Random Blogging

Catching up on happenings in the land of Elastic Waistland. Be prepared for random thoughts, scenic detours, and general meanderings. If any of that sort of thing offends your blogger's sense of style feel free to click along to someplace more palatable.

Where to begin.

Well, the school year is off to a good start. I have my handy-dandy planner and we have all settled in with the fall schedule fairly well. I have days where it just seems like I spend all my time in the car shuttling kids between various activities and engagements with barely a moment to catch my breath, but there are also days that are more laid back and I can actually sneak a few pages of my current read before running off to the next pick-up, drop-off or errand. Alas, the house could be cleaner, the dishes sometimes sit in the sink until dinnertime, and there is still a pile of mulch in the driveway that needs to be dealt with at some point (hopefully before the snow flies!) but, all in all, life is chugging along fairly smoothly. And I'm not one to worry my little head over a layer of dust, toys strewn hither and yon, or those aforementioned dishes that sit in the sink for a while. Life is much too short.

R just started her art classes and she is enjoying the subject of "Fairies" that all the projects will be centered around. This past week they worked with real leaves as templates and colored their creations with pastel crayons. I'll post a picture when she brings home that project - she is off to a very nice start. Swim classes are going very well and she is getting much better at her standing dive. After her classes on Saturday mornings I've been trying to get in a workout at the Y. I drop her in the childcare area and head to the gym for a while before we head home in time for lunch. The two younger girls are home that morning with Rick. It's the only time I get to workout at the Y right now because the issue with little Miss Cling-E is still going strong. In fact, the last visit to the Y all I had to do to elicit screams of terror was to walk into the childcare area with her by my side. She wanted NOTHING to do with the place. She also has a screaming fit whenever we approach the showers for some unknown reason. My best guess on that one is that she is afraid she will get wet but this even happens when she is wearing a swimsuit so it might just be the noise and confusion. Good times. (not really)

A is enjoying swim classes and her weekly gymnastics as well. She recently decided she wants to be on the gymnastics team. I told her to keep working hard on her skills and maybe in a few years she'll be invited to join the team. She wasn't too pleased with that answer and we'll see how much longer she actually stays interested in the sport! For a while now she has been angling for horse-back riding lessons but I've explained that they are very expensive and that she needs to be a bit older before she can start. She has also mentioned more than once that she wants to be a horse-back rider when she grows up (although today she added the possibility of being a tie-dye maker/mom...we have a friend in mommy group who has a home-based tie-dye business). So, who knows what her plans will be tomorrow...or the day after that.

I've been spending Tuesday mornings at R's school helping out in any way I can with the classroom teacher or the librarian. This past week I spent time trying to do some copying (but the machine was getting jammed so I took the project with me and decided to get it done at the copy shop and donate the cost of the copies to the classroom) and processing library books that were headed for the shelves. I also spent time there on Friday last week helping with the hearing screenings. I served as hall monitor and kept the noise to a dull roar and ushered kids in and out as necessary. The audiologist in charge of the hearing screenings was my grad school supervisor so we got a chance to catch up on life in general and on goings-on in the department.

On Tuesdays E spends time with my in-laws and although she is otherwise super clingy and in hyper stranger anxiety mode she is more than pleased to go to grandma and grandad's house for the morning. She barely gives me a second glance, let alone a kiss goodbye, on those mornings. So, there is hope! She even allowed our neighbor (who also has a home daycare) to babysit her here at home with her sisters while Rick and I went to the 1.5 hour curriculum night at school last week. Baby steps... Some day I will get to utilize my Y membership to its fullest potential!

In other news, I'm trying to get back on the wagon and reign in my eating and increase my exercise once again. I've done pretty well with the walking regime (3.5 or so miles in the morning) but I've slacked off a lot in the high intensity cardio and the strength training sessions that I was doing last spring. So, the reduction in exercise and the increase in food intake - which seems to happen whenever I don't keep a food diary - has caused a 7# gain since early May. I started using my LifeForm program again to keep myself accountable and I even recently managed a couple of hikes to a beautiful overlook here in the southern part of our little New England town. The view from up there is so beautiful. The leaves are just beginning to turn so it was not quite the colorful spectacle that will appear in a week or two, but it is still a great place for a hike. The first hike was a solo one during the scant couple of hours I had between dropping off and picking up A from a friend's birthday party. It was a good hike for the soul to sweat it out on the way up the mountain and then relax and enjoy the views from the top in solitude. I needed that time to regroup and refresh. Last Friday, Rick and I took advantage of some gorgeous and unseasonably warm October weather and hiked the mountain again. My in-laws babysat for us and we had ourselves a very nice date night - hiking the mountain followed by dinner at a local brewery and then a movie at the small theater in town. Good times! (really!)

This past weekend was A's 5th birthday party. I plan to post some pictures of that soon. She had a dog party with a slight emphasis on pink poodles and she and her preschool friends had a very nice time together on Saturday afternoon. Next weekend we are heading to the Cape and spending some time with my family (both immediate and extended) for a big celebration and the following weekend is Miss E's 2nd birthday which will be a much smaller and more relaxed event.

That about wraps up the events of late in the E.W. and the busy life of yours truly.