Running - Transitions & Training, morning darkness, new schedule(?)

The Peloton Road to Half Marathon collection is 10 weeks long, but I did a 10k course first as a sort of "Couch to Half Marathon" (Andy's term, not mine).  I started training in around June.  

I would run at around 5:15am, in the glorious Welsh summer sun that comes up at 4:30 (it's not warm, it's just... light)

In August I started my runs around 5:30, and in September I've moved to 6am (as the mornings got darker). 

This morning, I woke up at 5:30 and got ready for my 6am run (45 minute progression) and it was still dark outside.

I don't like running in the dark.  It's weird that 6am dark feels creepy and bad and 6am light feels exciting and fun.  

Even though I live in a generally really safe area of a generally really safe country, I still get icked by running in dark or running by myself in the hills. 

For instance - my long run on Sunday:

See that line that goes to the left and stops? That's because there was a car parked on a gravel path, right before the road I was trying to get to.  I didn't want to run past weird car parked in the woods, so I turned around and ran the other way.

I ran along this quarry for a while, which did not bother me at all

I was hoping to keep my 6am runs through October 5th, but it appears that last week was the official end of my early morning running.  I have to be home by 6:45 to start kids breakfast and wake up etc.  

It's 6:45 now, and it's about the level of light I would like to start a run.

I felt rather annoyed this morning, after my 5:30 wake up and coffee, running clothes on, staring out the window at the darkness.  

It seems exceptionally silly to be mad at the darkness.  I did a 20 minute Yin Yoga instead.  

Schedule thoughts:

• I can do runs during my lunch break, on days I work from home.  
• I need to schedule these in by the week, in my personal planner and work calendar
• I can use the morning for other things I'm not doing, like blogging, yoga, stretching, strength, peloton cycling, life admin like budget and photo albums...  Or more sleeping
• I need to actually *do* my mid day runs (which can only be monday thru thursday)
• I need to make sure I've eaten breakfast or a good snack before the lunch run so I'm not ravenous at run time

Time for some planner work.  And time to actually *do* my 45 minute progression run this afternoon.

Running Update: Half Marathon in 3 weeks

I've realized I'm not very good at sharing info on this blog in any sort of story/narrative context.  For instance, I'm pretty sure I announced I was having twins during a "5 on a Friday" post.

I am currently training for the Cardiff Half Marathon which is on October 5th. It's my first race since 2017.

A bit of running backstory (a running rundown?)

As a kid, I *hated* running.  In middle school we used to have to run a mile which was 3 laps of a local park, but I realized that if I hid behind a bush for a certain amount of time I would instead run just 2 laps and say I had done 3.  I did not understand how anyone enjoyed running, ever.

I got into sport & cycling when I moved to Wales in 2011, and for some reason Andy and I signed up for the Cardiff Half in 2013.

I don't think I really trained, I think I just was 28 and able to do all the sports all the time. I finished in 2hr 33 minutes.  My legs hurt.

Andy and I at the 2013 start line

When Andy and I moved back to the states (in 2014) I decided to join a run club, because everyone I know who liked running was in a run club.  It worked! I started to like running.  The club was based at a microbrewery in Portland and I loved running and enjoying a beer after.  

I joined a lot of races with the run club, and became a running ambassador for our local Fleet Feet.  

Beat the Blerch in Washington (2hr 26)

I met some running BFFs.  Juliette was my partner in crime at many of my favourite races - generally Triathlons rather than running

Haag Lake Duathlon in Oregon

Bend Beer Chase relay bus

My favourite half marathon was the Seattle Rock'n'Roll half in 2016.  It was my fastest half at 2hr 26min

We moved back to Wales in 2016, before we came back I entered the Bath Half, March 2017.  

I did not enjoy the Bath Half. Training in Wales in the winter is way worse than training in Portland.  We had a lot of life to sort out, (ie get jobs and find a place to live) and I really missed my Portland running family.   I trained for that half by running about once a week, as far as I could run.  

I found the race itself a major drag - I didn't know anyone there, I ran slower each mile, and I was at the back end of the race where all the fast people with medical emergencies were getting treated on the sidelines while I plodded my way around.

I've run intermittently since then, but I knew I wanted to do the Cardiff Half again when I was done being pregnant and having babies.  Which I am! 

