Whoosh!

So today is the last morning of preschool for Kara for this year. Did you hear that whooshing sound? For me, that's the sound of this school year blowing by me in record speed and leaving me feeling a bit windblown and battered. It's been a year of lots of ups and downs and many, many bumps. I must admit that I'm glad to have it over (at least for Kara and soon enough for John too) and am ready for the adventures this summer will bring for us.

Let's do a quick review of the last year: kitchen renovation, summer vacation and lots of time at the pool, 1st grade for John and year 2 of preschool for Kara, fall soccer and finally losing a tooth for John, MAJOR flood in the basement and kitchen leading to all kinds of hurdles and problems and stress for us all, allergy/reflux issues for John and just allergy issues for me and Kara, the unexpected passing of my dear Aunt Martha just a few months after she had retired, Matt's appendicitis surgery and recovery, another flood in the basement (much less dramatic this time, but still water in the basement - not fun), a great spring break trip to Nags Head, NC, me becoming president of the preschool board for next year, and many plans ahead for a fun and adventure filled summer.

This summer will bring: a third trip to Lancaster, PA to go to Dutch Wonderland (a kids' theme park that is fabulous), more wonderful veggies from our CSA, finishing up John's baseball season, finishing up repairs on the basement, yet another renovation project (this time the kids' full bathroom, which needs to be fully gutted and replaced - what fun...), a road trip to Maine to attend a celebratory party in honor of my Aunt, closely followed by a road trip south to Topsail Island, NC for our annual beach week, then football, tennis, sports and arts camps for John, and lots of time at our neighborhood pool with friends, before the school year begins and John will go into 2nd grade (how on earth did that happen so soon??) and Kara will start her final year at our preschool (oh my baby!).

Are you tired yet? I am....I know for sure by the end of this summer I will feel pretty windblown and battered too, but I am looking forward to having less unexpected bumps along the way, less stress, and way more fun.

It's been a tough year for us and for our family for sure. But it has also brought me a new respect for my support network. I have been forced to ask for help more times in the last year than ever before. And for those of you that know me, that does NOT come easily for me. I am always willing to help out my friends and family, but I have a very hard time asking for help myself. But everyone I have asked has been very willing and very supportive and wonderful to us. We have gotten through this year in large part due to the love and energy of those around us. It hasn't been pretty and it hasn't been easy, but I am hoping we have survived, learned a few lessons, and will find the road ahead just a little smoother than the road behind us.

Well, I'll keep my fingers crossed for that. I certainly won't hold my breath for it though. ;-)

An Update

So yet again, time seems to pass too quickly for me to take the few moments to sit down and type out a post about one of the many many things that I think each day would make a great blog post. To my defense, life has been very very busy and exhausting lately. I'm continually hopeful it will slow down, but as usual, the pace only seems to gradually be picking up. I've got no idea how parents with four or five or more older kids keep up with all that must be on their schedules. I'm having trouble keeping up with two and one is still in preschool!

One of my recent, and on-going, adventures involves the preschool we attend. This year I am serving as the admissions officer and have been spending a lot of time on the phone and at the school answering questions, giving tours, and basically being a full-time cheerleader for the preschool. Which I love doing. It's been a lot of fun to meet new families and convince them as to why the school would be a great fit for them. We had our open house last week, which is when we open up registration to new families for next year. I had been hoping that my role would slow down after that night, but no such luck! Now we get to follow up with everyone who has applied and start the paperwork process required to get all the kids enrolled for next year. Oh, what fun! It is truly fun and I have enjoyed it, but it has taken up more time than I had expected.

The kids have also been busy bees. Swimming, gymnastics, playdates, and various princess parties have overtaken Kara's quite busy social calendar, in addition to her 3 mornings of preschool each week. John is keeping busy with schoolwork, sports activities, ice skating, losing teeth, and dressing up as Thing 1 for Dr. Seuss's birthday last week. He's reading like crazy and has recently started getting an allowance. We'll see if the money goes towards a sports item or a new book. He's also continuing to challenge himself with new math skills. They're both growing like weeds and already are looking forward to all kinds of adventures this summer.

With the warmer weather we've started getting out and about. Seeing neighbors emerging after the super-cold winter we've had is nothing short of wonderful. All the kids have grown, lost teeth, gotten a new baby sibling, or had other adventures they're dying to share with each other. It's a fun time of year and we're so ready to embrace it.

