Laundry Thoughts

Few things fill me with rage faster than realizing that the clothes I'm pulling out of the hamper were never worn.  Normally I would just put them back up in the kids' closets or drawers, except now they've been sitting with dirty underwear and socks piled on top of them, so that's just too gross.  This happened the other day with Camille: she'd gotten dressed for church, and then I pointed out that she wore that dress last week, so she should wear something different today.  I found both dresses in the hamper Monday morning.  I also recently discovered about five pairs of pants belonging to Bentley.   I'd just done laundry the day before, so I knew there was no way he'd worn all that in 24 hours. I asked him what was going on and he just shrugged: "Those don't fit me any more."

So I-- as calmly and rationally as I could manage-- explained to him that if the CLEAN CLOTHES in his drawer don't fit, all he needs to do is give them to Ryder.  If he throws them in the hamper, what  happens is that I'll wash them and put them right back in his drawer again so he will not have accomplished his goal.  

But I shouldn't complain.  Bentley is my only child who actually puts his dirty clothes in the hamper without me having to nag him.

Why is this so difficult for everyone???  (And yes, I know, I really need to make my kids do their own laundry.  But it's one of the few chores I really don't (normally) mind doing and it's so easy for me to do it while they're at school...!)

P.S. Bentley's pants not fitting him reminds me-- he just passed Kendra in height!  She's been taller than him for at least 5 years now (all the "data" I have on this is from us marking the walls in our house), so this is the end of an era!  According to our pediatrician, he grew 4 inches this year!  Holy cow!

One of my favorite shots from our photo session!

Good News

I officially handed keys the to our condo over to our new tenant Thursday!  Whoosh!  I also had the carpets cleaned on Wednesday, and I spent Tuesday driving to two different Lowe's (Lowe'ses?) looking for the cheapest stainless steel dishwasher I could find to replace the broken one.  Technically, the condo was without a tenant for only four days (although it was empty for a few more than that, since our previous renters moved out a few days before their end date, and our new tenant moved in a couple days after his start date).  But we weren't losing money on it for most of the month, which is HUGE.  That's always the really scary thing about this business-- What if we can't find a tenant???-- and dealing with a change up in October made me more nervous, but it turns out that people move all year round, so I shouldn't have worried.

But still!  Big sigh of relief!

Now hopefully we can find the time to deal with all the stuff that is suddenly breaking in our own home...  It reminds me of that line about the shoemaker's kids going barefoot.  We've been pouring all our energy into the condo while our own garage door is suddenly only working sporadically and the clutch on Craig's car suddenly went out!  😬  And while I doubt any of that will be fun or cheap to fix, at least we can take care of it knowing we're not also bleeding money on the condo!

Keeping Busy

We've continued to have gorgeous weather here.  The nights are getting longer, but the days are still warm and the leaves have barely started to turn.  But this morning it was a brisk 46℉ as we walked to the bus stop, so things are definitely cooling down.  But still, I've been enjoying it, especially as it bounces back into the 70s during the day!

I LOVE seeing pretty sunrises while we're at the bus stop!

I feel like I've been really busy, but then every so often I'll have a day with not much going on, and it sort of surprises me how time can fly by that ISN'T filled!  So some of the things I've been up to:

-Trying to get the primary kids ready for the primary program.  It's so hard to get people to memorize stuff!  And we've also been trying to learn to sing "I am a Child of God" in Spanish, which has been challenging.  It helped when Craig figured out that the rhythm of the first line is different in Spanish, but the whole thing is a bit tricky.  Anyway, this is one of those callings that seems so easy when you're not the one doing it, but when you're up there waving your arms around in front of people, it's hard not to suddenly become self conscious and wonder if you're doing everything wrong...  

-Getting our condo ready for a new renter.  Our tenants just moved out (after two and a half years, when they only signed a 6-month lease!) and we've been frantically listing it on Zillow, fielding requests for information, and showing it.  And now-- even more work-- getting it all cleaned and painted.  I've been doing most of the internet/Zillow stuff, Craig has been doing the painting and fixing up.  And while he's hard at work, I run around to Lowe's and our house getting him whatever paint, tools, and food that he needs.  I think I spent four hours driving on Friday!  But he got the master bedroom repainted so now it's a light grey instead of a dark brown, which is a HUGE improvement.  Especially since that room only has one medium-sized window, it really should never have been painted such a dark color.  And we just signed a new renter yesterday, so the condo will have only been empty for four days, so that's pretty fantastic.  Go team!  I also got to tour the Lowe's in the area finding the dishwasher I wanted, and I hung out at the condo for a couple hours yesterday while the carpets were cleaned.  It's a lot.

