Back to School

How is it possible that it's that time again?

You can feel it in the air -- the cooling crispness, the excitement in the kids' faces, the buzzy hubbub at the stores. (I thought I had it all ready -- but, alas, I still ended up with a last-minute trip to the dollar store tonight.)

This summer has in some ways been personally very difficult, but all I really remember is that it was fun. And I think this post by my friend Julie sums it up very well:

“The adventure [summer] is over.  Everything gets over, and nothing is ever enough.  Except the part you carry with you.  It’s the same as going on a vacation. Some people spend all their time on a vacation taking pictures so that when they get home they can show their friends evidence that they had a good time. They don’t pause to let the vacation enter inside of them and take that home.”
E.L. Konigsburg, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

I welcomed my summer inside of me.  I made real clicks and heart clicks over and over to preserve the vibrancy and action and emotions; the people, the places, the feelings.

Most of my favorite childhood memories were just the times of pure play. I have many photos in my mind and heart of watching my children be children this summer, playing until way past sunset (oh, boy, are we having a hard time readjusting to a sleep schedule). My inability to be all over the place has in some ways been a real blessing. We did have some outings and a vacation, but mostly, we had a lazy summer here at home. Ahhhhh.

I'm more than a little sad to see summer end. But I'm excited for my children in their excitement. As we went to the back-to-school open house, it was fun to watch my children scurrying around the school visiting former teachers, walking around the grounds surrounded by their respective friends -- content (close to giddy, actually), ready to be getting back into the swing of things.

In their prayers as of late, they sometimes say, "Please bless Mom that she won't be too lonely while we're gone."

I will miss them, that's for sure. But at the same time, I LOVE watching them grow. I love who they are becoming. Mothering just keeps getting more and more fun, and more and more rewarding.

All sorts of sighs, for all sorts of reasons.

When a BYU Education Week Financial Class Becomes a Miracle

"But I don't want to end my Education Week experience with a class on finances," I argued silently.

I figured it was probably my overactive brain talking anyway, so I marched away from 446 MARB toward the Jesse Knight building without thinking much of it.

Until I had gotten settled in the next class.

I had picked a nice seat, way in the back, where I could juice up my laptop and convince myself that I could find the information from the finance class online. With no internet signal available in this particular room, that approach failed. I couldn't dismiss the nagging feeling I had that maybe I needed to go to that finance class. I was not happy.

As the nice host gave his usual schpeel about moving in toward the center so the latecomers would have a place to sit (this brother's class filled up every night -- he was good), I realized it was now or never. I walked past the instructor apologetically and marched back out into the gorgeous evening.

Right back to 446 MARB. (Ha. Joke's on me. Chalk it up to exercise for the day.)

After sitting for ten minutes, I thought of leaving. After all, I got the handout when I walked in. My stomach was in knots; I couldn't help but wonder what I was missing in the other class (and I've been known to split time between classes when I've been conflicted about which to attend).

But I held on, looking for something perhaps that could give me some reason as to why I felt pressed to come.

I learned a couple of cool things, got information about a great budgeting spreadsheet (you should check it out -- it's a Dave Ramsey special), and felt overall that it was a good class. I figured I'd leave and share the spreadsheet and hope someone could be helped by it.

But as the class ended, I looked over and saw a woman who looked familiar. I did a double-take (or two) and decided I'd take the chance that she was who I thought she was. (I even had a name come to mind.)

She was, indeed...someone from my high school days. Someone I'd never talked to, mind you. Someone who had actually moved away during our high school years.

But we proceeded to chat, and the chatting turned into a heart-to-heart conversation that lasted, er, well, a long time.

Oh, OK, I'll tell you. It lasted four and a half hours. It was as though we'd been friend a long time. (Bonus: We saw seven deer cross the parking lot and street while we talked in her car.)

Interestingly enough, she had planned on going home before this class, but a few things happened and she stayed.

The experience left us both in awe and feeling the Spirit from all that we had explored together. It was amazing.

I really need to learn not to argue with that "voice in my head." I'm glad ultimately He won out.

Blech.

I can tell when I'm not feeling good because I tend to slog and blog more. I haven't been doing my typical blogging and commenting for a while, but I've slipped back into it. And I at once hate it because it's indicative of my current state and I feel like a flake. But also in a way enjoy it because I really do enjoy chewing on ideas. And sometimes something of this speed (as in sit and think and that's it) is all I have energy for.


Blech. Chronic illness is hard. Is that just a whine? Maybe, but sometimes I just have to say it anyway.

That's all for today.

Options

When I was in college, jogging was pretty much everything to me. It was my sanity, my health, my connection with heaven (I used the time to pray and ponder), my stress release, my time outside. My so much. The worst thing I could think of happening was to blow out a knee or something and not be able to run.

I haven't run since my first pregnancy. Three children in three years pretty much was worse to my running career than a blown knee would have been. Add to three children the two bulging discs in my neck and I'm just never again going to be a runner.

