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. ;-)

New Year, New......Hmmmm.....

So far the new year has only brought me congestion, achiness, and most recently, a LOVELY cough that I'm becoming convinced is not likely to leave my body much before February. It's been a GRAND start to the new year. Not.


Fortunately, through the fog of sickness, I truly can see that the year ahead holds promise. We're finally getting to the end stages of the flood recovery process. We're still purging, donating, organizing, and packing away our things that were uncovered during the flood and the reconstruction. But it is coming to an end. The basement looks better than ever. There is a new couch, a new tv (albeit still in the box), a lot of new plastic storage bins, new shelving in the laundry room, and A LOT less stuff overall. We're getting there. The process has been long and painful, but we know in the end it will be worth it. And now we can finally see the end in sight. I can't tell you how good that feels.


The end of 2010 could not have come sooner for us. For although the year had many high points, we also endured a lot of challenges for us and for those around us. It seemed like every high was immediately followed by a new bump/diversion/illness/whatever that made it impossible to stop and enjoy the high point. We're hoping that 2011 holds more calm moments (although with the 4 and 7 year olds around, it's not likely to be all that calm), more healthy moments (again, a challenge with young ones around), and more enjoyable moments for us and for all those we love and care about.

For now I'm holding that hope and holding on to it with all my might. I know there will be challenges and bumps in 2011, and we will meet them head-on and hopefully get past them with minimal disruption. That is my hope for us and for all of you in the new year.

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.

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.....