My anthem for Summer 2008

You didn't think I'd really let summer end without getting a little nostalgic and emotional, did you? Go ahead, click and listen. You know you want to.

2+2=more than 4, sometimes.

Due to different wants/interests and obligations, we spent a fair bit of time as duads, rather than a family of four this weekend. Specifically, yesterday we split apart intentionally. Evan took Sadie out to Longstreet Farm to participate in the potato harvest, and Eden and I headed to the beach. I have to say, I think the girls were happier for it. They each seemed to appreciate the one-on-one time with us, and they seemed happier to be with eachother when they were. Every weekend, we make such an effort to have "family" time, and the reality of that is that it ends up being compromise time for one or both of the kids, as they aren't on the same wavelength yet with what they can/want to do.

Evan and I were talking about it this morning and debriefing about it and we decided that we are going to try to do more of that for parts of the weekend. Time together as an entire family is still a priority, so I don't see that going away any time soon, but I think we're going to try to spend part of one of the weekend days split up, alternating which child we have. anyway, that's my random thought for this Monday morning.

on the downslide...

It is Thursday, noon, of my first full week back at work since late June. It is safe to say, I'm going to make it, after all ;)

Being back at work has been...fine, I guess. Actually being here has certainly been fine. It is everything else that has taken some getting used to again. Menu planning. Running errands at lunch or in the evening. Packing lunches. Waking Sadie. Getting the girls dressed, fed, and out the door on a schedule. Squeezing my summer stretched feet back into work-appropriate shoes. Showering first thing in the morning, instead of after the beach. Blowdrying my hair. Wearing makeup.

Perhaps the biggest adjustment is apportioning my/our free time. It is so easy to get used to having loads of it, so that planning things to do is a happy diversion. After a week at work, I'm looking forward to just relaxing, hitting the beach, and trying to recapture a bit of that 'endless summer' feeling of vacation. Unfortunately, that isn't in the stars for us, at least not this weekend. Because I have a hard time saying no, and because I really want to do the things we get invited to, I have managed to overschedule us for the next three or four days.

Tonight we're meeting friends for "Jazz in the Park" in Red Bank. Saturday we are going to a friend's surprise 40th birthday party down near Philly. Sunday evening we're going to a cookout up at my mom's house because my aunt and uncle and cousins are coming down. We've just been invited to a pool party up in NoNJ for Sunday afternoon. If we go to that, we'll have no beach time at all...I'm sure I'll be wiped out by the time I'm back here Monday morning. Oh, and did I mention that I'm going to a neighborhood GNO event Monday night?!?!? sigh. It was so much easier when 'every day was Saturday'.

such is the plight of us worker bees, I suppose.

Catching Up

Wow - a ten day lapse in posting...possibly a new record for me. In my defense, I've been, well, busy. All good things - Evan's birthday celebration(s), visits from family and friends, and a trip to Utah.

Summer wrapped up for me, more or less, last night. Yes, technically, there are still a few weeks left of the unofficial summer season, and a few weeks on top of that for the official season. But for me, summer means lazy mornings, beach-filled days, and late - thrown together with a spontaneous grocery store run on the way home from the beach - dinners. Today marks my first day back on a full-time schedule at work, so I bid goodbye to the above and declared MY summer more or less over.

No complaints, it has been a great one. In the words (IM) of my sister-in-law:

you carpe'd the summer, for sure.

Yeah, I really, really did.

The trip to Utah, incidentally, was really nice. Not as exciting as the last conference I attended
but an amazing resort, an interesting conference topic, and a good opportunity for some 'me' time (working out, reading, soaking in the hot tub). I missed the kids like crazy, though, and it was great to get back to them. I'm really excited that the next time I have to travel for work, they'll be coming (Orlando).

Anyway, jumping back to the original topic, we had a great long weekend to cap off my summer o' fun. Beautiful beach days, each and every one. Saturday night I met my college friends for dinner at Ruby Foo's. It was so much fun to catch up with them (hadn't seen them since Lyd's baby shower in December). Yesterday, we hosted friends from MA (Jay and Joyce). It is always nice to have them in town because it kind of forces us to get out and do some of the touristy things. In addition to the beach, we headed out to dinner and then to the boardwalk in AP for a dusk stroll, which involved an incredible rising of the full moon, soft-serve ice cream, and a stop at the playground.

So here I am today, trying to get my head back in the game as far as work goes. I guess sitting her blogging isn't necessarily furthering that goal, so it is time to sign off and get some work done. I'll be posting more regularly now, I'm sure.

Big and Brave

Those are the two words that I think could sum up Sadie's transformation this summer. I swear, the changes and growth she has made in the past year are second only to the momentous development of her first year of life.

This year, she has learned to read, learned to separate easily from me (thank god!), learned to have and be a friend (yay for Abby!), she is in the process of learning to ride a bicycle, and she has taught herself to swim. The kid who screamed any time I tried to rinse her hair in the bath is now trying to learn to dive, and happily jumps in to the pool 'face first'!

