All the same, we have survived and made it into the fall. Mythili began kindergarten this year, and has adapted well to only listening to Spanish all day long. She is already learning some new phrases and repeating them at home, though she did admit the other day, “My teacher finally understanded me when I told her, ‘I have Girl Scouts.’” (Her teacher doesn’t speak English–ironic, right?). While she is a bit tired at the end of the day, she seems to like school, and has also enjoyed joining our Girl Scout troop.

Meanwhile, Riona began her one and only year of preschool. To say she loves it would be an understatement. She knows details about her teachers’ interests and lives and has made a few friends already, though at first she was a bit shy. Bruce has also been taking her to Prairie Preschool at the Plains Conservation Center, where she gets to ride the wagon, feed the chickens, pick vegetables from the garden, and pet the snakes!

Isabella is a full-fledged school girl, delving into complicated subtraction and word problems, reading short books in Spanish, and longer chapter books in English. She and Mythili both participate in a once-weekly after school activity: for Isabella, dance class, and Mythili, art. Both girls are enjoying their school year.

In addition to the usual day-to-day activities, we went troop camping this year at Twisted Pine Girl Scout Camp just outside of Genessee. The girls had a blast creating survival bags, hiking and observing nature, learning about and searching for constellations, singing songs and telling stories around the campfire, and playing outside in the homemade tee-pee. The lodge was amazing, with three large bedrooms, a decent sized bathroom, and a huge, fully stocked kitchen! We can’t wait to try out all the Girl Scout properties and have already booked a different camp, Meadow Mountain Ranch near Estes Park, for some winter fun in January.

In addition to working with new teams this year and teaching a computer class (ACK!), I am also very busy teaching three University of Phoenix online classes back to back until December 20th! In addition to cramming in bike rides to school and walking thousands of steps for our district’s pedometer competitions, busy is the only way to describe my life right now. Fortunately, Bruce has been amazing, taking the kids to and from school, doing all the shopping and errands, cooking delicious meals every night, and dealing with our breakdown-central van. Thank goodness for some stress relief!

On the weekends, we’ve been enjoying the glorious Indian Summer weather in Colorado with long bike rides, hikes, and trips to various farmers’ markets to pick up fresh eggs, vegetables, and Colorado peaches and apples. And of course we made our annual visit to the Aurora Jack-o-Launch, watching the pumpkins fly through the air from their catapult and rifle-like contraptions, enjoying some Dry Dock beer, and watching the kids create crafts and play in the corn box (rather than sand box). Now that autumn is upon us, we’re hoping things will settle down a bit and we can r-e-l-a-x!

But, alas, the end is near. We will spend the first half of the week indulging in a few more bike rides, one more beach day, and then begin packing our million point five items (we thought we would have so much space going home, as we brought so many items to give to Lucy, but it appears we might be heading back with MORE) into, on top of, and behind the van. We’ll head out on Friday night, make a stop in St. Louis so the girls can go in the Arch for the first time (we didn’t have time over the past weekend), and drive all night while they sleep. Then we will have just ten days to rest and recover, to rediscover our friends and our home, before reality hits. Reality being, school starts! This may seem overwhelming for most families, but for a teacher it’s double duty. Every year I feel like I’m beginning a new job all over again, and this year I kind of am. I am working with different teams and doubling up on my ESL class and teaching a computer class for the first time! It’s going to be a stressful but exciting new school year, especially since it is Riona’s first (and only) year of preschool and Mythili is entering kindergarten! Oh how the time flies… Seems like we were just pulling up, and now we will be heading out… but life is cyclical, so I’m sure we’ll be back before we know it, on two wheels or four. For now, here are my poems for the girls this July.

After breakfast, we headed to the farmers’ market and King Soopers and bought thirty pounds of tomatoes, eighteen pounds of peaches, broccoli, corn, carrots, and red peppers. The girls just love running through the fountain at Southlands, even though it was only about 75 degrees!

When we got home, Isabella and Mythili helped wash jars and peel the skins off of the tomatoes. I stemmed them and squished them into their jars–twelve in all–and then we sat down for a quick lunch while the water boiled for the peaches. I was about to smash those peaches against the wall, because they weren’t quite ripe and the skins didn’t slide off as easily as the tomatoes, forcing me to use the peeler where the juicy skins stick like glue. But I still managed to get them all in the jars, boil enough water to fill all twelve, and Bruce just now, seven hours after arriving home, pulled the last jars out of the canner.

In the meantime, the girls helped me shuck corn, and I cut up one of our multitude of garden squash for our squash casserole, mixing it in with ricotta and Parmesan cheeses, spices, and tomato sauce ( I just can’t get away from my favorite food in the world–tomato sauce!).

Why do I do this? I could spend my Saturdays lazing around the house, watching TV, reading a book, or just watching the girls play their endless imaginary games. But even though it’s time consuming and sometimes tedious, there is something quite extraordinary and beautiful about a storage room filled with brightly colored jars of jam, tomatoes, and peaches. There is something about showing my girls that food does have a season, a harvest, and there are ways to preserve our food, and our health, without shipping it from thousands of miles away. Between the jars we’ve canned this month and the twenty loaves of zucchini and carrot bread we have baked and frozen for holiday gifts, I hope that my girls have learned that food is not just something that magically appears in front of them at meal time: it’s grown, it’s steamed, it’s handled and cooked. It’s made for us to enjoy and cherish, just as we are made for it.

Let’s see… where to begin? I reconnected with my old friend Kendall who I used to work with at Bonnie Brae, way back in my former life, and we all went to his fortieth on July 31. He was his usual happy self, and is still teaching middle school music. The next night I visited my friend Andy, who I used to work with at the Continental (again, former life) for his birthday blast. That was a great start to a crazy month!