I'm using the Peloton Road to Half Marathon collection, which has 4 runs a week and I tend to do 3 of them

I'm mostly enjoying the long runs.  I have a dream to someday run longer offroad races.  I think if I can harness the relentless energy needed to manage twins / 4 kids under 6 then I should be able to use that same relentless energy to run a lot of miles.

The race is 3 weeks from today.  I have 3 goals

1 - Finish without injury

2 - Finish in under 2hr 10 minutes

3 - Finish in under 2 hours

I've used this moment here to look up pace charts, and goal 3 is almost certainly not going to happen since my current fastest mile is around 9 minutes

However, Goal 1 and 2 are still in the running! (LOL)

Anyways, that's probably far too much writing on running for today.  I still miss my Portland running community.  

I miss running in the sun and training with lots of free time, in a gorgeous part of the world.

But for now, I'm happy I can run.  I'm happy I get 2 hours to myself on the weekend to run as far as I can.  Someday I hope it's more - but for now - it is more than good enough.

Are you a runner? Have you ever trained for a race? Have you done a half, a 10k, or a whole marathon?  Have you ever been in a run club?

6 Random things on a Sunday: Cycling, Running, Gratitude & Planning

Happy Sunday! This was going to be a "5 on a Friday" post and then maybe a "6 on a Saturday" post and now... it's Sunday. Here are 6 things from the weekend and others:

-----

This weekend we watched the Tour of Britain which went only a few streets away from us.  The cyclists were so fast! The kids loved it, but I couldn't get many photos because I had Clara on my shoulders the whole time. 

We were also on TV!  Right here (there are some faint purple arrows to assist spotting us, although the 7 foot tall toddler helps.)

There was a single american rider so I decided to get my USA flag out because I don't often get the chance, and waving a flag at a bike race seemed really bike race-y.

---

The Cardiff Half is just 4 weeks away.  I'm deviating a bit from the Peloton Road to Half Marathon programme, because I can't seem to get the right runs on the right days.  On Saturday I ran our local parkrun 5k with the twins in the pram as a "recovery run" which I 100% do not recommend.  The twins got bored, the running was difficult, I was slow, and I didn't feel very "recovered" after.
Today I did my long run which more than made up for my awful run last week and grumpy recovery this week.   I am still not fast, but I am happy that I can run for 2 hours now.  Also, the Cardiff half is FLAT so I am hoping that the fact I do trail hills in my long runs will mean I'll be moderately faster at the actual half marathon.

---

I have a new random hobby which is writing thank you emails to people and companies.  A few weeks ago we went to the botanical gardens and there was a kid circus and I had such a nice time I wrote a thank you email to both the circus and the botanical gardens.  I also wrote a thank you to the local astronomical society for the planetarium show we saw.  And I wrote a thanks to the company that we buy our planner from.  I've been trying to look for people or companies to thank and it's a fun project so far, which hopefully is bringing a bit of joy to places that may get more complaints than thanks.

--- 

I have not been very good about carving out actual planning time.  I have the ideal week template and last week would have been a great time to fill it out for September.  I also haven't done any sort of September goal setting.  I feel like I was doing awesome with the September and back to school transition and all the associated logistics and emotions and planning etc, until Saturday when I just got super grumpy and then stayed super grumpy.  There might be a hormonal aspect to this as well, but I don't think that fully discounts the grump!  This week my goal is to actually do my ideal week and also to continue daily planning. 

----

Because I am a super basic human, I picked this background from The Everygirl for my phone this month and it brings me great joy when I see it.  

----

Does anyone remember Rachael Ray? Tonight I made Spanikopa-burgers, a Rachael Ray Recipe that 80% of my family eat.   There's a real recipe, but I make burgers from Turkey mince, Feta Cheese, Olives, Spinach, Eggs & Oatmeal.  As a random aside, how very 2000's are the Rachael Ray cookbook covers?  

Can you hear her saying "EVOO"?  She did love the EVOO!

Also, I am glad cook book covers feature food now.  Did we not think food was an inspiring cookbook cover in 2004? I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but lady with questionable shirt and lady with tomatoes doesn't scream COOKBOOK to me.

Do you remember Rachael Ray? Do you have a random 90s/00's recipe you love?  

