Last week was a shorter school week because of the Labor Day holiday. It was also my last week on a reduced contract at work, so it was pretty light work-wise, though there were several union negotiation meetings to attend and lots of other adulting to do. All in all, though, it was a pretty low key week. I got to get some nice cooler weather runs in, the kids went to school, they came home, we had one soccer practice, I got to go on a pirate boat cruise on the Potomac, but other than that, not to much going on, and the weekend was similar. On Saturday, we had a 9:30am soccer game for the 8 year old, auditions for the 8 and 13 year old. After the auditions, we celebrated by sitting outside and eating the frozen treats that the Husband had bought at the nearby food coop. We were originally going to go out to get chais and horchatas from a local coffee shop, but the ice cream was a cheaper option and just as festive.
Saturday evening we went to visit my friend in Southern Maryland, where the kids had a chance for one last swim in a pool. It was probably a little on the chilly side for the pool, but the kids’ didn’t mind. I floated on an tube for maybe thirty minutes – it was the kind of weather where you wanted to either be in the pool or out, but it was too cold to be constantly switching. My friend is someone I know from work, so it’s always nice when we can hang out oustisde of work. She just rebuilt her deck by herself, and it’s amazing.
Sunday my cousin came for a visit and we just hung out around the house. We watched the US Open Men’s Final. I’ve never really watched tennis before, and I don’t know the rules, or whom to root for, but I do enjoy watching that ball go back and forth and back and forth. Also, I was unfamiliar with the tradition of the Grand Slam winners and losers making speeches at the trophy ceremony and afterwards became fascinated with this tradition. It seems so bonkers to me that the players play their hearts out for three hours, experience crushing defeat or thrilling victory, and then immediately after are expected to coherently speak to millions of people? And for a lot of them, English isn’t even their first language. Despite all that, the Grand Slam trophy speeches seem like an appropriately elegant part of a sport that I do think is very glamorous.
New Things For This School Year:
September always brings some shifts to schedules, routines, and habits what with the new school year starting and kids going to new schools, new grades, new activities. I once made a chart, and from now until the 5 year old goes to high school in nine years, we‘ll have only two years where September does not bring a new school for someone. The other seven years will always have a transition to a new school for at least one kid. So September always seems like a natural time to think about systems and routines and try something new. Here are some things we’re trying this fall:
A new shoe rack/ foyer/ landing strip set up – Our foyer is a mess of shoes and backpacks and tote bags and what not. We were constantly tripping over things in walkways or kicking things down the stairs, losing keys and single shoes and IDs and bills. We started looking for solutions for a more efficient drop zone, where we could keep the shoes and back packs in a more organized way but also have place for incoming mail and our keys and ids. The Husband found a really cool shoe rack on Etsy and we had our handyman stain it to match our front door. The rack has transformed our foyer. (So far. It’s only been two weeks…)
Flow improvements:
-Everyone has a shelf for their most used shoes, so they are no longer sprawled across the entry way. We will still use the boot mats for boots, and shoes that aren’t worn regularly stay in the coat closet, but everything else goes on the shoe rack. There are 4 shelves for shoes and space underneath, so everyone’s shoes seem to fit while taking up a smaller footprint. yay for vertical storage.
-Moving the paper recycle bin next to the shoe rack so that the junk mail goes right into the bin and the important mail goes into the mail bin.
-Having the mail bin and the key bin to the top level of the shoe rack. These used to live on a bench, and it was always kind of awkward to get to them.
-A charging station. We are using one of the top cubbies as a charging station. So now, my phone has a “home” when I’m at home. I’m hoping this will lead to less scrolling and less losing of my phone. We’re trying to convince the 13 year old that her phone also needs to charge there, but I don’t know if we’re going to win that one. (That’s a whole other story…)
-backpacks moved from bins to a coat tree, corralling them in a smaller space. We used to have three plastic storage bins in the living room and they became a dumping ground for backpacks and anything else that didn’t have a home. Once a week, the kids would go through their bins and re-set. I love me a good catch all bin, but it was getting out of control. Now the kids’ activity bags and helmets go in their room and just school backpacks are the the foyer hung on the coat tree. We might need to investigate a different coat tree because the current one is a little tall for the kids’ to reach easily. (The 13 year old keeps her backpack in her room.) I still have my little red bin for my tote bags – I’m trying to figure out if there is a more elegant solution for my stuff – I like to be able to dump my things when I walk in the door because often I’m coming in so late and that tends to lead to a bit of clutter. Still pondering here.
