Too much

Wordsworth said it like this.

THE world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

While the schedule of school is a good thing, all the other things that begin with school are slowly killing me. We added soccer and football, resumed piano and threw it all into the schedule of school, scouts and YW activities. We are a family that needs large margins, margins we don't currently have. In theory, we should be able to keep our home running with a decent morning and evening effort combined with some more concentrated tweaks on the weekend. Instead, we seem to have a family wide inability to get anything done unless I am personally following everyone individually giving line-item instructions. Add to that the exhaustion of too many "things" going and we are running on constant meltdown, flameout, chaos and it isn't pretty. Out of tune is an understatement.

So, upon returning home from the triathamom, I made a drastic change. For the last 6 years or so, I have run 3 mornings a week with my friend Jenn. We use this time to exercise, to chat, to vent, to seek and offer advice on our lives. Each year, fitting in the run became more difficult--she has kids in early morning seminary and super smart math classes. I have young kids and kids who are seemingly unable to get themselves successfully from bed to school. I kept hoping that small tweaks would fix things, that I wouldn't have to give it up. But when I came home, I knew what the sad answer was. It seems ironic that my response to the physical endeavor of the triathaMOM would be to stop my regular exercise schedule. Irony should probably be my middle name.

I still need exercise. I still crave time with my dear friend. Perhaps answers will be forthcoming soon?

Because I always wanted a tattoo . . .

A while back, I read about this sprint triathlon geared toward moms. So geared in fact that they were calling it a triathaMOM. Perfect. My baby sister and I needed a challenge. We'd both tried to get ready for a half marathon and it just wasn't working and she has wonky joints these days too. Our cousin Laurie is the super fitness guru of the family and always up for a fitness challenge (several marathons under her belt among other things). So the three of us registered for the race. BT and I rented bikes because I didn't want to ship mine up to Utah and I didn't want to drive either. Laurie lives very very close to where the race was being held and she had a bike, so she rode that.

All summer long, I swam and biked (often stationery to avoid the summer heat) and ran. It was a good mix of options and got me more active, but out of the heat unlike training for a long run would have done. The day of the race came, we came, we fought, we finished and we had the temporary tattoos to prove it. (you write your bib number on your biceps in triathlons and your age on your calf--usually it's done with a sharpie marker, but because this race was run by Utah women, the race numbers were emblazoned on our skin with big number stamps. Yes, a crafty race!)

And I was back in my house, tired and sore again by 8:30 that night. There's something about doing something that pushes you physically, doing it with people you care about, it's a wonderful thing for the heart, in more ways than one.



And because it was a triathaMOM, the post race included bounce houses, face painting, balloons and cotton candy. My kids would have loved it. My nephews and my cousin's kids (first cousins once removed) certainly did!

Baby goes to Preschool

For days and days before school started, M would put her "pack-ack" on and ask me if today was her school day. And it wasn't.

And then suddenly it was. Hallelujah! Preschool started. M had a blast. These are some of her besties. We spent tons of time with both of them before school started. School is just an extension of wonderfulness as far as M is concerned.


When I picked M up at the end of the day, I asked her if she'd had fun. She said, "no, I couldn't, there were no questions." She was very serious about these questions. Her teacher couldn't figure out what she was talking about and neither could I. And then she changed her answer just slightly: "there were no white questions and suddenly I had my preschooler epiphany! The big kids bring their homework home in white school logo folders. So, I said, "M do you need a folder with homework?" And she grinned, "Yes! white questions! Except, I want pink" So, we went to Target and bought her a pink folder and she did some "homework" on starfall.com and she could finally tell me about all the fun of school.

Wouldn't it be nice if Rosetta Stone sold a course in "Preschooler" language?

And, because life truly is grand in the world of Ms. M these days, she has also started her first dance class. M has moves. She always has, more than anyone else in the family and more rhythm too. So, when we found a cute little class that she and a few besties could take in the middle of the day, M was in hog heaven. I should have taken a picture at the beginning of class, because this was the result at the end.

Launching into the next decade!

When you are ten and a boy, a birthday may involve water balloons. It may also involve feats of sumo wrestling strength in the pool with your friends. It definitely will involve pizza and cupcakes and ice cream cones. Lest you think this sounds like a redux of a certain eight year old's party, this was the choice of Z. It did make planning easier for me and I didn't complain. I did learn that seven ten year olds play much differently than fourteen eight year olds. Strangely, the eight year olds were far more self-entertaining and inclusive. The ten year olds required interaction, ideas and guidance away from certain dangerous topics. But fun, LOTS of fun was had by all.

Then we moved on to the family celebration with the cake decorated to Z's specification. He's been overly interested in chocolate cake and frosting the last several weeks, so for his birthday, Z just wanted chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream frosting and nothing else. Thankfully I was able to find a frosting recipe I like, since I haven't ever really liked my efforts on this front before.


In general, this tenth birthday was a fun time for everyone. Icing on the more proverbial cake however, was that DH was about to spend the long weekend with us. DH spent time playing games (board and wii), assembling birthday puzzles and special time shopping to spend birthday money. We're still recovering from all the fun :)