Hi folks,

Hope you all had a nice weekend. Yes, I realize it’s Tuesday not Monday and the week started yesterday but my week feels like it is just getting going. I am having a hard time finding momentum. I think it’s just part of getting into a new schedule and balancing out the busy and the tired. Oh yea, and recovering from an entire summer of moving and working on the house.

A few times lately I have been aware that when I sit down to work at the computer I am literally half on the chair, turned toward someone needing something while half listening and half typing.  I am realizing that I need to have more focused times. More focused times with my kids and more focused times to tap into creative things. I know there was a lot of buzz a while back about being distracted by pintrest, facebook, and presentness if that’s a word. I agree wholeheartedly about being present but I also think it’s a truly beautiful thing that as a stay at home mom I can find some sanity and refreshment in creative things. I used to feel guilty about that, now I realize I need it.

So tonight I am heading out before my first PTA meeting (I know, crazy that we are in that phase of life)  and I am going to spend some time alone blogging and thinking a bit more clearly. I am hoping to hop on with the Nester in October and do a 31 day series but I know that it is going to require me to carve out more time! More on the series soon. Still hashing it all out.

In other mini updates…

Jackson is still really enjoying kindergarten, Owen is adjusting to his buddy being gone all day and I am still figuring it all out.

Seth had a neck/back procedure last week. Pray that it relieves the pain and numbness he has in his fingers and arm from a herniated disk. I sure would love for him to not have to have back surgery!

Our house is now home for 2 big caterpillars. Let me rephrase that, our house now houses 2 sealed jars that are home to two caterpillars. One we think is a polyphemus moth and the other is a black swallow tail caterpillar. The black swallow tail is already in the crystalis (sp?) phase, while the polyphemus is still just a big fat caterpillar. We have had tons of butterflies this year in our yard. It will be fun if one of the caterpillars survive long enough to be released as a butterfly.

We are continuing to enjoy life here in the US but also really miss our dear friends in Switzerland and abroad. I am just now getting around to changing subscriptions to magazines and other normal life stuff…I think I have been dragging my feet a bit because there is that lingering part of transition that takes longer to grasp.  It’s tough to miss watching friends babies grow and experience the seasons with friends from afar. So, if you are in Switzerland, know that you are missed and certainly not forgotten!

Have a great day wherever in the world you might be!  It’s 70 degrees here at 10 AM…I think that calls for a cup of Swiss hot chocolate on the porch with Owen!

I did a search on pintrest and up popped amazing cupcakes and clothes and decor all things school.  Super cute but ummmm seemingly impossible when you consider the fact that school requires dressing kids, packing lunch, remembering school work, encouraging through the resistance to get out the door, reassuring the younger sibling their time will come…..

I have been on the hunt for fun lunch ideas but again, the ideas are boundless and require way more than my 15 mins I plan on spending. Sorry, bud, your fruit will not be cut out into shapes of apples and your cheese into the shape of pencils. Nor will it be skewered. But I don’t love you any less! (and you all know I am SO tempted to do 90% of these lunches. I bet I will fall into temptation at least once but I want to keep expectations low at first. I can’t start with a puppy shapes sandwich with scooby bone-shaped cookies on the first day) And moms out there that are doing these…you are my hero!  But we can’t be friends because the pressure to copy you would be too strong!

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Some feasible ideas I have seen are….

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tortilla roll up with peanut butter and jelly and a banana all wrapped up…although I just learned that we cannot take any peanut products! So this will have to be modified! ….a continuation of the peanut discussion is that pb&j is on the cafeteria menu but we can’t send it. It is all so confusing to me!

homemade lunchables…ie cut the ham and cheese and pop in some cracker instead of making a sandwich with bread

hard boiled eggs…my sister-in-law showed me these little egg molds. Jackson will for sure come home asking me how the chicken laid an egg in the shape of a car or a fish but once we got beyond that I think he would get a kick out of them! We got some off Amazon!

Our first week of packing lunches went pretty well. I am still looking for ideas for mixing it up and making it easier but so far so good. And I think he’s actually eating it….I was worried he would be so busy and excited that he wouldn’t touch it and would come home starving. And for buying lunch I am still adjusting to my child being able to use a pin to pay for his lunch on days he buys! Credit cards will be no big deal after basically having one in Kindergarten! It’s pizza day today so I had to let him buy……he has to have that first experience of the famous rectangular school pizza!