Comings and Goings

Okay, what did I say about liking the "Rat Race"?  I think I take it back.  I feel like I'm running on that proverbial treadmill of life again.  Running, running and not really getting anywhere.  I had to look back at the calendar to remind myself, but this is only our 2nd week in our house not counting the week we were physically moving.  My car pool persona has developed quickly.  I have already found myself mindlessly into our neighborhood and onto our street.  (I still have to think a little to keep from turning into the neighbor's driveway).
Our schedule is full.  For me.  I don't know how I do this.  I scheduled most of these things right after we moved here.  Back when I had no concept of what summer in our new house with 3 kids aged 7,5 and 3 would be like...that was when "sign-ups" began.  I'm already finding myself in "sign-up" time for fall.  Fall?  Already?  We had much less to choose from in Belgium.  We also had younger children.  We're transitioning out of the mostly preschool stage of life and into the mostly real school stage.  Because I'm kind of kicking myself over some of the things I blindly signed up for in the spring for the summer, I'm having completely ridiculous anxiety about signing up for things in the fall right now.  These things cost money and there are commitments to be made or else.  It shouldn't be this stressful.  I shouldn't feel this disorganized.  I shouldn't be this tired.  I'm not even working.  I managed two kids and a job, but can't manage three kids and no job?  Or was I still stressed, disorganized. overwhelmed and tired?
I think I was at times.  I'm missing my quiet time that had become part of my routine in Belgium.  We just haven't figured out a groove here yet.  The kids are up late and we're up even later.  We've done so much trying to make this house feel like home (and it really, really does thanks in large part to my very hard working husband) and part of home ownership is that it doesn't really ever end.

After nearly going insane over the last few very hot (for here) days listening to our ceiling fan in the two story living room rattle incessantly, my hard working husband rented a ladder, climbed it and worked his magic...the fan is going in the right direction, no longer rattles and now has long lasting fluorescent light bulbs...he thinks of everything.  He spent the rest of the evening cutting up branches from the trees he's trimmed for trash pick up and organizing boxes for recycling.  He has worked hard since we moved into this house.  Yet somehow I'm the one falling into bed at night with pounding headaches.  I blame this excessive heat and the resulting whiny girls with which I spend my days.

This week has been busy.  Flag football camp has been challenging this week, but our little guy has handled it well.  He has not complained about getting up early, being out in the heat or going to a place where he knows absolutely no one.  He was put in with the younger kids (who are quite young, down to 4!) on the first day because of his size, but after the coaches watched him a bit he moved into the group of older kids.  He's really holding his own and the oldest kid is in 7th grade! Give the boy a ball and he is happy.  Give him a team of boys to play ball with and he is thrilled.

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(This video is basically the high fives at the end because Little Miss Ballerina and Little Miss Tap Dancer were not moving all that quickly today and just a little whiny about standing out in the heat for 5 minutes waiting for Big Brother, but at least there is an idea of the size of some of the kids he's playing with at the camp...the littlest guys weren't playing when we got there...I think 3 hours is a bit much for most of them.)

We have also added an evening tap class for the middle one.  The cheer leading camp she had so been looking forward to was canceled due to lack of interest and we found this tap class with friends as a nice substitution.  She was a little shy, but seemed to enjoy herself.  I am fairly certain she would have been less happy about the 3 hour stretches in the sun for 4 days than her brother has been.  She is still insisting that cheer leading is what she wants to do in the fall.  I don't want to be discouraging, but I just don't see how a child who prefers not to shout in Sunday school (as in "Shout to the Lord!") and the child who shied away from the part in her tap dance class that also involved shouting, wants to participate in cheer leading, which is pretty much ONLY shouting.  What's a mom to do?  These are the kinds of things that lead to the stress I mentioned before.

(She was trying to be still in this picture because I took it with my phone and the one before had been blurry...I said, "Oh you moved" and then she froze like this...when it was done she said, "Did I move?" very seriously.  She cracks me up)

Little Miss continued with her ballet class today...although late because we forgot slippers in our rush to make sure big brother had enough fluids for hydration and made it to football camp.  She is shy at times too, but smiles through the entire class.  She clearly wants to be there.  Not once has she come running over to me and asked to go home or whined about any part of it (the way her older sister did at her ballet class at one point and the way several of the little girls do in the class we're in now--funny enough, if she did I would handle it much better than I did when her big sister did it--I guess I am growing as a parent in some ways).

Tonight we finished up "Little House in the Big Woods".  They loved it and are ready to move on to the next one.  A week or so ago, I was flipping through the channels trying to find something besides Disney or Dora to watch and found "Little House on the Prairie".  In this episode Mary was blind so it was way further into the series than the book we've been reading and that caused a lot of questions.  They watched for a while, but it really didn't hold their attention well.  (I realized from the frequent commercials for bladder control medication, Depends and Activia that my children were probably not the target audience).  The books do hold their attention--even Sarah.  We are also reading "Ramona the Pest" for Hannah.  She loves reading about a little girl going to kindergarten.  Nathan has had to put his football book on hold for the moment. Not enough hours in the day to do all of that reading, on top of hitting baseballs in the backyard, bike riding, firefly watching and trampoline jumping that have been going on far too late.
The girls and I had our dentist check ups this week.  More bad news for me and first time bad news for Hannah.  I don't mean to blame Belgium for our cavities, but I can't help but wonder...it also makes me feel a little less guilty for all of the times I slack on their dental care (although from the time we learned about Nathan's cavities until we moved and things got hectic, I was pretty vigilant with all of them).  Just frustrating.

Speaking of dental news...our almost 8 year old lost his two front teeth over the weekend.  I was a little sad about that.  When those baby teeth go and the big ones come in, their look changes so much.  He is growing up and growing his hair long.  This kid is so into pop culture.  He knows what is going on and he is listening and observing everything.  A little scary.  I just hope we can keep up.
So this is our lives for the moment.  We're still figuring out how to make this family work.  Figuring out what life is like with Daddy gone part of each week and how to fit everything into busy lives.  Fairly certain we will not really ever master this busy life thing, but we will do the best we can.  We just need to remember to give each other a lot of grace and I need to remember breathe deeply and count to 10 or to whatever number it might take...

Oh and one more thing...we did make it out on that 10 year anniversary date in spite of having a feverish little one at home.  Here's proof...

We enjoyed dinner and then went shopping for milk, bananas, light bulbs and lamps.  Yes, even after 10 years we know how to have a good time.  Today I spent 2 1/2 hours giving blood at our church blood drive while the kids played very nicely in the church nursery without adult supervision.  (Honestly, they were so good...I was proud!)  During most of that time I was waiting my turn, but when it was my turn to answer all of the questions, I had a lot of explaining to do about all of my time out of the country...lots of questions about Europe and the UK and Mad Cow Disease...things I obviously never thought about the other 1 time I've given blood, 7 or 8 years ago.  The lady who helped me was intrigued by our story, our move and all of the travel.  She asked a lot of questions and after listening to most of what I had to say, she looked me in the eye and said, "You know you made it through all of that, you're going to see your 50th wedding anniversary, no problem."  Totally unexpected, but it made me smile when I saw this picture on our camera tonight.  We think so too.