Category: around here

What a treat to see Megan, one of my best ever friends, on Saturday. Even better to meet her at the home of Becky and Dan, longtime family friends of ours, and to feel so welcomed despite the suddenness of our descent. And we do not arrive quietly.

Megan lives in Nashville now, and I miss her dearly. So when I found out that she would be in Austin briefly (less than a 3-hour drive away) my plans were made. The kids and I hopped in the car – well, after two hours of packing and preparation, I don’t mean to make us sound so carefree – and we were there a little after nine. We spent the day chatting and playing and relaxing outside and snacking and exploring the creek. It was perfect.

Here is one difference between my kids. Right before we went to the creek Meredith fell in the backyard and got a teeny tiny scrape on her leg. Well, for the next hour she “couldn’t walk” and spent the first half of our time at the creek sitting in the chair. Liam, while at the creek, ran all over the place, slipped and fell face first multiple times, and only shook his head and laughed. But they both ended up having the best time and could have spent all day throwing rocks into the water.

Around seven that evening, after stopping for burgers and fueled with a cup of ice cream for the road, we got in the car to return home. Meredith fell asleep before she could even finish her treat, and I happily did the task for her and enjoyed the calm ride home. They transferred easily to their beds and slept through the night.

Best.

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I’m excited to be participating in Week in the Life this week! Tomorrow I’ll begin to share our daily photos and words here on the blog. Hope you had a great weekend!

The first thing that comes to my mind as I sit down to write is: it’s hot. I hear talk around me of teachers and kids getting ready for school, and aren’t Christmas trees out in some of the stores? but here summer has just hit its stride.

Also, our air conditioner is broken again. It seems to be something pretty major this time so we have gotten three different opinions, and now I think we must bite the bullet. I’ll be honest, I have shed some tears over this as it is a heavy financial burden and that’s something I’m anxious about anyway. But all we can do is all we can do and we will just try our best to make progress and make good decisions in the future.

I remain sleep deprived. We have refused to let Meredith start the night in our bed, but every night this week putting her to bed seemed to take longer and involved more tears. Last night was the worst yet and I am on the verge of giving up. The kids woke me before 6 both days this weekend and before 5 today. I tried hard (and failed, I think) not to be too grumpy about it. I am thinking back to the days just a couple of months ago when I was waking at 4:30 a.m. before work and loving it. I am not sure what to do.

Despite those things, we have been having fun. A haircut for Liam, splash pad, library, drawing, visiting the grandparents. Meredith drew the first semi-recognizable picture of a person I’ve ever seen her do. She explained what she was drawing, and it started with a huge, oblong circle. “This is your big ole head,” she said.

The cats are everywhere, everywhere. Although I think they, too, are a bit hot because I’ve been able to catch them lounging more often than usual. Today Ziggy cuddled calmly on my lap and I was so happy. Usually they are over-aggressive with their need for cuddles and attention, and they end up biting.

Oh! David and I had an at-home date night yesterday. His parents watched the kids after church and we decided to start watching True Detective. Have you seen it? There are only eight episodes so we thought it was possible we could get through it. It’s definitely more my husband’s taste, but so far it’s pretty good and not too creepy. The best part of the date was that I got to eat a ton of ice cream and not share any.

Hopefully by the end of the week the house, at least, will be cooler.

My friend Lauren got Meredith a ticket to the zoo for her birthday. On Monday I took the day off and we went; just the girls. She wanted to wear her zebra-print shorts to match the zebras. It was hot, but there was enough shade and air conditioned exhibits to make it bearable. We stayed for over five hours. There was a chimp lying on his back holding his foot and eating. It was so lazy and great. The gorillas came so close to us. They had such kind, sad eyes.

Meredith played on all the playgrounds and rode the carousel and pet the goats. We packed a picnic lunch and got ice cream for a treat. We saw the elephants get a bath and the sea lions put on their show. We loved every minute of it, and then Meredith took a solid nap and I loved that too. This girl of mine will take an experience over a toy any day. Makes me so happy.

I’m not sleeping well. It’s been a problem for awhile now. The combination of Meredith staying up too late and Liam waking up all night (because if he’s not sick, he’s teething) is getting to me. Sometimes I feel like my whole life would be perfect if only the kids would sleep in their own beds and I could get a decent night’s sleep.

How would you tackle it, if you had a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old who have slept in bed with you all their lives? And you have gone to sleep at the same time as them that whole time? And your 1-year-old still nurses at night? And the crib and the twin bed are in the same room? Because I need a plan.

Other than the sleep issue, we are chuggin’ along. We’re basically in hibernation mode because the heat is unbearable. The kids have watched more Daniel Tiger than is probably healthy. We had a friend and her son over for a mid-week dinner – something we rarely do – but it was so great. All the toys were suddenly fun again, like they were playing with them for the first time. Really they were just showing off. Meredith talked in detail about all of her birthday presents, and Liam was hamming it up playing Peekaboo and carrying the cats everywhere and just generally being crazy.

I’m a few weeks into a weight lifting program, and it’s going well. I’m sore all the time though. I’ve also been going to yoga once a week consistently. Once I get the routine down a bit more, I’m planning to add running back into my schedule. Do any of you have a Fitbit? I’ve had it for work for a year (we have to wear it to get lower insurance premiums) and it’s not nearly as motivating to me as I expected it to be. I rarely make my goal of 10,000 steps per day no matter how many challenges I join. My father-in-law routinely hits 20,000 steps per day and it’s kind of sickening. Obviously, the Fitbit works for him.

I joined Snapchat. It makes me feel like an idiot/a hundred years old, but I persevere. The username “kapachino” was taken (WHO ARE YOU??) so I’m “kapachinoblog” over there. Also, when I first signed up someone was already using it under my email address so that was weird and I totally commandeered their profile. Anyway, you’ll probably see mostly random stuff of my kids and cats if you follow my story. (Is that the right lingo? I don’t even know.) Also, Periscope. Are we doing Periscope now?

I have some fun plans this weekend. A social gathering for quilters on Instagram, dessert with a friend, and book club. I also started cutting fabric for Meredith’s quilt this week, so maybe I can make some progress on that. I sort of set up my week in the life album and I’m getting excited for that project.

Let’s discuss: how to get my kids out of my bed, Snapchat, weekend plans.