September firsts

Life just keeps getting busier! The more that's on my mind lately, the more overwhelming it is to try and siphon it out into words. In general, writing is therapeutic for me, and it still is in general, but wow has September been busy! I have taken to calling my mom a few times per week and TELLING her all about it instead of writing as much down. Here's a goofy detail: I called my mom the other day and told her about how insane it is that everyone in the house will ignore me indefinitely until I enter the bathroom and close the door. Then EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the house, Jeff included if he's home, must hunt me down, pound on the door, and ask/demand/tell me something urgently. Nothing can wait the 90 seconds it takes me to pee. And guess what? When I called my mom, she was in the bathroom brushing her teeth. HAH! We laughed. It never ends. Kids always need their moms most when they are in the bathroom taking care of basic hygiene. Thanks for the perspective, mother dear!

Doing anything for the first time throws my little beast-of-habit routine for a loop. Moving threw my established routines completely out the window, but in the past almost four months since we moved, I have regained some semblance of normalcy. Then school started, ripping both my husband and two-thirds of my children out of the big middle part of my day, forcing me to scramble around and find another new normal. My routine did a full-on loop-de-loop!

Since we are in a different house than we were when school started last year, I don't even have any prior mini-routines to fall back on. It's all been a constant jarring series of newness, slashing across my peaceful existence every day. They say change is good, and I'm sure that's true in general, but I am one of those deliberate, constant folks who finds comfort in specific little everyday habits, from what I put on my toast to how much quiet personal time I get each morning to gear up for the day. When I started listing all of the firsts that have rocked my little world in the past three weeks, I thought "no wonder I have been feeling so unsteady and uprooted!" None of these firsts are negative; they are just new. And for me, new seems to equate to a certain amount of nerves.

