The End of Summer and New Beginnings

This summer seems to have flown by. I am sure I think that every summer, but this time, I am sending two kids off to school, so it seems even more monumental. Hazel heads to full day kindergarten (and riding the bus!) and Owen heads to half day Pre-K. I know they are both more than ready and will do and learn amazing things, but I am a bit sad this precious time home during the day with them is coming to an end of sorts.

Of course, we will be adding a new member to our family this fall and will start the whole process over again, which I am looking forward to! If you didn’t hear in my last post…we are expecting another girl in November. Our whole family is excited and can’t wait to enjoy the holiday season getting to know another precious gift.

Our summer was a busy one…and a bit exhausting getting though some of the hottest weather we have had for our area!

Here are some of the highlights:

Hazel turned five! We had a “wolf” themed party (her favorite animal you may recall from this post). I’ll share a post with all the party details soon!

We had a yard sale to declutter and the kids even sold their own toys and had a lemonade stand. I spent a lot of time decluttering and donating all summer. It feels good learning to live with less stuff and it is proving to make our home more manageable. Which has been great for my sanity 😉

Although, we did add some new “family members” to our brood. We adopted two boy guinea pigs from my cousin, so the kid’s each have their own. Hazel and Owen call themselves “Mom” and “Dad” to them (which makes me the grandma? Kinda weird.).

Owen named his Reggie and Hazel named hers “Shadow of the Forest”…but just Shadow for short. It’s been lots of fun learning about guinea pigs together and spending time getting to know these adorable little critters. They are too cute.

We went on a short trip to Old Forge in the Adirondacks with my husband’s parents, siblings and their children. We had lots of fun going on the lake, spending time at a small beach, having campfires and playing with cousins. The kids even spotted some bears while out with their dad!

(Hazel was having fun pretending these ones were real.)

I made it to the third trimester in this pregnancy and was 30 weeks on Sunday! Getting past 31 will be a huge sigh of relief since that was the week Hazel was born. I am getting close and hopefully this girl will stay put for quite a bit longer. I am actually not due till mid November.

I did have to make a trip to the hospital while we were on vacation. I got dehydrated and found out I had an infection. I needed an IV and some medicine to stop the intense Braxton Hicks type of contractions. That was scary but everything seems good now.

My mom threw me a “sprinkle” (a small baby shower) and we were blessed with some new gifts for the baby. Hazel and Owen helped plan the whole thing which made it even more special.

I spent the summer away from blogging and most social media (although did often post pics of the kids and what we were up to on my personal Facebook page). It was very refreshing and just what I needed to have as relaxed a summer as possible. And NOT be focused on what everyone else in the world was doing or accomplishing. That can get exhausting.

Now, as the summer draws to an end, I am very much looking forward to my favorite season ahead. Fall always makes come alive again.

The kids start school this week and I will actually have a few hours alone every day (until the baby comes). I’ll probably rest a lot but have been getting the urge to get back into the swing of things…slowly…as it comes to blogging and social media.

But taking the time to still fully submerge myself into these “little days”…they go so fast don’t they?

I have been getting our house cleaned up and ready for fall and will be sharing some fall home tour posts this month. One next week, so be sure to come back for that. Those are some of my favorites to share with you.

I hope you will enjoy following along with me once again as I share more of our imperfect life here and how we make this house a home. Blessings!

Till next time…

~Alice W.

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