Enumerated Update

Friends, can you believe we are more than halfway through September? Fall will officially make its appearance soon, and October is always a treadmill, propelling us toward the holiday season.  Personally, I am ready for some cooler temps and some lovely foliage. Are you with me?

In addition to x-ing off the days of September with a black Sharpie, here is what we have been doing:

1) Field Trip: William George went on his very first field trip (above) this past Wednesday. His K4 class went to Children's Theatre. Because there is big demand for chaperone opportunities, we are assigned dates to attend, and my date is later in the year. Although George was nervous, he was brave, went and had a great time.

2) 5K: The running club at the girls' school resumed this week, and the duo have joined. They meet at school on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:15. Gracie completed a 5K (15 laps) the first day, and Lauren was just a smidge shy of completing it also (14 laps).

3) Watercolors: Have you been noticing the sky lately? Each day is like a masterpiece painting from God. If you haven't already, please do yourself a favor and look up.

4) Super Readers: One of the goals for third graders is to accumulate 40 Accelerated Reader points, based on books read and a brief quiz to assess comprehension. Lauren made this her mission by reading 30-45 minutes each night, reading during lunch and getting up at 5:45am to read before school.  So yesterday, on the 30th day of school, Lauren completed the year-end goal by obtaining 41.6 AR points. Gracie is right on her heels, and the circle of book needy-ness is complete.

(They now have personal goals of 100 points.)

5) Brag-fest: I'm realizing that the above may seem a little braggadocious, and that is not the intent. To keep it real, our school year has had plenty of drama, setbacks and the usual growth pains involved in moving from second to third grade. Please think of the above as less bragging and more of a focus on the positive. We are counting our wins.

6) Gymnastics: William George began his gymnastics class at preschool this week. When he came home complaining that one of his classmates, Sophia, informed him that gymnastics was "for girls," we told him he could wave to her from the gold medal podium at the 2024 Olympics while our national anthem played in the background.

HA! Just kidding... mostly.

And that's it for us.  Wishing you and yours a wonderful weekend...

Weekend Update

Well... this is embarrassingly late. The below draft was created on Monday, but apparently was not published. Belatedly, here it is. 

This past weekend was spent chilling out. We had the ultimate "fun Friday" when Grammie came by to visit and make some sewing repairs on an couple of stuffed animals. Unbeknown to me, William George and Grace had Facetimed Grammie earlier in the week and coordinated some sewing services so we were able to have a visit on Friday.

After Grammie left, the trio decided to play outside all evening, stopping only briefly for dinner.

We also visited with out neighbors. We love our little cul-de-sac and the super nice people we share it with.

On Saturday, the trio spent the day with Gran and Poppa, while Skip and I had lunch and ran some errands. We then joined the group for dinner and a bonfire around the new swings. We also watched some football, but our team won handily (Roll Tide!) so we opted to be outside instead.

We felt very fortunate to visit with grandparents over the weekend of "Grandparents' Day".

After church Sunday, we tracked down a Craig's List item Skip has been watching, and after a quick lunch, the trio spent the day playing with their sweet new neighbor. They have waited for many years to have a little friend on our street, and they love having her over to swing. They also love that she shares her bounce house.

Literature

This summer has been an auspicious time for readers -- a real treasure trove, timed perfectly for some summer reading.  First and foremost, we were given Harper Lee's second novel, and although controversial, I enjoyed the book immensely. I was careful not to read any reviews in order not to prejudice myself (no pun intended), and the only post-novel reading I have done is to explore briefly the state of Harper Lee's affairs, a topic that is so alarming I won't pursue it further. At any rate, Go Set a Watchman is to literature what a sequel to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band would be to music.

Next, we were given the unbelievable gift of The End of the Tour, a movie based on the interview of David Foster Wallace at the end of his press tour for Infinite Jest.  Although this movie has not been released in my city (Yet? Is it going to be? I'm becoming impatient.), I immediately shut down any chatter about the reviews to avoid forming preconceived ideas about the movie.

At over 1,000 pages, Infinite Jest is bulky. I read it in the late 90's, and with the exception of work, I read almost exclusively for three weeks to complete it. And, it's not just the volume that is challenging... it's pages on end without paragraph breaks... and a couple of hundred pages of footnotes... and footnotes within the footnotes. The content itself is behemoth.  Since he is my favorite author, I have consumed his entire published catalog, even the out-of-print Broom of the System that he completed for his MFA. Importantly, being familiar (and actually pretty well-versed) with his work doesn't make me qualified to deconstruct DFW, the person, and rate his sincerity, humility and genius, and that's what the couple of reviews I began attempted to do.  So while I very much want to talk about this movie... this movie I have not seen and refuse to read about and/or watch/listen to reviews... I cannot, until it makes its way to my city.  But when it does... oh, it will be wonderful.

While I love Jesse Eisenberg, I was very skeptical of Jason Segel's performance (like Ashton Kutcher's attempted portrayal of Steve Jobs - yikes!), until I watched this interview, in which he seems to be continuing to channel DFW. After watching the interview, I'm keeping an open mind.

Here is the trailer:





Finally, Franzen's Purity was released last week. Although he is not one of my top-five favorites, I am very much looking forward to plowing through this new gem.  So far, I find the characters unlikable, and the cover is so bad (I know, don't judge) that it seems designed to repel the reader. There is a significant difference between flawed characters and unlikable characters, and this lack of distinction is why Franzen is less than a favorite.  Still, it isn't every year that we have one of his new novels, and I particularly liked Freedom so I will stay with it.

For the record, Franzen's Pip is no Scout.

What are you reading this summer?

After School Play

William George being in K4 has proven to be an odd, sentimental marker, since the girls started K4 when he was one month old. Although illogical, the experience makes it seem like we have come "full circle" and we are feeling nostalgic and a little shocked by how quickly his preschool years are passing.  

This is probably because Grace and Lauren keep comparing their K4 experience with his, by saying things, like, "Ohhh, you're going to love field trips," and "We loved our parties and graduation!"

And we probably feel pulled back in time because we got the sweetest note from Grace's K3 and K4 teacher, Mrs. Diana, last winter. We loved Mrs. Diana, and she had kindly noted George's age on our Christmas card and told us she would love to have him in her class.  Now, George is happy at our current school with his friends, and he is able to go half days at preschool, whereas he would be required to attend all day, five days per week, at the girls' former school. We decided to leave him where he is... but... it did pull at her hearts to consider having him in her class.

We cannot help but think about the girls' K4 year, and how they excitedly came home each day to play with their new baby brother (such as here, here and here).

The only difference now is that William George will likely say, "Take a picture of my booty, mommy!"

And we take the photo, because we know that he will be in fourth grade in the blink of an eye.

Summer's Last Hurrah

We spent Labor Day performing actual labor (ok, it was mostly Skip) and making three separate trips to Home Depot. In an effort to restore our back yard after the playground project, we (the literal "we") added top soil and installed sod as well as grass plugs to create a more welcoming back yard. Skip picked up a manual mower (tip: the price at Home Depot is lower), and he had to try it out as soon as we got home Friday night. Our sloped front yards tend to render the "self-propelled" feature of other mowers useless so he ends up hauling the mowers up/down the hills anyway.  We went back the next day to rent a sod roller.

In the meantime, Lauren came down with  a stomach bug, and she spent the weekend sick. We watched movies, went to Target when she was feeling a little better, and had a pizza night.  We made some ice cream (chocolate and vanilla) and, by Monday, were feeling well enough to grill with Skip's parents.

Goodbye, summer 2015... you were a great summer. Fall, you are our favorite, and we are ready for you.