Speaking of which, I think it's time for me to get to the bus stop! Hopefully I'll post again soon...but if I don't, you can probably find me at the playground instead. ;-)

Bang, Bang, and More Banging....

For those of you who haven't heard about our fall adventures, let me update you by saying that currently I'm sitting up in my bedroom, surrounded by piles of boxes, toy bins, books, coats, bags, and all kinds of stuff. My room looks like one of those hoarding shows. Truly. There is VERY loud banging coming from downstairs as I pray that our new kitchen isn't getting damaged as the wood floors are getting ripped out in the kitchen and dining room. On October 5th (a date I believe I will remember forever), we had a flood in our new kitchen. The water only ran for 2 hours, but it caused a nightmare of disaster for us. The basement was pretty much destroyed, along with many of our things that were in the basement. The wood floors in the dining room and kitchen were determined to be damaged enough to require replacement as well. It's now December 1st and we're still working on the renovations. The new wood floors go in today and the basement carpet goes in later this week. Then only a few minor things need to be finished up and we'll be done with the contractor's portion of the work. Then comes the "fun" of putting our house and lives back together.

Currently there's dust and boxes everywhere in the house. I get overwhelmed by even looking around at our lives. It's depressing. I have friends who are going through much worse situations than this, and I try very hard to find things to be thankful for, and I know it could be a lot worse for us too. I try not to complain, but find myself venting to anyone who will listen. I'm sorry to all my family and friends for being a real "downer" right now. I'm trying to keep some kind of normalcy for the kids, but they're beginning to see through the facade and are getting as cranky as I am about the insanity that is our home.

Home. That's a word that inspires comfortable, loving, happy feelings. I guess my problem stems from the fact that our home hasn't been any of those things for almost 2 months (not to mention the 2 months of kitchen construction we just went through this summer), and I don't know when it will feel like that again. I am quickly reaching the point of darkness where I don't even know where to start trying to put our life together so that we can feel like this is our home. I want not just my house back, but I want my HOME back. I want to feel good walking into my house and have it make me happy. Right now I'm happiest elsewhere, anywhere, just not here. Here makes me sad, overwhelmed, and downright depressed.

I know that although there is a LOT of work ahead for us to reassemble the house, once it is done it will be great and we will have a lot of new family space for us to enjoy and use as a family. I am trying to see that light at the end of the tunnel. But staying focused on that light is very challenging at best, and is easier on some days than others. Today feels like a hard day. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day. One can only hope.

So many changes...

Tis the season of change, I guess. The leaves start turning beautiful fall colors. The kids go back to school. The season of vacations comes to an end. Fall activities start getting going - sports, camping trips, and much more. I generally like change and can roll right through a fair amount of change without much thought. This season has thrown me for a loop and I don't feel like I'm ready for all the changes that have been coming our way.

The change in the house - the kitchen project (which yes, I know, I still need to post final pictures of) is mostly complete at this point. I do catch myself every now and then going, oh my gosh, we really did this to our kitchen! Wow. It's a BIG change in our house and how we function as a family. We do love it, but it's definitely a life changer.

The change in routines - school, soccer, swimming, gymnastics, squeezing in some exercise, maybe some yoga too, volunteer commitments, and back to a few evening meetings as well. It's all good and in many ways, the kids and I were really ready to get back to having some regular routines in our lives. It's just now that it's all getting going, I'm having a hard time catching my breath in between activities, much less taking a few minutes here and there to plan for the upcoming bigger things on the calendar - Kara's birthday for example, and our trip to Maine in October. I obviously haven't figured out how to squeeze in that downtime for me that I need so badly...maybe once preschool is truly in full swing and I start getting my three mornings a week of peace?

There's been a number of changes in the lives of those around us. I recently had a childhood friend's husband pass away from a battle with leukemia. He was 37 years old and left his wife and two young children behind. I haven't kept in touch with her over the years as well as either one of us would have liked to, but I'm hoping this change in their lives will bring a change in that too. It's a very sad situation, although my friend seems to be dealing with it as well as can be expected. Over the past several weeks I've heard about a number of people dealing with or dying of battles with cancer. It's all downright depressing. But it has resulted in a change in my life too, an appreciation of each day and each moment we have with those around us. My friend's husband, Russ French, was an amazing man, friend and father and inspired many around him over the years. He lived a good full life and I want to aspire to be more thankful and respectful of all that is good in my life. Yet another change.

