Ten on Wednesday

1. This guy is getting so little sleep this week.  It is hard to fathom how late he routinely gets to stay up and how many naps he misses.  At 3, his big brother's schedule was still pretty tight and naps/bedtimes were carefully observed.  We, however, do things as a family and I like that even if sometimes he is out late.  Here he is yelling at B to cover 3rd (as was everyone around him).  He does look so big here.  Someone in my office even commented on this today as they had seen the picture and couldn't believe this was our littlest lad.

2.  Even with all the baseball game everyone wanted to practice more during Zane's game.  We had come early to watch the Lake Monsters as we haven't seen a full game yet this season.  It was adorable, simple, and great fun. Everyone gets a hit every time in t-ball at this point so there is so much more action than with the 8yos where hits are still pretty rare in kid-pitch land.  The little boys and M especially loved practice. I tried to capture E in his attempted catcher's crouch as it was so cute, but sadly missed it.  I am terrified that M will decide she wants to play softball..... Can you tell we had games two days in a row and were at the baseball field for 3+ hours yesterday? There are four games left in the season, two of which I will miss so I'm sure I'll make it :)  B, for the record, is generally doing well and scored in the game yesterday. (Ps, thanks to all the Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and Grandparents who join us for these games!)

3. I love this adorable picture.  I found a praying mantis in the bushes and Brent captured it.  He helped M hold it and did a little science time explaining how it captures food, etc.  They are adorable.

4. Our first night to stay up late was for the Lunar Eclipse/Blood Moon on Sunday.  We had our kids come outside and were quickly joined by more kids and neighbors until there were 16 people, many phones, cameras, chairs and our telescope set up to enjoy the show. I love that everyone joined us and it was great fun to hang out together.  Our neighborhood is lovely and I'm glad we could share the telescope fun with everyone.  The moon was pretty awesome too :)

5. My job is intense right now.  The uptick in responsibilities, tons of "new" stuff I know nothing about, and my normal busy season are colliding.  Before one of those meetings I was leading with very little clue what I was doing I decided to blast "Virtuoso" through my house first --- sort of like athletes before a big game.  Decided to at least fake being the virtuoso of project planning for today!

6. Lady M was sick this weekend. It was pitiful.  She is rarely sick and wasn't even terribly sick this time, but mostly curled up in balls on pillows, the couch, or her bed for a day or so with an intermittent fever and stomach ache.  She eventually rallied sometime on Sunday. This did shift all of our plans for the weekend to basically no plans, which wasn't such a bad thing.

7.  B attended his second slumber party -- both with his friend Adam. I think they may have gone to bed a bit earlier this time.  It sounds like plenty of junk food, electronics, and then doughnuts and a movie the next day. I took the littles to see the movie the night before with Audra so everyone got to have some extra fun. He didn't return until nearly 1pm on Saturday so he missed out on the coffee/farmer's market run, but seemed fine with that.

8. E continues to be adorable and loves being outside.  He also continues to dislike potty training.  He has childcare pretty intermittently right now for a variety of weird reasons.  He is pretty excited to get to stay home whenever that comes up and will get to play with Grandma Friday morning, or so I hear. He is a sneaky guy and will find his way outside anyway he can, scarily without telling people.  I love that he has good safe places to play, but really has to still have an older buddy if he is going to be in the front yard as his judgment is suspect.

9. Brent and I now have bicycles, which so far we haven't ridden further than a couple houses away.  In theory, we'll go on rides together sometimes on nights when my mom stays over or ride with the kids in some combination.  E needs a seat or carrier of some kind probably so we can all go on family rides. I hadn't ridden a bike in MANY years, but it seems to be coming right back.  I refused to try it without a helmet though as my brain is probably one of our most valuable family resources at the moment.

