I hear the drizzle of the rain...

DS1 woke us up with a new milestone - barfing (not in his bed, even) and then coming down to tell us about it. :( Poor kid. I am 99% sure that it's simply that he ate a metric ton of crap at a birthday party yesterday but just to be on the safe side, I am quarantining all of us. It's going about as well as you'd expect cooping up three active kids on a rainy day to go.

I actually got something done today - I'm working on tools to help us be more organized when school starts, and I've put together task lists for the boys and me, of all the things to be accomplished. With both boys in school 5 days a week, I have a fantasy that I might actually be able to keep a bit more on target with some house cleaning. I am going to print them out and put them in plastic sleeves (or laminate them), and have them at the bottom of the stairs. I'm also going to institute evening routines that involve things like locating shoes and coats and backpacks and whatnot, so that we can perhaps be a bit less frenzied in the morning. Wish me luck!!

The girlie is down for a nap, boys are playing a bit on the iPhone...maybe I should go knit?!

I actually started knitting today.

For some reason I'm just feeling so disconnected from the creative part of my soul, so I haven't been doing anything! I was on a big sewing kick, but it turns out the my daughter HATES dresses, so the cute little dresses I made forher are unworn. She's pretty funny about it, but very very adamant. It's a good thing she's darn cute, or I don't know what I'd do!

In other news, we took our big "vacation" which involved go to my home in VT for 6 days. Every time we go there, I leave thinking of how much I want to move back there. I do like our little town here, but honestly, the Boston 'burbs wasn't ever really my dream. We are so profoundly lucky to have a wonderful house in a town we really like, and it doesn't feel like a suburb much at all, it's really very rural. But still, if we had a way to make a living in my hometown, I'd take it. I'm less excited about living in a suburb of Burlington, for example, I think I'd take our town here over that. Anyway, it's all a dream. We had a great visit, and took the kids to the county fair, and the boys got to ride a bunch of rides this year! They had a *blast*, and so did the grown ups! Baby girl slept through a bunch of it. (I know, not a baby anymore, but still MY baby.) My oldest even rode a little roller coaster all by himself! I can't believe how big he's getting. Off to first grade, and turning SEVEN, in just a couple of weeks. We've got a school friend party planned for next week, and I think we may have a neighborhood party over Labor Day weekend as well.

Oh! Yes! Knitting! So, it was a lovely rainy day today, perfect for lounging around and doing not much of anything. I cast on and knit, oh, a good three rows of Monkey Sock #2. Perhaps I've actually get another pair of socks finished?? Part of me wants to ditch all my projects and just start something new, but more of me wants to FINISH some things so I can actually feel okay about starting something new. I think the responsible part of me may win this battle.

Fall is coming!

It's hard to believe. I like the end of summer, starting a new school year. Having been a student or connected to a university for much of my life, it always feel like a fresh start, the fall. We had DS2's practice bus ride today. I was stunned, he went off easily with friends, though clearly after the fact he was pretty freaked out. Poor guy, he takes after me in his dislike of change. It's hard, having them growing up and moving away from me. The issues get more complex, more challenging the older they get - I can't fathom what it'll be like when they're teenagers!!

We are just back from our vacation. We went to my hometown this year, and stayed with my folks, which was really fun. I really wish I could move back there. I love my hometown, and I think it'd be a great place to raise kids! If we could sell our house and my husband could find a decent job, we could even afford it! Almost. It's a total pipedream, and I love our house and home and life here too...

I'm not crafting at all. I even took knitting with me and not only did I not do any, I didn't even go to the yarn store!! *gasp* What's wrong with me??

There's lots of stuff I want to be doing, but finding the energy and time is not easy right now. I'm not sure why, it's not like we're doing all that much else at the moment!

Anyway...

Starting over with gratitude....there's so much to be grateful for, but today I'll be grateful for my friends' babysitter, who made off with both my boys to play with their friends, all day! The baby girl and I had a fun day together! Even if she didn't nap.