New Routines

Now that we are fully into school mode, we're having to make adjustments to our various routines, for better or worse.  I've found that our (my) mornings (6 a.m.-8 a.m.) are a bit more hectic, as are the evenings (5 until 7).  Plus, on the days that Kate and I take Anna in to school, we usually are running errands or doing some morning activities until lunch time.  Then there's not much time before we end up leaving to go get Anna.  On the days that Matt takes Anna in, Kate and I get to either lazy around for a bit at home, or try to get a bunch of stuff done at home.  Either way, it's just different from what life has been for the past several years.

Kate has made a new buddy lately during the day.  Shadow LOVES Kate's bed, for some reason, and will often snuggle up with Kate for awhile when Kate is resting.

School is still going great for Anna.  We've done the quick first-time-parent-of-a-kindergartener check-in with her teacher, and all seems well.  Anna really loves going to school every day and seems to be soaking up all kinds of good things.  She willing shares all sorts of things that make her feel good during the day and the only events that seem to bother her so far are when other kids get in trouble.  She also seems to be making some good connections with other kids in her class.  We are very thankful to be blessed with such a wonderful start to the school year.

Kate and I are working hard on harvesting still.  Last week we canned tomatoes, tomato juice, two batches of applesauce (not our apples, though :(, and some more plums.  Matt dug the second round of potatoes on Saturday and I have more tomatoes in the fridge and on the vines to deal with, in addition to more plums on the tree.  It's just hard to find the right time to do some of this preserving now with school starting and baby boy making me more and more tired by the end of the day.

Kate and I had a nice week last week, also, with her school year activities.  She gets to go to story time at our local library with some kids she knows on Tuesdays, music class with Miss Debbie on Wednesdays, and then we both head over to church for women's Bible Study on Thursday  mornings.  Kate did pretty well with all of those activities last week, but she certainly has a hard time saying good-bye to me.  So on Sunday we had Anna drop Kate off for Sunday School after church :)  That worked well :)

This past weekend was the McFarland Family Festival and we headed into town to enjoy parts of it on Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday we spent time at a Dave Landau show (the girls still love to seem him perform ... they're regular groupies),

checked out some exhibits (Anna's confidence never ceases to amaze us - here she is holding a snake!),

and rode some carnival rides (with Matt, by themselves, and then again together).

 

Sunday the girls and I went to the homecoming parade.  Fun times.  And now we're into another week!  Life is just rolling right along.