10.  We had planned to build a table for the craft space in the new house.  It was already becoming clear that that was not going to happen anytime soon. I discovered a local craftsman who is now building us a table and two benches.  The table is only maybe 10% more than I was planning to spend making it ourselves and will actually (gasp) be here by November.  I'm really excited to get to work with an actual person in Oklahoma building furniture themselves.  It is in no way fancy and we definitely "could" have done it ourselves with some tools borrowed from Zach, but this is much less angst inducing and actually happening in a month or less.  We also ordered a storm shelter last week to get state fair pricing.  It is being installed in about a month too.  Progress all around!

Ten on Tuesday

E feeding the fish and learning about water lillies

Painting Pumpkins

B helping in the midst of Grandma's garden in the fall.

Lady M helping with fall chores

1.  While I was in DC, the kids went to fall Farm Camp for a couple days.  This is the first time since we've moved to OK that fall break has coincided with my DC trip.  I have to say, I don't think anyone minded as they had two fun full days with Grandma and one of the days also features the Korenak Boys and Uncle Able -- You can read the stories here and here as I missed out on the fun!

2.  I made it safely home to a busy Saturday.  Brent went to the foodball game with his Dadd.  B had a birthday party with friends and had to find new long pants for fall.  We all needed groceries.  I spent the evening enjoying the OKC Ballet's production of Cinderella.  It was so very beautifully done. I think it was my favorite production of theirs ever.  I'm so excited about the coming season with this beautiful beginning. It was the largest selling ballet performance (other than the Nutcracker) ever in Oklahoma, which I think is also a great testament to the growth and beauty of the company in recent years.

3.  On Sunday, we went to Pumpkinville (which is getting its own post), but the other big story was the family October Halloween party at the Korenak casa.  Everyone had on costumes, at least briefly, and it was lots of delicious fun.  It was great to carve pumpkins as a group, even if a bit crazy with so many kids wandering through the mix. Grandma's birthday present was a Hammock and very popular with every one. (You can read much more about the party on Audra's blog). 

4.  Monday, randomly, was still fall break and just not well planned at all.  I'll admit this was news to me as I knew the littles were off-school, but thought B was going for some reason.  I also didn't really check my calendar before Brent left for work and discovered I had four hours straight of meetings.  Right.  So before work we were "beary workers" and cleaned the kids rooms, straightened the house, vaccuumed, etc... I also packed them lunches and stashed them in the fridge for later.  Then the calls began.  They had some electronics time, then B supervised lunch.  Then some playtime of various kinds, E's nap, etc... We did manage to end in style with---

Traditional climbing the lion statue picture + real smile!

Watching Alligator feeding time!

Baby Rupert!

5.  Zoo Trip!! We really haven't been to the zoo much this year and I did hesitate as I bought my membership, but when we do go we love it.  Our schedules just don't work as well as they once did.  This was my first time going with Audra and her boys so it was extra awesome.  My favorite parts were getting to meet Rupert the baby Rhino and riding the carousel.  (My least favorite part was thinking I'd lost my car key and searching for it for 10 minutes... found it, it  a very safe place.  Of course).

6.  Today, went pretty much equally poorly as far as timing of work/life balance.  Some of it just makes no sense like driving ages across Edmond to take M to the park, only to discover that she has no interest in playing there without her brothers.  (This was to the great chagrin of a 3yo girl who desperately wanted to play with her).  We did rally with a picnic in the backyard, during which M learned to love Brie :)  I, meanwhile, got to work later into the afternoon, run at the gym, and work later in to the night.... of course.

7.  Home improvement update!! One of our big annoying long term issues has been the fact that the door of our mail box broke off ummmm let's say a year ago.  Yes, I know we're horrible home owners.  All the solutions we found seemed to require rebricking the mailbox or somehow chiseling the box out or other things that cost around $400. Enter Bayshore Mailbox Door Replacement (no this isn't sponsored, I'm just sharing this awesome solution). Just over 5 minutes and $50 late voila!  Yes, I'm easily excited.

