Fall 2021

Well, hello. I've been a slow writer this fall. After a reprieve from almost all activity in 2020, everything picked right up this fall with the added layer of Nellie starting high school. That meant our nights and weekends were filled with football games, cross country meets, musical rehearsals and performances, soccer (x2), and flute and piano lessons. Never before has managing schedules been such an event in itself. Our weekly family meetings were a flurry of logistics planning.

Normally, my favorite fall pastime that gets me through are slow weekend mornings reading and working and watching football by the fire. That was a thing of the past this year - weekends were full of activity. I'm finding th

at at this stage of my life, I've really needed to coach myself into a new way of thinking about kids' stuff. I need to convince myself that watching soccer and going to concerts and driving kids around town is super fun and relaxing and there's nothing I'd rather be doing. I'll sit at soccer games and tell myself, "This is so fun. Isn't it great to be outside, sitting in this cozy camp chair with Kevin and without any responsibility other than yelling, 'good job, honey!' every now and then?"

Which has worked, sort of. I don't want to sound like I'm just complaining about parenting. I mean, I am the one who signs the kids up or lets them commit to all their things. But also, I really am proud of them for being "tryers." I was definitely not that way at their age. Where they are willing to jump into new activities, I was always keenly aware of whether or not I would be naturally good at something and if not, I wouldn't dream of signing up. The kids are making friends and learning skills and it really is amazing to watch them work wholeheartedly and then enjoy the outcome. If it means spending every last minute navigating schedules and driving around, I suppose it's worth it. But as the calendar turned to November and we started slowly wrapping up each activity, it was delightful to find some space in our lives again.

Here's a collection of fall fun that wasn't related to sports or music!

We spent a weekend up north with mom at the end of the summer - the girls' birthday present was ziplining - we survived!

MY favorite thing - coffee!

After a long break, we are so happy Sandy is back!

We took a fun fall camping trip and spent most of our time mushroom hunting and sitting by the fire

Camp momming so hard

At the pumpkin patch - why is Eddie wearing shorts?!

We went to Gull Meadows to celebrate Pam's 70th!

Happy birthday, Pam!

Pumpkin carving

My little baristas

The littles have picked up chess, which is super cute. I have no idea if they really know all the rules.

We had a long weekend in early November and we spent our day picking out books and drinking coffee. Oh yeah, DJ drinks coffee now.

I don't even know where this is...last soccer game maybe?

Trying to be good at the eye doctor

Bonfire with Erin and Steve

Annie and I ran the Woldumar 5K and most of our families came out to run or walk! They are amazing...Xander and Annie took 1st in their age group and Otto was close behind!