-Meanwhile, I'm also getting all ready to reupholster my dining room chairs.  These belonged to Craig's Grandmere and they were in such perfect condition when we got them.  But they were covered in ivory fabric and we have NOT been kind to them.  (Craig even covered them in plastic when we first got them, but even that only lasted so long...)  They're at the point now where I'm embarrassed to let anyone else see them (let alone SIT on them!), so it's time.  I watched a YouTube video and it seemed pretty straightforward.  Then I went to Joann's to shop for fabric and I hated everything I saw and immediately felt overwhelmed and left.  I decided maybe I could just buy new chairs instead.  But when I complained about this to Adam, he told me I needed to go to a local fabric store, The Second Yard.  And he offered to help me.  Craig quickly intervened, explaining to Adam that "helping" me on a project such as this will actually mean he does all the work while I sit around talking to him and watching.  This is a fact.  It's how I wound up with super cute book slings (thanks Jen and Nina!) and how I got matching aprons for me and Kendra (you rock, Emma!).  Adam seemed okay with this, so after we picked out fabric (and he was right-- The Second Yard was AMAZING!), he sat down with me on Amazon and helped me order foam and dust cloth and all the other stuff we needed.  He's scheduled Nov. 2 for our big reupholstering day!  I can't wait!!!

-Still trying to get out and exercise on a regular basis!  I led FiA on Monday and we did a cardio-strength-yoga thing that I really enjoyed (which is, um, why I picked it, obviously).  I'm back to TRYING to run a couple days a week, too, but that's pretty hit or miss depending on what else I have scheduled.  It's a work in progress...

I look nuts, but I love everyone doing their yoga poses in the background!

-I also feel like I'm constantly taking kids to doctors appointments.  But no one is sick!  We've had Camille with an eye problem, Ryder getting his glasses and fixing his broken wrist, Kendra had a rash that wouldn't go away, and Bentley's yearly physical.  Plus orthodontist appointments, and Colton got his flu shot yesterday (all the rest got theirs during their appointments, so he was the only one left)...  It's been a lot.  How do working moms manage to do all this???

-And I've also been busy with my stake calling, although I keep hearing that I'll be released from that one soon.  On Saturday we had a roundtable discussion with all the relief society presidents in the area so they could chat and hear what everyone else does with issues that come up.  It feels nice to get them together to commiserate, if nothing else!  But we served them brunch and had to have things all organized and ready, and then the other counselor and secretary didn't show up, so I felt like I was the only person there helping Christine out.  I worry about how she'll get by without me!  (Craig pointed out that she'll just call another responsible counselor and she'll be fine.  And he's right.  But it's hard to not worry!)  And then we had regional training last night, which was REALLY good, but it was another two hours on Zoom, while Craig was doing tithing settlement in the basement also on Zoom and it is REALLY hard to also get kids in bed and clean up the kitchen and do all that at the same time.  Phew.

So, yes, October is busy.  So lovely!  But also busy!

I don't have anything planned for today while the kids are in school, so I'm thinking it might be a good time to make some granola...

Life Is Delicious

This last Saturday, Craig and I were excited to go on a date night and check out the new hamburger place that opened near us.  It was supposed to open in April or so of 2020, so obviously that didn't happen.  We weren't sure it was even still in the works (a LOT of restaurants that were planning on opening in that area have had to pull out), but Craig noticed a "Now Open" signs so this was one that came through!

The new place is called BurgerFi and it is very clearly trying to look like Shake Shack.  Same colors, they both sell "concretes," you get the idea.  Unfortunately, BurgerFi is possibly more expensive than the Shake Shack, but certainly not as good.  It may actually be fancier than Shake Shack, but I didn't like it any better.  So until we get a Shake Shack, but I'll probably just stick to Five Guys or Citizen Burger Bar.

So that was a bit of a bummer.  It would have been fun to have had a really amazing burger place really close to our house.

But as we were leaving, we could see into the side of another shop and it was clearly under construction.  We rounded the corner and got in front of it enough to see what it's going to be and we literally gasped in delight:

Just when I thought Charlottesville couldn't get any better!

In all fairness, I should explain a bit: Charlottesville DOES have a Coldstone, but it's nearly 20 minutes away from our house and it's TINY.  This means you can't really sit in the store to eat your ice cream, but by the time you drive 20 minutes home, your ice cream is pretty melty and sad.  So that's less than ideal.  We also have Chaps, which is a FABULOUS ice cream shop, but it's on the downtown mall so you can't access it without parking your car (which is a pain) and then walking a few blocks.  That's fine in great weather, but if it's cold or rainy, then it's a less than ideal way to get ice cream.  (And YES, I still want ice cream even when it's cold and rainy.  I'm no fair weather friend to my ice cream stores!)