8.  Baseball season is over and we asked B to pick his next activity.  To my 100% surprise, he chose Spanish and is diving head in asking for any and all the Spanish I know.  Keep in mind, I've studied years of French since I last studied any Spanish so this is rough.  Also, M is learning French still so they both want everything in both languages.  It is SO reminiscent of in college when I took French and Spanish the same semester, the classes met consecutive hours in adjoining rooms.  It seemed insane at the time, but apparently it was preparing me for this.  It would just be awesome if they could maintain this enthusiasm long enough to learn something.  Attention span for activities in the long term is not their Hallmark, but here's hoping.  Diner time, meanwhile, is a cacophony of languages and looking words up.  E, meanwhile, wants to sing the (English) abc song for his bedtime song, and then immediately asks for it in French. It is adorable and all just a riot. Brent is specializing in catching me when I have sentences with mixes of both languages in them.  He speaks neither, but is fairly good at spotting when I accidentally blend things, which is very helpful.

9. E is currently loving superheros.  He knows almost nothing about them other than that they are there to save the day.  He adores his super hero shirts though and will immediately show them to anyone.  He does not always correctly identify who he is wearing, but is always saving the day. (No, I think he has no clue what that might entail).

10.  Halloween adventures this week with B's school carnival on Friday, Myriad Gardens Monster Mash on Saturday, and then school and family parties the following week.  So far, the kids are going as Batman (E), Pumpkin (M), and Bobba Fett (B), but I wouldn't be surprised if at least M rotates through costumes during the week.  For the recent Halloween party, I went as Elsa and Brent went as a scarecrow --- our costumes were, of course, designed by M.

Ten on Tuesday

 1.  So there were no flowergirls or bridesmaids at Able & Kari's wedding, but M REALLY wanted to be a flower girl.  She and Grandma arranged for her to sprinkle some beautiful blossoms in the church before the ceremony.  She repeated that for us later on the front walk.

 2.  First attempt at Halloween costumes.  I'll be fascinated to see if these actually make it to the big day.  E's may just fall apart as it is of questionable quality.  M changes her mind constantly, but as the actual costume was free from Aunt Audra, we'll be OK.

 3.  On Thursday, I picked up Zane and Ro from childcare and took them to B's little league game.  In case you were wondering, five kids is a lot more than three.  Brent met us immediately, which helped.  However, with my kids I pretty much let them run, Brent, Bill, Marilyn, (insert whomever else is there), and I sort of track them and watch them run by.  With Zane and Ro that system didn't work.  Ro was too little and Zane gets hurt a lot (slash all four kids get in to arguments or hurt).  Anyway, it all worked out, but was quite an exciting adventure. Glad we could help with the Korenaks day though as they so often help with ours.

 4.  Grammie and Granddaddy came to Grandparents' Day at MDO.  M gave her annual tour and loved it.  E had a hard time letting them go at the end. (This is pretty much my exact description of Grandparents' Day last year....)

 5.  Other current trends - E refuses to not have on his costume at every moment possible.  Also, E and Ro suddenly are chums and get along/hang out much more than they hit each other.  We're all considering it that a big win!

6.  On Sunday, we went to the first of this year's OKC Philharmonic "Discovery Series" of concerts for kids.   I think they did an awesome job.  There was plenty of familiar music, characters making appearances, singing, dancing, and 45 minutes total.  M is VERY excited about wearing her Elsa costume to the Knights and Princesses themed concert in February.  We saw lots of our favorite cool kids too including Ashtyn, Kyle, Alescia, Faith, Vincent, Patrick, Daniel, etc...

 7.  On Sunday, after Church, Sunday School, Concert, and some playing at Grammie & Granddaddy's (they watched E during the concert), pretty much everyone wanted to rest/nap.  M, however, did not.  She wanted to plant fall garden.  Of course I joined her.  She is so like her Great-Grandma Dotter sometimes.