IKEA Home Improvements, New Rugs, New Drawers, Money and Time Thoughts

I just bought a new rug for our living room.

I have spent far too much time looking at rugs on the internet.  Why are rugs so hard! Why is making a space pretty so hard.  

Our lounge area was kind of fine, but it never really came together for us.  It generally looked nice in photos, but it looked less nice in real life:

There are a lot of colors happening here.  The rug was OK with the curtains, but it was a lot... and the massive fireguard and 1950s fire surround didn't help chill the room out.  

Also, the curtains are cut to that length because when we moved in there was a radiator along the bottom of that window, but when we redid the heating system we didn't replace that one and now we just have weirdly short curtains.

We got rid of the orange bench a few months ago because the twins spent a year wiping their noses on it and drooling on it and it was too yuck for us.

Then we got rid of the rug, for a very similar reason.  Clara probably had reflux as a baby and that rug took the brunt of the gross, Andy and I decided we didn't like it.  I also always thought it was too small for the room, but when we bought it 7 years ago we didn't want to spend more on a bigger rug because rugs are expensive.

We switched it for the rug from Andy's old office (now Lily's room).  I liked it better, but it felt even more obvious the rug was too small for the room:

The grey rug is not in as good condition as it looks in that photo either.

Anyways, back to lounge.  Picking a rug is hard, and finally Andy and I both agreed on this IKEA rug:

Hopefully it will look good in our lounge! The bottom right picture made me think it might... and if not, IKEA has a pretty decent returns policy.

---

Ezra is starting to grow out of his little IKEA drawers.  I decided to replace them with slightly bigger MALM drawers.   The little drawers can go to the twins soon, because they are almost in two different sizes of clothes now, and someday they will each need their own drawers (right now Ezra and Lily each have one set IKEA Godishus of drawers)

And then... I decided it was time for new doormats, because when at IKEA.COM you have to make the most of life right?  I am fairly sure the doormat we have came with the house (8 years ago).

Is it silly to be excited for new doormats?

----

As I replace these things I remember how much price used to be THE deciding factor on all our house stuff.  Past me would have spent a lot more time looking on freecycle and gumtree and facebook marketplace for drawers.  Right now, I get a huge thrill from just being able to get the things that we want for hour house and to make our life easier.  It does feel scary just *buying* things though.  It's nominally in budget, it makes our life easier, and right now we are more short on time and effort than money.  I'm not sure where that shift happened, and I am hoping at some point we will shift back to having more time/effort... but for now the IKEA truck comes on Wednesday and home improvement projects continue.

Also, we have been incredibly fortunate to have been given things at many points in our life that helped us out.  When we found out we were having twins our friends gave us kids clothes, highchairs, and even the crib that Aubrey sleeps in.  It feel like we are paying back to the world when we freecycle old rugs and household furniture that's no longer serving us.  

What's the last thing you bought for your house? Do you buy new or used or a combination?

Back to school // new schedule // upcoming logistical challenges

This week feels like a practice week for Autumn.

Ezra started yesterday at 9am (normal time) and Lily had a late start at 9:15... although for some reason it was in our calendar as 9:30 so Lily was late on her first day of school.  Oops.  

Luckily there are a lot more school days ahead of her to not be late.

We practiced getting out the door on time (I gave us a 3/10 on stress)

This week I am packing 3 days of lunches and already remembering why we do not want to pack lunch every day.  Lily doesn't like mango, but does like Apple. Ezra doesn't like ham and the school has a no nut policy.  

Ezra has 3 loose teeth and doesn't want anything crunchy.  Neither kid eats veggies in lunch and I have given up on packing them.

Thinking about school lunches for two kids is a lot. Next week we will get school dinners 3 days a week.

----

Next week I start my new job.  I am excited but I am also nervous - this is a very nebulously defined role that I have wanted for years.  I actually applied for it in July 2023, and didn't get it, and was a bit sad about it.

I've asked for four 8 hour days in the new role and this feels like a big jump from my current 7 hour days. Probably because it is a 10% jump in hours.  I'll be starting work at 8am, which is exactly when our nanny gets in, and also when Andy leaves for his work. Not sure that was a great idea, but it should keep us on schedule, or create wild chaos and friction.

