Another school year in the books

It's the last day of the school year!

I'm sure teachers are looking at summer vacation with visions of bathroom breaks whenever they need them, reading for pleasure, and later bedtimes.

I'm sure my kids are looking at summer vacation with visions of afternoons at the pool, frozen yogurt for dinner, and endless play time.

I'm looking at the summer months a bit more realistically. I'm sure the girls will be asking for snacks every 30 minutes and I know there will be significant amounts of bickering in the beginning. However, I'm also looking forward to hanging out with my girls, saying yes as much as possible, and reconnecting as a family.

(Side note, both my kids bought recorders at the music store yesterday, so there's that...)

This year has been so good for Ruby. I've seen her grow in confidence and bravery. I'm most proud of the way she faced some anxiety filled events and proved to herself that she is capable of doing really hard things.

(She's upset at me this morning because her teacher said not to bring anything in their backpacks today, but I put her lunch in there. We're not sure about the hot lunch situation on this last day, so I decided we should play it safe and send one. This is a perfect example of her tendency toward anxiety.)

Maia also had a great year. She's grown emotionally and is starting to form real friendships with some kids at school. She was a classroom representative on Student Council and we saw her demonstrate a real passion for this job.

At the end of this school year, more than ever, I see the age difference between my girls. Maia is starting to think about puberty and is dealing with more social conflicts than in the past. Ruby is still a "little" girl and always wants Maia to play catch or Life or dolls. More often than not, Maia would rather spend time alone.

They are so close in age, they've always been built-in playmates. The dynamic has shifted a bit and we'll all be figuring out how to navigate this new place.

I'm picking up the girls today from school so that we can give their teachers a small token of our gratitude. I'm feeling the loss that comes at the end of a chapter. I'm so enormously grateful to the women who shepherded their classrooms this year. They held my girls in kindness and love, while keeping them to high standards.

These women saw my kids more than I did some weeks and there are not adequate words to describe my gratitude for their commitment to helping raise smart, responsible, kind kids.

Cheers to the start of summer!

Happy New (School) Year!

This week I joined the ranks of women who enter and leave the YMCA without children running ahead of them, bickering over who gets to open the door, needing to arrive 10 minutes before class starts to check them into the KidZone, and then fielding requests for a snack from the vending machine as we head home.

This week marks the first time in seven years that my day-to-day includes alone time. As an introvert, its remarkable to note that I actually physically feel different. It's like my body is more open and absorbent, somehow. I find myself thinking about making plans with friends. Like, I want to get together with people. It's crazy!

With two children in school all day, I've realized several things:
1. Regular showers are now necessary for my girls. Before this week I would unashamedly tell anyone that my kids were bathed every 8 days. Now, they come home sweaty and happy and sending them to bed with the day's adventures caked on their skin is no longer an option.

2. Hot lunches are the best. We have to pack Maia's lunch every day because of her refined taste buds (read: sarcasm), but Ruby is willing to try the school lunch and it's amazing! My meal prep time has cut down by half with everyone gone all day.

3. The hours between arriving home from school and bedtime are intense and go too quickly. There's piano practicing, ballet, homework, dinner, and showers to fit in. Not to mention time to play and decompress after a day of sitting still and being quiet. Everyday this week my kids have gotten off the bus and do not stop talking until I've tucked them into bed. It's as if they've stored up all the words during school and have to get them out once they come home. It's actually kind of incredible.

4. I've been very busy for the past 7 years. Realizing that this week has been incredibly healthy and validating for me. When we became parents, Aleks and I made a conscious effort to minimize the impact on our kids with both of us working (him: full time, me: part time). For us that meant planning my work schedule around their preschool schedules or coordinating our work schedules so that we could trade off being with the kids. I'm really grateful we were able to do that, but it was quite draining and stressful. It often meant that Aleks and I would only see each other as we passed off the kids from one car to the other while he headed home from work as I headed in. It also meant that I was always working: either as a mom or as a teacher, sometimes I'd have to do both at the same time. It's no wonder I haven't had any energy for anything else.

5. I like working. Quitting my job at WSU was the absolute best decision for me. I am 100% happier. In complete honesty, WSU's first day of school was hard for me. I was sad not to see the students whom I have come to love. But then I heard about some of the shenanigans going on and just felt relieved that I was free from the all the disfunction. I've got some new work-related things lined up and the most time consuming one doesn't start until after Labor Day, so basically I'm a stay at home mom for two weeks. It's been great going to the gym each day and getting stuff done around the house, but I'm also really grateful that I have the opportunity to work and contribute to my community.

This week I set out to repair some holes in the girls' bathroom. An old towel rack kept falling down and when we went to put new ones up, it left unsightly holes in the wall. This was over 6 months ago. I looked up a tutorial on YouTube and got to work.  It all went fairly smoothly (well actually, there were quite a few hiccoughs along the way) until it came time to touch up the paint. I had saved the paint color, but had to get a new can. I'm sure you can all see where this is going, but of course, when I got home and put it on the wall, it didn't quite match. So yesterday I had to repaint the entire bathroom. Which is fine, but I just wasn't planning on investing that much time into the whole thing. However, it's done now and looks good and the girls are thrilled.

The girls are loving school. Ruby especially is just radiating happiness every day. I am so incredibly grateful to have two girls who enjoy school. I will never take that for granted.

They also learned to ride bikes this weekend and after seeing Maia's bruised knees (from hitting the handlebars as she was riding) we decided to get them new bikes. Ruby has picked it up very quickly while Maia is still a bit cautious and nervous. With cooler temperatures on the way, I'm sure we'll get lots of bike riding practice in.

It's been a big couple of weeks for our little family. Maybe it's just my new-found alone time, but I'm filled to the gills with gratitude. For health, happiness, family, new beginnings, work, strength, money to buy groceries. All of it.