September

Sometimes I used to think I was busy ... even when we homeschooled and I was home all day with both girls and it felt like we had a lot to do. Now I just have to laugh at myself because I don't think I ever really knew what busy was until the past month.

Here's a little sample of our week:
:: went to soccer opening day ceremonies
:: attended two different soccer games in 2 different towns
:: went out for dinner for a friend's birthday
:: helped teach teen Sunday school at our church
:: went to a local fall fair
:: 2 girls in school every day {making lunches, doing homework, etc}
:: myself working in the school every day
:: taking the 2 girls to and from 3 different soccer team practices and games which ends up being every day of the week except Sunday
:: attending a PTO meeting at the school and back to school night too
:: planning, shopping for, decorating for and throwing 2 birthday parties for my oldest who is about to turn 12 {one with friends, one with family}
:: picking up groceries, running basic errands for the house
:: cleaning the house, putting away summer décor and putting out fall décor
:: keeping up with laundry and dirty dishes - a never ending task!!
:: making time for my husband, the Lord and a little exercise too
:: and oh I guess there must be time for sleeping, eating and showering too, right?! ;)

This week I wrote all the stuff on my big kitchen calendar and then I color coded it all with highlighters for each person/sport ... I feel like I would be lost without that calendar!

It all seems a little crazy and some days I feel like I AM going crazy. But I've found through talking with other parents that the older your kids get, the more crazy it's going to be. And right now even though our life is VERY full ... it's full of very GOOD things. Our daughters are doing fantastic in their schools and their sports. They are great girls and are such a blessing to us. It's so exciting to see them do things that they love and see their joy when they work hard for something and then see the benefits of it. {You should have seen the smile on Hope's face when she made the middle school soccer team!}

Personally I am starting to find a routine. I really miss those lazy summer days that we could just go to the beach and hang out in the sun. But I also love this season of life. I really like my new job, it's so rewarding and challenging all at the same time. Sometimes the kids drive me bonkers and then two seconds later one is hugging me or smiling at me or telling me a story and I'm so thankful to be working there. I also really like that I have 2 hours in the morning when I can dash home and get some things done. Usually I throw something in the crockpot for dinner, do some house cleaning and maybe run an errand. If I didn't have those 2 hours each day I would really be struggling to keep up with my housework!

How about a couple pictures? Blogs aren't fun without something to look at ... =)

I forgot to share pics from the 10K we ran the day before school started. It was my first 10k and wouldn't you know, I haven't run a single day since then! It was good though, I'm glad I challenged myself to complete this goal. In the second pic you can see my time and pace - nothing great but I'm just glad to have finished the whole thing!

AND I forgot to share first day of school pics too ....

I have one sporty girl ...

 

 And one sparkly girl ...

 We picked up their instruments a couple weeks ago and it was so cute to see how excited they were to get started right away. They both chose songs they found online and are practicing playing them so they can hopefully play them at their schools during the next band concert. This is all extra! Not even the songs they will be assigned from their band teachers!

And a couple pics from the fair ....

 

 Hope you have a great weekend! We have LOTS going on but I will try hard to blog again before too long!

 

 

A Simple Holiday Weekend

We had such a nice Labor Day weekend ... just simple and laid back, exactly what we needed!
Friday night Hope went to a sleepover birthday party so I let Joy invite 2 friends to sleep over. They are SO easygoing, they swam a little in the pool, ate homemade pizza, watched a couple movies and went to bed {at a decent time!} I LOVE when her friends sleep over, they are such good girls and so easy!

Saturday and Sunday night we camped in a friend's backyard. The best kind of camping if you ask me! We pitched our tents, cooked some really awesome meals over the fire and just chilled. Saturday night we had steak and potatoes cooked on the grill, hung around the fire and talked. The only mishap was their daughter got stung by a bee right next to her eye, so they had to take her to the walk-in where she was given some prednisone. We felt terrible for her!

 {setting up the tents}

 {Saturday night dinner - yum!}

Sunday we went to a local beach and spent the day relaxing, it was quite overcast but we still enjoyed it. The adults played an 80's Trivia game while the kids played in the water. It was so fun, we were laughing while we tried to remember the names of songs, TV Shows and Movies and it was SO competitive!

Sunday night we cooked delicious Mojito Lime Chicken over the fire along with corn on the cob and Confetti Black Bean and Corn salad. Later we had Dilly Bars and Buster Bars that we had picked up from Dairy Queen. We played Apples to Apples around the fire and told funny stories and just had a great time.

I woke up around 4am in our tent because I had to pee and there was thunder and lightening all around us. I ended up checking the radar on my phone and saw there was a big storm coming our way. So I decided to wake everyone up and we all headed in to sleep the rest of the night in the house. We felt much safer not being in tents for the storm!

This morning we sat around being lazy for awhile, everyone was pretty tired. We had a late breakfast of pancakes and sausage, then started packing all our stuff up to head home.

After we got home, started laundry, unloaded everything and took showers we decided to go out to Chili's for a late lunch/early dinner. We were too exhausted to cook! I barely got any sleep over the course of the two nights but we made priceless memories with our girls and our friends. Tonight will be an early bedtime for us all!

I'm so thankful we didn't travel this weekend and were able to just enjoy some simple and uncomplicated FUN! Just sitting around laughing, talking and playing board games reminds me how much I love simple fun, not all the silly technology stuff we're all so used to being connected to.

It was a great weekend and now we're getting ready for another busy school and work week. Hope you had a nice weekend too!