This new Coldstone will be perfection.

I can hardly wait!

Sneak Peek

One of the things I learned during Hiking Club last year, was that Adam takes really good pictures.  This was further confirmed when he'd send me the occasionally picture from one of his weddings.  So, naturally, I asked him to do our family portraits for us, and he was very nice about agreeing to do so.  We picked a date-- October 17th-- and began discussing locations and what sort of poses I like.  Last year I just scrounged around in the kids' closets for outfits that would work, so this year I'd promised myself that I would actually BUY clothes.  So I poked around on Amazon and ordered stuff I thought would work together (and would hopefully fit my kids).  I was so proud of myself for being really on top of things this year.

Because usually I wait until the weather is just turning cold and then remember that we need pictures and then I frantically start messaging everyone I know asking if they know any good photographers in the area and they're all already booked OR/AND they're insanely expensive and the whole thing tends to be a big mess.  

Cuz here's the thing: I LOVE LOVE LOVE having family portraits, but I HATE HATE HATE the process of actually taking them.  The whole thing is a stressful mess.  Leading up to it is stressful, and the actual day is stressful, because you need to get everyone ready, but really you also want to wait until the last possible moment to get your kids dressed so they have less time to ruin their outfits.  It's all hard.

So it was nice feeling like I had all my ducks in a row for once!

Then last Friday night Adam texted me from a wedding pointing out that if we hurried, we could get our pictures while the wildflowers were in bloom at Pippin Hill.  And those wildflowers are so pretty...

So suddenly our picture date went from being October 17th to October 5th.  I went from being in really good shape to being pretty, um, desperate?  (And we were lucky to even be able to make that work, since normally Craig, Bentley and Kendra would have had youth night!  But it just happened to be canceled that week.)  The dress I'd ordered for myself wasn't supposed to show up until the 10th, so I frantically ordered four more and hoped one of them would get here in time and look okay.  I sent Craig out shopping with Bentley since the shirt I'd ordered for him was way too big.  I managed to get a haircut THAT MORNING (and miracle of miracles the girl did a fantastic job, too!).  I pulled everything together so fast.

We took pictures Tuesday evening.  Adam sent us a couple, just from what he took on his phone:

Craig was bummed that he has crazy eyes in this shot

I'm so happy.

They may be a lot of work and stress, but oh, man, I love having family portraits SO MUCH.

October Autumn

We are hitting the ground running this month!  On the first day of October, I had scheduled a doctor's appointment for Camille (she has a small lump on her eyelid that isn't going away), but when Ryder fell off the swings the day before and his arm still hurt the next morning, I managed to get him in at the same time as Camille so the doctor could confirm our suspicions: he'd broken his wrist.  (Womp, womp.)  The good news is that it's a pretty simple buckle fracture, so all he needs is a splint for 3 weeks and then he should be good as new.  Just wearing it in the splint he felt better almost immediately!  So yay for young bones that heal quickly!  This is the first time one of our kids has broken a bone, so that's kind of crazy.

(And the doctor didn't know what to make of Camille's eyelid and referred us to an ophthalmologist.)

Waiting to get an x-ray

I finally bit the bullet and agreed to lead another FiA workout.  I knew I'd be kayaking later in the morning, so I made heavily focused the workout on leg and cardio exercises.  Everyone wanted to kill me.  But the joke was on me-- instead of working hard kayaking up the James River, we ended up just paddling around Walnut Creek, so I definitely didn't need to "save" my arms for that!  Oh, well.  It's still good to work those leg muscles!

It is HARD to take group selfies in the dark!

And we're still enjoying kayaking!

Pretty sunrise as I wait for the bus to pick up my elementary school kids!

This is Craig with Megan and Melissa, who he worked with his first year at Albemarle High School.  Megan is his boss now, and Melissa had popped by to help with testing, so they were excited to have this little reunion!

Ryder and Owen and a mystery kid (?) at recess. (One of the perks of having two of my neighbors work at my kids' school is that I get little glimpses of what they get up to at school!  Thanks for this one, Ginna!)

We also celebrated Grandpa's birthday!  We had a yummy dinner at Taste of China and then the big kids played a game that Grandpa brought while I put the little kids to bed (as you can see, Ryder just barely managed to eek himself into the Big Kids category!