Thing to do: Plan out an "ideal week"

-----

My half marathon training is getting more tricky for two fall reasons:

1 - It is wet.  Apparently Wales got news summer is over and said HERE IS ALL THE RAIN and now it's rained every day for a week.  Running in the rain kind of sucks.

2 - It is dark.  My running time was 5:30am. I don't like running in the dark.  Now it's dark until 6am.  I can still run from 6am until about 6:45 but next week that's going to be too late to then get kids to school and get to work at 8am.

Ideas?

Run in the evenings (yuck)

Run at lunch break (not quite enough time)

Run in the morning and get wet and it's dark (really yuck)

I guess if I'm choosing between "yuck" and "really yuck" and "not enough time" then I have to go with yuck?

-----

Summer felt like it had a naturally occuring time buffer in good weather and longer days.  For me, fall feels like a crunch because the days are actually shorter.  The weather is worse.  When I start feeling pressed for time it's not necessarily the new job, it's probably also the new season. 

Fall might be my favourite season, but it is also a lot of season.

Hello September! Birthday Season and a random list of fun stuff and goals

September officially kicks off my favourite... calendar period? I guess it's technically "birthday season" (Everyone in our house except me has a birthday in September and October) but it's so much more.  

Here's what I'm excited about in September:

Lily's birthday! It was today and she is officially 5 now.  We had a birthday party on Sunday, which went amazingly well.  It was supposed to be a "Princesses in the Park" party but the weather turned bad and instead we did arts and crafts at home.  4 girls came, and they had a great time making unicorn masks and unicorn bracelets

Party room set up

Princess Lily!

Today we went to the Zoo on her actual birthday.  It was also great

Bears!

Lions! Also, did I get a big enough birthday badge?

This is a pretty funny slide.

Start of School

School starts tomorrow.  Lily has her first day of "big school" ie "Reception".  Ezra is starting in year two.  I'm excited because at pick up they take big siblings to the little siblings classroom and we will have only one pick up!  I also think Lily will love school, and Ezra was doing so well at the end of Year 1 I am hoping that continues in year 2.

New Job

I'm starting my new job next week.  It's with the same company, but is a step up in job title & responsibility.  I'm leaving the operations team I'm currently on and moving into a commercial role within a technical team.  What this means is that I get to keep working with the people I already love working with (the technical team) but I now report directly into their team structure rather than the external operations team. It also means there's no limit on what I can be involved in, so I need to think carefully about crafting this role into something great.  Basically, I get to think more and react less, which is exciting but also a bit scary.

Fridays off

I'm officially moving to four days a week.  I'm really looking forward to Fridays off with Aubrey and Clara.  They are so fun, and until they turn 2 they are pretty much free to take anywhere! Hopefully I can also make some mom friends of two year olds so I have someone to do things with on a Friday.  It's tricky making mom friends on your 3rd and 4th kids... I can see why the mom friends from my first kids are still my favourite mom friends.  The parent conversations I had when my first was little would bore me to death now... but I know we all found it interesting then.  

Friends or not, I'm excited to spend Fridays at home with twins.

Jewish Holidays

September is Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  I don't do much for either of these, but it will be nice to mark it somehow.

New Planner!

We use a weekly planner to plan our lives, and it runs from September to August.  I love new planner month. 

Other September Things // Goals

We are still working on house improvement project.  We replaced the rug in our lounge with the rug from the former office and current Lily room.  I bought new curtains which need to be hemmed and hung in the dining room, we decided that after 8 years we were tired of our autumnal curtains and wanted something a bit lighter.

I am training for my half marathon which is October 5th.  Training is going OK so far, and suddenly there's a month left (which probably means training is going to get harder...)

I have a stretch goal this month. It is... to stretch.  More.  Maybe daily.

This month I'm trying to resurrect the monthly Ladies Night at the local indoor jump park.  I am putting the word out that it is a great time for all the 40 year old ladies I know to play on BMX bikes.  Last time I went it was mostly skaters, who are super cool, but I like riding with ladies too.

I'm finally taking a mountain biking skills coached session this month - it's a ladies improver course.  I am excited for a women's specific MTB course.  Taking this class is part of my Year of 40 celebration!

