A Great Fall

We went to our ward's harvest dinner last Thursday, but I wasn't feeling amazing after eating, so we went home after only an hour. I won't feel bad about it either. Sometimes, parties are just too dang long.

We did playdates on both Friday and Saturday (Navy, Blakely) because it felt really important to see everyone. I'm really glad I did both. It was really good to see my friends and remember, once again, that I'm not the only one struggling through mom life.

We started our fall movie marathon on Saturday evening. We're doing Marvel this year, our 9 favorites, and then all the Spiderman movies after, a total of 19 movies. I don't care if it's silly, but it makes me excited for fall. I love that the older boys like the same fandoms that James and I do.

The kids had a lockdown at school (no one was hurt) on Tuesday so I didn't volunteer, and the temple is closed, so the past few days have been kind of quiet. I used that time to finish my digitizing project, including sharing links with relatives for pictures, videos, audio, etc. It feels really good to have that done, just in time to paint the master bathroom next week. It'll be a little more work than the small bathroom, but it won't be so claustrophobic either.

James and I did our date last night. We got some burgers and ran a few errands. This afternoon, we're going to a community carnival.

I've been reading a book called Introvert Power, and I'm really grateful James got it for me. It's been enlightening. I have noticed that since school started, I've been feeling a lot more peaceful at home since I have a lot of time to myself. I've been able to reflect on lots of things and make some small tweaks to my schedule to make it work better and get more done. I don't know what the future holds, but I'm happy to be here at home right now.

I'm not happy about it being cold enough to wear socks for most of the day. :(

Down, Busy

For the past week and a half, the internet has been down somewhat. Our download speed was okay, but our upload speed was horrible, like .01 mbps. That meant we could watch TV okay most of the time, but trying to do any online shopping or uploading photos was either horribly slow or impossible. It really bothered me because I wanted to finish uploading some pictures to FamilySearch, but I couldn't without it timing out. I just finished today when I noticed the internet was finally working again. I'm officially done with all the old pictures. All I have left from my parents' house are 9 cassette tapes, most of which won't have anything special on them. I have the software ready to go to convert them to digital. I did cry when I had to re-set up the printer. It took me 3 hours and felt like such a huge waste of time.

James and I went to see the movie Reagan last Thursday. I liked it, but I'm not sure how much of it was true. I wasn't there when he was president. ;)

Katie started doing basketball 1-2 times a week. It's been a little crazy to add that in to what we already have, but she seems to like it so far. Joseph is in the robotics and e-sports clubs at school.

Saturday, I wasn't feeling super motivated to do anything, so I set a timer to work on sewing for an hour. I ended up spending 3 hours cutting up scraps, doing repairs, and organizing all my supplies. I need some tan thread to finish up 2 more hems, and then I'm done for a while. Sewing will never be my first love, but I appreciate it a lot more than I did 15 years ago.

We cleaned the church on Monday, and then James had a meeting afterward. Tuesday and Wednesday were both busy with activities for kids, and then I messed up our Wednesday evening a little by thinking we had tithing declaration when it was scheduled for a week later. Oops. I felt really bad, but it's not like I did it on purpose.

James and I have both been kind of tired since school started. The kids have already brought home 2 viruses, and it seems like we catch them all, even if the symptoms end up being mild. I hope this winter is better than the last few. I just don't recover from stuff as quickly as I used to.

Samantha's 6th Birthday, Labor Day

Samantha and I went to a play date on Friday, so that was nice. It's so hard to keep up with friends. Someone is always sick or busy. Samantha's birthday was nice. We had breakfast for dinner, strawberry ice cream, and strawberry shortcake. She loved her giant squishmallow, which was the main present.

We've been thinking about putting in a back door that would lead right to the patio. I thought it would be pretty straightforward, but we need an unusual size of door. Lowe's couldn't help and neither could Amazon, so we got a quote from a local place. I asked them a few follow up questions about it, so I hope they get back to me soon. We're still not sure if we'll be doing it or not. The quote with labor and glass included is outside of the budget we set.

We had a good Labor Day. For me, the perfect Saturday or holiday involves a small project, a meal out with James, and some time to relax. We accomplished just that by getting breakfast at Denny's, buying a cozy rug for the cabin (and getting rid of the big freezer), and then relaxing. We also watched Newsies with the kids.

It's been a pretty normal week. I scanned all the slides for the Heads and found some amazing pictures from 1996 when James went to Mexico and Ecuador. I'd assumed that these were the same pictures as prints from that year, but I was wrong, so I'm glad I took the time to scan them all. I finished a bunch of old pictures from my parents' house, and now I'm working on photos old enough that they're going straight to Family Search.

It's September, so I feel like it's officially fall. We've had some cooler evenings and haven't had to use the AC too much. I made my first batch of pumpkin muffins (one of the only pumpkin things I actually like) and some bread. My schedule right now is full enough that I haven't had time to get bored, and Katie starts basketball today, so that's new.