I always get a little down this time of year – change is upon us.  Starts with the evenings and a little cool breeze sneaking in to remind us that summer is coming to an end.
  For me, it makes me sad.  I absolutely LOVE having my kids at home.  There are times I have wanted to pull them from school and teach them myself, but I believe they need the social interaction that school provides and time to develop their friendships and establish their peer groups.  I know if I did keep them home, it would be more about what I wanted rather than what I think is best for them.
  What confuses me is the number of people who celebrate the return to school.  There’s no judgement  here, just have a hard time understanding it.  The back to school pics of the parents partying as the bus pulls away, that I don’t understand.  I’m not home weeping, believe me my day is full with work and I’m busy until they come home but there is a piece of me that truly misses them.
It’s a double edged sword, though.  I will miss the ease of summer, but welcome the routine of school.    
   I am using the start of school for a new beginning, to get the family more organized and back into our routines.  This summer has been different for us since the majority of it was spent getting ready to move, moving and getting settled into the new place.  In that chaos, we lost the part where the kids were doing daily chores, helping cook dinners, getting to bed at a reasonable time, limits on screen time and having family housecleaning night.  These will work their way back into our schedule next week. Life will start feeling structured and normal again and the laziness of summer will fade.

 Wow, what a month it’s been.  Moving is a bitch.  There’s just no other way to put it.  We were semi organized, we had amazing friends helping, we hired a moving company for the big stuff.  Still, moving 7 people from 2800sq ft to 1200sq ft means a LOT of purging.
It’s truly freeing to part with things, choosing to gift rather than sell.  It’s not that the money wouldn’t have been nice, moving is also seriously expensive, but we have had people be so generous to us in the past that I figure it’s good karma.  Comes down to it being just stuff and giving away was fast – people want free stuff!
We moved into a cute little place in Winslow –

 Mama K taxi has basically parked in the evenings.  What a treat that is.  No more parking lot sitting for me.  I can be home most evenings with the family.  I have time to work out (walk to the gym), we watch a family movie most nights together and have enjoyed the freedom of walking to our date nights.  The boys love the freedom of meeting up with their friends in town and hanging out or going together to grab a bite to eat.  Erin and I have been walking to the library – her absolute favorite place to go – and feeding her voracious reading habit!
Another plus is the sunshine – we have had many family dinner outside (no mosquitos!) and friends over to enjoy the yard and sun.  We can

 have my parents over to eat also, my dad’s wheelchair works in the yard!  That is a plus because truly the only downside (and it’s a HUGE one) is that we don’t live next door to my parents any more.  I feel grateful that we had 4 years next door, and am trying desperately to convince them to move into town, but not seeing them every day is really hard.  It’s weird to describe, but there’s a big void in my heart.  I can’t complain because we see them usually 1-2 times a week and we talk daily on the phone, but it’s different and makes me sad.
  The place is finally at the point where we feel moved in now, it’s homey and we are really liking it.  We back to how we were in the Falk house – our family does well in small spaces.
    As always, we have an open door – now even easier than ever to pop in and say Hi.  We can walk and meet for dinner or coffee, too.