October 3, 2005

• Playing Catch-Up

  Playing Catch-Up

  I had a request from my #1 son who is away at college to update my blog with the latest and greatest happenings from home, so here goes…

  I’ve used the analogy before, but it remains true — our life at home is nothing short of a three ring circus.  I’m not complaining — au contraire!  I enjoy the hustle and bustle of keeping up with kids, school, work, church, and the variety of extra-curricular activities our family of a half-dozen plus one always seems to be involved in — well, most of the time, anyway.  Kyle, as previously mentioned, is away at college, but we still hear from him regularly and see him occasionally.  His class schedule FINALLY seems to be straightening out.  Now if only the job he applied for comes through — THAT will be a big help in the finance department!  Nate is busier than a kid his age has a right to be, I think.  He is taking 3 high school classes (college reading & writing, concert choir and symphonic band — both the top music groups in the school) and 3 college classes (calculus, speech and computer repair), he is working about 15 to 18 hours a week, and he is in rehearsal for the fall musical, where he has a lead role.  Not to be forgotten is his girlfriend — for some reason he thinks he has to make time for her as well, go figure!  Grant is adjusting to life as a high-schooler.  He is on the cross country team and he joins big brother Nate in the cast of the musical.  He started confirmation classes at church last month.  Not surprisingly, his social life is becoming an ever-increasing priority to him.  Mark is continuing to keep busy singing with the choirboys, where he was chosen by his fellow choir members to be the assistant Head Chorister for this year (second highest choir office!).  They had their first public performance of the season yesterday (pretty early for a choir that basically starts over every September by replacing 1/3 to 1/2 of it’s members).  They sang at a benefit concert for hurricane victims.  He is also experiencing a sudden increase in homework expectations as a 7th grader.  He was furiously working on his Lewis and Clark project all weekend, and needs to start his leaf collection today (after he gets home from his oboe lesson).  Isaac started singing with the choirboys this year also — he is in the “prep” choir.  He seems to love 1st grade.  Last week he turned 7 years old and invited all of the boys from his class (10 of them) to a bowling party to celebrate the occasion.  We held the party on Saturday afternoon and it was quite a hit!  Watching all those cute little boys throwing those (to them) heavy and cumbersome balls down the alley was priceless.  They each had their own unique “style”.  Some would carry the ball to the line, set it down and give it a vigorous push, while others energetically ran to the alley, wildly releasing the ball with abundant enthusiasm — sometimes too abundant, in fact.  We had a few balls that jumped lanes and ended up knocking down pins in the neighboring alley.  Fortunately they were not being used at the time.  Following bowling we filled the boys up with pizza, soda, cupcakes and ice cream.  I’m sure their parents loved picking up their sugar-energized boys when the party was over. 

   Here is a picture of the birthday boy, taken the morning of his big day:   

   

   

  Isn’t he just about the cutest 7-year-old in existence?

   

   

   

   

  Hubby has been unbelievably busy at work for the past 6 weeks.  It was 6 weeks ago that one of the three doctors in his practice decided it was time to part ways (a decision hubby wholeheartedly agreed with), so now there are only two doctors in the office.  At the same time, unexplicably, the number of patients coming to the office increased by about 10%.  Consequently, that means both doctors are working harder than ever.  Not only are they spending more time seeing patients, but there is a necessary and corresponding increase in paperwork that accompanies the rising number of patients.  Hubby is pretty much maxed out as far as the number of patients he can see and still manage to keep up with the paperwork.  The other doctor could probably see a few more, but he is also in the process of rebuilding his house that burned down last winter, so at the moment he does not have any time in his schedule to spare.  I guess, all things considered, being busy at work is a good “problem” to have.  However, I sometimes feel like hubby doesn’t really have enough time for a life outside of work, and that is definitely NOT a good thing.

  Now I’m just as busy as ever doing all the things I have always done.  I have many roles.  Mother, wife, housekeeper, chauffer, sister, volunteer, friend, bookkeeper, musician, cook, errand runner – the list goes on.  A few of the new roles I have taken on this year include being the vice-chair of the Choirboys Service Organization and singing with the Praise Team for the contemporary service at our church (but only once a month…I volunteered to join the “new” team, allowing the “regular” team to have that one Sunday a month off).  I gave up my role as the chair of the silent auction committee for the choirboys, but the CSO vice-chair thing will probably take just as much (if not more) of my time.  I’m still singing with the chancel choir at church, teaching Sunday School and helping with the Wednesday youth program for elementary age kids.  My book club is still going strong, and I continue to work one day a week at hubby’s office.  I’ve volunteered a couple of times so far at Isaac’s school, and I expect I will be called upon several more times throughout the year.  My “temporary” roles at the moment include real estate agent (we are still working on getting that cabin sold) graphic designer (I’m helping put together the new picture directory for our church which is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary this year) and costume designer (for the fall musical) — I’ve found that eBay and thrift stores are great places to find period clothing at reasonable prices — as long as you don’t get carried away with the bidding frenzy on eBay, that is!  (So far I’ve managed to avoid getting too caught up in that.) 

  Well, that pretty much sums things up for now.  Garrison Keillor has a line that he closes all of his “Lake Wobegon” segments with that seems appropriate…”and that’s the news from [QueenBee-land], where all the women are strong and all the men are good looking!  

  Parting shot:  if people can be disgruntled, can they also be gruntled?       

  • 10:34 am
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