 8.  It is still hot here.  Yesterday the kids ran in the sprinklers.  I was sick and sweating.  I'm ready for fall.

9.  The Blue Falcons played again last night. B did great fielding.  He played Left field and Center Left.  He also hit a single, but was sadly tagged out trying to steal third base.  Grandma, Granddaddy, Able & Kari joined us for the fun.  Kari gets a special shout-out for spending part of her birthday cheering on B!  Thanks Kari, and happy birthday!

10.  So I was sick.  When that happens things like laundry, buying food, and cleaning fall off the routine.  I'm trying to pull it back together, but also trying to get ready for my upcoming DC trip, and trying to finish getting well.  Thanks to Grandma for taking care of M for half the day today.  M loved the attention and I felt much better about all of it.

Have a great week!

Ten on Tuesday

1.  My apologies for the lack of a post last Tuesday.  For some reason my trip to DC was unusually exhausting and I fell asleep as soon as I got back to my hotel after work. (Admittedly, that was 9:30 pm and I'd been up since 3:45 am....)

2.  I was glad to be home with some very happy faces.  M woke us up early on Saturday with news of B's bloody nose.  She was delighted to discover I was there :)  Saturday basically only included soccer and lunch at Cow Calf Hay, which was just about enough activity for all of us after a busy week with me away.

3. HUGE thank you to my Mom especially for helping with the kids in my absence.  I know it is tough and that she has to put up with more nonsense than she ought to during her time with my littles.  It is huge for all of us that she can help out.  Thanks also to Able and Brent's parents for helping before and after my mom's shift.  Brent, as usual, did a great job in my absence and always is so supportive about my work travels, which I greatly appreciate. The next trip isn't until February so everyone will get some time to recover after these two rapid succession trips this fall. 

4.  Our garden has been particularly wild this summer. As sometimes happens with my gardening, we planted it and then largely ignored it.  Sure, we picked the odd herb or flower and sometimes even a few small tomatoes, but it mostly ran wild.  On this cool Saturday we tried to rescue it from the chaos a bit before the last freeze.  M loves climbing through these two tomato cages to her secret garden, and I love it as well.  We picked about 1/2 of the remaining carrots and made them into dinner immediately. 

5.  We also made homemade Oreo-style cookies.  We mostly used the Smitten Kitchen's recipe, but as suggested by my friends at Savory Spice Shop OKC we subbed in a 1/4 of a cup of black onyx cocoa powder for the regular cocoa (alternatively Savory Spice has a very very similar recipe here). 

6.  Here are our kids at play (you can almost see M behind the mailbox).  Can you believe B is actually attempting to climb our tree? Of late, they are going outdoors more and more after school with less pushing. (This also helps them avoid chores that must be done if they stay inside, but it seems like a fair trade off).  I love watching them play together and with our neighbors.  (Ps. Two of the neighborhood kids randomly joined us for dinner on Monday.  That certainly spiced up our evening fun!)

7.  And here they are gardening--- no, I pretty much never get them all looking at the camera together.  Sunday, they managed to play outside in the backyard, just the three of them, for quite awhile, allowing Brent and I to finish up our painting project safely before bedtime.  I loved watching them and observing how E kept trying (sometimes successfully) to insert himself into the mix and then other times stood back holding a badminton racket or something and safely observing. 

8.  At soccer, E loved playing with these cones he found on the sidelines.  Granddaddy was quite surprised at how much fun he had. I would not be surprised it E gets some cones of his own to play with in the future!

9.  B was the team hero at soccer on Saturday for a totally different reason.  The other team didn't have enough players to field even a 4 person team (6 and under teams here typically play with five players).  B, at the request of his coach, turned his jersey inside out and played with the other team for maybe 1/2 of the first quarter.  He played his very best and we (and the rest of our team and parents) were so proud of him and so very encouraging.  When he came to the bench, I could see he was struggling a little with the situation and luckily the other team had another member show up and he got to switch back and be a super dragonfly again!

