Time Goes By Fast & What I Know For Sure

"Life goes really fast," JT said as he tied his tennis shoe getting ready to get on the bus for the first day of school.  "I mean it seems like I was just in second grade."

"Yeah buddy, it sure does," I told him and kissed the top of his head.  "Isn't it kind of crazy, you are growing up?!," I smiled. "Have a great day today," I told him as he headed off to the bus taking him to fourth grade. And then I watched Wade trail after him, so excited to start kindergarten.

Ahhhhhh. It does go fast.  I'm feeling that so hard this week. Time and life and kids growing up and no more babies and new wrinkles and teenagers with phones and all of the kids in school and my kids thinking Tim and I are "so old" and Tim and I feeling so old and holy shit is it Friday already and oh my god.....it's enough to make some of us who are little prone to anxiety panic a little.

Maybe all these feelings of vulnerability and anxiety are why I am enjoying our new trampoline so much. Yeah, trampoline. A friend of mine gave it to us and we are loving it. There's really nothing like jumping around together and being silly and ridiculous and exhausted to make you feel happy.

There are a few rips in the net that I have to fix, I know.

For some of us with a little extra energy, the trampoline has helped burn some of it off.

The kids helped me put it together while Tim was gone this past weekend. I feel pretty damn proud that we did it without Tim.

What I know for sure this week is that life and time are moving fast but it feels good to jump and be silly and enjoy every minute we can.

A cool part about the tweens and teens having phones is that they like to take slow-mo videos of the kids jumping and then they watch it. I would have LOVED that as a kid.

Here's what else I know for sure right now:

• I love rainbows. Did you see the picture of the rainbow in NYC on the eve of the 14th anniversary of 9/11. It was beautiful. Click here to see it. 

• My kids are getting so independent. Yup. I have three that are old enough to walk to the store on their own and even ask "do you need anything mom?"

• I LOOOOOOVE this song. It's my theme song this fall.  I mean with lyrics like "learn to forgive, learn to let go....don 't be so hard on yourself" it's just so good. And the video has a drum line-type solo and I f-ing love it.

• Yeah, yeah, yeah, everyone is growing up around here, but we are never too old to dress up and play pretend Harry Potter style.

• I like extremely violent TV (I really didn't see this coming, I'm not really a fan of violence). I am obsessed with the TV show "Sons of Anarchy." My sister and brother told me to watch it for years and I never did until this summer. Thank god for Netflix because Tim and I are in LOVE with watching this show. It's violent and upsetting, and such good storytelling. We are in the middle of season three out of seven. (PLEASE DON'T TELL ME HOW IT ENDS!)

• Abraham Lincoln was pretty amazing. I am also obsessed with Abraham Lincoln. After visiting the museum of his birthplace in Kentucky this summer I became so interested in his life. I've been reading and watching and learning so much about him. He is fascinating.

What do YOU know for sure this week, right now?  Tell me about it, share the knowledge!  

Back To School Weirdness

For the first time in over a decade, I was left home alone on the first day of school.  All my babies left on school buses for the first time since I became a parent.  And it was weird.

It's weird because I miss them so much but not enough to be up for homeschooling or anything like that.  It's weird because it's an end of an era, an end of a season of my/our life.  It's not bad, it's just weird and bittersweet and unsettling and exciting and new and a little uncomfortable and ahhhhhhh.

I can't say that I love this new phase yet (it's only been two days!). I love watching who my kids are becoming and learning to parent them in new ways and hearing about their days at school. But I would not be truthful if I didn't say I don't miss when they were younger and told me everything and we had long lunches and did crafts in the afternoon and a few of them napped and waaaaa.

They still humor me with back-to-school traditions that I started over 10 years ago before I was on Facebook and Instagram and had a blog.  The traditions aren't fancy--a poster board and a sharpie to document the grade and the date.  

I love these traditions, and all of our traditions.The kids may think I'm a little wacky and a couple of the older kids may roll their eyes and that's okay. But I'm going to keep doing them. These traditions ground them/us/me. They are are a rite of passage and a goofy good time and great for the scrapbooks (I mean if I made scrapbooks).  

Wade thought it would be cool to wear his backpack as a frontpack and I kind of loved it.

I found this pic on the camera (JT took it) and I thought it was a pretty good pic  because it looks like I'm laughing.

Tim made it home from work before the little boys got off their bus after the first day of school. And he got a chance to talk to Lucy about her first day of middle school.

It was Wade's dream to ride the school bus. He LOVED it.

Wade loves kindergarten

Goofy, cheap poster boards are the tradition and so is Pencil Cake.  I've made the pencil cake every first day of school since Peyton was in kindergarten.  After JT was diagnosed with Celiac disease in 2010, I had to change the recipe to make it gluten free. It still tastes great!

I like making a big deal out of things.  I like making things more special.  I love sharing these moments with my family.  I love being with these kids (even when the squabble over who gets the eraser part of the cake).

I'll get used to all the weirdness of having all the kids in school and getting older and growing up. I will.  But I refuse to stop making pencil cake and posing my kids in front of signs and doing a night-before-the-first-day-back-to-school-dance (to this song)....no matter how old they get. 

Summer Reading

Found this awesome print on Etsy here.

I couldn't let the summer end without posting pictures of where my girl Lucy spent most of hers....in a book. I love that she loves to read and she reads all.the.time.  She fell in love with the Harry Potter books this summer and read the whole series, twice.  I hope she always loves to read.  

It's so hard to say goodbye to summer and hours of doing whatever we want and reading whatever we want and all the sunshine and waaaaaa.  Here are a few of the other summer adventures/memories we had this year, here's our summer 2015 montage/mash up/highlight reel: 

(Click here to watch the video.)

Counting Down To School

The pencils are sharpened, the backpacks are hung on hooks and everyone is so excited about school starting. Well, not really everyone.  We drove by the middle school and one of the older kids said "there's the jail."

I get it. I am not that excited. I wish it could be summer forever--sunshine, long days, no schedules, no real have-tos, late dinners, swimming pools, sleeping in, flip flops, road trips and bike rides. Ahhhhh!!!! The best.

I almost found myself saying "yeah, I know" when one of the kids called the school a jail. But wait, there's good stuff about going to school and I know it and I want them to know it too. Especially Wade. Wade is starting kindergarten in a few days and is so excited.  I don't want our bad attitudes bringing him down.

It's not school that is horrible anyway. It's busy routines and jam-packed days and winter in Michigan and staying on top of homework, that's the hard stuff.  Transitions and change can be hard for some of us too. So, I made a countdown to kindergarten for Wade. 

It's a simple craft using a thick poster board, some paper and pencils (I glued the pencils to the board for school-ish look). Each night Wade pulls of a number and we talk about what school is going to be like. It's not only getting Wade more excited, it's sort of helping all of us get excited. 

I just propped it up on our easel in the dining room. 

I find countdowns help with transitions.  Each night when we take down a number around dinner time. It's a good time for all of us to reflect and ask questions and talk about not only the things that we are excited about but also the things we are a little nervous about too.  As a family we've talked about what to expect in kindergarten  and fourth grade and middle school. Lucy talked about being nervous about having a locker for the first time. Peyton told her what teachers he really liked having in sixth grade. JT said maybe he's a "little excited" about school (um, that is HUGE!). And Wade says the same thing every time "I can't wait!"

His enthusiasm is hard not to love. Another bonus of the countdown is when Wade asks "how many days until school starts?" (and he asks that A LOT), I just say "check the countdown and tell me."  

Countdowns don't work for everyone, but they are working for us and helping some of us with our back to school anxiety.

Happy Back To School Everybody!