And you know what? I'm ok. I miss it, and I was in much better shape back then, but it wasn't the end of the world.

You can probably tell from my blog that I loooooove tennis. I was raised with a tennis racket in my hand. I played tennis in high school. My first date with hubby was on the tennis court. (My first kiss as a teen was on a tennis court, but I digress cuz that just popped into my head and I found it funnily fitting.) Our summer family time has been spent largely on the tennis court.

And it was just suggested to me last night by my physical therapist cousin that when it comes to taking care of my messed-up neck, even running would be better than tennis.

Whoa.

I felt kinda sad last night as I thought about the possibility of having to give up tennis to preserve my body.

My husband's compassionate response was:

"Well, at least you can still play tiddly winks."

Ah, yes, the options are still so broad and exciting.

(But he is funny. He makes me laugh every day.)

More Summer Snippets

I'd dare say this may be one of my favoritest summers as a mom. Maybe it's because I have dropped some measure of the problem of trying to measure my mothering "success" which has often translated into nothing but unmet expectations and frustration/depression. I'm just trying to enjoy each day, go with the flow a bit (including cutting myself slack for what I can't do, like do mornings), and keep our schedule as simple as possible.

Here are a few more snapshots of our summer:

Today, I had one of those rare scheduled meetings. I got a somewhat frantic call from #3 saying a glass plate had broken. "Just stay out of the kitchen," I said. "I'll clean it up when I get home."

"No," she said. "It was in the microwave!"

Note to self (and to you): If Corelle gets hot enough, it can explode.


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After a day of errands, #1 says to me, "Mom, just so you know, those are the pants that have the hole in them." Let's just say the hole wasn't in the knee. (I'd checked for a hole there, but not there.) Yeah, well, I'm getting better at laughing at myself. Or with myself. Or with my kids as they laugh at me. Or with me.

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Tennis. And more tennis. I can't run very fast with neck and head issues, but I can still get some good swings in there. I love making hubby run a little. ;)

This activity has been a great way to end the day spending time as a family. The kids seem to be enjoying it.

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Too many late nights. And too many times of saying, "Tonight we'll get the kids to bed earlier." It's just too fun to soak up all the daylight having fun.

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A couple of middle-of-the-night moments with #2, reading until she gets tired to go back to sleep.

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Watching #1 do some serious housework in three days -- voluntarily. He was working to earn money to pay for half a Kindle. I'm such a stingy mom when it comes to trendy technology and schtuff like that. But this purchase made sense for my little man. He reads like crazy and this saves us space and I think my favorite part of all of this (besides him taking initiative and working like a madman to earn money) is that he's going for free books right now (I think he's downloaded 70 or so), which means that he's reading classics that he might not have read otherwise. He does his scripture reading on his Kindle, too, which is fun.

It's also been a great experience, I think, for him and his sisters to see that efforts to build trust with Mom and Dad can have dividends. Because he has been trustworthy with certain things, he has the privilege of having this cool tool.

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For our holiday this past Monday, in one of those spur-of-the-moment moments, we decided to go to a 'fun center' with mini golf, arcade, batting cages, and go carts. Our children ended up cleaning house on 'tickets' on one of the games in the arcade. It was almost embarrassing. Their reflexes were lightning fast and twice, two of them hit the 'bonus' on the spinning lights game and earned over 500 tickets.

Needless to say, I didn't have any takers for a round of mini golf. Once we did go-carts, the arcade was the focus of their time. Next time, I'll probably make them spread their time out a little more, but it was fun. 

We came home and I made a quick red, white, and blue dinner (pizza bagels (red sauce and white cheese), garlic toast with blue garlic butter, berry smoothie parfaits with tinted plain yogurt). My kids think I'm a little weird, but it was fun. (And did I mention quick?)

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I think one of my fave things is just watching my kids play. Most of my greatest childhood memories are simply of enjoying childhood in play. We live in a great neighborhood with lots of children around, and I love the happy chatter, especially when they are playing outside, creating worlds of their own, playing outdoor games like kick the can (seriously one of the greatest games ever invented), having water fights, playing at the park.


I'm wondering how on earth I'm going to want them to start school again. I suppose they might get bored eventually and I might be ready then, but golly gee, I love having them home. And I love the lack of structure. I know such lack of structure drives some people crazy, but there you go. Just another evidence, perhaps, of the fact that I'm a little weird. ;)

Savoring Summer

I can feel it -- it's going to go too fast. It's already going too fast. But I'm just trying to enjoy it. Something has clicked in me this year. It's only taken me eleven years, but I'm doing better this year than ever before at detaching from "my" stuff to play more with my kids. I'm a slow learner, I know. But it has given me hope that maybe I can get even better over the next eleven years in savoring the time I have with them while they are still under our roof.

So, if the whole get-on-the-floor-and-play-with-your-kids thing doesn't come naturally for you, either, I hope this can give you hope, too. ;)

Here are some of my favorite memories so far.

- The end-of-school party with #3 and her friends. (#1 and #2 were on a trip.)

- Sitting on the grass in the cool evening, cuddled on a blanket, reading. (We did that again tonight.) I love to close my eyes and listen to the birds and the breeze.

- Sitting around the table, or on the couch, or on the bed, laughing together. We tend to get a little silly around here.

- Going to a movie with #1 and #2 while #3 was on a trip with her dad. What made the memory fun was that I forgot my wallet, but #2 just happened to have hers, so she paid. (She also paid for the new shoes we got after the movie -- I'd forgotten that my wallet was MIA.) It was funny to watch her count out her money to bail out her mom's spaciness. I played it up a little, too, clinging to her and begging as we walked to the cash register: "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze will you buy it for me? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze?"

- Spending time with my girls sewing princess dresses. I'm not a seamstress at all, but they and their cousins came up with a new imaginary game and they wanted to make dresses. I figured it was a chance to try to teach them some basics while we spent some time together. (It was fun until I tried to tackle sleeves last night. Uh, ugh. Yeah, I guess they aren't the only ones learning. Ahem.)

- Playing tennis with my fam at sunset.

- Introducing the children to Icees (cheap treat -- a buck each at BK). (One child noted, quite astutely, that the first bite tasted like medicine but then it tastes good. Artificial schtuff doesn't taste as good as it did when I was a kid, that's for sure.)

- Family parties with out-of-town siblings in town!

- Surprising hubby with an amazing collage of photos of the kidlets for Father's Day. We had so much fun sneaking around, keeping that a secret. I have to say that I am regretting my no-photos-of-children policy about now. They are sooooooooooooooooo cute. (I'm such a mushy mom. I cried when I gave it to him.)

(Does anyone else struggle not to feel like they simply can't NOT use a photo from a photo shoot? Sheesh, these companies are smart. That free 8x10 sure ended up costing us, er, more than $0. Now we know why I don't do professional photos very often. But hello? Who's going to pay $120 for a digital copy of four photos?)

Life is Uncertain. Carry a Leash.

We both noticed the dog at the same moment as we pulled into our driveway. I think the same thing was going through our minds, too. "Who's dog is that?" with a simultaneous "I hope it doesn't poop on our lawn!"

(We don't have a dog for a reason. For THAT reason. I paid my poop dues with diapers, thankyouverymuch.)

It was clear that this dog had no other place it wanted to go. She looked at us, wagging her tail in anticipation of our exit from our vehicle. She even sat, patiently, while we sat in the car, giggling at the playfulness on her face and being able to easily see where this was going.

Sure enough, when hubby opened the door of the car, she was by his side in a matter of a second or two.
(All I could think about was how we inherited a cat when I was a kid, all by being too nice to it.)

I noticed the dog had a tag. Hubby called both numbers. No dice. The address put her as being well over two dozen blocks away from her home, if that was, indeed, her home.

There was only one way to find out. I wasn't about to leave the dog to wander off and get lost (or to poop on my lawn, thankyouverymuch). She was awfully cute, after all. (Were I to ever get a dog, I'd like one like this one.)


I called her to me and led her to the car. (Hubby's car, of course. Less cubic footage in which potential dog damage could be done. He wasn't so sure he liked that idea.)

Let me just tell you that that two dozen+ blocks was quite the adventure. She was all over the place -- on my lap, on the seat, licking my face, bumping her head on the windshield, sticking her head out the window.

As she whimpered, I worried. Is she trained? Am I going to regret not bringing a towel? Am I going to get a ticket for driving a bit like a drunk person as this animal was jumping all over me?

I was relieved to get to the address on the tag, although by this time I was beginning to wonder if I'd really made a mistake by bringing her.

I knocked. Again, no dice, although there was clearly another animal inside. Right after I decided I needed to let her down to, er, take a break in the grassy area between apartment buildings, a man came out with his three chihuahuas. Grrrrrrrrrr. Little dogs were growling and snipping and pouncing, and I was panicking. "I'm sorry," I explained. "This isn't my dog...I'm trying to find the owner." Fortunately, his dogs were on a leash and he did all he could to reign them in so he could take them in.

By this time, the dog had turned the corner on the neighboring building. I had visions of trying to explain to the owners that I had found and then promptly lost their dog....

"Can you help me get that dog?" I cried out to a tenant of that building, explaining again the fact that she wasn't mine.

"Do you need a leash?" I felt like I could have cried with gratitude.

Long story short...I finally found a neighbor home, who agreed to keep the dog and put a note on the owner's door.

By the time I got home, the owner had called my hubby's cell phone back. And I had the humorous experience of telling the tale to my neighbors. As it turned out, the suspicion that crept into my head as I drove to the apartments was true...

...It was my neighbor's son's dog who had gotten out while they were at dinner.

(Well, at least they know I care, right?)