First weeks of school

I'm finding myself with a little extra time on my hands this morning. Ben started kindergarten last week, so he's out the door by 7:30 and Eliza Jane is still getting her beauty sleep--she needs to be at school by 9, but I'll have to wake her up. 

It's taking a while to get into a rhythm of this new schedule. We are trying to fit a lot into our mornings and that means waking up early, trying to fit in our workouts, helping Ben get ready, making lunches and getting ready for work. If it weren't for the workouts, we'd be doing ok. But we really want to exercise! I am happy to run in our neighborhood, but if I go any earlier than 6:30 it's too dark but also need to leave before 6:45 so I can be home with miss E when JB leaves with Ben. Honestly, it has not happened for me yet, but I still have hope. Tomorrow?? 

dance class--Eliza on the far right 

Eliza has a little dance class that we've been fitting in one morning a week before school too. She is one happy girl out there moving to the music. I love that she is having fun, learning about dance from around the world, getting instruction, and I don't have to worry about costumes. Win! 

digging for fossils after school 

We are all thankful for Grandmommy's visit last week to ease the transition to school: after school treats from the tiger bag, special time with Eliza Jane before her school started, and extra time for me to get my classes at Baylor started on the right foot. 

Cicada hunt before leaving for school 

Benjamin looks forward to his outside time with daddy if he gets ready early enough before school. So far the transition to school seems to be going well enough for Benjamin. There have been a few tears, but I think overall it's going about as well as we can expect. His one complaint after the first day of school was that he didn't get to read enough books : )   

Eliza and I joined Benjamin for lunch yesterday at his school and I was surprised and pleased to see how animated he was and excited to tell me about what he was doing in school that day. It's a little harder to get him to talk about school in the afternoon; we're finding creative ways to get him to talk about it though. And we are modifying our expectations about how much a 5 year old is really going to be able to convey about his day. The fact is, it's a hard transition for us as parents knowing that he is in a world for 8 hours a day that we are just not as privy to as we'd like to be.

Ben does the Lemon Squeeze

The lemon squeeze part here at the end is a lot harder for us grown ups than wee Ben. 

A boy in his element 

Loving every minute 

Got a little tired near the end. After almost 2 hours. 

But not too tired. Had to "save Grandpa from the bad magician." 

So happy to show my little guy this fun hike. 

Mission accomplished. 

Tower at the top.

The next week we took Grandmommy and
Grand dad to Mohonk too. 

We all hiked to the Lily Pond 

And some went on to the tower. Poor mom and grand mommy had to go back
to have iced tea and sit on the front porch : ) 

Top of the world 

Loves being with her grandmommy 

Family Time in NY

First ride at the Ulster County Fair 

One of the best things about vacation as the children get older is watching their relationships with each other blossom and grow. Jack and Eliza are more similar in personality than Ben, but they all played together so well this time. Benjamin has more than once been lamenting that Jack is not here to play with.

E was an expressive little rider 

Sassy ones

All three of these littles made it around Lake Minnewaska this year too. They probably went twice as far as we did really with all the running back and forth and up and down rocks along the way. Honestly, it was exhausting. Keeping these kids moving in one direction was like herding cats. 

So many rocks to climb on...no, let's keep going!  

And baby Ryan made it around the lake too, but that's because he's the best baby in the world. Seriously. Neither of mine were this pleasant to be around at this age. Lucky mama. 

Baby Ryan before baptism

We got to visit with lots of other long lost family as well on this trip. Aunt Kathy (who visited us in TX a few years ago) and her daughter Kim (we were pen pals in middle school!) and her two kids came down from Maine and Aunt Peggy and her family came in from CT. I loved hearing Aunt Peggy's stories about her sister-in-law, my Grandy, who died when I was about 12. Since I only knew her as a child, I had a good but very narrow view of who she was as a person. I appreciate having that view expanded by people that knew her in different ways.

Everyone's crazy about baby Ryan 

These second cousins have some interests in common

At the fossil place

Family time this year also included a visit from JB's parents--more pics from their visit next time--and Hank helped get the music going on one of our last nights in NY. If I knew how to get a video on this thing I'd share some of Eliza's and Jack's dancing--it was truly glorious. 

Summer rundown

Flower girl preview 

What follows is a little photo walk through some things we've been doing this summer. The days of July have run together so much that it's hard to convey just what we've been DOING exactly. But we've got our trip to NY coming up this week and if I don't get some photos posted soon, the first part  of the summer will be a forgotten blur. 

Ben has a lot of time on his hands before the rest of us
wake up in the morning.  

I've genuinely enjoyed so much of the time with Ben and Eliza this summer.  After swimming lessons  (for both) and farm camp (for Ben) earlier this summer, the rest has been pretty open. I've had an ongoing commitment to being on our church council during a major decision-making process, so that's kept my mind busy. I also committed myself to some house projects--once I started pulling things out of the closet in Eliza's room, there was no turning back. Her room has been in a state of upheaval and chaos for about a month, but I'm so pleased to be getting it done.

