Ten on Tuesday

1. If you know me, you know how I love/tend to overbook us in all ways possible because everything sounds like so much fun, right? Well, Saturday was booked full from about 11am onward.  On Thursday or Friday, Brent's back had started hurting and got worse by the day.  To the point where I was helping him up from sitting positions, consistently, etc... We took this as a message to scale back the rest of the weekend.  We did all the Saturday things -- hair apt. and yoga for me, birthday part for E's friend, riding lessons for M, and then bailed on the Girl Scout party and hung out at the neighborhood pool instead.  After that, we pretty much dialed back to not much so he could rest and we could all mentally rest after chaos behind and looking ahead of us.  We went to the pool every evening as part of our good byes as it has been such a constant to us this summer. We tossed E high in the air I got to swim actual laps (20 one day!). We did other little house projects like replacing some window screens.  We rested.  With a new chair, meds, and rest, Brent's back is MUCH better and I think so are all of us.

2. Sunday's one activity (other than the pool) was breakfast out as we were out of coffee and the kids were feeling like fall hot chocolate.  It was fun and delicious!

3.  M is now in group riding lessons with three other girls including her buddy Ashtyn.  She seems to have conquered her nerves, is feeling the rhythm with the horse and following all the instructions well.  She has beautiful posture on the horse and got lots of compliments from her instructor (rare!).  She got the new riding stance on the first try and took the horse over small landscapte timber obstacles as part of the riding circut.  Having an hour class is MUCH better!

 4.  Did I mention we had a hard time letting go of the pool? Here is M on the last day hugging the furniture!  B is having less difficulty as he knows he'll be swimming four days a week, but it will be less leisurely than our family swims, I suspect and indoors.

5.  In a stunning turn of events I started actually scrapbooking again.  In the course of the weekend I finished 12 pages. (Four of those I started last week, but hadn't done the journaling).  In fairness, 7 total of those were pretty formulaic - 4 pages of vacation photos on the same model, 3 pages of kid interviews on a different model.  The remaining 4 though were all unique and it took me a bit to relearn how to do that.  It is weird, as I've scrapbooked 100s of pages overtime, but it takes awhile to remember what works and figure out the style/layout components.  The above is probably my favorite of the lot.  It is about getting snowcones with the Wainrights and our adventures with them.  The other three pages are about - celebrating July 4th at the lake, going to the Zoo with cousins to start and end the summer, and E's summer gymnastics lessons.  Yes, I scrapbook kind of randomly whatever strikes my fancy!  All this was inspired by stopping at an actual scrapbook store on Friday afternoon and buying 20 pages of paper with the challenge to myself that I had to complete 10 layouts by the end of Monday--- and I did it! Hooray!

 6.  We had big rains last week!  Just a torential downpoor so all the occasional "water feature" in our yard were in full effect.  My favorite of them is when the little "creekbed" in the front pours down the steps creating little waterfalls.  (Most of the rest are less cute and more in need of fixing).  E dancing in the rain in his backwards swimming suit is always cute too!

7.  We've been so lucky to have Grandma stay with us several days a week of late.  Thursday (you can tell it is Thursday by E's mass-day uniform, lol), she bought each kids some books and little fun presents. They loved listening to her read books most of all.  E is especially cuddly of late after long days at school.

8.  FunRun! The school fundraiser at Cross Timbers is named Fun Run.  They raise money for technology, teacher grants, Scholastic news, school events, and other supplies for the school.  If you'd like to donate click on  (M) or (B) and donate either a flat amount or an amount per lap.  The fundraiser ends Thursday! Thanks to those of you who have already donate!

9.  Yes, we did wake up to the big 5.6 earthquake on Saturday morning.  It was the longest one I think I've experienced so far. We're all fine here, but there is damage closer to the epicenter. I do worry about what happens with the next bigger one when this one was a record.  We're starting to do a bit more teaching of our kids about earthquake safety and I'm looking at my emergency supplies in a new light.  Apparently September is national emergency preparedness month (apparently?) -- -anyway, I picked up a couple more items for our kit today. I add a few things now and then in an attempt to get it closer to the 72 hour kit ideal, but no so big that Brent loses patience with it..... hmmm Today's additions were these emergency whistles with compasses and a few other cool features and a small sleeping bag - this is only the second sleeping bag in the kit, but there are those mylar blankets in there.  In concept we should have time to grab actual sleeping bags but like to have some as back up.  In DC we had whistles like this for building collapses so that might have been inspired by the earthquake...

10.  We planted fall garden! I forget pretty much every year, but we made some small attempts this year.  I'm not super optimistic about all these things actually maturing before cold weather, but who knows!  Our sprinklers broke right after the big rainstorm so M is now in charge of watering the garden lightly 2x a day.  So far, so good!