All in all, our new foyer/land strip has made life a little less frustrating lately.
Fewer Activities for the Kids/ More evenings at home as a family – This is the activity run down for this fall:
13 year old – basketball workouts (1x a week, plus this year the coach wants people to practice on their own at least ten minutes a day. The 13 year old has been doing this as she waits for the two little to get off their bus), piano lessons, voice lessons, Religious Ed, Swim clinic (starts next month)
8 year old – soccer (1 practice, 1 game a week. He’s still playing the less competitive rec league.), piano.
5 year old – tap classes, Agility classes (this is like ninja warrior courses.)
This is a lot fewer activities than we usually do. One thing that we dropped for the fall is skating for the 5 and 8 year old because the rink is still under repair. We will likely add skating back in November when the rink re-opens. We also aren’t doing after school programming classes or sewing (for the 8 year old) or gymnastics (for the 5 year old) this fall. The 13 year old is auditioning for the school play, so that might be another activity back on the plate, although rehearsals are right after school, so it’s pretty hands off for us. The 13 year old and the 8 year old both auditioned for the children’s chorus of the Holiday opera I’m working on, so we’re waiting for those results, though those rehearsals don’t start until November.
Being light on activities is a bit of a shift for us. Usually I try to sign up the kids for activities when my work load is lighter because then we have two parents on hand to split driving and home duties. But this fall, we decided to try something different and keep the schedule a little lighter. Each kid still has one active activity and one artistic activity, though. I feel bad because skating, programming, sewing and gymnastics are things that the kids really love to do. I’m reminding myself that these activities all have short sessions and rolling enrollment, so we can sign them up for sessions later in the year too. Taking the fall off from an activity isn’t going to stunt their development in that interest or put them “behind”. Whatever that means. I do think it gets trickier when kids get older and start to get more serious about interests and require more commitment, but for now I think the stakes are not as high for the 5 year old and the 8 year old, and we don’t have to keep up with anything. Plus the kids love activities, but they also love just hanging out at home, reading books, playing outside, and getting into trouble.
I have to say, the pulling back on activities has actually been quite lovely. We’re not constantly rushing around on weekday evenings to eat dinner and get someone somewhere. We all have been cleaning up after dinner together, and then having family reading time, or family game time. Same thing on weekend – we have time to hang out together and kind of just do… well, I was going to say “nothing”, but reading books and noodling on the piano and playing board games and going on evening walks and having dance parties while doing the dishes and putting away laundry in a timely manner – these are all something.
Another thing that I think benefits from the lighter activity schedule is something that came up at Back to School Night – The coordinator of the French Immersion program said is that our kids really need time to decompress after school because they’re brains are working overtime being in a non-English school environment. I’m sure all kids need that space after school, but I guess I hadn’t really thought of the added burden of being in an immersion environment before. Anyhow, I’m really enjoying the less frenetic paces of our afternoons and evenings. I don’t know how long we will keep it up, but it does make for a nice soft start for the school year.
I’m going to give a shout out to our new favorite game, Dixit. It’s kind of like a combination of the Dictionary Game and Code Names – there are picture cards and one person says a word or phrase to describe one of their cards, then everyone puts in a card that might also be described by that word or phrase and everyone else has to guess which is the original card. Dixit works really well for our family because you don’t have to be able to read to play it. I also took a page out of Lauren’s book and instituted a rule that the winner cleans up after the game. I don’t know if it’s the rule or if the kids are getting better at not winning, but there have been fewer meltdowns when we have family game night now.
The 13 year old making dinner once a week – We’ve put the 13 year old in charge of making dinner once a week. She’s made dinner a few times, but not regularly. She’s able to make Mac and cheese (out of a box), breakfast sandwiches, pasta and meat balls, and oven fried chicken. I thought this was a good time for her to start expanding her skills by being regularly responsible for dinner, from planning to putting things on the grocery list to cooking. Last week, she made roasted salmon with potatoes and chimichurri sauce, and steamed green beans. I was in the kitchen talking her through every step of the way, but almost all the hands on stuff she did herself. I have this dream that eventually each child can be responsible for one night and then the Husband and I will only be responsible for 3 dinners a week (the fourth night is pizza and movie night.)
