Life Happens

I can not believe it has been nearly a month since my last post.  But, the title of this post explains exactly why I haven't been around.

Life happens!

Wow- this past month has been wild!  I feel like a few events have completely taken over my life.  Here is what I have been up to that have prevented me from blogging.

1) School starting.  This has really thrown me for a loop this year.  I was simply not ready to send them back.  I had a bad feeling that this year was going to be rough on Kenny and that has proven to be true.  Fifth grade has been really tough on him.

       The Good-  Now that he is in 5th grade, he gets the opportunity to be on safety patrol!  He loves it!  I

           have been excited for him as well.  I knew it would be a good opportunity to have responsibility and

           to feel valued.  He has also just started playing Trombone in the 5th grade band.  It is important to

           me that my kids are exposed to music and experience the wonderful learning opportunities                        involved. Right now he is at 5th grade camp!  Normally, I go with him but Aaron went as a

          chaperone this year.  I am excited that Aaron gets to experience it this year and that he and Kenny

          will get to spend good quality time together.

     The Bad-  Academically, he is struggling to keep up.  5th grade has been very demanding.  He has a

          hard time focusing and homework takes him most of the evening to do!  Also, I have discovered that

          the school does not have a time set aside for band- the kids get pulled out of class for 30 min a day

          twice a week.  They recommend to take this into consideration when deciding to allow your kids to

           play.  I think this is crazy- music is such a great outlet and kids can learn so much- it shouldn't be

          reserved for those who are "quick" enough to handle it all.  One of Kenny's teachers is looking into

          having one of the class times switched so they don't miss the same class twice. I believe the

         opportunity should be open to all- no matter what their situation. 

     The Ugly-  Maybe because of all of this stress or because he has officially reached the "tween" age,

          he has acted out in ways he never did before.  Yikes-  not liking this tween stuff so far.  What

          happened to my baby boy??  He really is a truly sweet good boy and I am so proud to be his mom-

          he does so much good that makes me so proud and I hate to see him struggle at all.  

2) The Twin Sale!!   This is the huge consignment sale that the twins club I am in does twice a year.  I have not sold for several sales, but decided to sell this time.  It was overwhelming and time consuming to go through all of my stuff and get it organized.  I did make just over $200, though!  And that was just random clothing- mostly priced around $1 and some toys and such.  Thankfully, that is over for now- at least until the spring sale!  I actually got my check in the mail today so me and the kids celebrated (since Aaron and Kenny are at camp) by going to Max and Erma's!! The rest of the money will go toward mattresses we will need for the girls new twin beds! They take up the entire length of their toddler beds. Seriously,  when did this happen?!

3) Julie's Baby Shower!!!  My sister is expecting her first child and we are so excited for her!  Unless something happens sooner, she will have a c-section on November 8th!  We had a shower for her on Saturday and it was beautiful and went so well!  It was a cumulative effort of several people and had a large turn out.  I hope to be able to do a separate post with pictures soon.  (I did not take my camera but my mom did.)


4)  Preschool! We started our preschool group!  Tuesday and Thursday mornings, the girls go to preschool, either at my house or one of the other moms in our group.  This way my girls get the benefits of going to preschool without me having to pay $200+ a month!  We are using the book "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" as our curriculum, along with other learning activities and lots of fun!

5) Other randomness:  So many other things that have sucked up my time:  trying to learn how to be a scout leader (I am now involved with the cub scouts at church), choir babysitting, my band, rec center classes for the girls, keeping up with laundry and gathering winter clothes for kids, cooking food (these people just seem to want to keep eating every few hours....)

I feel like I have not had time to breathe!  So many things I feel have been neglected that I feel I should be doing, such as:

1) cleaning house..... oh my, am I behind.  I dream of a tidy uncluttered living space..... who has time?!  As a "stay-at-home" mom, it would be kind of nice to actually be at home once in a while....

2) blogging- not only have a not had time to do posts, but I haven't read anyone's blogs either.  I miss reading what everyone is up to and hope to have more time to now that some of the above have settled. It also doesn't help that, despite everything being crazy, everything seems mundane too and I just don't feel I have much interesting to write.  Seriously, I am sure my readers are all asleep by now and have not made it this far. 

3) couponing- I have been so overwhelmed with everything that I have not been able to search out the deals and clip coupons.  I really enjoy using coupons and saving money.  Lately (probably because of extreme couponers) the deals have not been as good and I have been strapped for time but I am hoping to recommit to it this month- I have to keep cutting my grocery bill!!

4) sleep- I am lucky to get to bed before 1 am but yet have to keep getting up by 7.  Six hours may be enough for some, but I have always required more sleep and I start to fall apart after extended periods of time with reduced sleep.  I am reaching that point.


Hopefully things will calm now that the boys are getting settled in school, the twin sale and the shower are over and I can get settled into a routine.  Hopefully it also means I will be writing more!