The last couple mornings it's been 59 when I wake up, the air clear and a little crisp, and I've been taking my coffee to the back porch. Summer seems to have just run off the stage all of a sudden, like Napoleon Dynamite when the music stopped during his dance routine. A week ago yesterday I was in the pool after school with Joey and Thomas. Thomas and I were floating around together, the water was a perfect 88 degrees, and it was great! until Joey started crying because something had stung him. I hurriedly dried off and went inside with them. I didn't know it at the time, but that was my last opportunity to enjoy the pool on a hot day this year. It's bittersweet because as much as I love fall, I wasn't quite ready for summer to end.

With Thomas's nap schedule so unpredictable, and him consuming my attention when he's awake, it's been very difficult to get any blogging done, but it feels like time for an update. He's worn out from his ISR swim lesson, and might last another few minutes napping in his car seat on my bed.

Thomas is 16 months old, and he has added opening doors to his list of skills. We have the knobs you don't even need thumbs for, you just push down, so it was only a matter of him getting tall enough to do it. (He's kind of on the smaller side.) He loves being read to, and will hand me the same book again and again to read. Good Morning, Farm Friends is his current favorite; it's one of his Imagination Library books. His favorite page is is the one that reads, "But rooster has a job to do--cock-a-doodle-doo!" I love his excited gibberish when he's anticipating that part. He also loves Rescue Squad No. 9. There's the part that says "Go-go-go!" He says that as he's trying to hand me the book. I never know where I'll find the laundry room hamper anymore; he pushes it all over the house. His mop of curls gets crazier looking all the time, but I won't get him a haircut yet because I'm worried that once the curls are gone they won't grow back. That's what Carolyn tells me happened after Tim's first haircut. I do take him every so often for a bang trim so he can see.

You can see the mattress in the photo above as well. That is what we have in lieu of a crib because this spoiled baby has never slept in one. I nurse him to sleep every night on that mattress, and then take him into our bed with me when he wakes up an hour or two later. Rachael from 10 years ago would be absolutely appalled by this. To my younger slack-jawed self I would say, "You did what you had to do then; I do what I have to do now, and I've decided that I've got to get all the baby snuggles I can while they last. He's got the whole rest of his life to sleep independently." *

Our weeks are full and sometimes hectic, and our weekends have turned into pretty much a whirlwind. I think we're a little overscheduled at this point, something we (especially I) have always been against. We've always said every kid gets one extracurricular, and that's more than enough with five kids. But when it comes to Joey, he is still so open to trying new sports that we just want to take full advantage of this sampling period that we get with him for however much longer it lasts. This fall the new thing he wanted to try was flag football, and that season overlaps with baseball, which is already time-consuming. But again, for now he seems to like everything; Tim feels like that needs to be encouraged, and I grudgingly agree. 

Timmy's still on the travel soccer team, he likes it, and it gets him out of the house on a regular basis. Unlike Joey, his friends don't live in the neighborhood; he interacts with them mostly through a screen. It's not what I would consider ideal, but it's how it is, and Timmy's perfectly happy with that. Tim takes him to his away games, which are usually within a two-hour radius. I have to say, after some bumpy years with him as a little boy, I see a more mature personality beginning to take shape; he's really pleasant, with an agreeable disposition and a good sense of humor. He's been overall more patient with his brother (Joey) too, which is really good to see. Our only troubles these days come when his keen sense of what's fair clashes with whatever my agenda happens to be at the time. 

The girls are both doing something new this year: Annie cheerleading and Delaney marching band. They have both been working their tails off since July with so many practices and skills to learn, and I admire their dedication. They didn't get it from me. You know I'm not really a sports fan, but I do go to games here and there to see them. I'm a huge dork about it too, sitting really close, smiling and waving, and taking awkward pictures and videos. Would I even be their mother if I weren't doing these things?

I did not take this picture. I screenshotted it from the team's Instagram Stories.

Not to mention, Tim and I have extracurriculars ourselves. He's got the school board--his last year doing that, and that's good. That's been kind of a big commitment, and in addition to meetings they give him homework, which he doesn't like. I have decided to take on a little more volunteering, this time in youth ministry. I want to be alongside Annie these next two years as she prepares for Confirmation, as well as see if I can be of any help to our parish's fledgling program. Last year I don't think I could have spared the extra couple of hours, with Thomas being so little; but we're in a bit of a different place this year, and I have just a little more flexibility.

I find downtime wherever I can, and read whenever I get a few minutes. My sister Grace recently told me about a book recommendation from a podcaster and blogger we both like. The book, which was very popular about 10 years ago was  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I must not have been in the right frame of mind the first time I tried to read it a long time ago. It's entirely in the form of letters among friends, and it seems to start in the middle of an ongoing conversation. I was like 'what is this?' and I lost patience quickly and gave up. A few days ago I gave it another try after my sister told me about it, and almost got stuck on the first three pages again, but I'm so glad I kept going! It keeps getting better and better. I'm a quarter of the way through, and it's such a fun historical fiction read. Historical fiction is not usually what I would describe as fun. The best would be to curl up under a blanket on a rainy, cold day to read this book.

On the horizon is our long weekend in the mountains next month, and then a long visit from Tim's parents, along with a not as long visit from Karen and Matt. We're looking forward to all of it.

*Just don't ask us how that's going with seven-year-old Joe.