Labelling the Sheets – I keep the spare sheets in the bedrooms – ie each room has the sheets on the bed and one spare set in the closet. BUT they were kind of just on a shelf, in a jumbled mess. In the little kids’ room, especially, it was annoying because the 5 year old sleeps in the twin top bunk and the 8 year old sleeps in the full bottom bed. So when someone wets the bed at 2am, there is a lot of night time cursing and muttering as I pull out wrong sheet set after wrong sheet set. Well, I was determined to fix this and on our last trip to Ikea, I found these zip up storage bags. Now, each size of sheets has it’s own storage bag, AND I got out the label maker and labelled the bags. I love my label maker.
The new closer bus stop- I know this is the third week in a row I’ve mentioned the new bus stop, but it’s been such amazing shift for our routine. The 13 year old gets to shoot some hoops while waiting for the bus, the kids can have 15-30 minutes to play before coming home, and I get to walk down to meet them. Also it’s the first stop of the bus, so less likely to be delayed.
Well, those are some things that are making life a little less chaotic right now. Of course, I don’t know how things will be when I go back into rehearsal, but that is about a month away…
Grateful For:
-Little Free Libraries. There are a couple of Little Free Libraries that we pass by regularly that have some really desirable books. I’ve been amassing a collection. It might be a bit of a problem….
-That the kids are old enough to sort of clean the kitchen after dinner.
-That I learned how to touch type. I was painfully watching my kids hunt and peck the other day, and I had two thoughts – 1) how can the school them all Chromebooks and not teach them to touch type? And 2) I’m sure glad I can touch type so that I can type efficiently and without looking at my hands.
-Beautiful blue skies and fluffy clouds.
-leftovers for an easy dinner, plus more in the freezer for the future when life gets busy again.
-Bodies of water – the Potomac, the Chesapeake Bay, pools. There is something so relaxing about being on the water.
Looking Forward To:
-New glasses. I’d gotten glasses earlier this year and I was having a lot of trouble reading with them. They are progressives, but my last pair was too, so I couldn’t understand why everything I tried to read was blurry. I made and appointment for a re-check and the optomitrist determined that the part of the lenses that I am supposed to read through was too low. So a new pair of glasses are coming in a few weeks! I also ordered a new pair of sunglasses while I was there since my last pair is five years old and the lenses are quite scratched. I’m looking forward to being able to read text clearly again.
-Another new thing coming my way – a new laptop. If you remember my laptop died during tech week of my last show. The Husband has ordered me a new one and I’m excited to set it up and get to work. The old laptop top was at least five or six years old, which seems like it should last longer than that…?
-Tap dancing lessons!!!! I am so super excited for this one. The parent child tap lessons I signed up for start this week. I ordered a pair of tap shoes and they just arrived and I immediately tried them on and tapped around the house. I had zero clue what I was doing, but there is something so very satisfying about that tap tap tap sound.
-Starting the high school choice process with the 13 year old. Where we live, 8th graders can lottery into any one of 5 high schools in our general area and September/October is when all the schools have open houses and you can see what different programs are offered. If you home school is your first choice, you automatically get in. Though I just found out, if you don’t submit a form, you don’t necessarily get into your home school. I can’t even think about what the spreadsheets and what nots are for determining results. So okay, I’m not “looking forward” to this in the “can’t wait, I’m so excited!!!!” kind of way. It’s more like, “I have no idea what this process is like and I am eager for more information.” This is another reason I’m glad we pulled back on activities this Fall – there is at least one open house a week for the next four weeks.
-Chorus rehearsals. Work is slowly starting back up and the first big things I have to do are run chorus music rehearsals. These are the rehearsals where the chorus learns their music. It means I’ll be working evenings again, which is kind of a bummer, but I’m looking forward to seeing many familiar faces again.
What we ate– After a super busy summer, I’m really loving being able to dive into cooking dinner again, and having the time to sit and eat together as a family. (Another plus of less busy evenings.) Although now that I look at the week, I didn’t actually cook dinner all that much….