10.  My December Daily kit from SC arrived and B was very excited to try out the stamps. I loved that he was crafting, but possibly better still was what he did with them.  He took the various images and words and built them together in different ways to make sentences composed of a mix of both shapes and words.  It was so fun and creative.  I loved it!

PS. Happy Birthday today to one of my oldest and dearest friends Tracie and my beloved Grandpa Dotter.  You are both awesome!

Ten on Wednesday

1.  It has been eight days since I last blogged and my mother has asked me, as usual, if I plan to ever blog again... ummmmm, yes? For those not aware it is busy season for me which means I often work at night and therefore tend to not blog (or sleep, exercise or craft) as much.  I am however eating lots of junk.  See not a good balance.

2.  E is a ninja.  He is very quiet and can probably climb the ladder to B's bunk bed much faster than his 4 yo sister.  Be advised and do not leave him alone as he is definitely a danger to himself.

3. E is also completely revolting against eating while seated in a chair/high chair.  Brent and I are not sympathetic to people that try to stand on their high chair tray to eat dinner and he is being retrained (and restrained for that matter).  This does not always make for pleasant dinners, but we're delightfully stubborn.

4.  Brent is going out of town to a conference over night this weekend. I go out of town roughly 15-18 nights per year.  Brent is usually gone roughly 5.  I am, nonetheless, pretty sad, stressed, and pathetic about it.

5. While he is gone, I am hosting book club at our house, taking the kids to Pumpkinville at the Myriad Gardens, probably watching the OU game, maybe a Friday afternoon adventure, and possibly buying B a Halloween costume.  Too ambitious?

6. The moment Brent returns (probably literally), I am running out the door to see the OKC Ballet's production of Mogwli with Tracie.  You should come! It looks like it will be quite beautiful and it is, I think, only the second place this ballet has been performed.

8.  I am leaving for DC early, early on Tuesday morning.  I am thinking of leaving a google calendar printout for my Mom, Brent, and Able who will be holding down the fort this time as I seem to have lost the scrap of paper from September with the OCD listing of "lunch foods" for the kids.  Of course, while I'm gone there will be lots of random happenings like the school fun fest (which I also missed last year and probably will miss every year), pictures at MDO, and the fundraiser forms due date (are you interested in random treats, fun kitchen things, and/or wrapping paper? Let me know and I'll send you the link to support our dear dolphins).

9.  Another "working-part time problem" is the occasional moment of insanity when I think I can do things that stay at home moms do.  Things like going to PTO meetings (remember how poorly that went?) This week, I did manage to hand off my home baked dessert and soda in a timely manner for the teacher appreciation thing, but only after remembering two hours prior and making the easiest thing possible.  I might be crazy. Working part time does that as you don't fit terribly well in either world.

10.  My foot issues persist, but I finally have better drugs, more stretches, and an appointment with a podiatrist.  I have agreed to not run in the interim though, which is making me sad (which of course sadly means more carbs... it is a horrible circle).  Anyway, I need to go shoe shopping one more time before this trip, but am fairly perplexed as to when that might happen.... Going with three kids seems less than ideal.

Oh? Did I mention it is fall break for all three kids? The slight edge above is probably partially the work/life balance teetering, but also the chaos of having to rework everyone's schedules to accommodate the break.  How do families with two full time working parents deal with this? I guess they send the kids all day to their normal after care? Take three days off? I'm not sure.  And do we really need a break already? It has been only seven or eight weeks, right? Anyway, we cobble it together with a little help from each other, somewhat flexible work schedules, and my mom stopping by to randomly rescue us ---- oh and zoo camp.  Tomorrow the bigs are going to zoo camp for most of the day, which I'm hoping is awesome. They would rather stay home and watch movies/ play video games while I work, but I think a small break from that would be good. Grandma, it turns out, will be around to watch E to our surprise and delight.  She will then jet immediately off for one last STL voyage before the Korenaks join us in OK late in the month.  SO very much crazy fun all around these days!