It's Andy's birthday this month! I am not sure what we will do, but I may try and make him a lasagne.

Family photos - we will try and get a family photo taken this month

Books - Because I use Libby sometimes it takes a while for my summer reads to come through.  For instance, I just started Run For The Hills because it had such a long wait! But I am loving it.  

Decluttering project - this continues.  I am at the sentimental part of decluttering now.  I have baby clothing (ie under 12 months) for the following themes which need a new home

• USA
• Hannukah
• Thanksgiving
• Halloween

Hopefully you can see why it's hard to find the right hand-me-down people for 3/4 of those options!

I am looking for a new cleaner again.  We need a cleaner.

------

I am sure I missed other fun September things.  I think it's going to be a full-on month but I'm looking forward to so much of it!

  

Summer Week 6: The End (of summer) is near

That's a wrap on the 6th week of summer.  I intend to do a summer debrief post, but for now let's review another great week.

On Saturday Andy had a "year of 40" birthday treat and went biking all day while I watched all the kids.  We took bikes (I walked) to a local park, where one of the kids immediately needed a "comfort break" and so we left within minutes and went to the library instead.  At the library we were only 95% chaos.  I have this photo evidence that we were not 100% chaos

We stopped at a bakery after the library and I was smart enough to know that while 11am me felt confident in my quad child parenting, future me was going to need a brownie to make it through the day

Future me thanked past me a lot for that brownie.  It was delicious.

In the afternoon we had a play date where my big kids fought with each other and whined most of the time.  I really appreciated the Girls Next Door podcast "Parenting in Public" after the meltdown play date.

Andy came home from biking in time to go out for a BBQ dinner at a local pub! It was hosted by our local cycling club and I'm fairly sure my kids consumed more sausages and burgers than I did.  We also cycled there since it was less than a mile away, I wish I had a photo of everyone:

On Sunday I went for a long run in the morning, I had a whole Rachel morning (9-12:30) to enjoy.  I did a really fun 8 mile loop which took me about 1hr 45 because it included a pretty decent climb and it was all off road.  I am not a fast runner, I am a persistent runner.

In the afternoon we went to a local model train place which does an open house a few times a year and the kids rode some trains and had a great time.

On Monday it was a bank holiday and we went back to the Botanical Gardens, where we met one of our friends and spent the day walking around and looking at flowers and having the most gigantic picnic.  

Ezra also met Bluey and Bingo

Tuesday-Thursday were normal work days for me and the kids last days at their summer camp.  They had such a great time at this summer camp and although it is pricey we will definitely be going back again next year.  I did a 30 minute run on Wednesday and strength training with a friend on Tuesday evening.  Plus I got a massage on Wednesday (after the run).  It was great!  Work is slow with lots of people on holiday. 

Andy and I were both off work today (Friday) and it was a pretty good day.  Andy took Aubrey & Clara & Ezra to the tip in the morning, and I sorted out house stuff with Lily.  I managed to post some returns and get rid of a baby gate we've taken down from the dining room.  A twin mom picked it up from us so I gave her a bunch more baby stuff since her twins are a year younger than mine.  I might hang out with her again as I'm going to need some friday mom friends and I've so far met zero people with kids the same ages as the twins.

During nap we sorted house stuff and managed to get rid of even more things.  We found two baby high chair attachments which we listed for sale and one has already sold for £15! That's going straight into the "Andy and Rachel have fun together" budget line.  Andy cleaned out the eaves storage.  After nap I took Ezra, Lily, and Aubrey to the butcher to get sausages for Lilys birthday next week and then to the park.  Going to the park with just one twenty month old feels so easy compared to going out with twins.  Andy and Clara did more house stuff at home.

The only bummer today was that we stopped into a pharmacy because Ezra had a weird bite on his leg (I wondered if it was a spider but it turns out the UK doesn't have any poisonous spiders).  The pharmacy said to go to another more specialized pharmacist, which I did, and that pharmacy said to go to the GP.  I did manage to get an appointment and now I have antibiotic steroid cream for the bites on both Aubrey and Ezra, plus oral antibiotics for Ezra.  We've never done medicine in school before but unfortunately the course will last until next Thursday and school starts on Wednesday.  In the UK it seems antibiotics generally need to be taken 4 times a day.  Ezra and Aubrey are both fine in themselves (ie acting normally) it's a bit of a faff to apply creams and medications multiple times a day... and we still don't know what biting insect they're both allergic to.