Then, of course, there is the change of season. Fall brings beautiful colors of changing leaves, of the rich-colored mums on front stairs, and yummy smells of apple cider simmering on the stovetop. Camping trips, fall farm visits, and football are also things we enjoy this time of year. Kara's birthday will come up quickly, then Halloween, and before I know it, Thanksgiving, which I will be hosting this year. I do enjoy the change of weather that comes along with the season as well. This summer was filled with hot hot days at the pool, which certainly was fun, but I could do without quite so much heat. The cooler weather leads to wearing jeans and sweaters as the breeze blows a bit more, and this I just love.

So in this season of change I am also very thankful for all these changes in our lives. Most of them are positive changes and we're ready to continue to roll through them. Maybe I just need to sit down, blog about them a bit, put it all into perspective more often, and that will help my brain wrap itself around all the craziness in my life. The changes come no matter whether we're ready for them or not. It's how we face the change and embrace it that counts.

Final Weeks of Summer

So we're already into the final four weeks of summer. I can't believe it's gone so fast, and at the same time we have four potentially LONG weeks ahead of us. John's in a half-day camp this week, Kara's in a short morning camp next week, and then it's just a lot of together time for the duration. I'm hoping for warm days and lots of pool visits paired with a few bigger outings that will keep the appropriate balance of exhaustion and interest going to minimize the bickering that will ensue if I let boredom set in. Can you tell I'm a little apprehensive about this? I'm trying my best to be optimistic, but I'm not the type of mom who can go, go, go and keep up the energy and manage everything else too. I can handle a fair number of activities, but only if it comes paired with some downtime too. I'm hoping we can manage without too much yelling (me), screaming (them), hitting (them), and time outs (everyone). That's my goal. I know, it's lofty, but we're going to try. I'm going to do my best to be the mom with lots of ideas, some active and some relaxing and even a few productive things squeezed in for good measure. We'll see how it goes.

I'm also hoping to squeeze in a few posts here and there and finally get around to posting pictures of the final kitchen project. It is done at this point and we are loving it! What a difference it has made in our house and in our lives. It will continue to develop as we continue to grow into the space and figure out how to maximize our enjoyment of it. Sometimes hard work does pay off and it's fun to enjoy the grown-up pleasures that we've been looking forward to.

Stay cool...and look for more posts soon!

Wow, life has changed...

Well, as I sit here typing this, there are electricians upstairs working away at the wiring for our new kitchen. The walls are gone, support beams have been moved, new appliances are ready and waiting, and life has gotten crazy. The process has started and each day we get a stronger vision of the final result. We are going to love it. The interim is a bit messy, to say the least. The fridge is in the dining room. The toaster oven and microwave is in the basement. The sink is either in the bathroom upstairs or the laundry room in the basement. Things are everywhere and it's not easy to put a meal together. Everyone is being reasonably patient so far, but we'll see how long that lasts as the time goes on. It has been over a week without the old stove and not quite a week yet without the kitchen sink. We're adapting as best we can, but it certainly isn't easy or convenient. But it is definitely wild to watch it happening each step of the way.

I'll try to be better about posting through this time and posting a picture or two for those few readers I have left that aren't on Facebook. ;-)

For now this is what we have.....

A Week is a LONG Time

Well, we've come out on the other side of Matt's annual conference trip and we all managed to survive. Matt was in San Jose, CA for a full 8 days (well, 6 days really, with 2 travel days), returning to Virginia on Wednesday of this week. He's still a little jet-lagged and overall exhausted from his trip, but he's here and we were all very happy to see him. The kids and I managed to survive the week with a few minor skirmishes along the way, but nothing too major, which was pleasant. We stayed VERY busy and apparently that was the key.