Tuesday: Pulled pork and coleslaw tacos. The pulled pork and coleslaw was leftover from the Husband’s smoking endeavor the day before.
Wednesday: I had pizza on a pirate ship. The rest of the family had breakfast sandwiches.
Thursday: Roasted Salmon and potatoes with chimichurri sauce and steamed green beans. This was the 13 year old’s night of cooking.
Friday: Pizza (take out) and Glee. Because the 8 year old has soccer practice on Friday nights, we might go back to watching episodes of tv rather than a whole movie on Friday nights. Or maybe we’ll just watch shorter movies? TBD.
Saturday: Dinner at our friend’s house- she had a huge food spread – falafel and sausage and veggies and fruit. I brought two peach cobblers – a cardamon cobbler and a ginger buttermilk cobbler.
Sunday: Curry shrimp with peppers and cabbage, served with rice. This was a quick thrown together dinner from the cookbook Make This Tonight that I had borrowed from the library then lost and so I paid for it, but then we found the cook book in, of all places, the toy room closet (I’m a little salty about that – it’s a bit of a black hole) and so just decided to keep it. The recipes are pretty simple and straightforward, which is good for weeknight cooking. This curry shrimp was basically toss shrimp in curry powder, sauté peppers and onions (I added the cabbage myself), throw in shrimp and cook until they are done. Add more curry powder. Eat with rice.
Hope everyone had a lovely week – I feel like I’m posting a little later in the week than normal and the weekend is already here! The weekend is kind of packed for us, but all good things, I hope.
Any changes to systems or routines lately? Have you ever tap danced? What is your entry way/ landing strip like? Does your house have a black hole? What should the 13 year old learn to make next for dinner? Anyone else enjoy watching tennis speeches?
I have so much to comment on. Hang on, must scroll back.
First, THAT SHOE RACK. That honestly looks life changing. The bane of my existence in our old house was the tiny little mudroom we had. SHOES EVERYWHERE. And you know how it goes, some seasons there are boots and shoes and whatever, my kids have giant feet, SHOES EVERYWHERE. That looks so neat and having the top rack as a charging station/ catch for keys etc is brilliant. I love it.
Second, I am a big fan of having fewer activities. That’s what I did for the kids and it made for a pretty relaxed life. I feel like kids can just get used to the hustle and bustle and then aren’t perhaps able to adjust to doing their own things. Like, we can’t complain our kids have no ability to entertain themselves if they are always going here there and everywhere, right? So I like the relaxed atmosphere. I also am a big fan of family dinners, that feels more important than an activity to me.
That said – TAP DANCE! That sounds like so much fun!
Where was I? Oh yes, the dinner thing. Good luck with having the kids take over gradually – that is a brilliant idea and one that will serve them well once they leave the nest.
Also – A LABEL MAKER! I wish I had one!
The salmon looks amazing! Chili/soups (esp in a crockpot) and baked pasta dishes are always handy to have in the repertoire!
I’m a long-time tennis fan and the speeches are definitely a unique and beloved tradition! At some tournaments, they simply hand the players the microphones and they can give their own speeches. That’s what’s “preferred” in the “tennis fan community,” haha. More and more though, big tournaments/Majors especially have a commentator/interviewer asking them kind of vague/awkward questions (“How special is this moment??”), and then the players answer and sometimes try to fold their thank yous into that, but ultimately they often take the mic at the end anyway and give their full speech congratulating the opponent, thanking their teams, sponsors, officials etc. Between that and the full press conferences that follow (for winners and losers, and that’s after every single match, actually…) and press junkets/media appearances for winners, they do *a lot* of public speaking. It’s impressive considering their actual “job” is professional athlete!
Tap dance sounds so fun! I fulfilled a lifelong dream of taking a ballet class last year… it was “an experience” haha. I really struggle with even simple choreography/remembering combinations/counts (I think since I simply was not exposed to that ever growing up, and lack natural rhythm…). I also was the oldest! in the class and maybe the only one with truly no experience (even though it was “adult beginners”). I noticed they changed the class levels the next term (started offering “absolute beginners” for those with zero dance background, and “beginners” is now for those with some experience/returning to dance), which I believe was due to me lol…
Yay for you taking ballet as an adult! I was always jealous that my kids got to try so many activities, and I realized that I should also try new things too. It doesn’t seem fair that they get all the fun!