It's a lion. Roar!! 

With Ben and Eliza this summer, I guess I've prioritized time with them to do art, reading, little outings, time with friends, dentist appointments, etc. But there is a lot of time I need to be doing things around the house or on the computer, so there's also a lot of... well, being bored. Eliza does not ever appear to be bored (she tells "stories" to herself and her critters and stuffed animals for an hour at a time), but the first child is now at that age. We found a picture book in the library called "I'm Bored!" in which a little girl who is bored who finds a potato who is also complaining about being bored.  She has to make a defense of how interesting she actually is, but all the potato isn't buying it.  It's a cute little book, and now when Ben says he's bored, I throw him a potato : ) 

There was an article going around for a while about how great boredom is...promoting innovation was the point I think. I would agree with that about half the time. While I'm typing away, the kids are perfecting a somersault slide down the cushions of the couch onto the floor. Does this count as innovation? On the positive side, I have seen boredom lead Ben to get crafty and inventive with paper or other found items. I have also seen it turn into bickering and yelling like you wouldn't believe : )

The following are some pics from a not-boring day we had exploring some new things in downtown Waco:

Hey Sugar is a cool new candy store. Not to be confused
with an establishment of ill-repute : ) 

Eating candy outside a downtown movie theatre after Hey Sugar

And then a short walk down to The Provender Store. The delightful owner is
from Australia and very excited about trying to make his little cafe more "kid-friendly."
I was happy to get the best iced tea in town while the kids tested it out.  

For a little while this summer, we had a "word of the week." Ben has been asking me a lot to tell him about a word he doesn't know, so we turned it into a thing. The best one was the word "persistence." Probably a good word to start to understand as we look ahead at starting school. Persistence is actually something that comes naturally and joyfully to us when we are pursuing something we love or something we are naturally gifted in. Ben demonstrates persistence all the time in finishing a difficult book, finishing puzzles, climbing trees, taking something apart. So he can see pretty easily that by pushing through a hard part, he's become better at those things. I hope by experiencing that pattern in things he loves he can see that even things that are really hard--like riding a bike--are worth the effort.

Persistence 

Also hiking in Texas in mid-July requires persistence. It's good to find another
family who makes their kids do it too. 

What else? As I think about sending Ben to kindergarten soon, I've been impressed by his developing independence. For one thing, he's been waking up at 6 or 6:30 every morning this summer, and after moaning and groaning about this for a while, one morning JB and I told Ben to go downstairs and find a book to read so we could sleep a few minutes more. We came down a little later and he had poured himself some juice, taken out some sort of workbook and was working on it happily at the table. He told me out of the blue the other day that morning is his favorite time of day--and we can tell. He's at his happiest and best bright and early. JB gets up with him pretty often, and they spend the time outside together...doing whatever it is they do : ) And sometimes we'll get something set up at the table for Ben the night before so he has something to look forward to doing by himself. I do somewhat regret that I am not up to spend the best time of Ben's day with him--but not generally enough regret to get me out of bed! 

coloring a picture grammy made 

ice painting on a hot-hot day

library story time (Ben's not being anti-social, just camouflaged)

Waco Farmer's Market for tomatoes, purple-hull peas and pretty flowers

Finding the right hardware at Lowes

lots of dress up...

And a little July 4 trip to Lake Meridian State Park

Hiking at Meridian 

And then a cool swim in the lake

Easter

Something made me think the grandparents would still like to see these Easter pictures even though I forgot to post them long ago. We took the camera up to a little overlook at Three Mountain Retreat Center in Clifton, NY, where our church does and Easter Retreat every year. This was after worship on Easter Sunday and after a big brunch and after a whole weekend of playing outside in different surroundings and we still tried to do a photo shoot. The second picture down (below this paragraph) is more reflective of Eliza's attitude throughout this ordeal. I remember she was telling a story the whole time about carrying around a "little monster" in her arms. 

Eliza and her little friend playing at the Easter Retreat: "look, we're like Saturn!" 

This amazing tree--where Ben spends most of his time at the retreat

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This was pretty special. During our Easter service, we were all seated in a circle with a big carpeted space in the middle (picture above). To Eliza Jane this looked like a dance floor. What a delight to see her dancing, completely unselfconsciously, finding her joy in music and movement.  Some of the other smaller children followed her lead.  I love being in a church where this is seen as a beautiful expression of worship rather than assuming that she was calling attention to herself or putting on a performance. Dancing is her joy--in church, at home, wherever the music is on. 

happy with the flowered cross 

This is a weird picture anyway, but consider I edited out
a child picking his nose next to Benjamin.