We had playgroup, a preschool puppet show, t-ball meeting and first practice, lots of time at the neighborhood playground, a barbecue at a neighbor's house, t-ball parade/picnic/and another practice, picnic at Lake Fairfax, a few errands, more playground time, cleaning the house a bit, more playgroup, a vision screening, and even a movie night thrown in for good measure. We had one more t-ball practice cancelled due to rain, so we went with some good friends to hit the kids' night at the local Silver Diner - included a kids' movie and crafts, which my kids loved since they'd never been to Silver Diner before. All in all, the week was good. Kara napped most days, John's usual short-day Monday was extended to a full day as it was a snow make-up day, which I was just fine with this particular week. I even squeezed in a couple of walks and a pedicure! We had all the usual bumps in the road that you have when you're being a single parent for days on end, but we managed to get through it and even enjoyed most of it.

Now I do fully admit to coming out the end of it being completely exhausted, but there's no time now to rest. We are now to the point of needing to get moving on more decisions on the kitchen project. I had no idea how many decisions there would be with this project! Wow! I'm trying not to get too overwhelmed, but my goodness. We've got our basic design down. Have the fridge picked out. Know pretty much what we want for the sink, dishwasher, cooktop, and oven/microwave. I sat down last night and figured out where most of our kitchen stuff will live in the new space, which a good friend of mine (who has a background in kitchen/bathroom design) strongly recommended that I do (thank you Alexandra!). And it was so very helpful to go through that exercise. I now have a much better idea of what pull-out options I need, and what other features make sense for us, and what we just don't have the room for. It made me feel much better about it all. But now we need to move forward on making some appliance purchases (yikes) so we have time to get them ordered, if needed, for our June target date. It's amazing to me that we're actually heading forward with this project, a little overwhelming, a little anxiety-inducing, and A LOT exciting. It's going to be a huge improvement and we're going to love the final product, getting there is another story, but I'm keeping the end result in sight, and we'll get through. ;-)

Just like this last week with Matt gone, we got through that, and we'll get through June and then we'll be able to breathe a sigh of relief...until the next big hurdle! Well, the hurdles hopefully will be a bit smaller than the major kitchen remodel, but you get the point.

To Dream....

We've spent our weekend having some good family fun, being very productive and dreaming, a bit. It snowed here over the weekend, somewhat unexpectedly, so we definitely had some fun snow play time. After all the snow in December, I got myself new snow pants, a new coat, and new snow boots (thanks Mom and Dad for the early birthday gift), and then I was convinced our winter snow season was over. Fortunately, I was wrong. And I got a chance to test out all my new gear before our upcoming snow tubing trip - and it was great! I was dry and warm and happy in my new gear. Happy Mommy, for sure!

Most of the rest of the weekend was spent working indoors on tearing apart and repairing Kara's closet in preparation for her new closet system, which the kids and I are going to pick up on Monday morning. Kara got to take naps in our bed and even slept on our floor one night - which she delighted in and John was very jealous of.

The other event of the weekend was our first meeting with a contractor to talk about the kitchen remodeling project. A close friend of mine gave us a referral for her contractor and we met with him this morning. The meeting went very well and he shared some ideas with us and we are looking forward to seeing the proposal he works up for us. But for now, it is still dreaming. We have some other research-type work to do before we decide exactly which path we're going to take on this HUGE project, so there's still a lot of steps before the dreaming becomes a bit of reality. I'm hoping we can make it happen in the early part of the summer when our schedule is light and we can have lots of picnics and pool-side meals. Time will tell, but there's a lot of dreaming and a lot of optimism.

Tuesdays are supposed to be easier!

On a normal week, my Tuesdays and Thursdays appear to be my easier days - Kara's got school in the mornings and then naptime in the afternoon - lots of Mommy time! John has swimming after school and then it's a pretty quick routine of dinner, bath, and bed after we get home. On paper it looks so easy. Today will NOT be easy.

Coming off a 3-day weekend is never easy, to start with. We spent a good deal of time this weekend looking at kitchen stores and doing a lot of window shopping for our upcoming kitchen renovation, which was not particularly interesting for the kids. They did well with it, but it was a lot for them. So technically today feels like a Monday, a transition day...not easy. Add to that the fact that I agreed to host our playgroup tomorrow morning and the preschool board meeting tomorrow night. This leads to me basically spending the bulk of today cleaning my house and making it presentable for the morning fun and the evening adults. On top of making sure I have enough food and drink to keep all guests happy (for me, this is the easier part). To make the day a little more challenging we also have a doctor's appointment for John in the afternoon, after school, but before swimming. I just hope I can remember that I need to go pick him up a bit early, rather than waiting for the bus later. Also, at the beginning of the school year, I signed up to provide snack this week (of all weeks!!) for John's class. I've got food for 3 of the 4 days already, but am hoping that I don't forget about Friday.

