All The New Things: From Summer to Fall

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We’ve been moved in for a month and change. “And Change” sums things up pretty well.

Pio started walking just before he hit ten months. Before ten months.

We love leather-soled shoes for new walkers, but for some reason they are hard to find these days. We’re discovering that there aren’t as many hand-me-downs for boy #3 as there were for our girl #3. So I quick-quick got these guys for Pio.

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Speaking of milestones, Mateo figured out he can rip down our baby gates. So now he can go wherever he wants. Anarchy is rough, people. He started helping himself to things in the fridge, most often this week snagging a random leftover bratwurst David had grilled for future dinners. He’s constantly hauling shoes or belts out of David’s closet. He loves pretending to be David.

Speaking of which, after stepping away to do something, I returned to the kitchen to find this scene:

Mateo, who is 2 1/2 going on 45, decided to make eggs. Just like Daddy. (While David *does* like to have a beer while grilling, I promise that I’ve never caught him imbibing while making us breakfast, contrary to Mateo’s display. Oh my.)

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We started going back to Mass as a family! The kids were excited to pull out their Sunday best the first day back. It went surprisingly well! The baby kept pulling off my mask, but it was kind of a relief. Since we don’t go out much, I’m not practiced in re-breathing my air.

The next week at church was much more expected, complete with the baby fussing and the toddler rolling in the aisle. Unlike our first week back, we sat in the front, of course. “Hello everyone, we’re new. Grab your popcorn, because we put on a spectacular show.”

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We’re still working on settling all our stuff. (Those bookshelves by the fireplace are dreamy! We like having our books all in one place. But everything is still in process. I can’t wait to until everything has a home within our home.)

The settling is a family affair. Elle graciously held up a mix-up of some of our old decorations. Trying to decide if I love it or not. For now it’s up with the flower frame turned a quarter turn so the flowers are under Mary.

Refurbishing is sort of our deal. We painted over an old canvas and came up with this:

Elle did the drawing, and then I traced over it with permanent marker for readability. (Here’s a profesh version, in case you’re interested.)

Narnia is going to be the theme of the kids’ bathroom. I use “theme” loosely. As a minimalish family, we have a plain white shower curtain (not like this guy!) and are going to re-work a few other old art pieces. We’ll see if one of the kids wants to draw out something like this , or of a battle, or of The Dawn Treader.

If we want to switch things up in a year or a month, we can just redo a few pictures and be set.

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The leaves have been putting on a show for sure. We’ve been going for walks as a family almost every day, and it hit me this week that our walks will have to come to an end soon.

That released a whole flood of emotions. We’ve tried to make moving a big adventure so far. New places to explore! New parks to play at! But impending winter combined with COVID restrictions and no family/friends nearby to form a pod with means we’re going to be inside. A lot. By ourselves.

I’m afraid of how life will feel when we don’t have the noise of moving, exploring, and fieldtrips to drown out the loneliness. Will Cee get sick? How will David’s business go when he can’t meet with people outside anymore? How will the kids get out all their energy?

I’m not ready. I texted another homeschool mom about my concerns and got this wise, wise response:

“I keep reminding myself that there is no point ruining today just because of the possibility it might be tough later. What if winter goes fine, and I wasted all fall fretting about it?”

As a chronic over-thinker, I do a lot of today-ruining. Maybe some of it could be called “planning ahead,” but most of it really is just today-ruining.

I guess we’ll try to enjoy fall the best we can, and leave winter to itself. The summer worked out better than I thought, after all. Maybe winter will, too.

If you’ve got any tips for preparing for an uncertain winter, feel free to pass them along.