Summer Balancing Act

B @ the OK Science Museum Wednesday

I sort of feel like B's expression in this photo this week.  Summer is this huge ball of crazy this year.  On the one hand, I'm getting lots more time with my kids and spending SO much less time driving in circles.  On the other, my house is a mess every day is finely balanced just this side of chaos.  

E exploring @ OK Science Museum

 The thing is, nearly every week our schedule is different.  Most weeks for the last month or so some portion of our family has been traveling.  Almost every other week all summer we have a different camp or no camp schedule. I try to make sure we have at least one and probably two or more little summer adventures each week so it is fun and different and interesting, not just sitting around the house, although we certainly do a lot of that too. 

B & M complete with lots of face paint -- some drawn by them, some by me @ OK Science museum.

I work part time and want to use the time I'm not working to do fun things with them and take them away from their beloved screens.  We're doing fairly well with that lately and they do well with it generally.  Each day, we're doing a watercolor pencil painting, chores, a little screen time, and usually some library reading program/Ms. Sheetz summer program related project.  Often there are also science experiments and other crafts.  All good. 

Cupcakes @ Sara Sara Cupcakes Wednesday using coupon from Summer Reading Program (after afternoon at museum and dinner at Big Truck Tacos...)

But most of us are here most of the time and so the house is always just this side of more mess than I can handle.  If one day or maybe two of doing laundry is skipped there are somehow five loads the following day.  

Braid fun - Thursday- not quite as planned, but cute?

Today, we had a few things planned.  Swimming lessons for B & M and B attending P's birthday party.  Then, it became clear that B needed to see a Doctor about his asthma.  So in the 2.5 hours between my work ending and swimming lessons we changed everyone into swimming suits, and they packed bags with clothes for after swimming.  Everyone needed snacks and a drink.  We packaged P's present and searched futily for a gift receipt, and finally got everyone fed, watered, packed, and loaded. We weren't even late. (Victory).  Then B needed a nebulizer treatment and will be taking something like 26 puffs on his inhalers per day for the next two days (that is puffs, not breaths, for breaths, take that number x 6).  We "barely" made it to swimming a minute or two late.  Swimming was fine, Brent and I reconfirmed evening logistics.  I took M to change-- she had three pairs of pants, no shirts... back into swimming suit.  The boys went to P's party, I took the littles home and sometime after dinner M's listening ears fell off in the middle of a chaotic house and a whiny baby brother.  Le Sigh. She did go to sleep easily though!

Wednesday morning impromptu bubble bath x 3

There are also impromptu bubble baths that last an hour and are full of hillarity and adorable naked bums.  There is also my painfully sore heal and some gimping around with a baby on my hip and the million smiles from E and others as he learns to walk, falls, gets up, walks some more, he perseveres and so do we. 

There are back-to- school shopping trips that end up fun with most people happy.  There are a zillion fun projects a few boo boos, scrapes, and falls.  There are puddles being splashed in and books being read.  We are making art, talking, thinking, and learning.  We are constantly looking for a new babysitter and constantly having new schedule changes.  We are visiting friends and filling our weekends with birthday parties.  We are holding it together, barely, but I think we'll make it and just dream they and we remember the good in it and forget some of the crazy.  Every day I'm trying, often losing patience, but rolling back around to wanting to have these moments of fun, random adventures with our kids so we keep going and working together. Can you believe that one week from Saturday they'll be back in class? It seems so soon (and sometimes a long time... particularly with my child care chaos emerging again).  What a wacky, wonderful life. 

Ten on Tuesday

I'm going to speed through this as it is late and a crazy week.  Ready? Here goes:

1.  M's mini-dance recital was this evening.  It was short and I missed it, but there is some video for you here and here. (I'm going to try and spare you the mommy guilt about the event.) But look how beautiful she is!

