five people twelve times – september 2011

Better late than never.  I really had good intentions, I swear.  In fact, I actually did my hair and left the house with my camera a few times, with the intentions of taking our monthly shot.  But it never felt right.  This exercise is not to force a family shot, but to celebrate my family.  This morning, we were all piled into our bed cuddling, and it did feel right.  I grabbed my camera from the kitchen and put it on the dresser.  This is the shot that I was after.

September went by in a flash.  Seriously, I am not sure where it went.  Kansas is so gorgeous right now.  All of the leaves on the trees are golden and red.  The air is beginning to crisp, and it looks like a nursery threw up mums and pumpkins on my street.  People really go to town decorating for Halloween around here.  I cannot even imagine what Christmas is going to look like.  Halloween is not my holiday.  I like cute Halloween, but not scary, and I really do not do much for it.  I decorate a little for fall, but I really see Halloween as the thing standing in my way of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is the holiday that I look forward to all year.  I love everything about it.  No pressure, no presents, just good friends and family, and a huge meal.

The kids are wonderful.  They are doing so well in school.  Ava in particular loves school.  I work in her classroom on Tuesdays and it is so fun to see her in her element.  She seems so big and sassy at home, but once you put her in a room of kids her own age, she looks so little.  William is having a much better year this year.  He is more responsible and seems to really like being at school.  The homework here is much more manageable and I think that it makes a huge difference.  They have a really long school day, and I am grateful that there are less fights once he gets home.  Clay is no longer a baby.  No more diapers, and finally, no more pacifier.  I was scared to death to take it away from him, but it sort of happened organically.  We lost a bunch and were down to 2.  The dog chewed on one, and Clay threw it away.  One night, he lost it and was sad, we did the middle of the night-half asleep-pappy search and we could not find it anywhere.  He whined for about 2 minutes, and that was the end of it.  Sometimes, I forget that they will be able to do things on their own, when they are ready.  I really wanted to take it away earlier, but I am thankful that I did not push the issue.  I know that if I didn’t wait until he was ready, it would have been drama filled and harder for all of us.

As for me, September was pretty good.  I can’t really tell you what I did, but it seems like it was good.  I have been working a lot, and love what I do.  I am ready to make some changes though.  I need to push myself more.  Maybe change my look a bit.  I am ready to move to the next step.  Stay tuned.