There are a few other wrinkles in the schedule during the rest of the week and then....ta-daaaa - Matt's out of town working this weekend! The light at the end of this tunnel is pretty far away right now. It's all good stuff, and I honestly wouldn't change any of it (well, except the part about Matt being out of town). I truly do work better under pressure. I just am still a bit overwhelmed with the magnitude of it all.

I just hope I'll still manage to squeeze in some time to play with the kids and enjoy my life. Because through all the madness, I really do enjoy it and everyone in it.

October = Illness

Around here it seems that October cannot get by without bringing the first of the season's many cold bugs into our home. Kara's third birthday was October 3rd and she had a slight cold then. By the next week, it had passed on to John...and then turned into croup. Fortunately the croup part only lasted about two days, but the cold lingered on for him. After missing most of the week of school, we packed up and headed north to Maine for a long weekend, visiting my extended family and enjoying some fall color. During the whirlwind trip, I came down with the cold. I felt okay the day we drove back, thankfully, but have spent the last 3 days being pretty miserable. And finally, not to be left out of anything, Matt woke up this morning declaring his body's submission to the cold as well. I'm truly wondering what it would be like for our family to stay healthy through October. The last few years have consistently resulted in a thorough spread of illness through our household. It's unfortunate, for many reasons, but mostly because we all truly enjoy fall and all the many fun activities there are to do during this season. At this point it looks like we may need to scale down our fall activities we had planned for this weekend so we can just get some rest and recuperate. So tough.

At least we were able to enjoy Kara's birthday and our trip to Maine was great. A lot of good family togetherness and seeing my grandmother for the first time in two years was also good. Her older sister (just turned 90!!) was able to come out from California and that was great too. My grandmother has severe dementia, so may not have known who anyone was specifically, but definitely had some recognition of those around her and certainly was happy to see her sister after many years. It was a very special visit. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins and I got to visit with my brother and sister-in-law, which I always enjoy. It was kind of a crazy trip to make for a weekend, but it was well worth it.

Now we're on to finishing off October with a potential camping trip next weekend, soccer games, starting swimming lessons, and of course, Halloween. Kara seems to be changing her mind on her costume choice by the day. She clearly doesn't understand yet that her options might be more limited than she thinks! Working on that....

I'm optimisitic that my blogging will become more frequent again soon. Once my head cold diminishes and I have a clearer brain, I'll get back on top of things...or maybe I'll get better about accepting that I'm always behind and figure out a way to enjoy it all more instead. Hmm, I think I might like that idea better!

So I'm officially crazy!

Well, at least I'm thinking it must be, otherwise I would not manage to totally over-commit myself like I do. One look at the calendar in our kitchen makes it clear to any rational person that we have a few too many things going on. I don't know how to make any of it "go away" and I'm scared to think about how much behind the scenes work has to happen to make it through it all.

I am volunteering my behind off, because I believe in supporting the schools, and of course, also so that when I do eventually go back to work I can show that I was not totally resting on my laurels and eating my yummy bon-bons (which is clearly what all of us stay-at-home moms do, right?). So I managed to get into the position of serving as VP for my daughter's preschool board. This one shouldn't be too big of a deal - not too much work for this position, mostly just meeting attendance and a project or two. Then at the Back-to-School Night for John's kindergarten class I managed to sign myself up to be the class parent. Not entirely sure what I was thinking, I guess mostly that I wanted to enthusiastically support the teacher and the class. yikes.

Yeah...so those are two biggies for me for this year. Add to that swimming, soccer, and ballet. Add to that bus stop runs twice a day, trying to squeeze in some walks for me and Kara's playgroup. Before long I'll also be trying to get some more time for doing my website work with my old employer too.

Did I mention that Kara's birthday is in a week, John's follows in December, on top of all the holiday fun. And my mom had major knee surgery this week, so I'll be trying to get in some visits and be helpful to my parents as they work through the recovery/rehab process for her (which is going extremely well so far, so that's great).

Like I said, CRAZY!!! No doubt about it...just crazy....

Another Week of Firsts

So last week was a big first - John starting kindergarten. This week was also full of firsts for us....

