Yes, the big item of the week was that we hosted a total of 14 people.  Everything went smoothly.  We spatchcocked two small turkeys vs cooking one big bird.  That really cuts down on oven time, and when you’re eating at lunch means not getting up ridiculously early.

The second big item was I had my TSA Pre-Check interview, and got approved within the same week!  I wasn’t doubting getting approved, but I had heard that one had to apply for this months before one’s travel date.  Apparently that is no longer the case.  I filled in the form online, had the interview, and got approved all within the month of November.

Less significantly:

• Three boys had swimming lessons.
• Two went to math morning.
• I went to a meeting to discuss the future of Halloween celebrations at school.
• I fitted the kids for gloves and boots (last items on the winter clothing checklist).  Gloves we’re all set.  Boots we need one pair.  All in all a pretty efficient year.
• A bag of “lost” items was returned to us from school, about a month after it disappeared.  Nothing very valuable, but nice to have it back.  I also tracked down another child’s lost gloves in the school lost and found.  At the moment, nothing is lost.
• We put up the tree, candles, and exterior Christmas decorations.  Still a few more things to do inside.

Apologies for the late post.  And, the lack of pictures.  I noticed a bunch of blogs I follow were off schedule-wise this week also.  Seems to be part of the season!

I showed some Halloween pictures in my October summary.  But, how about a few more!

• The boys went to 4th grade math morning.
• We had four soccer practices and three soccer games.
• Only one had swimming lessons this week; most were cancelled for Halloween.
• We enjoyed the Halloween parade at the elementary school.
• Our oldest went to an indoor carting birthday party, which he quite enjoyed.
• I had three parent / teacher conferences.
• I signed up for Middle School parent / teacher conferences.
  • This presented many dilemmas, which hopefully I’ll figure out when I go so I can do this better next year.
    • First, you have to decide which teachers to speak with.  Our oldest helpfully said, “If I were you I would talk to all of them.”
    • There are seven (really more, but some only conference as a group) and conferences are 10 minutes each so this didn’t seem too bad.
    • But, then I realized that if a conference ended at 10:10 and another started at 10:10 I would have no travel time to get from one to the other.  So, I left gaps, but this means I’m there fore much of the day.  If everything really does run promptly, I’ll try to schedule nearby conferences in adjacent time slots next year.
    • Also, conferences are spread out over one full day plus five half days.  One teacher isn’t there on the full day of conferences.  I decided I couldn’t fit everyone in on the half day so I’m going to one stand-alone 10 minute conference.
  • I took the youngest to her first gym class – really just come play on all the mats, bouncy house, etc.  She’s not napping in the morning anymore so this seemed like a good once a week activity for the winter months.
  • I had everyone try on snow jackets and snow pants.  I’ll need to purchase two full sets and one person will move up to the next size, but we already have it.
    • We’ll need to try on boots, hats, and gloves this weekend.

The weather here is feeling more fall-like.  We had a very warm September and October with next to no rain.  This past week we got a few colder days (seasonable, though they feel cold after the prolonged warm) and some light rain.  I would prefer an occasional downpour instead of a lot of mist, but some moisture is nice for the plants.  It looks like we’ll be in this slightly cooler, slightly wetter pattern for a while now.

I didn’t post updates every week in September, in fact not since Sept 19.  So, this covers the end of the month as well as how I did vs the goals I laid out in August.  Even though we’re more than halfway through October, I’ll add some goals for this month too so we can review in a few weeks and see how things are going.

So, in the second half of September:

• One child had 4 baseball practices.
• We had four soccer practices, split between two children.
• We had five soccer games.
• Swimming lessons continued for four children.
• Two children went out to dinner with a friend for a fundraiser.
• Elementary school picture day happened.  I haven’t seen the photos yet.
• We went to two birthday parties.
• I went to some meetings.
• Elementary Back to School Night happened.
• I participated in the twins group consignment sale.

So, how did my September goals go:

• Clean the house.  This means everything – under/behind furniture, all surfaces, inside the furniture/cabinets themselves, unfinished areas, etc.  My plan is to start at the top and work my way down.  No.  I did get more things cleaned than over the summer, but not to this level and not this organized.  Bumping to October.
• Identify, tag, and sort items for the twin’s tag sale at the end of the month.  
• Go to BJ’s.  This will be on Sept. 6.  It is the first actual full day of school for everyone and I have coupons that expire that day.
• Get a haircut.  No.  I did get it scheduled for October though.

And with that, here are goals for October:

• Clean the house.  This means everything – under/behind furniture, all surfaces, inside the furniture/cabinets themselves, unfinished areas, etc.  My plan is to start at the top and work my way down.  Realistically, at halfway through the month this will probably only get part way done.
• Get everyone a haircut.
• Update the boys’ bank accounts.  These have been running on paper notes since we moved.
• Inventory the freezers and plan to use up anything that’s been there for a while.  This is largely in anticipation of holiday meat sales.
• Get back on track with four blog posts per week.

I’ll cover what we did over the summer in a variety of posts through the fall, but for now let’s focus on the past 10 days or so.

School started on August 29.  But between the slow uptake and misc. holidays, we don’t have a true full week of school until the week of Sept 25.  What did we do with the extended summer?

• We went blueberry picking.

• We’ve been to the farmer’s market a few twice.  We made our annual trip to Dunkin’ Donuts.
• The weather has been gorgeous so we’ve spent a lot of time outside.  And, BBQing.
• I tagged many items for the sale at the end of the month.  Many more to go.
• We had visiting day and the first day of preschool.  There was some apprehension about the new classroom, but it has evaporated.
• I’ve caught up on some things that had been getting pushed off all summer.  But, I’m sure it will be at least the end of October before the backlog is cleared.
• Fall baseball and soccer have started.  We had 3 soccer games.
• Middle school had picture day.
• Two went to a Red Sox game with town Little League.

This week the remaining fall activities will start bringing us to our full schedule for this year.