The first week of school

We revved into gear this week: Monday was the first official practice of cross country season, and school started on Tuesday (August 26th). Another defining feature of my week, apart from the school year and cross country season starting, was my abnormally intense period. It was out of control and I had an embarrassing moment (wherein I left church early to go home and do laundry), and several nights of interrupted sleep, all thanks to the red doomsday floodgate Niagara situation I had to endure. Everything I accomplished this week was done during and in spite of an exceptionally awful period, so BE IMPRESSED. I am impressed with myself, even though I still succumbed to a few irritated rants and breakdowns, thrown in for variety. Here are a few journal excerpts from the week:

Monday, August 25th: I had an amazing elliptical session this morning! My Garmin performance condition changed to "productive" after that elliptical ride! Satisfying. I will hang on to my aerobic fitness--somehow--while my ankle tendons regulate and heal. 

Today was the first day of cross country season: our first official practice of the season! We met at the tree at the high school, and were sad to see that our beloved much needed cross country shade tree has totally died! All the leaves are brown. So sad. What will we do for shade when it gets cut down? 

Practice went pretty well. I hate not being able to run with the kids, but I drove water to the park for them since it was 97 degrees. 

I made lentil turkey burrito filling for dinner tonight-- an in season make ahead family favorite. Jay, Rose, and Amber enjoyed their last day of summer break today. I was going to give them the day off of yardwork, but they were all planning what yardwork they would do today before I said anything, so I let them go for it. Amber climbed the ladder and picked almost 3 dozen peaches. Jay mowed part of the yard to get it extra trimmed and nice. Rose mowed some of the weeds in the front lot, although she only mowed one side of the driveway weeds.I have explained and exhorted my children endlessly all summer long to mow the weeds on the driveway, and it has only happened right a handful of times. 

I sprayed some intense Roundup on some of the weeds and they are already dying. Finally! I also picked two dozen cherry tomatoes, one beef tomato, and 16 jalapeños (from the non tomato jalapeño plant I bought). I only had time and energy for about 15 minutes of piano playing today. When everyone goes to school tomorrow, I'll have the house to myself and I think that will inspire me to play more! 

Tonight after dinner, Jeff gave our three kids sweet, happy back to school father's blessings. I love my family.

Tuesday, August 26th: So dead tired. Wow. I woke up at 2am yesterday and barely slept after that, and today I woke up at 4am and never slept afterwards, both period-related. Not to mention my voluntary 4am wake-up and 11 mile hike on Saturday. I need sleep! 

Today was the first day of school! I went on a 10 mile bumpy rocky bike ride this morning before everyone left for school. Garmin gave me another productive performance condition after that somehow, so I'll take it!

I took pictures of the kids before they left for school. Jeff left first at 7:15am, Jay and Rose left next at 7:30am, and I left at 8:20 to drive Amber to school. Rose is officially in high school! She skipped ahead to French 2 and she said that class today was the first time since 2nd grade that she didn't answer a question because she was scared she'd be wrong or sound bad. But Jeff said she did so well and beat everyone in Simon Says, twice. 

Jay said his day was fine. The upper classmen chamber orchestra that he's in is tiny, with a scant 12 instruments. 

Amber said she knew 90% of the kids in her 5th grade class, and her day was good. She didn't share more. I hate how I don't get to see her and talk to her right after school, since I'm busy at XC practice and she has to wait there for an hour till I'm done. 

As for me, I did some laundry and light cleaning today, and played the piano for a whole hour. I took a nap and cooked dinner. I took my time doing everything and it was very peaceful in my quiet house. I didn't feel as forlorn this year as I have on past first days of school, but it was pretty weird being home alone all day again. I think I'll adjust, haha. 

Thursday, August 28th: Did I forget to write last night?? I think I did! Weird! Usually when I don't write in my journal it's a conscious choice, like "I'm not going to write tonight." I must be extra tired. Oh well, yesterday was nice: it was cloudy and about 15 degrees cooler than Tuesday. (so, "only" 82°) The first XC workout of the season went well. We had 46 kids at practice yesterday and 47 there today. There are 73 kids signed up for cross country!!! What!? That's our biggest roster ever by about 20 people! Even the 47 kids who came today looked like a massive group. Time will tell how many stick around for the full season!

This morning I was so productive, even though I didn't get great rest last night. I made granola, cleaned bathrooms, and vacuumed bedrooms, then turned on the Roomba on for the rest of the main floor while I took Amber to school. When I got back from school drop-off, I lifted weights in the barn with my friends Liz and Danae for an hour. We sat on the barn floor talking for almost another hour after lifting. It felt so luxurious and leisurely to have the time to just sit and chat when we felt like it. I love my sweet friends. 

Once my friends left a little after 11am, I ate lunch and talked with Mom on the phone. Then I played piano and went to cross country practice. In order to prep for XC practice, I filled a 5 gallon water jug and loaded the folding wagon into the van. Halfway to the high school, I realized I had forgotten my kick scooter (which I have been riding during practice to monitor runners, since I can't run on my ankle yet). So I went back home to get it. When I opened the trunk to put in the scooter, I saw that the water jug had tipped over and spilled. The rubber trunk liner was sloshing in 4 inches of water. So I dashed inside and grabbed a bowl to bail out the trunk water. Once I had scooped all that I could with the bowl, I lifted out the rubber liner and dumped the rest out. Then I loaded in the wagon and scooter. I re-filled the water jug, lugged it from the back porch to the van in the front of the house, and buckled it into a seat. 