1. Kara's first day of preschool - went GREAT and she loved it. (and I loved it too!)
2. Kara's first day of ballet - also went GREAT and couldn't have been cuter.
3. First (of many) Back-to-School Nights for Matt and I - we enjoyed it and learned a lot about what John's days are like and are looking forward to a great school year for John.
4. First time I had to talk with John about bullies. A bus-ride incident with a neighbor kid resulted in a big conversation that I wasn't really ready to have so soon into school. But all seems to be okay for now.
5. First time John cried when the bus came. Wednesday morning, out of the blue, he cried when the bus pulled up that he didn't want to go to school. After so much excitement about school, I was baffled. Got in the car, drove to school instead, and all was better...for now. Today again had a bit of hesitation, but no tears, and got on the bus without a problem.
6. First preschool board meeting of the year for me - oh joy....
7. First drop-off birthday party that John will be going to (tomorrow) - should be a lot of fun. Matt's going to do a Daddy-daughter activity, so I'll get an hour and a half to myself on a Saturday morning. Ahhhhhh...Not sure what to do, but I'll enjoy it!

Anyway, you get the point. It's been a crazy, stressful, and fun week around here. But we're all really wiped out. The weekend ahead is almost as busy and will undoubtedly be fun, but I'm having a bit of trouble gearing up the energy for it! Thus my mantra right now is Power Through!!!!

Tennis Camp and More

So this week is John's tennis camp. Not an intense thing, just half and hour of some kids learning some of the basics of tennis. He enjoyed it yesterday, but it was hot. Today is going to be even hotter, so it could be brutal on the courts by 10:00. But our plan is to go pretty much straight to the pool from camp, have lunch there and play with friends until Kara poops out and has to have her nap. Then the afternoon will be more relaxed with the only requirement being to get our bag of CSA veggies.

My non-athletic kid has picked up some athletic interests of late, much to my surprise. He continues this summer to surprise me with his increased swimming skills - swimming the length of the pool, going down the slide unassisted, cannonballs, etc. And now he's signed up to do soccer in the fall, and seems to be enjoying the tennis this week. It's funny to me how much he's doing and enjoying all of it. I can tell he's getting stronger through all of it too, as he keeps trying his skills at the monkey bars at the playground and he's able to do more and more each time.

At this age my focus has been to expose him to lots of different activities and see where his skills and interests land. It's been an adventure, almost bordering on being that mom who is running her kids around crazy without any downtime...but not quite to an extreme...yet. We'll definitely slow down in the fall with John starting full-day kindergarten, giving him time to get adjusted to the new schedule and demands. But it's great to me to see his growing interests in athletic activities and I'm going to do all I can to encourage and support that. I'm just so proud of my little man, who doesn't seem to be so little anymore.

TV Challenges

Shortly after our beach trip, Matt was able to work out a deal with our cable provider to bundle our phone, cable and internet services for a lower rate than what we had been paying previously. In a tough financial year, with no raise for Matt (we’re thankful he still has a job), we’re looking at ways to save some money instead. There was a chance this was going to mean a change of phone numbers for us too, which I think we’re going to manage to avoid…thank goodness! The installation was on Tuesday of this week, and it means that we now have a cable box. Somehow we have navigated the world of cable without having to get a box for many years now. Not sure how we did that, but boy did it make things easier. Not only do we have a box, all the channels are different, and I can’t seem to find the shows I like to watch (not that summertime tv is much to watch anyway). This afternoon John asked to watch a dvd we have from the library…should be simple, right? NO. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to get the darn thing to work. I had the cable box on and off, the tv on and off, and all combinations of the above. Nothing worked. Then when I was ready to quit trying it (and wait for Daddy to come home), I couldn’t get it back to having the box on and tv on and actually working normally again. It took me another 5 minutes to get it back to showing regular tv and I’m still not sure what on earth I did. Now I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person, but when it comes to these ridiculous electronic set-ups that no one ever seems to actually understand I am baffled. It really should not be that hard to watch a tv show or to get a dvd to play for my kids. No wonder so many parents just do not let their kids watch any tv at all. After another experience or two like this, I’ll be done too! Bah!

To Do List

Upon returning from the beach my to-do list grew by leaps and bounds. Our grand plan was to enjoy our beach trip, come home, and put a moratorium on our spending. Great idea, right? Well, unfortunately, it's just not going to work.