1. We met my youngest sister Mel's fiance Braxton for the first time! They stopped by on their drive to BYU on September 1st. They are getting married next month. It seems so surprising to write that and yet not. They fit together. But I have only seen him in person for about half an hour ever, and he's going to be a part of our family forever starting on October 21st! Change. New.
2. We had our first maroon-level hazardous air due to chokingly thick wildfire smoke collecting in our valley. It was bad. It lasted over a week. Thankfully, the smoke rolled in after Mel and Braxton rolled out, so they at least got to see our countryside in all of its crisp clear glory.
3. In connection with #2, I did my first run on the treadmill of the season, and it was just as awful as I remember. The air quality was still awful in our garage where I ran on the doomed dreadmill though, so I did not repeat the exercise. I simply took an agonizingly long break from running to protect my lungs and now my Achilles is mending but I'm probably not even going to run the half marathon next month. That's fine, but not running for more than two days in a row always throws me off because I have run regularly for the past twenty years (pregnancies not included), so it's more normal to run than not. 
4. Cub scouts began on September 6th. I am the Wolf den leader--Jay's class of 8 year old boys. We have six in the group with two more turning eight in November. It's a big, energetic bunch of boys! I went through something akin to the grieving process all summer after I was asked to be the den leader, and thankfully by the time cub scouts started up this month, I had settled down, accepted the discomforts of the position, and braced myself for the onslaught. When I got up in front of the boys for the first time (in my awkwardly fitting tan shirt), I realized that this was just another primary class and I know how to do this. I am no longer stressed about cub scouts, aside from my dislike of having somewhere to be on a weeknight.
5. In desperation at the tail end of the hazardous wildfire smoke, I ordered us our first N-99 filter masks to protect our lungs. But the air started clearing the next day, so we didn't end up really using them. We will be prepared for next time, though.
6. Once the air had cleared the first time (it came back for a few days--grr), we went for the most glorious walk along the canal. It felt like the first time all over again after that terrible ten-ish days under the smoggy smoke. Isn't that a definition of love? Every time feels like the first time or something? Maybe that's just my inner Tim McGraw singing.
7. We had our first school-day piano lessons last week. I pick up Jay and Rose an hour before school gets out and drive them to Prosser for piano lessons. This week I streamlined our route from Outlook Elementary to our piano teacher's house in Prosser, and we made the drive in a mere 21 minutes! I was shocked, because it took us 16 minutes to drive there from our old house in Grandview. 
8. We missed before school storytime for the first time last Friday. Boohoo! One of my goals for this schoolyear is to read chapter books to my kids every day. My ideal is to do bedtime storytime, but I am always too overwhelmed and tired to handle it at the end of the day. So we are making it a part of our morning before school routine instead, and so far it's working. As long as Rose keeps her lengthy meltdowns to a minimum, we should finally finish reading On the Banks of Plum Creek in the next few weeks. 
9. I had my first week of babysitting 1.5 year old Sadie and 3.75 year old Brittany for 5.5 hours every day. It was a bit of a shock to the system for everyone involved, from Amber to the two new girls, to me. But we are settling in, figuring out naps, communication, and sharing (sort of) and I already love those girls.
10. We had our first strong winds marking the changing seasons during the past week. Our trampoline is still intact, thanks to some quick thinking on my part, involving a scrap of rope and a tree.
11. Jay and Rose have each missed school for the first time, about a week apart. Jay sprained his ankle and needed a day of rest, and then a week later, Rose had a bowel issue and stayed home to resolve it.
12. I went visiting teaching for the first time in our new ward. I have like the best route ever, but new still equals a certain level of stress, no matter how much I like what I'm doing. I know, pointless anguish! But I'm trying to stop feeling bad about stressing because that makes it worse. So I am acknowledging my stress and doing my best to minimize it without feeling guilty about stressing.
13. I met someone from Bulgaria! First time I've met a Bulgarian. He was a student salesman raising money for his college education as far as I could tell. He stopped by our house one morning and we sat on the front porch chatting for a solid 15 minutes (me jumping up every 2 minutes to pull a child away from the canal/to re-zip the trampoline net/to rescue someone from the path of the flying rope swing). I don't buy from door to door salesmen, but this guy was just nice enough and interesting enough for me to talk to without feeling annoyed in spite of his sales pitch. But still, chance social encounter appearing at my doorstep= exhausting.
14. Jeff had his first cross country meet as head high school coach on Saturday, September 16th. We drove out near Naches to support our favorite coach. His team did so well! 27 of his 29 runners ran their fastest 3 miles ever. 27 lifetime PRs in the first meet of the season? NOT BAD, coach. In fact, EXCELLENT! It is a good group of kids and being at a cross country meet made me feel right at home. 
15. I wore compression socks while running for the first time this weekend and loved them for all of the reasons.
16. We all caught our first sniffles of the season. 
17. We had our first rainfall in months this weekend, and the air is cool and fresh. Fall is here!
18. A new thing that I haven't done yet is hang my orange maple leaf fall garland in our new house. The one thing I miss about living in our split level house back in Grandview is the awesome banister. I have some great garlands and nowhere to put them this year! I plan to figure something out, because I crave the autumnal ambiance of my fake maple leaves.
19. AMBER STAYED IN NURSERY BY HERSELF for the first time! And then she did it again the next week! We're going on three weeks in a row with Amber staying in church nursery for the full two hours. This is a first in her whole entire life. She still has a hard time at the moment of parting, clinging to my legs like a barnacle, but she doesn't freak out and weep endlessly when I leave. Celebration! 
20. Jay and Rose were in their first primary program in our new ward on Sunday, September 17th. They memorized their parts and did a wonderful job. Jay gave us a memorable performance while he was waiting in line to say his part in the microphone. He looked out at the congregation and started doing his patented double eyebrow dance. He alternated raising one eyebrow, then the other, back and forth, with the funniest look of concentration on is face, effectively giving us the worst/best case of church-giggles I've had in years.

That's a lot of firsts! No wonder I have been running around like a crazy person feeling too overwhelmed to sort through it all. It's good to get all of that off my chest. Now for the next round of newness. I have a feeling that life is only going to keep on coming faster and faster, newer and scarier the older our kids get. Goal: faith over fear. Embrace the new and adapt to it rather than fearing it. So full steam ahead! {with well-timed breaks to hide, breathe deeply, and recoup before re-entering the fray}

PICTURES: The original bloggy plan was to arrange these pictures near their corresponding number on my list, but it was too confusing and hard to do. My blog integrity is slipping slightly. But another GOAL that I'm working on right now is not to apologize too much. Saying sorry for unnecessary things makes me feel inferior and guilty when I should be neither! It is an empowering feeling to hold back a superfluous "sorry" and move forward without that added burden. So here are the pictures in no particular order.

This is what hazardous levels of wildfire smoke collected in a valley looks like. All outdoor school activities were banned for over a week. Indoor recess, indoor sports practice, meets and games cancelled. We were all raspy throated and COOPED.

A red sun rises.

