While the kids were gone...

I made the most of my time while the kids were at camp.  It felt good to catch-up on some projects I had started.  It was great to be able to just read a book, or 5 or 10 to be exact!  It was wonderful to binge watch a few new shows -- OMG!  Must check out "Ozark" on Netflix.  Sooooo good!  A bit like Breaking Bad, which in my opinion is like the highest compliment you can give a show.  Love Jason Bateman!

Jeff and I spent 48 awesome hours in NYC and a beautiful sunny day in Annapolis.  I met The Girls for lunch - each of them on their own day near their offices.  I was even able to meet up with my Sister-in-law for lunch and a little shoe shopping afterwards.  Fun!

I managed to keep up my 5:30am bootcamp workouts 3x a week.  This is pretty amazing given the fact that I didn't have to be up by any certain time to take care of Ian and Samantha.   I was able to keep the house clean -- for longer than two hours too!

I logged many, many miles with Lucy and started each day with a long walk with her.  This was definitely a highlight.  I also logged many, many hours working for the Crazy Man.  While the increase in money from working for him was nice, I discovered I can really only take him in 3 hour increments.  That 6+ hour day was a killer and not repeated again!  Wine was definitely on the menu when I got home for dinner that evening.

I had enough free time to start and finish a big billing project for Susanne's therapy practice.  It felt good to get that done.

I got all my doctor appointments in -- my mammogram, my yearly physical and my bi-annual dentist appointment for a cleaning, plus a training session with Lucy and her trainer.

Jeff wasn't expecting me to cook dinner the whole time the kids were away and I surprised the both of us by cooking at least 6 different evenings with leftovers for more dinners and lunches.  Wowee!

One of my greatest achievements while the kids were away was taking on the Pipestem Repavement project.  This was a HUGE deal and something the rest of the houses on my pipestem weren't touching.  Nothing had been done to the pavement in the 39 years this pipestem existed.  It was in bad shape and really needed to be resurfaced.  Can I just say how great the road looks now?  It's smooth, no cracking, and doesn't have big chunks missing or sinking down. It was several weeks of complete frustration figuring out the details and contacting several companies to give us an estimate.  Plus, contacting Fairfax Water and Fairfax Sewer to discuss their separate access points and issues on the pipestem.  Not to mention navigating the process with the Conservancy office on using the appropriate funds and getting it disbursed.  But it all got done and the effort was more than worth it. Yay for me on this one!

It was a jam packed 28 days where I didn't slow down much, but even so I had lots of time to miss the kids.  I am glad they are back home.  Our lives have resumed its normal la vida loca and we are back to running around like a chicken with its head cut-off.  Very quickly my zen existence of doing as only I please has ended.  We are very busy preparing for the first day of school on Monday.  There is much to be done and our lazy days of Summer are definitely over.  

I am currently feeling very overwhelmed...not just by one thing, but by all of it together...the starting of the kids' activities, two different school schedules, Ian now has Bar Mitzvah tutoring once a week in addition to religious school twice a week, getting back into the groove of working at the preschool, The Crazy Man being at "full moon crazy", making sure the kids are doing their homework, and being responsible little people helping out. Not to mention cooking dinner again every single night except Saturdays -- I'm still taking that day off each week.   And let's not forget all the back to school nights.  I really don't know how families with more than 2 kids manage all this.

I am counting down big-time to when The Crazy Man has sold his house and finally moved to the retirement community village he has put a deposit on.  I am hoping that by this time next month I am no longer his go-to person for everything under the sun. It will be nice to not have every hour the kids are in school filled with a part-time job.  As of right now, I plan to fill that newfound free time with a nap.  :)

A final thought - While the kids were at camp, Jeff asked me if having children was something I always wanted?  Without hesitation, my answer was "yes".  Not because there was ever a time in my life where I had to consciously think to myself "do I want kids?", but because it was never a question in the first place.  I never pictured my life any other way.  In my opinion it was always going to be this way.  I love it.  I love the craziness, I love the noise, I love watching them grow into these amazing people, I love listening to them talk and their opinions and seeing the world from their perspective, I love how it feels to be a part of this family.  I love my kids so much.  I know that I am mostly in survival mode getting thru each day, but when I have a month without them around me, I realize just how much I was meant to be their mother.  And how much this is who I am.  But yes, a nap does sound awfully good.