I've Got Spirit, YES I DO!

My schedule today: work by 7:25 (with two out of the three children). Interim IEP meeting at 7:45.  From 8:30-11:30-testing for 2nd graders (reading fluency) and Kindergarten (letter naming). Break for lunch (30m). Back at 12 for 1st grade-letter sounds, letter naming, nonsense words, and reading passages (mind you, I can recite all of the reading passages by heart). Finished at 2:50 pm, did some busy work at my desk and checking emails until I picked up the kids from the after school program. Went to Primrose School to see a private kiddo for speech -kids back in car to drop Ella off for goalie training.  Max and I opened up the Spirit Wear store, where I volunteer every Wednesday for 2 hours.  No WiFi, so I can't do work or blog, so I old schooled it on a notepad. Also coordinated soccer games for September, October, and November, since we got soccer schedules-I color coded.  It looks like a rainbow nightmare.  So it is 9:42pm. I had a bagel with tomato and cucumber for dinner with a glass of vino.  Looking toward to another full day tomorrow.....

xo~M

My view ....

My partner-he tells me when someone steals something, I'll run after them. I'll do my boxing moves.  (he looks really invested)

Old schooling it.....

Color coding, but missing Max's blue....his schedule isn't out yet!

The End of my 365

I gave it a good shot....I made it 176 days. I would have liked to make it at least half of the year, but I didn't make it.  So for 176 days I added a picture to the blog.  Something that represented my day/time at that moment.  It was a good run.  Around the time school let out (when I SHOULD have had time to load a picture a day) is when I dropped the ball.  So while I won't stop taking pictures, I have stopped linking them to my 365 blog. 

Sadly~M

Here are some I have taken recently

Sunset on the Sound

A rose bush at Josh's dad 's house

Charlie....riding on the console

A man and his chain saw!

Playing air hockey

The Taste of Graham Crackers

The only time we ever buy graham crackers is when we are going to the beach because we know we are going to make s'mores.  The taste of graham crackers all by themselves remind me of being in the hospital when I was having the kids.  Not being able to eat the whole time you are in labor and even after....the one thing you are offered after is juice (I remember orange, apple, cranberry-I always chose cranberry) and a 4 pack of graham crackers.  Those graham crackers and the cranberry juice tasted AWESOME.  The. Best. Food. Ever. After all the work and no food for hours. So now every time I smell or taste graham crackers that is what I think of...my babies.  So as the summer winds down and they begin to drive me (a little bit) crazy, I hold onto the memories of the little things, like graham crackers.

xo~M

Max and I at the Sunset Grille- a little blurry but sweet anyway

Some love from Ella

Self portrait of Kee and I

Technology, Smecnology....

Frustrating week ... when you work from home and have no Internet.  I see kids at their day cares, homes etc....but all billing, paperwork etc, goes into the computer.  Countless cell phone minutes used, complaints, 2 inside visits, one outside technician visit, one cable cut line, roadwork, a new wireless box, and a WEEK later...I am back online.  So this week, between the tears of dismay from Keelin that she could not, gasp, INSTAGRAM....trips to Starbucks and the library and any other place I could jump onto wifi, we had down time.  No technology means: no iPads, no iTouches, no netflix, no blogging, no facebooking, no emailing....but LOTS of swimming, playing in the yard, reading, taking walks.  So while it was frustrating, it was also eye opening and I would encourage any one to take a technology timeout.  (Of course if you could plan it around your work, your teenager's hormones and the like...you will be less likely to commit any type of unnecessary bodily harm to self or others....)

xo~M

We found out Charley likes bubbles

Air Charley

Life's a Beach

We spent a week with our best friends in Bikini Bottom-the beach house we rent in the Outer Banks.  It was a fabulous week of...beach time, swimming, boating, wining (no H), hot tubbing....with no watches and limited contact with reality. As soon as I see the ocean and smell the sand and water, I feel all the tension melt off me.  Sitting next to Josh the first day and watching the kids play in the water....I feel like my soul is being replenished.  Josh says I am different on vacation.  Yes, I am Vacation Mom.  Vacation Wife.  Vacation Megan.  But it helps the kids are my Vacation Kids too.  They fight less.  Talk back less....they are just naughty-less.  And I am stress-less.  Reality is just around the corner, but for THIS week-I am at the BEACH!  I love my vacation self.  Every year I come home vowing to carryover into real life the feelings I feel during this week.  Every year I think I do a little bit better, but until next year.....here are some favs....

xo~M

Snippers and Pitters- a self-portrait

Josh and I at the Catalina Wine Mixer

Keelin and Max at Jeannette's Pier

Vi-Vi and Ella jumping the waves

yes-in a dress!

Photo bomb action

Blake-charging the waves

Maxer do

Boredom Buster

So in an effort to MOVE on from a few days of crazy sibling fighting and nonsense.  Josh and I took the kids to Pooles Mill for some nature swimming.  Getting them out of the house and giving them exercise in an effort to tire their bodies and mouths.  They had a blast!  It did not stop Keelin from asking to get taken for frozen yogurt or the mini argument that broke out about what movie to watch when we got home...but we will take what we can get. 

xo~M

Breathe In...Breathe Out....

If Chronos is minute to minute and Kairos is the extraordinary, what is the crap? The whining? The complaining?  What word can we give that?  I will email Glennon tomorrow and ask her.  Today was definitely an anti-carpe diem type of day.  I will not SEIZE this day.  I am not even sure I am all that grateful for it.  Shhhh.....I will be at bedtime, when I can snuggle with Josh on the couch with a glass of wine as I prepare to go to work tomorrow.  When I could not take it anymore, instead of exploding I had them all go in the playroom and work on a list, " What mom and dad have done for us this summer" and "What mom and dad have done for themselves this summer." And they did it, but SHOCKING they fought over who was going to WRITE the list!  Holy crap....There is fighting over video games, hide and seek, swimming games, chores, who got up first, who played with whom yesterday and whose turn it is today....Can't we ALL just get a long?  Seriously....
Fast forward two days....Glennon's blog posted that in our generation, when there are days like this, we view ourselves as "bad moms" but in the previous generation it was the "bad kids." I think I MUCH prefer the latter......

Carry on peeps, carry on

xo~M

Opting for a picture of peaceful, anti-argumentative flowers today