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.

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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"

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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!

The Great Bedroom Reset - Moving the kids rooms around!

For the second year in a row we used Summer to reset the kids bedrooms, and for the second year in a row we made my brother help us with the move.  Last August we moved the twins from the small middle floor room into the big middle floor room, then moved the big kids into the big top floor room together, and then turned the top floor room small room into my office and the middle floor small room into Andy's office.  I think.  Honestly... I don't really remember.

It worked well to have Ezra and Lily share a room, it made bedtimes easier and both Andy and I were working from home so we needed two rooms to work from (I talk all the time in my job, Andy does quiet focus, it does not work for us to be in the same room).

However, Andy now works in an office, and it was becoming apparent that the big kids needed a little more of their own space.  They are together A LOT.  

So we said goodbye to Andy's office (which FYI does not always look this crazy but he was in the middle of some darkroom etching project when I took these photos:

And Hello to Lily's new room!

(Someday I will learn to do the same angels in each photo)

Then I said a tearful goodbye to my office:

And Hello to Ezra's new room

These rooms are still works in progress, as you can see.  The "overtly Olive" paint color is my favourite color and I am a bit sad that I no longer work in a room with that accent wall, and also that the most "grown up" paint color is in each of the kids rooms now.  However, it's fun for them to have their own spaces.

Our new combined office is a work in progress.  I haven't quite removed all the kid stuff, as evidenced in this photo, but it's getting there:

I have intentionally taken this photo from Andy's side of the office, because his is a definite work in progress.

We didn't have enough room for my office drawers unfortunately, but I managed to consolidate the most important pieces into that Raskog storage trolly.  

Seeing my pens all the time brings me so much joy.  And, I use them more! Because I can see them! and I also paint my nails more because I can see my nail polishes.  

I adore an IKEA Raskog and would have one in every room if I could.  

That's all from our house updates, I love refreshing a space.

Do you repurpose rooms in your house often? What's the last space you "refreshed"?

Summer Week 4: Time moves in mysterious ways

This is a totally belated recap of Summer Week 5, but I am going to post it on the right day just for funsies

The kids were in our local school summer camp this week, from Monday to Thursday.  Work was somewhat slow since lots of people are on holiday - one of the things I love about summer is how much everything slows down since *everyone* takes their holidays in the same 6 weeks (well, everyone with school aged kids.  Before it just seemed like a fluke of the world that no one was in work in August)

On Monday night I tested the boundaries of my "up for anything!" sports buddy by taking her to RampWorld.  Rampworld is a local BMX and skate park, which does ladies night once a month, where bike rental is free.  There were about 8 amazing skating ladies doing tricks, and then my friend and I looking like absolute fools on a BMX bike.  

Luckily my friend enjoyed it and we're going to go back again for the next ladies night.  I'm going to try and get a ladies night group together, and have already texted some mountain biking ladies to see if they would join.  It's a totally ridiculous hobby to take up at age 40 and I had so much fun.

Tuesday - Thursday were normal work days, although slightly disjointed as I met gym buddy during lunch on Wednesday.  My dad also arrived on Wednesday for a 10 day visit, and then we picked up the kids together from holiday club on Thursday and I put an out of office up for 11 days!  Not working on Fridays combined with a bank holiday on Monday the 25th makes this a looong week of holiday.

On Friday We met friends at a local National Trust site in the morning, although the twins did not nap because we stayed out too late which was kind of a mega bummer! They were happy but I was tired.

It was also HOT - 29c/84f.  We spent the afternoon doing water play in the back garden.

My half marathon training is not going great - on Thursday night I couldn't find the program I was doing on Peloton and it turned out there was a glitch in the app! I already wasn't feeling super motivated so instead of running I just stayed up late and woke up late.  I did a run on Monday and another on Wednesday, plus yoga on Monday and Wednesday.  I did nothing on Thursday or Friday.

In other summer news, I just finished reading The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison and I really loved it.  I think it's one of my favourite reads since  The Wedding People.  I know it might be a bit twee and predictable, but also it's all the kids of twee and predictable that I love.  

Next week is Summer Week 5 - holiday at home v2!  I have two days with just the twins while the kids are in camp, two days with the kids while the twins are with the nanny, and one day of all 4.  And, of course, my dad is here to visit which makes exploring far more fun.  Hopefully we will make it to a new castle and to the national botanical gardens. 

Summer moved so quickly from 6 weeks of expansive time to almost gone...