August rolled right by with summer chaos spilling into the beginning of the school year. It has been a very challenging and stressful summer with the workload feeling insurmountable and not a lot of relief in sight. The kids finished up their summer camps and then started at the new school in the middle of the month. Overall they seem to be enjoying their classmates and teachers. There have only been two weeks of school, so it is still too early to see how things will settle out academically and with the work commute. Unfortunately, we had a round of sickness roll through the kids during the week before school and into the first week that messed things up a bit. We had an early birthday celebration for Natalie with some of her Legacy friends. We also celebrated Alicia’s birthday. To close out the month we took a trip to Mimi and Papa’s house in Tucson for Labor Day weekend.
Cordelia finished her baking camp and then had her Grand-Camp week. She had a super fun time making lots of delicious deserts with Grandma that she learned from camp. She also had a fun time going to the beach and zoo. She also got to enjoy some special grandparent shopping time. Cordelia’s first two weeks of school were full of introductions, meeting new friends and getting to know about all her classes. We also had our first experiences with school lockers and discovered there’s a whole art to styling your locker. She is taking band for her music elective and will be learning to play the clarinet. After five years of recorder practice from Legacy, she picked up the techniques pretty quick on the clarinet. She’s still continuing with her piano lessons as well. Cordelia did some ice skating this month, but with the Poway Rink closed, she’s only been able to get to a rink about 3 times during the month. She joined the volleyball team at school and has had two practices so far. Her school had a middle and high school camp retreat for the second week of classes and that was a good bonding experience for Cordelia.
Anthony did soccer and fencing camp followed by his Grand-Camp week. He continues to enjoy soccer and had fun fencing as well. With the grandparents he did the batting cages, beach, and Legoland. His first week of school was cut short due to him catching the family sickness. He’s still figuring out all the changes from Montessori to a more classical classroom environment. He’s starting to make some friends and enjoys PE the most. The math is pretty boring but easy. Anthony will be learning the Ukulele for the 4th grade instrument. He’s also continuing in Piano and playing a “Legend of Zelda” song that he wants to do for the next recital. For soccer his league finished up with some hard-fought games. He’s was on break for the second half of August but will be doing two practices for the fall season.
Lydia did soccer camp as well and then a cheer camp for the afternoons. She has done well in her 2nd grade class for the first two weeks. She has a small class with nine kids total and her teacher seems very sweet. She enjoys recess. Her math has also been really basic and boring. Lydia has passed her introductory piano books and is moving into the next level!
Natalie finished her last weeks at Legacy. We were sad to say good-bye to Ms. Anna who had taught Anthony, Lydia, and Natalie. She’s doing fine at the new pre-school in the Pre-K class. It seems pretty basic right now but hopefully the works will pick up in difficulty soon. Natalie is doing great in swimming and is working on perfecting her breaststroke. She can do it for a little bit but gets tired after three or four strokes. She’s also continuing in soccer. She is undecided whether she likes it or not, but we’re sticking with it for now. We had an early birthday celebration for her at the soccer park for her to say good bye to her friends from Legacy. Hopefully we’ll still be able to stay in touch with a few families.
Alicia has been going at overload levels this month. With the summer transitioning into school, she had to take lots of vacation days from work. With no backup for her at work, the tasks just keep piling up. She also has several of her projects that are at milestones which is increasing the workload. Additionally, the new school commute has lessened her work hours. On the home front things have been busy as well with lots of back-to-school activities and playdates. The house work also continues and it is a constant fight against entropy. In the midst of an already busy schedule, the preparations for AWANA started and Alicia is working on all the organization and preparations going into the first club night on Sept 7th. Alicia celebrated her 37th birthday. Thanks to grandparent babysitting support, Tim and Alicia were able to have a nice 24 hrs of quality time. Tim took Alicia shopping for some nice work/dress shirts.
Tim has had a very depressing time at work this month. Management seems constantly unhappy and not helping to make the project successful. Every time Tim starts transitioning to other projects he gets dragged back into the one project. At home the full-length page of house to-dos is also depressing. Fortunately, the robot lawn mower has been helping to maintain the grass. School demands have been thrown into the mix as well leading to an overcommitted and high fatigue environment. It was nice having a short respite weekend with Alicia. Tim’s been helping with the kids’ school drop off and helping get Cordelia set up with her middle school chrome-book.
After a very stressful and busy August, we’re hoping things settle down in September. It is still going to take most of September to get into a good routine and see how things end up going with the kids’ various classes. Hopefully the AWANA club year gets off to a good start. Please pray for good communication and understanding within our family in the midst of the business. We’re also praying for relief at both of our jobs. Alicia needs someone to join her team that can help take at least half her work load. Tim is needing to get onto better projects and have some positive encouragement for his hard work.