Her latest demonstration of perseverance and bravery? Check it out:

She got her ears pierced! She was so brave, too, and now she couldn't be more pleased with herself and her new earrings.

There are days when I lament how quickly my children are growing and changing, but overall, it is so fun and exciting to watch them become their 'big kid' selves, too.

Oh Yeah

Guess what we finally got around to doing? We put up a clothes line outside. I'm so psyched. We kind of hemmed and hawed about it for a while, wondered whether it was 'acceptable' for our neighborhood and then finally just decided we didn't give a crap.

Evan put together a ladder-like structure in a sunny spot on the deck, hidden from view from the entire neighborhood (except for the people directly behind us). The girls are loving helping me hang out the clothes and then pull them down when they "magically dry" while we are out for the day. So far, I've figured that on days I don't have to work, I can get a load out there by 8 a.m. and it dries in time for me to get a second load out at 10 a.m. before we leave the house for our day's activities. On days that I have to work, I'm likely to only get one load dried per day, but I figure it is better than nothing. I am still using the dryer for jeans, towels and my 'delicates' as well as on rainy days (I pretty much do one to two loads of laundry a day, so I can't afford to wait out a rainy day), but I figure every little bit helps.

Monday on the Brain

This week, I was off on Monday and Tuesday, instead of my normal Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'm all sorts of screwed up today. I was all set to sit down and blog my usual "Monday Recap", but, er...it's Wednesday, for crying out loud. This changes everything! So, instead of looking back, I think I'll blog about a few things on the horizon. You know, really shake things up a bit ;)

• Friday night we're hitting the town fair The girls are really looking forward to it, and to be honest, so am I.
  
• Saturday, we'll be celebrating Evan's birthday - 41! Yikes, how can I possibly be married to someone so old, when I'm just such a young thing myself?!?!? Jeff and Anonda and Evan's sister are joining us to celebrate. We're going for dinner here and then for drinks here. Should be a fun night. And yes, I'm fully aware that we are violating my self-imposed rule of not repeating a restaurant, but it was Evan's choice, and who am I to deny the birthday boy his restaurant pick?
  
• Sunday, I leave for a few days away at a conference. I am looking forward to it, as I think it will be a good time and a good conference, as well as a chance to visit somewhere new. But, I am also feeling pangs about missing Evan and the girls. Of course, any time I have to fly alone, I have all kinds of crazy anxiety about what if something should happen to me...but I'm trying to just set those thoughts aside and focus on what a good trip it should be.
  
• I get back on Wednesday night (late) and then I'll have my last two summer days off (Thursday and Friday) before I have to return to a full time schedule - wah! I can't complain, it has been a great summer and I don't feel that I was shortchanged out of anything I hoped to have (beautiful weather, plenty of beach days, enough alone time to keep me sane), but I always do feel sad at this time of year.

Anyway, I should probably get some actual work done, so that's it for now.

A breath of fresh air

This post is a departure from the usual kid-oriented topics...

I was downloading some pictures off of my camera and came across this one, which Sadie must have snapped.

It made me think that it was time to blaaaag a bit about the state of our yard.

Probably the biggest reason I haven't posted any recent updates on the yard projects is because, well, there are none. The yard is actually, dare I say it...done. Or, as done as a yard ever is to people who like to garden (meaning, there's always going to be projects we want to take on). This picture is of the front walkway. With the exception of the impatiens (in the foreground), everything else is either a perennial or a self-seeding annual, so aside from a bit of weeding, there was nothing to do but watch the stuff grow and bloom. There's lots of other things out front that didn't make it into this picture (lilys, irises, hydrangea, decorative grasses...). The front yard really looks awesome, and we get tons of compliments on it from people passing by all the time.

The backyard, too, looks great. The deck is finished and full of containers of flowers and herbs. The yard actually boasts a lawn, a vegetable garden and an herb garden (both of which are being devoured by a groundhog, btw). It has been such a pleasure to enjoy it this year, after going without a usable back yard for so long. We often eat dinner out there, and on the mornings when I manage to get up and out and showered before Eden wakes, I love having my coffee outside, too. I'm considering buying a firepit once they go on clearance so we can enjoy some fall evenings out there. We are also shopping for fences, as we plan to fence the backyard in so that Buddy can stretch his legs out there, so I guess there is a project in the hopper.

Next year, we plan to take on the side yard. It is a shame we have neglected it thus far, as it is street facing, but it just hasn't been a priority. We did do some cleaning up and defined a bed, and Evan built a rock wall, so it is looking ok. The plan for next year is to just fill in the bed and reseed the lawn there (right now we are, in the words of my landscaper brother, "cultivating moss"). Nothing too major, and hopefully, once that is done, aside from the normal grass-cutting, weeding, and seasonal pruning, this part of the yard will chug along as effortlessly as the rest of it.