school days

School is back in session.

I do love the school year. I love getting the kids on the bus and walking to pick them up in the afternoon. I love the quiet days with just me and Katie. I had such good intentions of getting the house all cleaned up this week, but truthfully the schedule change has been rough for me. The kids have adjusted fine, but I have been a lot sicker than I had been the week before. So I mostly took it easy this week. I did manage to get all the laundry washed, dried and put away. And the kitchen has stayed mostly tidy. I need to get Katie some regular social interaction, though. She won't leave my presence.

Jack has a ton of homework. At first I was like Really? In 1st grade? But I actually enjoy sitting down with him after dinner is all cleaned up and helping watching him do it. He is a bright kid. He is usually not too long in finding some sort of afternoon activity to occupy himself. All summer long he acted so bored. But when school is out he just walks in the door, eats a snack and then goes quietly about an activity. Yesterday it was building a web of yarn with a friend in our driveway. The day before it was building some sort of invention with a box and a hanger and some other stuff from the recycling box. My house is filling up with his robots and inventions and I am not quite sure what the acceptable "keeping" time is and when I can stop stepping over them. He seems happy to go and happy to come home. But he needs his unwind time. We do homework after dinner so they can have that time.

Ana loves school if nothing else than the fact that her 2 closest friends are in her class. She lives and breathes a social life. She isn't home more than 2 minutes before she is skipping out the door to find someone to play with her. Of course, if she can't find anyone she moans and groans, but she usually has good luck. She has all positive things to say about school and she even has her school calendar hanging up in her room so she knows what to expect when. Upcoming field trips, no school days, etc.

I feel good in the settling of life and the routines, with a little fun and adventure mixed in.

last week of summer

With taking the kids out of school early for our move, this summer has been LONG. I am ready for school to start next week.

As this week was approaching I kept vascillating between what kind of a week we were going to have. Was I going to get my nose to the grindstone and have the kids work work work all week to make the house all nice and spotless or was I gonna just relax and let them relax and have fun. My "what good mommy's SHOULD do" radar was telling me to do the first. But my "Erin" radar was telling me the latter. All in all, I decided somewhere in between. We spent yesterday at the zoo and Monday at a park and I think I will take them to a museum this afternoon. But we do need to clean bedrooms first because as it is they won't be able to find anything come the first day of school. Ana, through diligent teethbrushing earned getting her ears pierced. She had been begging and so I figured we could compromise and she could earn it. It does look pretty cute.

On Tuesday Dave got off work early so he could go to my doctor's appointment with me. I ended up waiting for FOREVER because I guess I wasn't checked in, even though I thought I was and so that was a pain. But it was pretty exciting because we found out:

So, that's pretty exciting. I was thinking girl, so I was surprised. It definitely makes the sleeping arrangements easier because Ana was really petitioning to move upstairs with the baby. But now it is settled nicely.

The kids found out who their teachers are for school and are exciting because they each have a good friend in their class. Dave and I were reflecting last night about how blessed we have been to find this neighborhood. When deciding our rank list, I was especially worried about finding a good neighborhood here in Utah that would fit our needs. One of our main concerns was the social aspect for Ana. In Vermont, we did not go to church with even 1 little girl her age. She had great friends at school and church, but we lived so far away from them that it was hard for to really form good friendships. We prayed that we would find some place that had good friends for Ana: kids her age that she could run around with all summer and still see at school and church and have that continuity of friendships. Finding this place has been perfect. The kids in the neighborhood are kind and fun and they want to play with her.  Not all of them go to church and not all of them go to the same school, but they all have welcomed her.  The ward is great. Everyone we talk to really likes the school. Plus it is a short commute for Dave. I know that we could not have found such a perfect place without God's guidance. We were led to it.

We have a few more fun activities planned for the weekend. (Since Dave has the WHOLE WEEKEND OFF! Hooray!) and then school starts and it will just be me and little Katie for a few months before little brother joins us in January. Things have a way of working out just right.

the last 10 days

Sometimes you have weeks where you find out your uncle died and then the next day is your daughter's birthday party which is 3 days before your other daughter's baptism which is the day before your family reunion that has to be re-planned so that you can go to your uncle's funeral and then you finally get home from said funeral/family reunion and your daughter throws up for 2 days.

It's those kind of weeks where you give yourself a mommy stay-cation by letting your kids watch far too much television and you thank your lucky stars that your awesome new neighbor asked if she could bring you dinner. (And you said yes.)

our summer

First of all, there is this:

So naturally, there has been a lot of this: 

Because I am dead tired and nauseated all. the. time. But that's how it goes.

There has also been this:

Which I never get tired of. Even if our swamp cooler is marginal at best and it is stinking hot. I am not complaining.

And there is all of this:

So overall, I am not complaining. Life is good, my friends. Life is good.