Time flies

September through December is always a whirlwind around here. Even more so this year bc we hosted a big thanksgiving and had house guests! 

We made over grants room into a growing up tween room

Grant turned 11.  He continues to grow into the greatest kidult - thoughtful, empathetic, funny, smart, enthusiastic, helpful. The end of our time in elementary school is rapidly approaching and I just know he can really spread his wings in middle school. He has managed to work through some pretty big self regulation issues in this past year and has done it like a champ! 

We did Halloween things. 

We did fall break things. 

We went to an awesome Halloween candlelight orchestra concert. 

Jack turned 19! He’s rocking university life and getting ready for his study abroad semester. 

The end of costume time is probably nearing also? I do dread that one. The little two especially spent SO MUCH time dressing in those little costumes. Every day was Halloween for a few years. 

And we did thanksgiving things. 

Now it’s onto the Christmas things! 

 

Summer things, new school year

Jack is enjoying his second year at the university. Sam is in 7th grade and grant is finally in his last year of elementary school. 

We took our family vacation to Virginia this year. We stopped in Louisville to see the slugger museum on the way, stayed in West Virginia for a nice, then spent a week at the historic triangle. We saw so many things! Monticello, Yorktown, Jamestown, colonial Williamsburg, Virginia Beach, shenendoah national park, the new river gorge bridge national park and more. It was awesome. 

We went on the BEST dolphin cruise ever. We saw so many dolphins including tons of babies! 

Then we had a major power outage at home that lasted a few days so I packed up the not so little kids, left Dave and jack at home to work and we went to visit friends in Alabama. 

We hit gulf shores, swam in a big pool, saw movies, ate tacos and chilled out. 

Mobile bay. 

 I pretty much spent the rest of the summer selling off SO.Much.stuff. 

I wanted to build custom cabinets in the pantry and it was the fastest way to raise the money. Once I got started I just kept going. Selling, selling. Bought myself a new couch (had the same ikea couch for 14 years and needed a taller one). Then I just kept selling! Making big credit card payments and trying to pay that off. As I am nearing 50 I really feel the need for a much simpler life. I almost wish I could be a minimalist. Lol 

The pantry is so beautiful and tidy and so easy to keep clean and organized now. 

All that’s left is to drive some stuff that just isn’t selling to goodwill. (Well then I need to really thoroughly sort the Xmas stuff closer to Xmas.)