When I went down my tennis speech rabbit hole, I did watch a few interview style speeches and I agree, they are not as genuine or heartfelt to watch. We watch a lot of football, and I always think the questions they ask the players are inane and the answers often are too.
I LOVE my label maker. I use it maybe twice a year – I should definitely use it more.
I love your point about kids needing to find ways to entertain themselves. I think my kids are pretty good at this, but a lot of time for the older one, it involves a screen, which I don’t love, so…
That shoe rack looks SO perfect. I love how many tiers it has and the organizing space on top. That will be a gamechanger, I’m sure.
That’s an impressive supper! I need to get my daughter to branch out, too. My son scrambles eggs and she makes Mac n Cheese and bakes like a pro. I blame myself for not encouraging it more. Maybe this year?
Tap sounds fun!
And I feel like for many years our kids were very “underscheduled” compared to many of their peers and it was great. Rushing around all the time is overrated. This year we’ve scaled back activities again and I’m enjoying the slower pace.
Ohh maybe I should get my 8 year old to learn to scramble an egg now too! He can pretty much just make toast, and I think he can branch out.
Wonderful post, thanks, Diane.
Definitely some changes to our routines. R is in kindergarten, L is in second grade. Piano and gymnastics for L, and jiu jitsu and gymnastics for R. T will be traveling quite a bit so it’ll be me and the kids.
Our hallway has a walk-in closet so that is technically our landing strip.
I do need ideas for paper organization/storage… maybe something flat?… like a tray?… for mail and omg the worksheets/art the kids bring home from school. It is SO much :/
Interestingly, I want the paper bin in the kitchen… we used to have a hanging wooden “shelf” for mail but T doesn’t want to put it back up… Apparently it’s too “country” for him :/ and the new kitchen is more modern.
Whatever. So we need to find something else. Our black hole is above mentioned hallway closet.
I have the kids forms go in the mail bin so that it becomes a catch all of things I have to deal with. The papers, though… ugh. I wish we could just throw them all out, but they get attached. They each have a file box for their school papers – I heard of this idea from the Happier podcast to have a file box with thirteen folders, one for every year old school. But at the rate that our kids are filling the file box, it will all be kindergarten coloring pages? hah!
We limited our daughter’s activities to 2…as you mentioned, 1 active, 1 non active. She is a person who needs quiet time at home, and this gave her that. She was in Girl Scouts for 10 years, so it was pretty much cheer plus one other thing, and that one other thing varied as she got older. Art, swim, cheer, ballet, etc.
I LOVE THAT SHOE RACK.
My daughter cooks one night a week, which I love. Yes, she’s 29 and could be cooking more than one night a week, but with our schedule (including her office/work schedule) this works for us. It’s wonderful to know on Monday that I don’t have to think about it.
I hate that you have A Little Life in your book collection. That book almost killed me, it is torture porn. Just my opinion of course, but I hated it so much and wanted the main character to have something good in his life.
Bah, not cheer and one other thing. Scouts and one other thing. My brain got ahead of me and I was thinking of those other things while I typed.
I’ve heard such mixed things about A Little Life, which is probably why it’s been on my shelf for over a year now and I still haven’t cracked it open. Plus it’s huge.
Wow, such a great free book haul! I have been sucked in by the library’s 50 cent books lately, I am this close to running out of space. I had no idea about the high school lottery, I’m upcounty and we just go to our assigned school. I guess there are some special programs but you have to be accepted into them. And even then, it usually means a really long journey to school which is not something I’m interested in. High schoolers already have to get up so early! My eldest started middle school this year and she really likes it! I can imagine high school is a whole other level though 🙂
Congrats on having a middle schooler!
I do wish that the high school choice thing weren’t so complicated down county, but I guess it’s good to have opportunities that encourage specific interests if a student wants. Sometimes choice makes things harder, and I do think having everyone just go to their home school fosters a sense of community. There is concern that the school system might get rid of the down country consortium because there is a new high school opening up so a lot of school boundary lines are going to be re-drawn. We shall see!