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The fall edition

These last two weekends have been sublime. We had company both weekends. I like having company, most of the time, but it also makes me nervous. I have high expectations of myself as a host, while at the same time I don't think I have particular skills as a host. That's an awkward combination. I try hard to get logistics arranged in advance: meals, sleeping arrangements, activity options, etc. On the best weekends these plans are not needed, which is pretty much what happened twice in a row, I'm happy to report. The weekends passed quickly and with ease, hosts and guests enjoying each other's company. We did a fair amount of cleaning, organizing, and decluttering before the big weekends, which helped as well. 

Last weekend my sister and her new husband were here Friday through Sunday morning. I had a cold and wasn't feeling energetic, which gave me the perfect excuse to sit around  and not try too hard to make the visit exciting for everyone. My sister is in her second trimester of pregnancy so she wasn't all that energetic either. We did a fair amount of sitting around. My other sister and her husband and my niece were supposed to come as well, but the baby got sick and they did not end up coming. That was disappointing because I was looking forward to having the larger gang for a night, but it did make the logistics easier not having them, and it certainly made it easier for me to sit on my butt doing nothing for most of the weekend. Plus none of us ended up with the stomach flu that worked its way through all three of them. Yuck. We will catch up with them after Christmas, when I hope everyone is feeling well. 

This weekend our best friends from graduate school visited with their three kids. I was looking forward tot he visit, but I was apprehensive about how to keep so many kids happy for a large chuck of time. The last several times we've visited them we've stayed in a hotel, which helps break up the time. I admit that we were generous with our granting of screen time and the kids stayed happy for most of the weekend. We adults were left to talk (gossip) by the fire for hours Saturday--perfect for a windy, rainy afternoon. Luckily we did get the kids to a playground for an hour or so before the works of the rain hit. I laughed this weekend like I haven't laughed in ages. It feels good to be with people who get me so entirely. Even though we don't see each other more than once or twice per year our lives run enough in parallel with parenting, homeowning, and the like that we are able to connect deeply. I love it. 

Now we are on Thanksgiving break. We have all needed this break for a while. The fall has been good, though, probably better than I had a right to expect. The transition to a new school went very well for W and somewhat less so for R. Nonetheless, it has been such an improvement over last year as a whole. We are regaining our mental and emotional health as a family. We are on a new schedule with both boys in public school and me and M flexing our work schedules to be home for the kids each afternoon. This is difficult and I am feeling pressure from work to be more available for meetings, but I just can't do it. Family comes first and that's it. The benefit of the academic job is the flexibility and I need at this time to take advantage of it. I may suffer some consequences down the line, but there's just no way around it. And the truth is, I like coming home by 2:30 several times per week. I tend to come home and continue to work so it's not like I'm shortchanging my work hours. They just aren't all on campus. So, we're working hard but enjoying life and that is good. But we are certainly all ready for Thanksgiving. We are driving (yes, driving) to Florida to visit my parents and sister and her family. It is Sunday night now and it feels awesome knowing that I don't have to get myself or any kids up at any particular time tomorrow. We have R's parent-teacher conference at 12:30, and other than getting ready for our trip, that is my entire responsibility for tomorrow. Yes! 

Finally, we took the boys to see Wonder today. It was perfection. I thought it would be good, but it was beautiful. The acting made what could have been a sappy movie very powerful instead. We have been fans of the book for a while so the movie could have been disappointing, but it was the opposite. It was just lovely. The perfect cap to the weekend. 

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