Whew. The weeks get so busy and there's not much time and energy left for blogging. I thought I'd post a little about what a typical week is like, to jog my memory in years to come about what was keeping me so busy during these years. Every school day I drop the kids off at school and pick them up. Since we choiced into Hackberry, there is no bus option, and I don't know of anyone in our neighborhood to carpool with. We try to leave before 7:45 a.m. to get to school in time to park in the parking lot. The kids line up outside of the school by their classrooms every day, and Benjy likes for me to wait until he has gone inside the building before I leave. The first bell (the "lineup" bell) rings at 8:05 and the second bell rings at 8:10. After the kids go inside I often talk to some of the other moms I have gotten to know, so we might not leave the school until 8:20 or so. By the time we get back home, we've spent the better part of an hour just doing the drop off thing.
During the week days, Emme and I have our together time. Sometimes we stay home and play games and read books, but often we have errands to run and things to do. I try to volunteer in Benjy's classroom every other week on Thursday morning, and we go to playgroup on Friday mornings. Every week we do grocery shopping, household stuff, and I have various projects I work on. We fit in doctor's appointments, buying new shoes and things the kids need (which usually involves visiting multiple stores to get the best prices), and all kinds of other things that come up. Early in the mornings and late in the evenings I fit in my class (which is almost done), answering emails, internet research, and other computer tasks (including blogging).
In the afternoon, Emme and I leave the house at 2:30 to pick up the boys. Sometimes I have to wake her up from her nap to get in the car, and she is often not happy about it. Mondays after school Benjy has orchestra practice. It lasts until about 3:30, and then we either stay and play at the school playground for a bit or we go home. In fact, most days after school we stay and play afterwards. Eli loves to play with his friend Solly after school and the two of them often trade Pokemon cards with a group of kids. Benjy and Emme like to play too, so we often don't get home until around 4. After we get home, the kids have a snack and they usually want to play with their toys or each other for awhile. I try to get violin practice done with each of them before I start making dinner. Eli practices often for more than half an hour, and Benjy is another 15 or so minutes, so it's often about 5 o'clock before I start making dinner. The boys do homework while I am making dinner. Justin gets home around 6 most days and we try to eat around then. Tuesday evenings he takes the boys to Scouts at a church near their school. They are enjoying Scouts so far and it's a fun part of their week. Wednesday evenings I have Chorale practice, and I leave around 6:20 to meet up with my carpool. I have three friends that I carpool with now, since I was able to convince Anna Perkins and Jeanette Deters to join at the beginning of the season.
Thursday afternoons Benjy has Let's Play Music class. I signed him up with a different teacher this year since his teacher last year moved away, so he takes lessons from Mrs. Boyd at Excel Academy where Eli attended school the past two years. Class is from 4-4:50, and I have to stay for class once a month. The other days I just drop him off and pick up, but even though it's only about 7 minutes away, driving there and back for drop off and then there and back again for pickup takes up a big part of that time. I try to make dinner while he's at class but having to leave to pick him up makes it hard for me to put anything in the oven. I've been thinking about eliminating that from our schedules, but Benjy really likes class and gets upset when I talk about quitting. We'll see what happens with that.
Friday we don't have anything scheduled in the afternoon or evening, which is great. Sometimes I pick up a 6-10 shift at the nursing home if it's available, but if I stay home we have a family movie night. Saturday the boys have violin lessons at 9:50, and our plans for the rest of the day vary from week to week. Sometimes there are birthday parties, church events, Scout projects, and other things that take up our time. Sunday is just as busy. Justin leaves at 7:40ish for 8 am meetings, and I get the kids ready for church and prepare my choir and class things. I teach a Primary class every other week, and every week I hold choir practice before church at 10:15. After church the kids and I come home and Justin usually has to stay to do clerk work. He usually puts in an 8-hour day at church. Sunday evenings we have some collapse time before we're ready to start all over again. It seems like we just go, go, go all week. Life is busy, but I wouldn't trade it. We're happy, if exhausted, at the end of the day, and we get to enjoy time together.
The week before Halloween the kids decorated a haunted cookie house. We had it for family home evening treat that Monday.
That week I had to work on my CPR certification. I have to recertify every two years, and this was the lucky week I got to complete an online learning module and then go in for a skills check. I did the skills check on Thursday, and afterward, I met up with my friend Roseanne from law school days whose family recently moved to Denver. We met at the Butterfly Pavilion, which she was taking her kids to see since they had Fall Break.
Emme and I with Roseanne and her boys, Wyatt, Coulter, and Porter
That weekend, Benjy got to bring home the Clifford backpack because he was chosen as student of the week. We were supposed to keep Clifford with us as we went about our weekend and take pictures of things he did with us. Clifford helped Benjy carve his Jack-o-lantern on Friday.
Saturday was our church Trunk-or-treat. It was held over lunchtime, so we had a potluck and then the kids did games and trunk-or-treated in the daylight. Eli had a friend's birthday party that was at the same time as the trunk-or-treat, and he opted to go to the party, so Justin took him there while I took Benjy and Emmie to the trunk-or-treat. Benjy wore his dragon costume from last year and Emmie wore her Elsa dress, and I totally forgot to take their picture. I did, however, get pictures of the best costumes at the event. This is our home teacher and his wife, who were Dia de los Muertos people.
Shayla made these costumes for her boys from the movie, Monsters Inc. They turned out awesome.
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