To Do List:
1. Clean House - well, the vacuum is only half working, need to replace it before things will get truly clean the way I like to keep the house, which is by no means a spotless house, but I still definitely need a working vacuum.
2. Get new phones - just got updated phone service and new digital/high-def cable service today, so now the phones can get upgraded too (ones that are not a big pain in the butt to dial the numbers will be a big improvement).
3. Get school supplies for John - he needs a new backpack and a TON of school supplies from a list the school gave us.
4. Get new tennis shoes for the kids - both kids have worn out their current shoes, hoping to hold them through the rest of the summer, but will need new ones for school...not to mention that mine are getting older too.
5. Get new shutters, gutters, railings, and molding around the front door - $$$$$$$$$
6. More work to be done on the inside of the house too - $$$$$$$
7. Find and apply labels to John's jackets, hats, etc. for school.
8. Get Kara potty trained - fun...NOT.
9. Figure out new decorations/arrangements for Kara's room once she's out of her crib - $$$$$
10. Purge, purge, purge, purge, and purge - truly, we could not possibly need this much stuff!!

And that's only the big stuff on the to-do list. As you can see, most of these items involve spending more money, many of them are non-negotiable items, some are more expensive than others (thank goodness), but all need to get done sooner rather than later. I was hoping the pace of the rest of the summer would be a little more relaxed, but I'm guessing that's just not my fate this year. Add in a lot of time at the pool, garden, and other outdoor activities, and the summer is almost done. I'm not even caught up to where I should be now, there's no way I'll be ready by the end of the summer! Oh well, I guess I'd better just have a mojito and enjoy the day instead.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Sorry there hasn't been any posts in a bit, but we've been busy bees here. We just got back from our week at the beach. Today John started his third week of summer camp - nature camp this time. Our master bathroom renovation that has been ongoing for approaching three years has finally been completed as of today. It's just been an all around crazy time lately.

Our beach trip was great. The kids and I hit the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond and spent a few hours in their AWESOME children's garden. Totally worth a visit if you're ever in the area. Matt took the train down and met us in Richmond to start the trip. We drove the rest of the way to Topsail Island, NC the next day. The kids watched Little Mermaid and Cinderella for the first time and loved it. They were thrilled to get to the beach the next day and play in the sand and waves. They spent the next 6 days playing like crazy and exhausting themselves (and us). It was so much fun. The group of family and friends that we stay with is totally great and the kids adore them all. One day we even rented inflatable ocean kayaks and took them out. John wished he was big enough to go out in them, but was content with filling them with water and sitting in them on the beach with Kara. We had a really fun trip and we are all ready to go back.

Now to get through the rest of the summer!

A Couple of Noteworthy Items Today

1. Yesterday while we were at the pool celebrating a good friend's birthday with super yummy cupcakes (thanks Heather!), John actually swam the entire length of the pool on his own. We've been practicing the swimming in shorter lengths, but this time I kept moving back and he kept going. Pretty soon we were almost the entire way across and so we kept going and he made it - no swim vest, no help from me - all on his own. I was so proud of him. I think he surprised himself even! Now if he can just start swimming with his face in the water he will be all set! Each time we go to the pool lately he's been trying new things and doing great, so I have every confidence that by the end of the summer he'll be more comfortable with the underwater aspect too. For now I'm perfectly happy to celebrate his big doggie paddling successes!! Yay John!!!

2. Today we pick up our first bag of summer vegetables from our CSA. We split our share with a neighbor again this year, so they actually picked up the first bag last week and now it's our turn. I'm very excited to see what yummy veggies will be in our bag. The kids always get excited too, even if it's not always stuff they're going to eat. But they are often willing to try things that come in the bags, more so than if it's something I just pick out at the store. Ohhh goody!

