A-Head of the New Season

This tree at the school entrance is the first on that street to boast its fall hairdo already!

Quite a head-turner, isn't it? Every time several times this past week I went with Kait to drive Jon and Ben, I just had to stop and gawk :).

It's busy as usual. There's more running around also with a cross-country activity both boys started on, among other things.

This is the husband's travelling season, too. Every week till the end of the year, he'll be away for work for a couple of days, sometimes more. Like for the first of these trips starting this week, and the frequency means after he's come back from it for two days, off he goes again.

Frankly, I feel quite tired just thinking about it, knowing how tired we both get from such "marathons" (while I'm still on the running topic). Just do it; that good old Nike tagline comes to mind!

"Do your best and trust God to do the rest" happens to be what Vern wrote down also in the message from us parents to Jon at his classroom open house the other night.

At that open house, I was pleasantly surprised to see my everyday home cooking placed third on Jon's list of top ten fave things! It's nice to be appreciated :). Of course yummy as this mom's food is, it can't possibly beat the top two spots that went to *drum roll, please* playing soccer and being outdoors!

Indulge me for a moment. I also appreciate Jon's candour when separately he'd called me a "burns expert" -- because of my wilder adventures in the kitchen this summer! There was the one with the new rice cooker: the steam added another "battle" scar for me. Another day, without trying at all, I flambéed an old pot. The husband had me to thank for this: "At least we know our smoke detectors work!"! Ha, ha!

Guess it's a good thing then I didn't burn the "gratitude" fried rice I made, so touched by Jon's gesture, for both boys' packed lunch the day after the open house, over more fuss-free sandwiches.

Seriously now, I have to press on... with pressing a week's of the husband's shirts and pants but not trying to be in over my head with the bigger backlog to catch up ironing another time. Still, it'll be one thing less for me to stay up to do on the nights Vern won't be here to tuck the children in. With Kait fighting hard my attempts to discourage her from waking up so much, I'd better be practising more of the early to bed, not only the early to rise!

Rise and Shine

Wakey, wakey! Ben woke us bright and early, two Thursdays ago now, more excited than nervous about starting first grade!

Jon our fifth grader didn't want this mom fussing over him: No pictures! Too much scrambled eggs! But he wanted me to drive because of his heavy load of school supplies.

Kait grabbed her own bag, too. Her smile was as wide as adorable Dora's on her backpack, as we all got out the door and made a beeline for the bus-stop. Only, she wasn't going up the big yellow bus. "My schoolbus!" she called out after it, about to cry. Thankfully, she found the spring in her step quite quickly again.

Our day was just starting. And also the new schoolyear!

Shine, you're a star... Ben's teacher included a star in the goodie bag for each child on that first day of school, encouraging the class to set high goals: "The sky is the limit. You're truly a star.".

That one more summer splash

It was a gorgeous day, that afternoon at the lake near where M and M were visiting.

Oh, how the water sparkled in the sun! It was actually colder than it looked inviting.

But how could the boys resist that one more splash?

They also got to kayak for the very first time!