2.  I had dinner with such a fascinating wonderful mix of friends this evening.  The group included four of us that went to law school together, my happy friend Candace who just moved from OK to MD, and E's Godmother and my true friend Heather who I became friends with initially in my Masters program a decade ago.  It was so fun.  The food was delicious and they all are full of fascinating life stories and things to share.  I'm so glad we do this whenever I come to town even as the precise group shifts around.

3.  Work is weird.  I am busy, but not as insanely busy as usual.  I did get lots of wonderful time with colleagues today.  It is so good to be back with my crew here.

4.  DC is gorgeous in the fall.  As I watched from the sky and later the cab ride along the Potomac I again marveled at the fall foliage and beautiful vistas.  Much of the route was my prior commute, but I appreciate more the sheer beauty of it as I see it so rarely.  I so wish I had some day light hours to run along the river or the national mall this trip.

5.  My colleagues and friends are fascinated about the Spice Store.  I "might" find my bro some long distance customers:)

6.  E had his Dr. Apt on Monday - he is 17lb 14 oz (88%), 23.75in (33%), and his head was at 63% -- can't recall the exact measurements.  Generally, he is a happy, healthy boy save for his small reflux issues which are greatly improved by the meds already.  I'm hoping he sleeps will for Daddy this week.

7.  Monday was my Mom's 60th Birthday.  Happy Birthday Mom!  I made her my first ever German Chocolate Cake and also Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes, and biscuits, inspired by the dinner I made for Heather as a taste of Oklahoma.  It was a crazy evening, but wonderful too.

8.  I have made it through day 16 of my mile a day.  Yesterday was a close call, but I snuck in a night time walk with my brother around the neighborhood and am so glad I did.  Thank you bro-man.

9.  I'm going to the ballet on Saturday!  This is not ideal timing, but I really want to fit some ballet performances in this year even though their schedule and mine are not great fits.  If not now, when?

10.  Being gone is hard.  I miss my kids and family and feel like it is so hard for everyone else when I'm away.  Brent helpfully summed it up though as four weeks of extreme inconvenience for him and 48 weeks of extreme convenience for us all.  Totally worth it. I love that he is so supportive of this part of my life.  I also really truly enjoy my time here once I"m here.  It is the transition that is rough, but it always works out.  My colleagues are so wonderful and important to me. I am glad to be back with them again.  Aside from missing the dance recital, the toughest part of today was walking past a baby boy just E's size snuggling with his mom at baggage claim-- cue guilt/missing all over again.  The reality is that this is good for me and good for them and we are all very blessed in different ways by my current path.  I suspect it is actually pretty wonderful that Grandma and Brent get this focused time with them and Grammie, Granddaddy and Uncle Able too when the timing works.  Hooray for good jobs, good friends, and amazing families!

Right Now

This photo is so much of me right now. B's shoes were left out overnight and had to be dried and taken to school late so he could participate in gym.  That quick run past the school reminded me so much of why I am so happy to telecommute as well as all the crazy circles we're spinning in these days. 

Right now, I spend a lot of time in the minivan dropping off and picking up. (Roughly 1.5 hours per day).

Right now, I am loving that my work is so close to my kids' schools/caregivers so I can be there if quickly if need be, drop things off, or run home for that forgotten thing and maybe not be late to the next drop off.

Right now, I love that our world is a mesh of boys and girls, pink and dancing shoes alongside star wars and light sabers.

Right now, I'm trying to rebalance and figure out how to make things flow more easily; to make sure I'm using my time well,

Right now, always, our kids need our patience and we need theirs, but that is sometimes hard.

Right now, Thursday is my favorite weekday as we have no activity or commitment, most weeks.

Right now, I create daily activities or errands for the two hours between when I pick up M and E,  and when B arrives home on the bus.

Right now, I'm not exercising enough and missing it so much, but haven't figured out where it fits in the new timeline; soon.