3. The last notable item for today is that Kara will be having her first haircut. That's right, her first EVER haircut. Yes, I do realize that the poor girl is approaching three, and she's got a seriously crazy mane of hair. But it is beautiful hair and until now I haven't been able to bring myself to have any bit of it cut off. Finally now though, it is time. She's got a ton of dead ends that are only continuing to get worse and tangle more and more. And with our beach trip next week, the wind will not add good things to her hair situation. So I made her an appointment with my hairdresser for her very first haircut. I have been going to my hairdresser for over twenty years now and she also cut John's hair for his first haircut (of course, he was 5 months old, and had a full head of hair). We talked a little bit at dinner last night about what the haircut experience would be like for her. Kara asked if it would hurt. :-) I told her no, that other than a little bit of combing her hair out, the cutting part would not hurt at all. I'm excited to watch her go through this rite of passage, but the reality is this truly will only be a trim. I'm not quite ready to cut it short or anything so dramatic, but hopefully it will make the brushing process easier for us and maybe we'll even get some more of her lovely curls as a result. My baby is really growing up.

The Sun Shines Again

The first part of this summer has been so rainy here many people we know started talking about building an ark. Which was very hard on the kids and I, to spend so many days cooped up indoors and not drive each other nuts. Finally, this week the sun has decided to grace us with it's wonderful light! And I couldn't be happier about it. We've been getting outside each day so far - to a big park, the pool, and the playground all in just two days. We even walked over to our playgroup location yesterday, which was a lot of fun too. The kids have been sleeping better, as have I, after all of our outdoor activities. We have also just been having fun getting to spend so much time with our friends. It has really been great. And it's just now Wednesday morning! The next few days is only going to bring more warm weather, which means more time at the pool and more time with friends! Yahooo! I feel like summer just finally got here and now we can run around and truly enjoy it. Bring on the sunshine and warm weather!

Changes Looming Ahead

I have been feeling a little funny lately and couldn't quite put my finger on why, until yesterday. As I was walking with a neighbor in the early morning hours and we were talking, I realized that there are a lot of big changes coming in the not-too-distant future for my kids. John will go to kindergarten (that's probably the biggest change coming at us), but is also working hard on getting better at riding his bike and thus will be ready to take off the training wheels before long, and is progressing with his swimming skills too. Kara has a bunch of pretty big things herself - preschool starting in the fall, which forces the issue of potty training this summer (yikes), and another biggie - moving out of the crib and into a big girl bed (which pushes me into doing a complete redesign on her room - ugga). All of these life changes are coming within the next couple of months and I'm not sure I'm totally ready for them! Some days I wish I could just press the pause button and stop so I can better appreciate things now before the changes start coming at us. But truly, I know that can't happen so I do try to take a breath now and again so that I can be more in the moment for myself and for the kids. Most of the time it works. ;-)

By the way, just had to share an awesome dinner I made last night for Matt and I. Felt like the ultimate nutritionist meal, but it was quite tasty! Brown rice, with salmon with yogurt dill sauce, and steamed broccoli on the side. The broccoli and dill were both from my parents' garden. The salmon dish was so easy - just grill or broil the salmon, however you prefer. The sauce was just blending up 1/4 c. dill with 1 clove of garlic. Then blend in 1 tsp. lemon juice and 1 c. plain yogurt. Drizzle it over the salmon. That's it! So easy and so tasty! I used some of the sauce on the broccoli too for good measure. I've been trying hard lately to find good healthy meals for us and definitely felt like I accomplished that last night. Score 1 for Mom!

Busy Saturday

Today has been productive and busy and fun already and it's only 2:45! We so rarely have a full weekend with hardly any plans, it's very nice. I got up early and went to our farmers market with a neighbor, without our kids. ;-) The weather was perfect and there were so many beautiful fresh veggies there. So yummy. Once I got home, we got the kids geared up for a walk/bike ride down to the preschool. John's getting much stronger with all the bike riding lately, and his confidence is growing as well. It's great fun to watch him learning and figuring it all out. Anyway, then we had an easy lunch all together and while Matt and Kara took naps, John assisted me out in the backyard. I've been wanting to take out a much-too-happy butterfly bush for some time now, but the rain and our schedule hasn't given me an opportunity. Today was the day! I started clipping it back only to discover that the ground was soft enough (thank you rain!) that I was able to just pull out the bulk of the roots! Yeah! I was able to do a lot of other work on trimming rose bushes and weeding that I wasn't thinking I would get to today. It all left me feeling very productive and pleased.

Now if I can get to the pool, menu plan for the week ahead, and get a shower in before dinner, this day would be just about perfect. Oh yeah, I guess I also need to figure out what dinner is going to be! Well, I'm not going to rush into these things!