School Days

This week marks Patrick's second week of preschool - he goes 4 days a week for only an hour and 20 minutes a day.  I thought for sure there would be tears on the first day, but as soon as he got into the classroom and discovered glitter, he barely looked up when I said goodbye.  Now he runs straight from the car into class. 

While P is away learning, I have been using the hour to exercise.  I load Tommy into the single jogger and we jog the track.  A lot easier than jogging my hilly neighborhood!  I am no longer doing Weight Watchers officially, although I am still eating better portions.  I haven't lost anything further, but I am hopeful that regularly exercising an hour a day will help. I just got burnt out on entering every single bite throughout the day.

Me Time

Two things are new to me this fall:

One is that I am leading our local Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) group, and the other is that I just started Beth Moore's Daniel bible study.  Equally excited about both, although a little apprehensive about my time management skills.  MOPS has definitely been a time consuming labor of love, much more so than I expected. 

The bible study is something I have wanted to do for years. When the opportunity presented itself, I had no more excuses.  I was a lot surprised at how much work I will need to put into the study, but I am captivated after just the first session.  I could hardly believe I had been there for two hours when I climbed into my car and looked at the clock.  I think this study group is exactly what I asked God for.  Funny how that works :)

Game Day

Patrick had been doing a soccer program at our indoor sportsplex for over a year, but it only teaches skills- they don't actually attempt to play games.  Another downside is it falls on a weekday morning when Tom is at work.  So when a friend mentioned that her son had done another program that has outdoor games for 3 and 4 year-olds at a field only 5 minutes from our house, we were psyched.  Especially Tom, who could now make the new Sunday game times. 

First off, Patrick had a blast.  Big smiles the entire time.  Legs moving a mile a minute. 
Second, he had no idea what he was doing.  It was like watching a Marx Brothers movie. 

All the kids run one direction - P runs in the other. 
All the kids chase after the ball down the field - P doesn't start running until they are already starting to come back up. 
Gosh, I truly fear Patrick has inherited my lack of direction. 

#3 is nearly double P's size and could probably squash him with a sneeze.  Let's hope this kid is always on P's team!  I'm convinced he is really twelve.

So that is my husband in the gray, actively being recruited to be a second coach.  I am not sure what he has decided, but he would be a natural. 



Uncle M showed up to see P's first game

We loved this shot and the next-have you ever seen so much concentration?

Tom seemed a little concerned that P was the only kid not wearing soccer cleats (optional for his age group).  I told him a compass would be more helpful than cleats at this point.  Go #44!

Zoo with Baba

Last week, we spontaneously decided to do a quick zoo trip with Baba - it had been a while since we had gone with her.  Who doesn't love a giraffe?   

My Best Little Helper

After Patrick finished his lunch, he received one very crumbly cookie with instructions that he needed to eat it at the table so I didn't have to pick up 10,000 cookie pieces off my floor.  I continued loading the dishwasher only to hear P say:

"Look, Mom! I cleaned up all the crumbs on my chair so you didn't have to."

He said it so sweetly, and genuinely meant for it to be a help to me that I just had to laugh (even though he just pushed half a cookie onto my floor).  This is one time I could not be mad as I grabbed the vacuum again. 

The Whine that Broke the Mommy's Back

Yes, I'm here.  And fine. Well, if you don't count the 5:30pm meltdown in the kitchen two days ago. Tom had been on this non-stop work binge for like 2 weeks, and I was feeling a lot in need of a mothering break. I just could NOT hear the kids whine one more time.  Then they did. And I cried.  I felt tons better the next day. 

A day or so after my little pity party, I had a meeting with someone on my MOPS leadership team (if you don't know about Mothers of Preschoolers, would love to tell you!) I found out this mom has 4-year-old triplets, and a 2 1/2 year old.  AND her husband is a civilian who deploys in 6-month increments overseas.  He is there now. Wow.  I felt guilty for not being able to handle a measly two kids, even with a husband who is here should I did need him.  Then I realized it isn't just about the numbers.  Being a mom is tough, whether you are pregnant with your first, have one, or have ten.  We all need a moment every once in a while. 

With Tom's crazy schedule, I haven't felt much like blogging, but I will this weekend.  Lots of photos I want to get up. 
Feel free to have a moment between now and then if you need it.

Catching Up on Some Reads

Now that I have read the most recent book by one of Tom's super-talented college friends, Bob Smiley, Don't Mess With Travis, I am feeling inspired to read more regularly.  To be honest, I didn't know how much I would enjoy it, because politics do to me what dirty diapers do to Tom: REPEL.  My dad is so confrontational about his political viewpoints, that he turned me completely off to wanting to talk about, or hear anything related to our nation's politics growing up.  I know that throwing my hands up in the air is bad, but the damage has been done.  With that in mind, I stayed up until 1:30 AM the night I started the book.  Tom kept waking up and telling me to turn off the lights.  I finished it the next day (I made both kids take naps so I could finish it).  You all should read it.  Really. Pretty funny.  I haven't had a lot of opportunities to hang out with the author, but he must be a riot.  His wife must be a saint :)

Then yesterday, my neighbor lent me Hunger Games. Yes, I think I was the last person in our galaxy to still not have read the book or seen the movie.  I started it last night at 10:00 pm and finished at 2:35 am.   I have a problem, I know, and it doesn't just apply to books.  I am inpatient.  When I want to do something, I want to do it right away.  I can't read a great book over the course of a week.  The suspense would kill me.  So now I am tired from all my late night reading.  But of course, instead of sleeping, I am blogging. 

Sigh.

Please feel free to send me some recommendations on dull reads.