This is getting posted a little late, but I consider it an accomplishment that I’m getting it out today at all.

In October we:

• Sports
  • Went to a total of seven soccer events (practices or games) per week.  I believe two didn’t happen due to a coach’s illness and rain.  The weather has been wonderful overall.
  • Fall baseball clinics finished.  We had three this month.
  • Weekly swimming lessons continued for the middle four.
• School
  • Started 4th grade math mornings.  These will continue weekly throughout the school year.
  • Attended 4th grade math night.  This is a once a year activity.
  • I took the younger two apple picking with the preschool class.
  • I went to Back to School Night for the Middle School and Preschool.  I don’t think many people can say that!
  • I went to three school-related meetings.
• Family
  • The kids went to a total of three birthday parties.
  • We went to one play date.
  • The boys and I had haircuts.
  • We all got flu shots.
  • I went to an annual rummage sale.  I particularly like this one because it is on weekdays, vs the typical Saturday.  I think I did pretty well for $30!
    
• Halloween
  • We went for the hay maze and potato cannons.
    
  • We carved pumpkins.
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  • The kids went trick or treating.
    

    

    

    

    
    

    

    

    

    
    

As with September, I didn’t get through all my goals, but I feel I made good progress.

• 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.  I still didn’t get this all done.  But, I’ve finished all the bathrooms and two bedrooms.  So, not the order I had proposed but I’m about halfway there.

• 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.  Not done.

• Get back on track with four blog posts per week.  Didn’t quite make four.  I did get back up to three from (often) one.  So, good progress.

Here are goals for November.  Fall sports finish up mid-month, which I hope will free up our schedule significantly:

• Finish cleaning 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.  This is halfway done already.  I expect to finish everything (except maybe the basement and garage).
• 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.  Inventory the pantry for things that need to be used up / seasonal items / items that go on sale seasonally.
• Get back on track with four blog posts per week.
• Order and send Christmas cards.

Yes, soccer and baseball are finished for the spring.  Now, a short respite until summer.  We would have liked to continue baseball for one more week, as our oldest lost in the second round of the playoffs.  But, it was a tight game to finish out their season.

So, this will be the last post for a while that is sports dominated:

• We had 6 baseball games and 3 baseball practices.
• We had 6 soccer games and 2 soccer practices.
• Our oldest went to the 5th grade track meet.
• Our oldest had a few extra baseball lessons.
• Our oldest went on the 5th grade camping trip.
• We had our last Math Morning.
• I went to a retirement party for the preschool director.
• I also met the incoming preschool director.
• We had a preschool play date.
• I had a doctor appointment.
• We attended two birthday parties.
• It finally warmed up so we went to the pool.  Our preschooler spotted a bunny.

• The warm weather must have been exhausting because multiple people fell asleep on the floor.

• We thought a sky scraper had sprouted in town, especially as the first time we saw it, it was a dark and rainy day.  In actuality it is a church steeple wrapped in scaffolding, which is a bit easier to see in this sunny day picture.

This past week we parted with quite a few pairs of pants, including this one.  There were also a few socks, but mostly pants.  Frankly, I’m surprised this pair lasted the winter.  Gymboree athletic pants have not held up well for us in the past.  Thankfully its spring.

• We’ve only had 5 baseball games so far.  4 have been rained out.
• We’ve had 3 baseball clinics.
• The baseball players went to the opening day parade.  I made a banner for their team.
• Soccer games were also affected.  Over two weeks we had 4 and 2 were cancelled.
• Only 1 soccer practice was cancelled.

The rain policy for both baseball and soccer is age dependent.  It’s also often hard to get enough kids to play a rescheduled game.  I’m not sure how many of these games will end up getting rescheduled.

• The 5th → 6th grade transition has begun.
  • I went to two meetings at the middle school.
  • We registered for middle school classes (foreign language & music choices).
• I went to meetings at both the elementary school and preschool.
• We had two weeks of bike club and skating.
• We had 1 doctor’s appointment.
• We had 1 playdate.
• We went to 1 birthday party.
• I got out the next bin of clothing for the baby to see what we had for summer / next size.  Turns out we’re in good shape for everything except tops so I’ve been doing a little shopping to fill in that hole.  It’s been tricky finding non-pink (all the bottoms are pink) onesie tops with sleeves, but we’ve managed.

At least I’m caught up on this one!

May is always super busy around here.

• We’re juggling two soccer teams + three baseball teams.  This usually means 8 games + 4 practices per week.
• We went to three birthday parties.
• I got moving quotes.
• I met the new elementary school principal.
• We settled paint colors, tile, & countertops.
• The older boys went to a New England Revolution game.
• We got the broken window fixed.
• Everyone went to the dentist.
• Skating, drawing class, bike club, Before School Sports, and Math Mornings all finished for the year.