Thankful

I spent this morning at Kara's preschool, being a Helping Parent in the classroom. These days that I get to spend with a room full of preschoolers are always exhausting, but also always so rewarding. I appreciate that I get to know my children's friends. I get to see them interact. I get to see them grow, learn, and change as the year goes on. I also get to know the families connected to these children. I have made wonderful and dear friends through our preschool. My children have made strong friendships themselves from preschool classmates. And now in Kara's class this year, her playgroup friends are all together in the class. This playgroup has been going for three years now, longer than any other group we've been involved with. There are five girls, five moms, and five (about to be six) older and younger siblings connected with the group.

After preschool today we had the playgroup girls over for lunch and a birthday celebration for Kara's 4th birthday. It was a very casual, low-key party, I almost wouldn't call it a party, more like just a playdate. But I had so much fun watching the girls, chatting with the moms, and enjoying the fact that we have all established friendships that will last for many years into the future. I value this group and these bonds so much.

I said to a neighbor this morning who is very sick and will be undergoing cancer treatment in the near future, that it truly does take a village. We bond together as moms, parents, neighbors, and friends to help each other in so many ways and for so many different reasons. Then this afternoon I was reminded how strong my village is. I am very very thankful for all the members of my village and couldn't imagine our lives without them. And sometimes it's a really good thing to be reminded of that.

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.....

Thankful Thursday Again

I've been filled with great blogging intentions, but yet again seem to fail in the process of getting my thoughts out while in front of the computer. But that's not the point of today's post. I realized that it's Thursday and some time ago I got into doing a "Thankful Thursday" post and thought I would do a quick list this morning....

Today I am thankful for:
1. the still sleeping kids upstairs (yesterday was an over-tired doozy of a day, so hopefully some additional sleep will improve everyone's mood this morning)
2. the means and ability to plan the approaching kitchen renovation
3. the energy to get through the coming days
4. the plans that we have to go camping this weekend - we haven't been out camping in over a year and a half and I'm getting excited - although there's A LOT of work to do to get us there, but it will be all good in the end.
5. great neighbors and friends that I can totally rely on again and again and know that it's okay because I will support them over and over too
6. my dear husband
7. all the mother's in my life who help remind me that I'm not as crazy as I often feel
8. an amazing preschool family, which I am so excited for next year as Kara will have her entire playgroup in her class - yay! It's going to be so much fun for them and me!
9. the grapefruit half that's waiting in the fridge for me for breakfast this morning
10. the coffee in my cup and the coffee I'll get later this morning while I'm waiting for the van inspection

Thanks for reading!

An apology

So I feel like I would be remiss tonight if I didn't first apologize to Kara's preschool teacher, Mrs. Kelleher. Not that she'll read this tonight, tomorrow, or ever, for that matter, but I do owe her a huge apology. Tomorrow my daughter is going to be a complete bear. My crystal fortune telling ball is a bit fuzzy, so I'm not sure when the evil side will present itself. No doubt it will reveal itself at some completely inopportune moment, and likely she'll be an angel tomorrow during school, but the ugliness will come and I hope our lovely teacher, who I adore, isn't the recipient of the nastiness. I'm convinced I will be battered and bruised by the end of the day tomorrow.

Today started poorly for my dear Kara. After a tantrum of her own, I lost my temper with her, resulting in a very ugly interaction between us, all before we even left for the bus stop! We had a decent morning, followed by a playdate for her and John, then a late nap, and then several more tantrums during a very long and painful bedtime process. As Matt and John were trying to watch the Caps playoff game tonight, she kept repeating how she wanted her mittens. Over and over and over and over... No limit of explanation that it was April, not mitten weather, if she's cold she could use a blanket, etc, etc, etc. was good enough for her. She needed her damn mittens. Then, later, she insisted on having socks to sleep in. I gave her instructions for how to get her socks (by first brushing her teeth), and after much misery and non-compliance, I told her she was done, had lost her chance, and then the bawling really began. She just couldn't get it. There was lots of crying and screaming.

So it was a late, long night for my dear daughter. She's going to be tired tomorrow. There's preschool in the morning, then lunch and nap/quiet time, then playtime, early dinner, and t-ball practice right up until the kids' bedtime. It could be a busy, good day or it could be a long, painful day for us all. We'll see how it goes. But I figure it's a good idea to get my apology out ahead of the ugliness. It's one thing to have your kid take out their anger/frustration on you, but it's another thing entirely for them to take it out on the schoolmates or teacher.

I'm really sorry Mrs. Kelleher. I'm trying, really hard. But in the end, I'm just really sorry.

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.