steph's stuff

A cozy weekend

All three kids had late-night or overnight plans on Friday night which translated to a Saturday morning that was very, very quiet. Only one child was home and she let us sleep in until 9:15. Heaven! Tom brought me coffee in bed and that was the best part. :)

The rest of the weekend was almost as cozy. Both girls have big tests today so we had a lot of studying and cuddling by the fireplace.

There was also a loud thunderstorm so we quickly put Sawyer's homemade thunder shirt on and he hid quietly under the kitchen table all afternoon.

Tom and I escaped for a little bit by ourselves which is always lovely and came home to find Emily and Andrew happily crafting away.

Sunday brought an adventure of another kind. Tom and our neighbor have been doing long weekend bike rides - they almost made it to 40 miles yesterday. Except there was a flat tire around the halfway point and they had to call in a wife to find them on the backroads in MI. I was the lucky one that got the call and am so grateful for the "Find My iPhone" app - they didn't know the names of the roads they took to get there but all I had to do was open my app, select Tom's iPhone and I had a handy-dandy map to where they were. Awesome!

And we ended the weekend around the fireplace again. :)

Now it's off to a crazy Monday and really looking forward to our houseguests for this coming weekend. A lot of you will recognize their adorable faces - can't wait for you to see who it is. :)

Project Life - Week 32

Week 32 of my Project Life was the topic of a blog post at Designer Digitals that I wrote entitled "Project Life | Staying Motivated." You can read more about it by clicking on the link. 

I am going to go back and add more photos to this spread this weekend. It's really hard to figure out how many photos to include when you have a vacation week that includes an 8-day family reunion + more than 400 photos. :)

Project Life - Week 31

Onto week 31 of Project Life! One of my most favorite weeks of the summer! 

Page one includes our journaling, a Facebook status, some fun pictures from around the house, Libby's very-carefully-protected watermelon, watching our neighbor during band practice while I waited for Libby's cello practice to get done. I also included an internet image of Michael Phelps with his 22nd Olympic medal - I want the kids to understand what an historic moment that was. 

Page two includes a photo of the photocard that the doggy daycare facility gave us from Sawyer's trial day boarding there. It also includes a photo of the kids and the dog (Emily was finally done with summer gym!!), and photos of our day at the beach. I also put a photo of the van loaded up with all of our bikes and bags on our way to Mackinac Island.

I went super-simple this week and added some notes in Sharpie to a couple of the photos. It may not be perfect but it's done. And that's all that matters. :)

Project Life - Week 30

I can't believe I let myself get this behind on posting my Project Life pages. I'm only two weeks behind but about 7 weeks behind on posting. So, here goes Week 30!

Week 30 is a continuation of my family's visit here. Page one includes another of Libby's self-portraits, this time with my brother. It also includes the back of Andrew's football card, a photo of the girls making oatmeal cookies for Grandpa and Uncle Chris, Andrew hanging with Uncle Chris (I just adore that his feet on sitting on Chris' leg!), and Chris making us the traditional Brazilian drink, Caipirinhas - OMG, they are good!!!

The insert is one of the new Photo Pocket Pages - Design J - it's fits 6 square photos with 6 3x4 cards - I used it to put in 6 Instagram photos I had taken during the week. 

The back of the insert.

Page two includes Andrew's football game, a truly gross snack, Libby's summer cello lessons, the disgusting tomato worms (ewwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!) that attacked our garden, Emily helping Grandpa sign up for Instagram (love this!!), Sawyer in front of the door waiting for the treat from our delivery man and a screenshot of the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

Onto Week 31 later!

 

What's the date?!?!

Over the weekend, Emily said, "I can't believe we've been in school for a month." And I said, "What?! What's the date????"

Yeah, apparently it's taken me a month to stop feeling completely overwhelmed by our new school schedule. And believe me, I'm still overwhelmed. Just not so overwhelmed that I can't sleep at night anymore. 

Three kids at three different schools this year makes for crazy mornings and afternoons. And my free time between the bus pick-ups and drop-offs feels so much shorter - even though it's not. We still haven't figured out how to get the girls to school on early mornings when there's an activity. We're working on carpools but Tom works out every morning and I don't feel comfortable leaving Libby and Andrew home alone to get ready for school so that I can drive Emily in. And, at some point, Libby will have early mornings, too. Plus there's after-school activities and figuring out who will be coming home alone, who needs to be picked up, which neighbor can watch Andrew if I can't be here, etc...is exhausting. And then figure in all I need to get done while they're gone, plus I volunteer at three schools now instead of two, and it just gets crazy. 

Through it all, though, I'm just so grateful that I get to do this with them and that I still have four more years with all of them at home. I wouldn't change it for a thing, not for one second. 

But I might need to get one of those neon calendar thingies to hang in my kitchen so I don't lose an entire month on the calendar. :)

Re-entry is hard

A new school year always brings transitions, new schedules and a bit of a readjustment for all of us. This year, it was even bigger than usual. Aside from the year we moved and all the kids switched schools, this has been the hardest year yet. Libby started middle school and Emily started high school - so new schools for both of them. 

Emily loves high school. Actually, "ADORES high school" is a better way to phrase it. She compares it to her former private school and gushes every day when she gets home. But then she got sick. Her school uses a block schedule so when she misses a day of school, she only misses 4 of her 8 classes, but it's the equivalent of missing 2 days of each class. And then each day she's sick, she misses 4 more double classes. UGH. She has had a horrible, horrible sinus infection and missed two days of school already. And she's still not well. Her guidance counselor has been wonderful and is helping us with her workload but it's going to be a long week for her as she tries to get well and get caught up with school. 

And Libby is just plain miserable. She doesn't like anything about middle school at all. And has gotten migraines so now she's missed school, too. I won't go too deep into her misery but it's an enormous transition and I don't think we've gone more than 12 hours without tears for the past two weeks. I finally resorted to bribery, aka a "reward" for her if she can make it through the whole week. She does seem to have perked up and is making a shopping list so we'll see if that gives her something to focus on rather than her misery. 

In the meantime, we're doing a lot of talking and snuggling, totally enjoying the return of the college football season, and spending a lot of time together as a family swapping stories about difficult things we've all gone through, and reinforcing our support for each other. 

I've introduced the girls to Downton Abbey and that has also been a welcome distraction for them. Libby just loves it!

The boys are enjoying football a little bit more than British dramas, though. :)

And I'm just hoping to get back to scrapbooking, Project Life and quilting once everything settles down!