Today

1. My girl has decided to play the violin. We went to the orchestra meeting last night to learn all about the program and what we needed to do and I realized that I was greatly out of my realm. We are not a musical family, nor do I come from a musical family, but I have great hopes for my girl. She has been wanting to play an instrument for so long and I would love it if she ends up enjoying this path and filling our house with her music.

2. There is nothing sweeter for me than waking my little man up for school each day. I love watching him sleep so peacefully and then giving him kisses on his warm, soft cheeks to gently wake him up. He only sleeps in his underwear and so I tend to give his little shoulders kisses as well. I know I have done my job when he mumbles, "Mama, stop giving me kisses." Then I get to scratch his little back and eventually he sits up and gives me sleepy, floppy hugs. I will miss these moments when he gets older.

3. When I had little babies at home I would always hear women with older kids talk about how hard it was to have older kids. "Yeah, right," I would think as I struggled each day with the chaos and difficulties that come from babies and little ones. And these seasoned moms would say that having little ones was hard, yes, but having older kids was certainly no easier and that it was a different kind of hard. I now understand what these moms meant. It is hard. It is a different kind of hard, a more complicated and emotional kind of hard. I was not prepared this year when school started. I took it for granted that I knew what I was doing and that I didn't really need to do anything or really think about it, but I was wrong. The start of school this year, having a teenager in middle school, my baby in school all day, and my girl getting older, has thrown our family's world into a kind of chaos that I have never known. I feel like we are living each day just trying to figure out how to make it to the next. It is insane. I didn't really recognize any of this until yesterday and so hopefully now that I am aware and have identified what is going on, I can hopefully get a handle on things and bring a little calm to our storm. It is good, though. I like having older kids and I welcome these challenges. It is just going to take some readjusting.

4. My one goal for today is to fold laundry. It has been taunting me for over a week now, but I despise it so much. If I can get the laundry folded, then today will be a success and anything else that I do will just be icing on the cake.

5. Fall is in the air. I both love it and fear it at the same time. It was such a weird summer that I just don't feel like I am ready for Fall, but ready or not, it is coming.