My one and only dreadmill run, accompanied by an episode of The Great British Baking Show. Cakes on the run turned out to be an excellent idea. And my laptop didn't even fall off of its perch on a plank hovering over our pile of camping gear!

Day one of cub scouts with a smoky backdrop.

All ready for school, and the air was still smoky.

Our N-99 masks (filter out 99% of pollutants and smoke particles). They are actually kind of hard to breathe in. The round black valve is only for exhaling air, so each inhale must pass through the fabric filter. Bring it on.

Can't remember why she was sad, but I love hugging her till she feels better.

Jay was worried that he would lose his primary program part so I took a picture of it to give him peace of mind. The shades were his personal touch to the mug shot.

Our glorious, golden canal walk: September 10th.

Amber and that poofy dress, out in nature. I appreciate the anachronism. 

Touching the valve at our turnaround point. As cute and golden as these family walk pictures may seem, Amber is usually the only kid who is actually enthusiastic about the walk. The other two drag their feet and ask to turn around. This time we told them every time they complain we will walk further. It helped.

When the mama declares family selfie, we take a family selfie. And sometimes it turns out as awesome as this sunny one.

Off she goes.

Even Rose bummed a shoulder ride off of her father.

Always. In. Motion.

This scene is my world, Amber's 1860s silhouette and all.

[wrestling in the background]

Peek-a-boo!

Family scripture time: not my best photo, but I have to get creative when I want a picture of an everyday scene where everyone in the picture acting natural, and this time that meant blurry with my eyes closed.

Before school story time. Rose caught on to my sly picture attempt.

Babysitting: I have culled our toys to quality pieces with solid time-tested play value, and it's always gratifying to see other kids lost in the worlds these toys help them create.

Brittany, day one: "do you have a sandbox?" No, but we have lots of dirt! Here's a shovel. Have fun. Welcome to the White house, kids.

Watching The Little Mermaid: Sadie fell asleep during the first five minutes. Now I can get her to go take a nap without a movie, and she is the easiest little one year old!

Sadie is the most endearing, snuggly little girl! We are friends.

Amber makes sure that the others know whose mom I am.

Feeling the love.

The car seat trifecta rides again.

Amber and I still get quality time together, and she makes sure to force feed me as much plastic food as I can hold.

I noticed our trampoline flapping in the wind one morning last week, and improvised on the fly with a length of rope leftover from our tree swing. We will not lose another trampoline to the wind! And it will not blow onto our new van (which was parked downwind from the trampoline, spurring me on to extra fast lashing and tying.

On the day she stayed home from school with her bowel difficulty, Rose had the benefit of not being sick or injured, and enjoyed a day of playing with all of the little girls. I wanted to employ her as my babysitting helper after that day--she plays so well with younger kids!

If I'm going to get up at dawn to run six miles on a Saturday, I'm going to look good doing it!

Coach White, leaving for his first high school cross country meet as head coach.

The team (most of them). Go Grizzlies!

We stayed at the cross country meet for three hours.

The kids dropped and played in the dust every time I stopped walking around.

Amber made friends with one of the runners--a girl in our ward named Kaylee, who also happens to be a child whisperer. I love being in a ward where it feels like I have 100 kids. I felt maternal pride when Kaylee ran a lifetime PR in the race, and I've only known her for a few short months!

[also: everyone wanted to be in first place]

The podium was satisfyingly steep and tall. The kids didn't know they were supposed to stand on it until I told them.

Walking, walking, walking. The parking area was half a mile from the main course area, and we walked all OVER the place for three hours. We were all feeling quite worn out by the end. I barely stayed awake for the 45 minute drive home, listening to Anne Hathaway read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. We finished Kate Winslet's recording of Matilda on the way, then started The Wizard of Oz. Audible had a sale last month and I scored a few celebrity readings of classics--they are EXCELLENT. I can't recommend Kate Winslet's interpretation of Matilda enough. I was laughing the whole time! She's a true professional.

Racing.

Amber's wildest dreams came true at the cross country meet when a kind bus driver let her climb onto his bus and check it out.

She told me I could sit by her, and she thought we were going to be driven home on the bus. She was not happy when I said it was time to get off.

Seven birthday hats on seven grandkids for Grampa Dan's birthday.

Our house is a castle full of royalty. We have Britt-punzel, Sadie-ella, and Warrior Auroramber, with her ever present sword. According to Amber, no costume is complete without a weapon. Strong girl all the way.

And a comparison to show how much better life is without wildfire smoke:

September 5th

September 19th