Hello again!
I know. It's been four months. That's a long time. Sorry about that. Quick update: the nativity won best of show! Yay me!
We've been CRAZY busy. Like....feels like non-stop? I'm not a fan.
I took on some responsibilities for the kids' school that were mainly scheduling a plethora of field trips and speakers for Career Month, and then when we didn't have hardly any parents able to drive, hey, I got to drive for them, too. Fortunately, I had considered this and scheduled them for days that I could also drive. Rebekah tagged along on one and did excellently until she suddenly did NOT. And in her defense, we started 20 minutes late. There are two more I'll have to drive for next week and then I think (hope) I'm done. Driving for field trips is not my favorite, but it's not the worst. I've learned some interesting things and the kids are super sweet. (Mine act like I don't exist, but the others give me hugs and say thank you, which is very nice.)
Making cold calls is probably my least favorite thing to do and one day I made 27. That's one of my versions of hell. But its for a good cause. The kids are learning! We're making connections with people for future years of field trips! It'll be great!
ugh.
I also cook once a week for the school and the kids have started making requests and even cheering a little when they see me, which is also heartening, since sometimes my own kids groan or even cry when they hear what I've cooked for dinner. It's nice to be appreciated by elementary aged children once in a while.
My nephew got married a few weeks ago and it was a very interesting wedding. Halloween themed at the Swenson House, complete with costumes. Afterwards, we guests got to wander around and see the house for ourselves, which was fun, then the family visited at Mom's house for a bit before the reception at a different location a little later. It was a pretty intimate wedding and reception with mainly close friends and family and just a few extra people, but the couple seemed pretty content with it and it seemed to be just exactly what they wanted, so that's what mattered. I'm happy for them and look forward to watching them enjoy their life together.
My oldest nephew and his wife moved down from Colorado with their newborn twins about a month before the wedding, which was super timing for them. Go Army. They're about 45 minutes south of town, so we don't see them super often, but my sister definitely makes frequent trips to come see her grandbabies. As she should. Who cares about the rest of us, right? ;-) (Seriously, no judgement. Visit those cuties as much as you can.) It's the first time they've lived this close to family since they've been married, so it's new to them, but we try to include them and invite them as often as we can. My nephew even went to a couple of Austin's open mic nights he's been going to around town lately and seemed to enjoy it. Legitimately. lol
Austin's gotten into open mic nights since he doesn't have any other musical outlets since quitting the church music scene. He's enjoying it, which is good. He started recording himself and posting the videos online, then sending the links to me and a couple of his friends. I assume. I haven't actually watched them. (Sorry Austin). I can hear it live most any time I want. And anytime I don't want. My house isn't super sound proof. The kids will sometimes ask him to play guitar in their room while they're picking up, so he has fans. But his friends have joined him a few times at various locations around town during the week and once my nephew was able to get away from work early enough he was able to join.
The kids are doing well. Same old same old. Some behavior type issues at school but we've tried a couple things at home and I *think* we're seeing some improvement at school. I hope anyway. Eden is so full of personality and her own opinions she is having a rough time, but is doing better in some ways than she was? I don't know. It's a little hard to tell. Rebekah is just the best all around. She goes to MDO twice a week and a sitter the day in between so that I have three days a week to do my own stuff and I'm busy all three days nearly every week. And I do actually kind of miss her. So Friday is our day to just kind of curl up in bed together and watch tv and hang out and it's pretty great. I'm a little jealous of my Fridays.
My migraine meds are working still. I had to double up the dosage (I was given permission to do that at my discretion (did I mention I'm on medication for migraines? I forget)) in mid-October so now I worry that my body is going to adapt again and then what do I do? Because I can't just keep increasing the dosage. At some point, it'll be too much and unsafe. But for now, it's working ok. I need to call the doctor and make a follow up appointment but I keep forgetting to do that. I've had a few other things going on and we've already discussed that I hate making cold calls but also I just hate making calls in general ok?
There've been other things going on, but the stories aren't mine to tell or they just don't need to be told or I'm not ready to tell. We're currently taking a break from church, though I did visit church with a friend and while I did really enjoy it, I don't think it's the church for me, mainly because I'd want to go with her and she goes to the 8am service and I'm over the early service. So once I'm recovered from my church issues, I'll find my way back.
For now, I'm loving grocery shopping at about 930 or 10 on Sunday morning. Once, I woke up at 6 and couldn't get back to sleep so went then. IT WAS THE BEST. Not planning to make that a habit, though. We love having two lazy days together as a family instead of one that regularly gets eaten up by errends or chores.
We've got stuff coming up: another cardio appointment for Eden, Thanksgiving followed quickly by Christmas and then another semester of school with me taking on different responsibilities at the school. I thought with three kids in school I might have more free time and I was definitely wrong. I'll have to reconsider taking on stuff in the future because like I said, I'm not loving being this busy. I'm exhausted. I'm always worried that today my migraine meds won't work or I'll forget to take them (I seriously check a couple times a day that I did in fact take it).
It's fine. Everything is fine. I've got a great tribe that shows up for me when I need them. The next few weeks look great. Thanksgiving! My Birthday! (same day, actually) Our game night group outing to see Die Hard at the Paramount! Being able to sleep in when the kids are out of school for the Christmas holidays! And holiday baking! It'll be great. Let's get to it.
Hopefully it won't take me another four months to check in again but if it does...well, maybe I'll have some really interesting things to tell you. ;-)