Right now, I am so ready for fall.

Right now, I am loving the rolling thunder and raindrops over head as I sit wrapping up a little more work in a quiet house.

Right now, I'm trying to be in the moment whatever moment that might be.

Note: I'm linking up with Ali Edwards' Prompt from her weekly Creative Lifts Newsletter and Blog. 

Another shift

 

As is my tradition, it seems, I took some 1st day of child care pictures with the little guy this morning.  This outfit literally lasted long enough for us to walk in the babysitter's door before he had a blow out and got new clothes.  That was after I got lost in her neighborhood without her actual address... not my most awesome parenting moment, but about as bad as it got today.

I did manage to get all three kids dressed, fed, and packed out the door by 8:35 and completed drop-offs by 9:32.  Yes, you read that right, almost precisely an hour by the time I made it back to my house.  At no time during that cycle was I more than 3 miles from my house. It is so odd.  First, I drove up and dropped off B at the curb with the "Dolphin Squad." Then, I did the getting lost, finding the babysitter, dropping off all of E's things bit with M.  M was very sad and hesitant as we dropped him off.  I think she was worried that she might stay too.  E seemed fine and full of big smiles as we left.  I hear he was happy and on his normal routine all day.  M was dropped of last and the very first mom to see us was her friend C's mom who immediately remarked on my lack of the small one today.  Sigh.  

Then work -- lots of working through electronics, email, debriefings meetings and then time to start the cycle again.  M is picked up first, then E who was hanging out with Ms. K, still grooving to classical music reverberating through her immaculate house with two other kids napping nearby. We went home for awhile before the next pick-up.  E didn't look at me in the face for a few minutes, but warmed up fairly quickly.  We talked to Aunt Audra, played and then back to pick-up B.  B promptly declared he wanted to try riding the bus tomorrow with his friends, which I think we'll let him try.  It would be simpler for me, but I need to be sure he is OK with it, safe, happy, etc...

In short, it worked fine.  Yes, I was very sad, more so every time someone asked how I was or where E was.  I wasn't quite back into the flow of work today, but if I can get into the work groove I can usually compartmentalize it all fairly well with just that niggling at the back of my mind and occasional glances at my phones, wondering....

_________________________________

Aside: Random food thoughts

While I did get everyone else packed and out the door and with all their meals today I didn't quite make breakfast or lunch properly for myself.  Instead, I fell back to basics of fruits and nuts (ummm and coffee-with vanilla sugar).  Today's happy motherhood discovery was a kicked up version of my normal nut/seeds/dried fruit mix.  I poured the various nuts and raisins we had into a small bowl and put a few shakes of what I thought was Savory Spice Red Rock  Hickory Seasoning on top, but noticed it wasn't the bright red expected.  Instead, it turns out I had put Black Canyon Chili Powder on top.  This blend contains Black Canyon contains chile peppers, cocoa powder, garlic, toasted onion, Saigon cinnamon and Mexican oregano.  

In short, in a couple accidental shakes I made spiced nuts that were awesome. I made another quick intentional snack baggie full for the pick up run in the afternoon (aka lunch as I had gotten into a meeting and missed mine).  M really enjoyed it too as she that she loves spices!  (Obviously).  So, that was a motherhood bonus on a hectic day where food otherwise fell to the wayside.  For dinner, I roasted sweet potatoes from our garden club and we girls dipped them in the Red Canyon Seasonings Dip from yesterday and called it good.  The boys had pizza at the Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students) meeting so we were all happy, if much less involved in cooking today.  

_________________________________________

When I look at the day.  I think it was fine.  It went well.  I talked to my mom, friend and brother in the evening and felt good.  It is never going to be easy. I still miss E terribly during the day and wish for a thousand more of those smiles a day, but we're all OK.  We are making it all work for our family and will change as we need to to make it the best we can be.  For today, being together and all being OK for today was good enough