The Highs and Lows of Fall

I really love Fall in New England and will do a post on it once the leaves finishing turning into their glorious fall colors. The weather is perfect, highs in the 70's, lows in the 50's.
But those aren't the high's and low's I'm talking about. I'm talking about the start of school. I am always anxious for school to start by the end of summer. I am ready to put an end to the endless negotiating over how much tv to watch (I usually end up giving up by the end of summer), the bored kids, tired of the constant noise. The start of school is a relief to all of that and those precious quiet hours are wonderful. I always forget, however, just how necessary that quiet time is to my sanity and to be able to endure the after school craziness!
The start of school not only brings home tons of paperwork, pto forms, open houses, etc. etc. but it is also the start of Field Hockey season. Field Hockey literally takes over Diana's life with practices or games until 5 or later every afternoon. That actually will be the subject of another post as well, lots of drama with Field Hockey this year.
Anyway, it means that my only extra driver is too busy to help. Every day we have some sort of after school activity, Tae Kwan Do, saxophone lessons, scouts, homework, practicing and trying to fit dinner in somehow, orthodontist and dentist visits, it all makes me crazy at times! Garrett came last week wanting to add an afterschool flag football and Alyssa wants to start Tae Kwan Do but I just can't see how I can fit it in! As it is, I am resorting to teaching them piano lessons on Sunday afternoons. I usually prefer for them to take from someone else and I like my Sundays for rest, but there it is. I don't know how else we can do it...

Did I mention that Dave is out of town a lot in the fall??

Summer's Over

Okay, I've been a slacker for the last couple of months or however long it has been. I'm finally doing another blog post!

It was a very strange summer for me, being stuck in bed for a couple of months wasn't much fun and I couldn't drive until just about a month ago so I couldn't take the kids anywhere. I could, however, sit out with them at the pool. Thank Goodness we have a pool or it would have been a miserable summer for us all!

I never thought I would feel that way about a pool. I really didn't want one, it just happened to come with the house that we wanted. There were too many stories of people we knew whose child or grandchild drowned or nearly so in their backyard pool for me to feel comfortable with it. It does have a fence around it but I still get a bit nervous.

What I didn't realize is just how much we would enjoy the pool! It is great during the summer months when the kids are bored and watching too much tv. I just say "Let's go swimming!" and we head outside for hours at a time, quite often inviting a friend or two to join us. It's a great way to entertain too. A cookout and swim party is much easier than a more formal dinner party. It has been used this summer by our branch several times too: youth activities, a young women float and flick (they watched Jaws), and a primary activity.

Our children all swim really well too, except for Emma who is still learning. Last summer she wouldn't even get in the pool and screamed through her swim lessons. This summer she swam all over with her vest on and even went off the diving board and slide. The last couple of times in the pool Jenna helped her swim without the vest and she is getting it!

Here are some of our favorite swim pictures from this summer: