Goodbye September

I love fall energy.  I love October.  September was a BIG month!  I returned work.  Isaac started school. Lilah started school AND nursery.  Our Nanny started 3 days week.  I went all day mountain biking! We started our first evening kids activity.  We had two family birthdays, and my Aunt visited from the states.  And, I got cold-zilla, which makes sense when reading through all of this.

But everything is going fine.  House move projects continue.  The babies have their new baby room.  My office is much improved.  We got TWO rooms painted in the house and they look so much better.

September Goals Review

Finish kids bedroom move. Done! All kids are in their correct new bedrooms

Run one Parkrun 5k. This has hit two stumbling blocks.  
    1: The kids now have swimming every Saturday at 9:45am and the parkrun starts at 9am and I don’t have enough time to run and get home and get kids to swimming.  But actually, if Andy takes kids to swimming, and someone comes and sits in our house with sleeping babies, I should have just enough time to get home before babies wake up. It is feasible, if not easy.  I had a goal to run four this year and I’ve done two, so I think two more in three months should hopefully be manageable.
    2: Coldzilla.  'Nuff said

1 Rachel Thing – my best Rachel thing was my ladies mountain biking day! But also, work is a Rachel thing, and I get to do it four days a week.  I also got a pedicure.

Figure out a regular and sustainable exercise routine.  LOLZ! Once a week is both regular and sustainable… but also, blech.  I want more exercise.  Also, work may have significantly impacted my routine.  I started back on the 17th.  I got sick on the 22nd.  

Improve Personal Organizational System this sounds random and big but basically it was “chose a planner and stick with it!”.  I was using a outdated Ashley Shelley for most of the year (it was 2023) but the daily pages became a bit much, and also being slightly out of synch with the actual days or dates started to annoy me.  I ordered a weekly Ashley Shelley on super discount and it turns out that I don’t need a personal weekly planner and did not like using it at all.  I have also learned that I like a spiral bound planner so I can have it open all the time.  

I liked Erin Condren a lot before babies but it was so BIG.  I have a really lovely dot grid notebook which I might use to the end of the year.  I know it’s only a small barrier to entry, but having a book that I have to open seems to be the difference between me doing daily planning and not doing it.  Also it’s planner season and I want something cool for next year! But also, not something $100 cool.  Anyways, my improved system was that I sort of started daily planning in a blank notebook, but I wasn’t particularly routine about it, and I forgot a lot of things, and I also didn’t super *enjoy* it.

Maybe the goal should have been “Enjoy Personal Orgizational System” instead?

Also, as I open my daily blank notebook, I can see the last page I did was Friday the 27^th:

And I just saw that I wrote “order Isaac new shoes size 12.5” but I have not ordered him new shoes and I also forgot I wrote that note.  Also, I got excited thinking I had taken a nap on Friday where I wrote "AM Nap" But that's actually a list of things to do during the babies AM nap.  And in one hour I did actually make Quiche and Hummus and Chickpea Salad.  Andy made the bread.  No wonder I am always tired.

Update kids albums, family albums.  Done! And there was a 50% off sale so Lilah's 3-4 Album is printed as well! Even with 50% off the albums are still £55 each.  That’s a lot of album.

-----

These review posts are pretty handy because I was thinking this month is the worst and I've done nothing and been ill all month but actually I've done loads and been not ill most of the month.  I'm just ill right now.  memories are weird.

Also, I will do a house update post, but I have made massive improvements to office project.  Just to recap, I lost my office when I moved the big kids into my former office.  Then we moved the babies into the former big kids room, and then Andy started moving his office into the former baby room.  When he's moved out we will have the same number of rooms and office rooms, but just in different rooms than before (kids/babies are in the 2 biggest rooms. Offices are now in the smallest rooms.

Worst day of shared office:

Current (in progress) state of my new office:

"What will you do with that peloton shaped space?" Andy asked.  

Hmm.....

How was September for you?  Do you like moving furniture around your house?  If you don't like moving furniture around, do you at least like how it looks once moved?

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep, Food Plan

Babies on the stairs! Up Up and away.

My first full week of work started with me coming down with cold-zilla. I basically haven't been ill for the last 11 months, except for one bout of mastitis in December where the vomiting started at 7:30pm and ended at 2am when it was time to do my 2am onward baby care shift.  I think I finally got ill on Monday because I actually had time to get ill.  I took a 90 minute nap at 3pm, but I had to be better at 5pm so I could do dinner and kid bedtimes etc.  For the rest of the week I have basically had EVERY cold symptom that exists. Sore Muscles, headache, tiredness, upset stomach, digestion problems, inability to sleep, shivers, one hand is cold, runny nose, sore throat.  

I don't mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist here but if I was to genetically engineer the perfect cold then whatever I have is definitely that.  I don't remember colds completely wiping me out when I was younger.  Then again, I probably had more capacity for being completely wiped out while younger. 

Anyways, this week was mostly feeling rubbish while still having to do all the kid things.  It's way easier to feel terrible in work than it is to feel terrible while watching kids, but my brain feels super dumb now and I hope that I can get back to regularly scheduled thinking soon.

Reading

I finished Spitting Gold and it was a perfect start of fall read.  

I started reading You Only Die Once and I think it's good but I need to actually pay attention, which is not the headspace I'm in right now.

Sports

I did leg day with my gym buddy on Thursday because I do not miss leg day gym buddy.  I am still sore 4 days later from doing a few sets of lightly weighted squats and I think this because of cold-zilla.  Otherwise, it was survival week.

Sleep

I have averaged 7.75 hours of sleep, which is good but also probably a sign of not being well.  Also, I started randomly waking up at night (hello woman entering her 40s life??! or perhaps nearing the end of nursing babies life??! either way, I blame hormones) which you can see in my time log:

Luckily the awake time helped me get some more reading time!

Food Plan

Sunday: Tacos
Monday: Veggie Burgers, Chips and Sweet Corn
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Quinoa Enchilada Bake
Wednesday: Nanny cooks dinner (fingers crossed this works well!)
Thursday: Freezer Curry & Naan
Friday: Macaroni and Cheese

We are trying to adjust our family schedule a bit with dinner at 6pm instead of 5:30.  So far we have had OK success with two days at 5:45.  I need to stop eating meals at toddler time and am trying to move my lunch from 11:30 to 12:30 with the addition of snack.

Also, I am on a vegetable lull.  Isn't now the vegetable time?  Shouldn't I be enjoying a bountiful harvest of veg (as reflected in affordability at the store?).  Instead I think I am just eating endless broccoli.

Misc from the blog-o-sphere

San does an awesome link list every month.  September is as awesome as usual.  Especially her link to sheet pan gnocchi meals.  I love sheet pan gnocchi and need to eat it more. 

I loved Elisabeth's post on Clean, Neat, Both or Neither.  Comments are gold too!  Thanks for the admission Elisabeth.

Jenny lives in Florida and loves pumpkins. I also love pumpkins, and I love people who write about pumpkin love.  Many of her recent posts have been pumpkin gold.  

-----

I am excited to be at the end of September.  I am ready for October.  Bring on pumpkins.  Let's get rid of this dumb coldzilla.

Sit at the table - some thoughts after one week of work.

My work has offered me a return to work online course and workbook.  The course includes some Ted Talks.  The most recent module I completed included Sheryl Sandberg's 2010 Ted Talk 

Her talk had 3 main points, which also form the core of her book Lean In:

1. Sit At The Table

2. Make Your Partner a Real Partner

3. Don't Leave Before You Leave

Last week I emailed the new director of the team I support and told her that I used to sit in on leadership meetings with the old director, and could she please invite me if these were still happening.  I know my maternity cover had not been invited to these meetings.  Part of me thought I should wait until I was more up to speed to reach out.  I worried that it was presumptuous for me to ask to attend leadership.  

But then I realized, why not ask? What's the worst that happens?

She said of course I could come, and that she would send me invites.  But she did not.

So I emailed her assistant, with a screenshot of the conversation, and asked to be invited. Very quickly I was added to the meeting, which was happening that day.

I logged into the meeting and thought I should do the teams thing where I keep my camera off... the hiding in the background form of teams attendance.  But I had *just* listened to this ted talk.  "Sit At The Table" I thought.  So I put on some lipstick (instant teams video improvement), turned my camera on and looked at the screen.  I nodded at the appropriate time.  I said hello to the people I hadn't seen since I went on maternity.

The team leaders, and the new director, saw me at this meeting.  I doubt anyone thought "why is Rachel here?" I imagine they thought "I'm glad Rachel is back"

One of my goals for the next year is to sit at the table.  I want to be in meetings where important things happen.  I want to be a part of decisions. I want people to think "this is important, this is complicated, Rachel should be here".

I have reached out to a woman in our parents network, who has 3 kids and is a grade above me.  I had a chat with the woman who got the job I applied for last year, to find out more about how it's going.  I have requested a call with the director I support.  I'm planning on getting a coffee with the director I used to support when I'm next in the office.  I have so many avenues I want to explore, not for "networking" but because I am actually so curious.  How has everyone else's year been?  What is the D&I team doing to encourage women, and recent mothers, into leadership? How are the company values being continually shared and implemented?  I want to have a million conversations about all of it.

I knew I would be excited to be back in work, but I was worried I would feel conflicted.  There is so much talk about work-life balance.  If I wanted balance, I would spend the next 10 months in work 24/7.  I don't want that, but I definitely feel like being in work right now *is* balance.  Wanting to drive a career forward at the exact time that I return from my last maternity leave *is* balance.  I haven't been driving that hard over the last 6 years of baby-having.  I don't have to feel bad for wanting to progress now.

I don't have to feel bad for sitting at the table.

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep, Food Plan

We had a week of sun this week which ended with rain and now I'm totally into FALL.  I'm ready! There are 100 days left in the year today! I am wearing my light sweaters! I put throw blankets out downstairs.  I will soon do a smelly candle inventory and redistribute.  I should probably swap my duvet to the 9.5 tog one and the downstairs curtains to the heavy ones.  I love fall.

Also, I started work this week! On Tuesday! I cannot believe I get to go back to work again on Monday.  At 5pm  on Thursday I wasn't totally exhausted.  I was excited to come downstairs and see my lovely kids having a lovely time with the Nanny.  I've done big kids bedtimes with less "I can't do this, your turn Andy" endings.   I keep thinking how lucky I am that I get to go back to work on Monday *and* they even pay me to be there. I get paid to be less tired.  People are happy to see me.  I can go to the toilet whenever I want.  It's just... good.  

Reading

I just finished Summer Romance.  It's only the second book I finished this month.  I have given up on Olga Dies Dreaming.  So far this year I'm at 37 books.  I think Summer Romance officially ends my summer reading and now I'm into fall.  Fall is life improvement reading and advetnure fantasy.  

The following are on my fall list:

• Uptime by Laura Mae Martin
• You Only Die Once by Jodi Wellman
• The Plan by Kendra Adachi
• Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez

Fiction on my fall list:

• Trust by Hernan Diaz
• Spitting Gold by Carmella Lowkis
• The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
• Starter Villain by Jon Scalzi

I read some fantastic books this summer.  But I will pick Sandwich was the best book of the summer for me.  You can see my full booklist here, I started adding star ratings but I realized I enjoyed so many books!

Sports

Monday: Long walk in the woods with babies in baby carriers.

Tuesday: 1.5 mile bike ride to my friend's house, 4.5 mile run/jog up local hill.  Then a train run down with head torches which was super fun! I like trail running at night with head torches.  1.5 mile bike ride home.

Thursday: Leg day at the gym with gym buddy.  I love leg day! I am so imbalanced.  My split squats are a nightmare.  I've decided I need to work on my split squats more.

Saturday: 3 mile bike ride to dinner with andy and then 3 mile bike ride home.

Since I still don't have access to my office I have decided to take it easy on my workout schedule.  We have set up the baby room, and the former baby room is being painted this week, and then Andy can move into that office, and then I can have floorspace in my office again, and then I plan to do more workout videos as a break from my workday.

Sleep

I'm averaging 7.25 hours of sleep.  On Sunday, after my mountain biking, I went to sleep at 8pm and slept till 6am.  I've been pretty good about going to sleep by 9.  

Food Plan

Why not incorporate a food plan here??

Monday: Jacket Potatoes with Tuna Salad, Cheese and Beans and Broccoli

Tuesday: Slow Cooker pinto beans and rice
Wednesday: Blue Cheese Burgers and chips and Broccoli

Thursday: Mystery Pasta Dish (whatever I feel like making)

Friday: Sushi (out!) and Toad in the Hole for the kids (Sausage baked in batter)

 This week is an exciting week because Lilah *finally* starts school nursery (like pre-k?).  I'm really not into the slow start school.  Isaac has been in for 3 weeks already.  However, check out this uniform situation.  Sometimes I am still surprised at how british my kids are.

Happy Fall y'all!

Thoughts on my final day of maternity leave. Oh the places you go.

Tomorrow I start work again, after 11 months off.  I left grumpy and giant and very pregnant.  I'm coming back happy and tired and very not pregnant.  The last two weeks were not the exciting recovery period I had hoped for, and I'm certainly not "refreshed and ready", but I have done some fun things, culminating with an extremely fun day of mountain biking.

How fun?

This fun

I don't feel like I can or should really "sum up" 10.5 months of twins.  But the last few weeks were pretty extreme for different reasons.  Bedroom moves, weather, summer, childcare, school, teething, birthdays... it was (and is) a lot.

Lilah got a copy of Oh The Places You'll go for her birthday.  I forgot just how great a book it is.

I'm going to stick some of it in here, because I think Dr. Seuss was writing this book for nearly 40 year old me.  The kids are a bit meh.  I am loving it.

You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights!

You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead
Wherever you fly, you'll be best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest

Except when you don't
Because sometimes, you won't

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-up
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
and the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a slump

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

--------

Today, on my last day of maternity leave, I did the following (with Andy's help, because he was off today too):

• Moved the babies into their new bedroom
• Organized baby toys and furniture in the new baby bedroom (including moving the baby bookcase out of our bedroom!)
• Went for a walk with Andy and babies in backpacks
• Had lunch with Andy and babies at a local coffee shop
• Took a bath
• Read during the day
• Used the hydrating face mask I was given when the babies were born.
• Replied to all outstanding texts
• Paid the painter for painting the babies room

It's currently 7:30pm.  I am going to spend the next hour potching in the house, putting things back in their right places, listening to podcasts.  At 8:30 I intend to read, at 9:15 I intend to be asleep.  And tomorrow morning at 9am I'm turning on teams and concluding my last ever maternity leave.

Sunday Update: Sleep, Reading, Sport

This week was my last week of maternity leave before starting work on Tuesday.  I had tried to plan a lot of nice things, but somehow many of them just turned a little... off.  But in very non-complainable ways.  For instance I really really wanted to see my Pilates teacher from when I did pilates when the babies were 3-6 months old and so I signed up for her class and then when I got there it was a different instructor.  The other instructor was fine... but it wasn't my super strong lady trainer I really wanted to see one more time.

I'm just going to go straight into 

Sleep:

I have been averaging 7.5 hours of sleep a night but I am waking up so grumpy because I am straight into grumpy babies.  The babies are on a 5:15am grumpy wake up, which is soooo tiring.   I feel tired. The big kids are usually asleep by 7:15pm, the house is ready for another day by 7:45pm, and so I have 9 hours to do whatever I want, including sleep.  

The evenings do just disappear because 1.5 hours of personal time is a bit tricky to really utilize, considering that I need about a 30 minute wind-down for bed.  So from about 7:45-9:00 I am free to do...

I guess that's the issue.  Sometimes I hang out with Andy.  Sometimes house stuff takes a bit longer.  I guess, if I just have 1 hour of leisure time a day, I should use it as such.  Laura Vanderkam would argue that 7 hours a week is a lot of leisure.  Perhaps this week I'll aim for 8pm yoga? Reading is also leisure and I do that for 30 minutes before bed, so I'm not completely blank for leisure, but I it does feel is short supply.

Also, if I'm going to be woken up at 5:20am every morning by babies, they could at least do me the curtously of not being pissed off about being awake at 5:20am every morning.  

Mornings have not been good.  I like mornings.  I don't like extended grumpy baby mornings. I am happier when I wake up before the babies, but I am not sure I want to chop my 1 hour of evening leisure into 30 minutes evening leisure and 30 minutes morning leisure by trying for a 8pm bedtime and sleeping until 5am.  I know this will pass... but it sure is taking a while.

Reading

I started reading Summer Romance but I mostly read while babies complain and it's not a great time to read.  It's better than Olga Dies Dreaming, which I have abandoned at 50%.  I got my copy of You Only Die Once from the library but my brain is currently so unfocused that I'm barely holding the pieces of Summer Romance together... and it's not a very complicated book.

Sport

Tuesday: Not as good reformer pilates class

Wednesday: Rode bike to local bike shop (up a mountain! 600ft of climbing!) then ran back down.  It took 40 minutes to ride 3.5 miles there and 50 minutes to run the 3.5 miles back.  It was an awesome adventure.  I listened to a 45 minute Peloton training run on the way back which was good fun.

Thursday: Arm workout with gym buddy.  New gym is great.  I realized old gym had big photos of people "working out and having fun!" on the wall.  All the people in these photos were very pretty.  New gym just has slogans like "Lift like no one is watching" and "you got this" and it's way more inclusive than old gym.  I like new gym

Today (Sunday) I am doing an all day ladies mountain biking day at a local trail center.  I am a bit scared because I basically haven't been biking in 18 months.  Right before I found out I was pregnant with twins I went on a biking and camping weekend trip. I intended to do so much riding during this pregnancy, and the last ride I did was to the doctor at 25 weeks pregnant.  I remember I ached for 3 days after that 2 mile ride. 

The good news about this trail center is that I get driven up hill with my bike in a van so I just have to ride down hill.  It's still going to be hard, but it will also hopefully be fun, and I will also get to hang out with my biking lady friends, and hopefully make MORE biking lady friends, and hopefully remember that I actually really do love mountain biking. 

House Project Update: The Great Room Reshuffle

Remember at the start of the summer when I made the kids their summer bedroom?  Well two months later we realized the twins are really getting too big and too mobile to be in the smallest room in the house.  So we have started shifting rooms around again.

Once I had an office/guest room / workout room:

Now, the kids have their new upstairs bedroom!

So far it's gone very well - the kids have slept much better not being next to the babies.  However, I feel deeply unsettled about my current landing space, which now looks worse than ever:

Does anyone want to buy a daybed?  Is "mirror stacked next to disassembled day bed" a good idea?

The former kids room is now a baby play room:

This room was one of the first rooms we painted when we bought the house.  It turns out we both picked terrible colours and painted it badly.  Then we added a loft, which meant the ceiling needed repainting too.  So we are using this opportunity to get the room painted, and we have decided to go with white this time.

For whatever reason, when originally picking colors, I decided to combine two greenish shades in this room, but not any shades that the paint company recommends I combine.  

So it was 3 walls of Apple White

And one wall of willow tree

The paint companies own website has some really good suggestions for color combos.  This was not one of them.

Also, Willow Tree is the NHS colour, a fact I realized while having a home birth and looking at that wall a lot.

On Thursday the painter is coming to make the whole room white.  Once dry, we can move the babies into their new room.  And then the kids and babies will be in their correct rooms, so that soon we can hopefully address the biggest problem:

Combined office horror.  FYI, I have one desk and one set of drawers and 1 set of weights.  Andy has... more hobbies.  More drawers and more things.  This is no way for an adult human to work!  I am hoping we can move to something a bit more normal before I start work for real on Tuesday, but I am also aware that house projects move slow, house projects with four kids move slower, and house projects dependant on painters availability may move slowest.

And also, is it a great idea to start medium house projects during already chaos transitions?  Probaby?

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep

A short summary of my life right now is that my average standing hours every week is approximately 14 hours a day.  Sometimes I sit down and then I think "OH THAT WAS A MISTAKE" so I stand up again to do something, because when I sit down I take a moment to reflect on how tiring it all is.  Four kids is very tiring.  It is also sometimes cute and fun, like when we took the kids to a new castle this week.  Or to the climbing wall this morning.  Or to a museum last week.

Reading:

I am reading Olga Dies Dreaming and I am not getting into it quickly but I think I like it.  The library ordered me You Only Die Once and I need to collect it. 

Sports

Tuesday: 3 mile run (listening to a podcast, for head clearing)

Thursday: New Gym with gym buddy Ger! I like this gym.  I asked the trainers if we were OK to train together and told them what happened at the last gym and they said "if you're both training then go for it!" which is such a normal and good response.  

Friday: Peloton 30 Minute Bodyweight Strength

Sunday: Peloton 20 minute run,  Peloton 10 minute Core Strength 

Sleep

I'm averaging 7 hours.  I tend to wake up naturally between 4:30 and 5:00.  But not the "birds chirping sun shining type of naturally".  The "What's for breakfast, who is going to school, what am I doing today, what's for dinner, what did I forgot, what time is nap, who do I need to text, where is the clean laundry, have a missed a birthday? How is lilah doing in school... is my kid sick? Should we go to the beach this weekend?..." and onward and onward.  

I should write a better update but one of the babies is headed for the stairs and the other is waking up from a nap and the four year old is calling me from bathroom... plus I've been seated for 15 minutes.  Time to get up.

6 Transitions on a Friday

Lilah turned 4 on Monday!  Happy birthday to my awesome 4 year old.  For her birthday we went to soft play and ate this tiny cake at home.  It was great.  She got so many presents (we threw a party for her nursery class, and I did not quite realize how much unicorn one could get from 25 nursery friends).  We are still opening presents slowly.  Lilah is almost as tall as Isaac was at 4.5 years old.  She is wearing size 5 and tells us long stories about being ravenous and sneak thieves (hint - sneak thieves steal things but are apparently easily thwarted by darkness, gates, latches, and signs saying "no sneak thieves")

-------------

Isaac started school again on Wednesday.  He's in year 1 now.  It seems to be going fine, from what we hear.  I have lots of concerns (as most parents do, all the time) but I have been reminded that boy development is different than girl development.  Boys do weird things.  I don't expect him to be a girl, but I only know my own childhood and he is not me.  I will cross my fingers that the things he struggles with get easier for him. And maybe the things I struggled with wont be things at all for him. 

-------------

Lilah started her new nursery this week.  She also started on Wednesday and within an hour was home with a 39.5/103 degree fever.  She laid in bed all day until right before dinner, when she threw up on our sofa and floor.  Want to know a thing that is hard? Getting two babies away from a vomiting four year old, while covered in sick yourself.  It was all very tricky and very sad.  Luckily she is already getting better 

-------------

Our nanny started doing 3 days a week this week.  Childcare is a rocky and complicated road.  Babies are getting better but I kind of want to fast forward this bit and just be in the bit where they are super happy again. This transition is so... transition.

-------------

We are moving bedrooms around.  I've lost of my office, which is going to become Isaac & Lilah's room.  I now have a desk in Andy's office, temporarily.  We are waiting for the blackout blind to arrive so we can move Isaac & Lilah upstairs.  Then we need to get their old room painted, and then move the twins into that room, and then Andy can move into the twins room, and then I can have his office.  In the interim, things are very messy, and also Andy and I enjoy sharing a house and a bed and a life and kids and food, but we really don't like sharing an office.

-------------

After some comments on my last post about pillows I decided to just ty and wash mine! They spent a long time in the direr but I think it helped.  My pillows on the right, after being washed:

I transitioned a flat pillow to a fluffy pillow! And yes, I am in the stage of life where I need burp cloths on my bed still.  

That's a lot of transitions this week.  Was this week a big transition week for you?

Hello September!

Isaac's summer self reflection.  In case you don't read 5 year old, his favourite food is blueberries.  His favourite color is blue.  His favourite animal is Cat, his favourite sport is Egg and Spoon Race, his favorite season is Summer and his favourite game is Pirates(?)

When he grows up, he wants to be a builder.

Oh man, I am excited to see September.

First, and this is cliche, but Fall is my FAVOURITE season.  I don't want it to start now, because we barely had a summer here, but I am super OK with it starting soon.

Big Things in September

• Lilah starting new nursery (soon) & new school-nursery (at the end of the month)
• why is all school before age 5 here called the same thing? I do not know
• Isaac going back to School
• Our Nanny Starting 3 days a week
• My return to work (mid-month)
• Lilah's birthday!
  
• Andy's birthday!
• Ladies day at the mountain biking trail center (my first day out)
• End of summer festival and Car show at local castle
• Lilah starts Ballet lessons
• Isaac starts Scouts 
• which goes from 6-7:15! in the evening! for a family that is usually asleep at 7!

What I am looking forawd to in September

I am excited about lots of those big things so this feels a bit redundant, however picking a few:

• Moving the kids into their new room (we are shuffling bedrooms around so that the twnis are not in the smallest room, but it is a long and tedious process
• Getting back into the school routine
• Having all the little pieces that I've been planning for years actually start
• Going back to the gym
• Meal planning
• Eating fresh veg and seasonal stews
• Rachel day in town - getting my nails done and spending the day kid free.

September Goals:

I have really worked through my yearly goals.  Everything left is basically work related, or cumulative (such as read 50 books, strength train regularly, only clothes I love and fit in December 2024).  If i could make small goals for September it would be

• Finish kids bedroom move
• Run 1 Parkrun 5k
• 1 Rachel thing (or more!)
• Figure out a regular & sustainable exercise routine
• Improve personal organizational system
• Update kids albums, family albums.  Print Lilah 3-4 album if there is a 50% off sale

That's September.  I'm hoping it will be nice.  I'm hoping it will be good busy.  I'm hoping all the little things will feel like pieces of a whole, not a series of disparate random days (ie August).

September is the new January.  I am totally here for it.

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports Sleep

That was another... week.  Or was it a month? A year?  Last week included two days with our new nanny, lilah's last two days at nursery, Lilah's fourth birthday party, TWO trips to the same castle, a family play date AND a trip to a city over an hour away.  I knew summer would ramp up but it has certainly ramped. 

Reading

I am super glad I got a copy of the Rom-Commers instead of  the Friend Zone.  NGS wrote a (Spoiler filled) review of The Friend Zone and reading this review is far better than reading the book.  I'm almost done with Rom-Commers and have super enjoyed.  I have read so many great books back to back now.  This definitely feels like summer reading (a lot of these are from the MMD Summer Reading Guide).  

I added/kept a few books to my hold list to try and get a few more summer titles done before the end of "summer":

• The Blue Bistro by Elin Hildebrand
• This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune
• The Stand-In by Lily Chu
• Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan

I know I won't read all of these so some may be pushed into next years summer reading.  I also know that I like reading more non-fiction & self improvement stuff in Fall, so I've already put the following on hold

• Uptime by Laura Mae Martin
• You Only Die Once by Jodi Wellman
• Spoon Fed by Tim Spector

I'm also excited for Oliver Burkeman's new book Meditations for Mortals and Kendra Adachi's new book The Plan (BECAUSE OMG DOES THAT TIME/PRODUCTIVITY SPACE NEED MORE FEMALE WRITERS!)

I also want to Re-read Invisible Women soon.  

I'll likely finish the Rom-Commers today and fortuitously ended up first in line for Olga Dies Dreaming.  Excited to read this one nexgt.

Sports

Monday: 1 hour gym session with Gym Buddy (at new gym).  20 minute run (Peloton Mental Health Awareness Run).  10 minute Peloton Yoga Healthy Back focus flow

Wednesday: 20 minute run in pouring rain.  Came home for 20 minute Peloton Barre class instead.

Without consistant childcare for all children, that is my schedule. Three times a week may be a habit, but two times a week is just what it is for me right now.  School starts on Wednesday, and the week of the 9th is workout-polooza for me (because I love sports) and I can't wait.  I'm even going back to Reformer Pilates for one last session with my pilates buddy before I start work. YAY.

I know you're all waiting for my gym saga update, but gym buddy and I agreed we are not going to old gym.  The timing worked well as there was no contract and both of our monthly payments were almost due, so that has been cancelled and done.  Next week we are joining a new (even cheaper gym) and I am super excited for this fresh start.  Also the new gym offers guest passes AND my writing buddy goes there so maybe I can have some writing buddy crossover!

Also, gym buddy and I took a new gym selfie, because since we became gym buddies we have not taken many selfies.  

We did take lots of selfies when we were going out buddies back in the 2010s.  

Basically no change right?

Life pro-tip.  Highly recommend you find yourself a life buddy who becomes your gym buddy and your life buddy.  Makes life and gym way more fun.  Also when you get married and have kids with your life and mountain biking buddy you still have someone to do other sports with.

Sleep

This is just not good.  The babies are sleeping fine, 7-5:30 or 6am.  The kids are generally asleep by 7.  But I have so much I want to do, and so little time for myself in the day, that evenings are just full.  We are in the process of moving kids bedrooms around so I worked on clearing out my office.  I am listing and selling on Vinted again (yay!) to declutter our house.  I have appointments to book (of my own fun, like getting my hair done, and finding a time to do Pilates with my Pilates buddy).  One night I spent 30 minutes replying to texts because I don't really use my phone in the day for texting and it had just built and built.  Our weekly FLOM (Family Logistics Meeting) took almost 2 hours this week with all the transitions and school and birthday logistics.

Here is how I sum up my sleep

Did the 1:28am sleep meditation work?  I mean, I eventually fell asleep, so yes?  It would have been better if I hadn't woken up at midnight and then stayed awake untill nearly 3am for no discernable reason.

Last night I collapsed into bed at 7:30pm and woke up at 5:30 so with that 10 hour night I have crept back up to a 7.25 average across this week.  

How is your week? Is summer "over" for you?  Are you back to school now, have you been back to school for ages, or do you have ages left? Or that not play a role in your life at all?