Overall another excellent week of summer.  I'm getting very used to this holiday thing but school starts on Wednesday so it's back to that reality for another year....

Who has two thumbs and loves a bike? Clara!

Mental Load Stuff / Life Stuff // Logistics Stuff

We've recently revamped our FLOM (Family Logistics and Operational Meeting) by digitizing our agenda on google sheets, and also using tabs to followup on actions from meeting to meeting.  Last week the AOB agenda was

• House Stuff - things we need for the kids rooms, trying to get new curtains for the lounge and a new rug and a new IKEA bench for outside
• Lily's birthday party - invite list and who is coming and what we need
• Back to school - what we need, who is responsible for buying it
• Gifts - all our kids have September/October birthdays, and then Hanukkah and Christmas after... so I figured maybe we could plan and order all the gifts now.

Those are just the AOB items... during the meetings we also go through the week, figure out when we are each doing sports/hobbies, plan the upcoming weekend, loosely plan the future weekends.  And plan food for the week. And lunches for kids if needed.  And loosely plan breakfasts.

Even with all these organizing systems, I still feel I keep a lot in my head, or at least I am responsible for a lot of house admin.  Lots of reasons for this - I'm pretty good at it, I'm home more, I probably have higher standards for some things and I sometimes notice things earlier.  Because I work from home I see all the clutter and to-dos about 50 times for every one time Andy sees something.

Some of the things swirling in my head at the moment.

Laundry  

I am the laundry person.  Our Nanny does laundry when she is here, but she only works 4 days a week, and that means I'm thinking of laundry 3-4 days a week.  I'm also better about tracking when beds and towels need changing.

Ironing 

I never iron.  Neither does Andy.  I didn't see the point, until I realized that all my clothes are wrinkled and look *soo* much better when ironed.  But also, I have no interest in ironing.  So, do I find an ironing person?  Also, I only own 6 shirts, so that's probably not enough for an ironing person.  But also, I have no interest in spending any time ironing.  This does not have a solution at the moment.

Cleaning 

I do more cleaning than Andy, but neither of us do a lot of cleaning.  Except the evening house reset - chucking toys back in boxes, sweeping floors, wiping table and counters.  I used to refuse to hoover/vacuum but I'm also tired of living in a somewhat yuck house so now I do try and hoover every few days.  

I would love to hire cleaners again, but I failed to hire cleaners 3 times last January and it turns out it takes the same effort to fail to hire a cleaner (three in a row showed up twice then said they couldn't do it... maybe our house is really really gross?).  Also, since the twins are generally always home, it's hard to hire a cleaner who can come when they are out and I don't think cleaners like working in a house with toddlers running around.

Food 

I recently delegated the food shopping to Andy.  His first response was "great, where's the list?" and I almost laughed. "oh no..." I replied, "there is so much more to food shopping than that"

1. Scheduling the order.  When will it come? Who will put it away?
2. Checking the list
3. Checking the cabinet to see if we are running low on things we use often
4. Checking the meal plan and ordering whatever is needed
5. Checking the perishable fruit and veg situation and considering what we may need in 2-3 days time
6. Thinking about what other things we may be doing that might need more or different food (ie, might we have friends for lunch? order more rolls! Might we have people for dinner? Perhaps add some cans of something?

So far it's been a learning journey for everyone, but it's definitely made me realize how much headspace goes to food (not counting prep and meal planning!)

Photos 

I am the default memory keeper... I take almost all the photos.  Partly because I'm the one with the smartphone, partly because I am the one most attached to making the kids photo albums.  The albums take 2ish hours a month.  I update each kids album and the family album.  The family one takes longer because I'm more selective about the photos and because I add notes, the kids ones are just photos.

In addition to making the albums, I have to curate the photos on my phone, delete the bad ones, crop the good ones, and make sure that when it comes time to upload to snapfish (where we get our albums) I'm not uploading 10 very similar photos.

