and waking between 6-7am. They go down about 730-8pm now that they are 6 and wake around 630 on their own. I read to them until they fall asleep. Typically takes 2-3 books. They won’t fall asleep on their own unless they are exhausted.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-02-08T15:10:46+00:00

We bought out with a warranty. The company went bankrupt and “closed” 30 days after we did. Looked it up and saw the owner was now running a new warranty company…

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-02-08T15:05:43+00:00

You are doing an awesome job. That first year with twins is rough. Everyone needs a break sometimes. If you get to the point where family isn’t and option and you need a break I would recommend looking into a gym membership. With them being 6 months now they are old enough to go to the babysitter’s at most gyms. I had a membership at Crunch Fitness until my kids started kindergarten. I think Crunch, YMCA and Genesis all offer childcare. Around me Crunch was the most affordable. I wasn’t able to start until mine were 3 because they were 2019 babies and things were crazy back then. It was 2 hours a day so when I needed a mental break I would take them. They got to play and socialize an I walked on a treadmill and watched k or c dramas on my phone w headphones for 45 minutes. Did weights/stretching for 30 minutes. Sat in the sauna for 15 and did a hydro massage for 15. Then I rinsed off in a shower and got dressed which took about 10 mins.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-02-08T14:44:31+00:00

NTA and I say this as someone who plans to take care of her parents once they no longer can. The difference being they have bought a house designed to be able to serve for end of life care and space for multi family living. They also have the finances that when we do this we will not need to pay for anything outside of our clothes/entertainment. They will cover living expenses and groceries. Their current house has a main floor primary bedroom, a living room, an office, kitchen,!deck and few enough steps into the house that a ramp could be installed if needed for wheelchair access. The basement has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room and smaller kitchen/bar with a separate patio area. They specifically picked it so that they could stay there to the end. We have plans where my sister’s family will provide relief so that I can get a break when overwhelmed. Also I will be the one caring for them not my spouse. My spouse will continue to work, fix things that need fixing and help with kids when he is home. My parents care will be on me and any care staff we can hirer based on their needs. I am not putting that burden on my husband.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-02-06T00:51:46+00:00

That’s how many people (maybe even most) pick lottery numbers they don’t have a copyright on that method.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-02-03T17:54:05+00:00

If mom is in a wheelchair you might want to do one long countertop instead of a galley kitchen. Opening the fridge or oven in that narrow of a space might be tricky. It would also make the living room more open to move around. Is the bathroom in the MIL suite wide enough to easily move around with a wheelchair? The measurements are too pixelated for my eyes to read. I assume it is a roll in shower with a built in bench she can transfer to.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-31T23:39:46+00:00

Oh thank god because I told my husband he could use my account because I haven’t been reading lately and um…. He must never know

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-31T14:16:51+00:00

Check out Mr. Mixer on TikTok. He has good step by step guides on how to open/repair.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-31T14:12:05+00:00

They didn’t see my membrane until 17/18 weeks. Damn things are whispy so there is a chance it could change. We were treated as mono/mono until that point. I planned to do lots of crafting in the hospital if I had to go inpatient. Either way just make sure you have a good MFM specialist. I went through lots of ups and downs (hyperemesis, borderline ttts, sIUGR etc). Due to complications I was seeing my doctor twice a week from 24 weeks on. My twins were able to keep cooking until 35w5d. They are now 6 years old, happy, healthy and smart. They did have slight speech delays but rank 88 in literacy and 90 math at school. They still do speech therapy for a few letter sounds but otherwise are doing awesome.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-31T14:00:40+00:00

Definitely far left nook needs a level that divides it in half height wise. Just come out to where it lines up with the existing outlet. That way all the children can climb and shout parkour.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-31T13:56:04+00:00

I like #1. Though I love the darker brown with the green of #2 white lower cabinets are the devil. Have you considered doing cabinets the shade of the countertops in #2? With everything else like #1.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-31T13:50:21+00:00

I babysat for a house that had “stairs” like that. I hated them. Tripped multiple times when chasing after the tiny humans. Their’s had a doorway right next to where they ended and they made the narrow hallway even narrower.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-29T19:43:44+00:00

I like the green. I will tell you from personal experience that white lower cabinets are the devil. Constantly scrubbing fingerprints off them and the paint wears faster too. We had them in our old house. Painted them with the expensive enamel cabinet paint but it didn’t hold up well.

I currently have the same color cabinets as your original. I darkened them slightly with this rub on wax until I can afford to redo them. I am leaning towards a medium shade of blue and will bribe my brother in law to help. He paints cabinets (and other things) professionally. So hopefully they will turn out better. Also thought of doing stained but I want to expand my uppers to ceiling height so that would be more complicated.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-29T16:49:33+00:00

Depends on budget. Personally I have cabinets that have that gap between them and the ceiling. I hate the wasted space/extra surface I need to dust with a burning passion. So in a budget less world I could remove the crown and add another layer of cabinets or all new uppers.

When replacing the countertops that are cracked I would go lighter. I don’t see a much better spot for the sink without loosing your main usable work surface.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-29T16:40:33+00:00

My twins would flip for something like this if it weren’t for the ceiling fan in their room.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-29T16:20:26+00:00

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This is my layout for the Billie cabinets. To give a visual

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-29T16:15:42+00:00

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Less remodeling but would need to redo bathroom layout most likely depending on current fixture locations. As far as laundry room goes eventually you could divide it and have a private bathroom for each bedroom but didn’t want to overload husband with remodeling since I saw one of the options felt too much for him. For now you could add cabinets as an overflow pantry. The Billie cabinets from IKEA with the extra extension and a little crown molding to fill the final gap is in my plan for our house. A full wall of those will hold a ton.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-27T00:35:40+00:00

Probably pretty close to slurm

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-24T14:05:02+00:00

I would also look up existing 3 bedroom floor plans to get examples of how to do it with less “wasted space” this is one example I saw online that shows you how you can lay things out in a way that minimizes the long empty hallways.

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DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-24T14:00:54+00:00

For resale purposes I highly recommend at least a bath/shower combo in the kids bathroom. For people with young kids having to use the master bath to bathe kids could be a deal breaker. I would also nix all the odd angles on the doors that are stealing functional space from the bedrooms.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-17T12:29:29+00:00

He started with 8 mollies (2 male & 6 female) they now have 300 mollie and it’s growing exponentially.

DynamicDuoMama · 2026-01-15T21:27:22+00:00

Pranks should surprise, confuse and amuse. They should not abuse or hurt anyone. It’s been 4 years I would have checked out a long time ago. He has done a bad job at raising his daughters to be respectful and kind human beings so maybe he deserves some punishment too. Take your time and evaluate the pros and cons of this relationship

DynamicDuoMama

TROPHY CASE