On August 5, Isabella had the momentous event of beginning first grade, her first time with a male teacher and going to school all day. She was more than a little nervous, especially when she asked a few  weeks beforehand, “Will I be in the morning or afternoon class?” only to discover the dire truth of the all-day classroom. I couldn’t get more than a shy smile out of her as we stood with the other students and parents outside of the school that morning, and the truth is, I couldn’t get much more out of myself. I was crying as I wrote the note to put in her lunchbox, and barely made it through saying goodbye to her before I broke down in tears. It’s just too much–every year when I begin another year of teaching, another year not home with them–it comes crashing down on me, and now she is and forever will be gone all day long, and sometimes I feel that I just can’t bear it… But she made it through her first day, as did I, for I had an interesting plan up my sleeve…

Amazingly, all three of my little angels were able to keep secret my surprise for Bruce’s birthday this year: a kitten. After we took Isabella to school, I “went to Sierra to work,” aka, picked up my newly-re-imaged laptop and headed over to the Dumb Friends League. Ever since my mom got a cat last Christmas, both Bruce and the girls have been mentioning their desire. I didn’t have much trouble at all finding a little gray and white kitten, ready to pick up the next day.

So I had to start work on Bruce’s birthday. What a downer. I gave him his card that morning, and, being Bruce, of course he didn’t expect anything more. He and the younger two had lunch with me, and I promised to pick up Isabella. Unfortunately, the wonderful weather we’ve been having reared its ugly head at precisely the moment I arrived at her school: a ginormous hail storm pelted us both as we dashed across the parking lot. I called Bruce and told him about the hail, adding in a “huge accident” holding up traffic, then drove across town and picked up our new family member. The poor, scared kitten, fresh out of neutering surgery, purred in Isabella’s lap the whole way home, and when we arrived, she held him out and said, “I know you always wanted a boy.” He was more than a little surprised, and quick to come up with a name: Gandalf the Gray (LOTR). Gandalf used his litter right away, and has easily found his place in our bed and next to Luna on her blanket.

Did I mention our anniversary is two days after his birthday? We went to our favorite restaurant, The Melting Pot, this time in Louisville so Grandma and Grandpa could watch the girls. As usual, we had a delicious dinner and a nice, romantic break. We spent the next morning on a hike with my parents and the girls, and then Bruce and I went to get my Boulder fix for the month, picking up tomatoes from the farmers’ market and getting a delicious espresso milkshake on Pearl Street.

Then my students came… and another busy weekend was upon us! I canned tomatoes all day Saturday, after taking the girls to get their pictures taken for Riona’s third birthday. On Sunday, we had a small party with the Mentzer and Schmidt boys, who loved the blow-up water slide better than all three girls combined. Riona helped me make her “baniwa” (vanilla) cake, which she gobbled up with “baniwa” ice cream. I just can’t believe… well, it’s almost too much to bear, seeing them grow up faster than I can stand. Three years have passed? She is still the sweetest, loveliest little girl, with the calmest temperament of anyone I have ever met.

My students returned for a second week of school. Two down and 31 to go, woo-hoo! This weekend we had our Girl Scout unit camp at Cherry Creek Reservoir. It was filled with activities, campfires, s’mores, songs, and swaps–little crafts you put on a pin and hand out to everyone. Spending the weekend with 100 Girl Scouts does sound crazy, but the level of enthusiasm that the girls express, and getting to know my troop members’ parents, truly was a priceless experience. I know that Isabella will always remember her first GS camp, and now that I’ve survived one, we’ll be sure to go every year. The girls were crying this morning when they had to say goodbye, as if they’re not all going to see each other in class… um… tomorrow!

And speaking of tomorrow… Mythili begins “pre-K” tomorrow. Riona was signed up to go, but we’ll just have to give her stubborn butt a few more months of potty training. Mythili will be in the same class as Isabella was in during her second year, with Ms. Teddy Bear and Ms. Jelly Bean, so she’s very excited. She also has a few friends in with her, Mason, Ayden, and Hunter, so the transition should be smooth sailing.

And that’s our insane August. I just have 80 miles to go to reach my goal of riding 300 miles on my bike–did I mention I’ve been riding to work?–for the month, and next weekend, let’s see: I think a nice glass of wine, canning, and sitting around the house sounds nice.

We have relished the last two weekends, mostly work-free, though Bruce’s homework and my U. of Phoenix training have snuck into our lives daily. Last weekend we spent the night at Grandma and Granpa’s, then took the girls sledding in Rocky Mountain National Park. Though there wasn’t much snow, it was enough to entertain those younger than 6. We went out to lunch in Estes Park and, as usual, were disappointed by the lack of decent restaurants there. I think we’ve tried just about every one over the years! But we redeemed it with some delicious homemade candy from one of the endless sweet shops.

This past weekend, I took the girls on a ten-mile bike ride. Earlier in the week, when we discovered Bruce’s tire was still flat, I reluctantly piled all three of them into the trailer (which technically is for 2 kids and has a weight limit of 100 pounds, but who’s counting?) and rode them to the library, a 6-mile roundtrip. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as intolerable as it sounds, so on Saturday, another beautiful day, we rode along the Tollgate Creek Trail and stopped at the illustrious “blue” playground in Horseshoe Park. The girls were thrilled, and I felt satisfied that, pulling them which is at the least equal to my weight, 10 miles really equals 20. That afternoon, a former coworker of mine had a “recession” party. I think we all needed one, because that was about the best party I’ve been to in years! The next day, we relaxed, went to the library, and played games all afternoon.

Life is all about the weekends, sleeping in, filling the days with fun activities, and forgetting about why we have to go back to work… at least for a while. And with the beautiful weather we are so lucky to have, and the three glorious girls we are blessed with, it feels like the weekend every day.