Last year I tried to delegate this one, and after the first month each kid had only one page for the month because "there weren't any good photos".  Which is true, many of the photos are not objectively "good".  However, I like the albums to have photos which capture what we did, even if it's boring, or not well framed, or the kids aren't smiling. Life right now is made up of boring forgettable things and I want to be able to remember them when I'm older. So I took back the photo project, and each month has 5-6 pages of average photos.

----

I don't really have a great point to this post, except it's a lot of stuff and I don't know how other people manage.  Even delegating takes mental load to offload.  I wish housekeepers were a normal thing that still existed.  I would so much rather take my kids to a castle than clean a toilet.  

Saying that, we have been to lots of castles lately, and I will not blog the state of my toilets.

Some castle photos, because this has been a very word-heavy post!

Is your head a swirling pit of to-dos and life admin?  Do you delegate to other members of your household or are you the standard setter?

Summer Week 5: Holiday at home part 2!

It's been another week of holiday at home, this time with my dad visiting!

On Saturday Andy and I did a split adventure - Andy took the twins to the park and I took my dad and the big kids to the library to finish  their summer reading challenge and got their certificates and pinwheels. In the afternoon everyone was ratty and tired so we went swimming at the local pool, which seemed a bit silly because it's an indoor pool and the sun was out however the kids had a good time and everyone slept well after so it was a great success.

On Sunday we went to The American Museum in Bath.  Did you know there is an American Museum in Bath?  I discovered it recently and it's great, expect for being over an hours drive away.  We explored the American Gardens (modeled after the Mount Vernon Garden) and played on the playground and ate American style food.  It was hot and sunny and we all had ice cream.  We joined as members so we will hopefully adventure back soon.

Family Picnic at the museum

Yes, I did dress Aubrey in her flag dungarees

There was also a space exhibit at the museum

On Monday the big kids were in summer camp, and my dad and I took the twins to the park and library and I had a small amount of down time during twin nap, which was spent tidying the house, doing laundry, and working on dinner prep. Not the most enjoyable or relaxing Rachel hours, but I did learn that you can make Jacket Potatoes in the Slow Cooker 

On Tuesday all the kids were home so I took them (and my dad) to a local museum in the morning where we met a friend and had another picnic

Our picnic is pretty much always a baguette with cheese, some crackers, and some fruit.  Also usually a chopped up chocolate brioche.

On Wednesday our nanny had the twins so I took my dad and Lily and Ezra to the Botanical Gardens, which I had never been to before and are a 1 hour drive and are AMAZING!  I didn't actually get any photos of any of the incredible plants and flowers, but they had a free kids circus there which I did get photos of:

15 years ago I used to take arial ropes and silks lessons for fun and it made me really want to do lessons again when I am a bit more free in the evenings.  

Giant glass dome thing with plants from California

On Thursday we did another big adventure to Raglan Castle (about 45 minutes away).  It was not as warm as the start of the week, hence the jumpers:

We had a picnic and explored the castle, before heading to Tretower Court to see another "castle" and a pop up planetarium show:

Everyone enjoyed the planetarium show and I have to remember to look up the local astronomical societies to see what other events they are doing.  

Also this show was well timed for me as I just started reading Taylor Jenkins Reid's Atmosphere

After the planetarium show we explored the castle and played dress up

Then the kids spent some time rolling down a hill before we all got ice cream and drove back home again.

On Friday (today) the big kids went to summer camp and my dad and I took the toddlers to a local park with some wooden sculptures

Aubrey and Clara spent an hour looking at all the animals before my dad had to get his bus to the airport.  I drove home, served toddler lunch, then sat down to write this blog and maybe check off a few to dos (update: I ordered a bench and some sports bras and probably will not get to doing budget or any of the other ongoing to-dos I seem to accumulate)

Summer week 5 was another fun and super busy week.  It made me remember how much there is to do within an hour of where we live! There are so many castles, museums, gardens... there is a reason we chose to live in South Wales.  because of the kids ages we have been on nap schedules for 80% of the last 7 years, and while the twins do still nap it's becoming more possible to take them out for longer adventures occasionally.  

Next week is a short work-week (Bank Holiday on Monday, Andy and I both off on Friday) and the last official week of summer.  This summer has been mostly great so far, and hopefully we can continue the awesomeness all the way through.

Also, we have missed exactly one item from our summer fun list - fly a kite.  Wish us kite flying luck this weekend!