It all felt very much like caring for a cranky toddler, aka water jug. I've used this comparison before, but it is so apropos: My baby water jug had a tantrum and dumped 2.5 gallons of water out all over the back of the van. So I cleaned up after him, gave him more water (since it was too hot of a day not to), and then securely buckled him into a car seat. The whole drive to the school, I kept glancing back to check on my fractious moody baby, but he did not leak or tip any more fluids in the van. Thankfully I left early enough in the first place that I wasn't late for practice, but I felt like a total hot mess by the time I arrived. Unloading and unfolding the wagon, heaving the 5 gallon water jug into it, loading my scooter and bag into the wagon too, then closing and locking the car up and dragging the wagon through the blistering heat to the tree: let's just say I was very sweaty before practice even started.

I stayed very sweaty throughout practice, even though I didn't run! My ankle tendons still feel pretty tight. Sigh. 

Poor Jay already has a cold, and it's only day 3 of the school year. He must've caught it before school started though, because he started coming down with it yesterday, which seems way too soon for something he picked up at school. So far it's relatively mild. I think I'm coming down with it too. 

I also really hope I can run soon! How will I even know it's time to try running again? Time for another trip to the physical therapist.

Amber ran a mile after school while waiting for us to be done at cross country practice, both yesterday and today! I'm so glad she's keeping up her running that she built up over the summer. 

At dinner, I asked Rose who she sits with at lunch, and she named a whole long list of girls, from our ward and from school. I am so glad and also impressed that she has such a big group of nice friends at school! Good friends matter, especially at lunchtime. 

 [end journal entries, because apparently I only wrote in my journal three nights this week]

During school on Friday, Jeff sent me a text that said "Rose just significantly outperformed everyone in French writing, even the French 3 kids." Later that evening, he read me the story she wrote in class. It was very good! Jeff says Rose is his best French 2 student by a lot, and it was a "proud papa moment." Sweet!

On Saturday morning, we had cross country practice at the barn, with a potluck breakfast afterwards. Once everyone had run and eaten, a handful of kids loaded into a school van and we took them an hour down the road to the nearest running shoe store, Runner's Soul. The owner of that store is SO nice and always gives our team a 20% discount and free socks or t-shirts. Even though Jeff takes kids every year, this was my first time going with the team. It was fun browsing a running store with Jeff. We picked out four pairs of common sized running shoes that were on sale and bought them to have on hand for the inevitable kids who try running 30+ miles per week in Crocs, loafers, Converse, etc. 

On the way home I amused myself trying to calculate which we spent more money on this year: shoes for our team or Roundup weedkiller. At first I thought it was close, because two bottles of Roundup are close to the cost of a pair of shoes, but then I realized that Jeff buys shoes way more frequently than I replenish our weedkiller. Shoes won! I'm glad, because running shoes are way more fun than weed poison, even if they are both expensive.

I managed to take some pictures this week, but definitely missed a few, like a view of our massive cross country team leaving on a run, or the team potluck in the barn.

Traditional Dad hug after father's blessings.

On Monday Jeff and I had a miscommunication about whether or not to bring the plyo boxes to cross country practice. Turns out we didn't need them. Amber took the brunt of it, haha.

First day of school pictures: 11th, 9th, and 5th grade: it's an odd year for us!

Jay was a good sport and held up an "11".

Rose is a freshman!!

Amber: is she waving goodbye or signaling that she's in fifth grade? This is her last year of elementary school, so it could be both a 5 and a goodbye!

Jay and Rose, leaving for school. Seminary starts next week after Labor Day, so I won't see them in daylight until cross country practice in the afternoon.

Amber at school drop-off on day one. I park on a side street and she crosses the road to the school with the crossing guard.

On the first day of school, Jeff forgot his iPad at home, so I brought it to him after dropping Amber off at school. He sprinted out in his shirt and tie, grabbed the iPad through the rolled-down window, then climbed his torso through the passenger window of the van to kiss me before sprinting back inside.

This week's harvest. We also got five cute little apples from our very small apple tree. It doesn't look like there will be any more apples this year, but the pear trees are going crazy with wonky huge pears.

I made some bacon peach "jam" to try something new. Rose said it was her favorite thing that I've ever made.

The bacon peach jam/sauce was pretty tasty, but boy it took forever to make and the whole batch boiled down to one pint jar!

On Wednesday I dragged the elliptical machine in front of the wall AC unit in the barn so I could maybe not die during my workout.

A bucolic view out my kitchen window: a hay truck trundling along the canal road.

I was pretty peeved when the water jug tipped over, but I took a picture of the water partway through bailing it out to document the impossibility of the flood. The rubber trunk liner was too floppy to just pick up and dump all of the water out. Hence the scooping bail-out.

An old deli turkey container was the perfect scoop for the trunk bail-out.

Disciplining my fractious water jug child with a seatbelt securely fastened. I even threw away our leaky old blue jug, but any water jug will leak if it actually tips over! And this one only spilled half of the water when it tipped over, so it really was way better than the old blue one. Still a pain though! I was sweating so much in 97 degree air, getting all of this taken care of before practice!

For dinner on Thursday night, I made biscuits to go with the bacon peach jam, and Jeff made eggs. Since we did that cooking after cross country practice, dinner was late and the kids were starving.

Sunrise behind the barn, before another elliptical session.

Sunset view from our back porch. Maybe it's because I know how hot it was that day, but doesn't this look like an exceptionally hot sky?

I biked all over the countryside on Saturday morning, making sure new kids didn't get lost on our long run and providing moral support and t-shirt carrying services to others. Rose ran her longest distance ever: 8.6 miles! She and her teammate Bethany are getting so strong. I was extremely proud of them. Jay also cruised, running the full 11 mile loop with his varsity teammates (and Jeff). 

Jeff's happy place! Even though I am not in the picture, this picture is still proof that I was there.