Stow Aways: September sum-up

(I think I started this post more than a week ago... finally finishing and posting it.)

Whoa, crazy busy month. And, not. The hours from 4-10pm seem like insanity, but the hours from 8:30 to 4:00 seem a little slow and definitely unorganized. I'm still trying to get the hang of setting my own schedule and being productive and feeling like a contributing member of society. My schedule up to this point has always been set by school, work, or children, in other words - someone else. A whole blank day on the calendar staring me in the face is frankly, daunting. I know I have so much to do, so much I want to do, and I don't know where to start.

Here are the highlights of what we've been up to:

*David - traveled nearly the whole month. Mostly to exotic places like Virginia and Ohio. Will be making up for ditching me so much tomorrow by spending his day off with me - all day, while kids are in school. Fridays off make for great dates while the school babysits for free. (well, nearly for free - what is up with those fundraisers?!) Continues to escape on his bike(s) whenever possible and keeps commuting on them as well.

*Michelle - without an excuse left, started exercising at home with DVD, giant ball, and wii fit system. (novel idea - exercising.) Decided she hated it and quit after 2 days. About the same time got invited to walk with neighborhood gals (i.e. - stroller parade.) Feeling left out of stroller party, started walking the dogs alongside the strollers, who, nearly died (Velvet, please don't have a heart attack, please don't die!) on the first outing of nearly 4 miles, after (how old is Harriet?) over 5 years of near inactivity. However, the old girls are getting back in shape and today marks almost 2 weeks of walking on a regular basis. We include a variety to our walking from going with the strollers on the paved trails to heading out to the soft sand and sagebrush on the mesa off-leash by ourselves or with doggie friends like Max. The dogs prefer the latter as they get to run in circles, sniff, scratch, dig, and be doggy. We (the dogs and I) are mostly just relishing our time together as we haven't had any to ourselves since the children came along. We forgot how much fun we used to have together.

We also did some doggie friend tending last week. Dirk and Max's stays overlapped by a couple of hours so we got a picture of all the puppies. We so love our furry friends. I love this picture because you can see the different colors that each dog's eyes reflect. Velvet's are always green, Shadow's always orange. Interesting stuff.

I've also been trying to do some good in the world with volunteering both for organized and non-organized causes. When the kids were babies and people asked for help, I always felt helpless. Like, I was lucky I wasn't asking for help, so how could I help someone else? I vowed that when life got easier, I would raise my hand more often and do more. It's cool to be in that stage of life. It's the good part of the trade-off when you send your baby to full day kindergarten. I haven't yet busted into the school for volunteering in the girls' classes. That's what I really want to do, but the school hasn't gotten organized enough yet to allow parents in. Hopefully, it will happen soon.

*Grace

- back to her old self. FINALLY! She loves school again. She is having a much better year and is loving her numerous activities. She's working hard to master "Knights of Cydonia" on the guitar, trying to figure out what she needs to do to achieve that orange belt in karate, and loving her church activity days with the girls her age. I'm so happy to see her liking a few girls here and there. But, when it comes to play-dates, it's still usually the boys who get invited over. She's also getting pretty great on her bike and took her maiden voyage out on her bike by herself to ride to her friend's house. He sweetly came by on his bike to pick her up and they rode the mile to his house and then back home together.

She is also now enjoying having her own room. She hasn't had her own since Harriet turned 2 and moved in with her out of the nursery. We finally came to the point that it was silly for them to keep sharing with the extra bedrooms in the house and their increasing volume of stuff to store. Little sister was finally ok with venturing out on her own too, so out she went. Grace's room is much nicer with fewer things in it and a little freshening of the decorations. She requested a horse jumping over her bed.

*Harriet

- is earnestly trying to navigate the life of a big girl. Kindergarten is tough! Her teacher is great and she has some wonderful little friends, but we are also learning about GIRL drama. Grace, having always played with boys (especially at this age) never had any of this stuff. It's all new to me. So, we have daily talks about what happened and who did what to whom, and how we can be a better friend and make better friends.

She is also much enjoying her newly painted room with new furniture (her first of her own!) and many butterflies. She calls her room "the butterfly gahden" with her cute Boston accent. The room separation and decorating was very productive and a great time filler for me.

Harriet also started karate here in NM! She did it for a while with Grace in MA before we moved, but decided the instructor here was a little too intimidating and didn't want to do it. Now, though, she has decided that it looks like fun so she signed up. Unfortunately, she can't be in Grace's class until she is 7 (18 months away!), so we are doing 2.5 hours of karate every Monday and Thursday. I'm glad David is done traveling for a while so we can divide and conquer.

Harriet and Grace have both been asked to serve on student council, so they've been attending early morning meetings and I'm sure will have lots to do during the school year as the activities come up. But, I think they both really like it and are excited to get to plan things for their school.