What We Read in September

September was such a blur that had you asked me what I read during the month, I couldn't have told you without looking at my goodreads account. That is often the case but was especially the case last month since I traveled so much! Overall, the month was "just ok" in terms of my reading. I read 6 books, bringing the number of books read in 2024 to 74. Here is how my reading shook out. 

Good to great

You, with a view is a romance that was recommended by Stephany. It's about a granddaughter that discovered that her grandma had some secrets in her past that she doesn't learn about until her grandma has passed away. The book involves a road trip which made it extra enjoyable for me. The Guncle Abroad is a sequel to The Guncle which is a book I absolutely adored. I enjoyed being back with these characters but didn't like it as much as the first. After loving Rufi Thorpe's latest book, Margot's Got Money Troubles, I decided to read some of her back list and started with The Knockout Queen. It's a coming-of-age story about 2 teens that live next door to each other. I love that Thorpe's characters are so very "voicy." How We Named the Stars is a book I heard about on Sarah's Bookshelves Live. It's an owned voices coming-of-age story about 2 college roommates that are discovering who they are/their sexuality. Humor Me is the sophomore novel from Cat Shook. This one features a protagonist that works on an SNL-type of late night show. I enjoyed it while reading it but had to remind myself what it was about when reflecting back on my month's reading. 

Did not work 

I was drawn to read Absolution as it was about a group of expatriate wives living in Vietnam with their husbands/families in the early 60s when the conflict in Vietnam was escalating. I usually love character-driven novels but this one just did not work for me at all.

The boys' reading

We pulled out our fall books which Paul seems to have sadly outgrown. :( But Taco has really been enjoying them, especially Room on the Broom and Pumpkin Soup.

Paul has mostly been reading Wimpy Kid books. We are reading The Getaway together which is about a family vacation gone wrong. He also likes to re-read the various Dog Man books we own over and over and over so we are really getting our moneys worth on those books!!

Did you read anything great in September?

HOT HOT HOT

The calendar says fall but it has been HOT lately with highs in the mid-80s. Where are you, fall? I bank on cooler but still sunny weather and that has not happened much this month. I don’t want highs in the upper 80s when all the pools are closed! But the weather will cool off this week but then will warm up over the weekend - right in time for the marathon. Womp womp. It won’t be dangerously hot - just hotter than ideal for a fall marathon in the upper Midwest. You may remember it was canceled last year due to the heat and humidity. I wonder if the race organizers will consider pushing it to late October since warm falls seem to be a thing that will happen going forward (global warming, amiright?). 

All that said, we had a nice weekend. Phil took Paul to the driving range again on Friday and then to Home Depot. I had a late (for a Friday) client call that went until 4:30 pm but since it was a $200 million opportunity, I was happy to be on the call! 

Friday night at the driving range!

Taco had a rare solo bath since he was so dirty from playing in the sandbox at daycare.

On Saturday morning I ran 5.75 miles. I had to stop and take a picture of this house’s decorations! It made me think of our fall-lover, Jenny!

After showering, I took the boys to a park while Phil grocery shopped. It was BUSY at this park as there were 3 kid birthday parties and what appeared to be a parent group meet-up. There were a bunch of blown up balloons around the park so the boys had fun playing with them and made friends with another little boy. 

I did overhear a convo between them - the boy they met made a comment about Paul’s size as he was bigger than Paul but a year younger. Paul confidently said, ‘I’m 6.5, I’m just small for my age.’ He weighs about the same as Taco these days (prob around 38 lbs) so he is very small. But his doctor has never been concerned since he’s stayed on his (4th percentile) growth curve. Admittedly I worry about him getting teased for his size as he gets older but I guess we will cross that bridge when we get there. 

Phil took Paul out to his mom’s for the afternoon and I stayed back with Taco. We went to the goose house and played with LEGO. 

Paul got $5 from Nana for helping with yard work! They also found a cardinal feather in her yard which he was excited about.

Sunday was the usual program - church/Sunday school, Vikings game viewing for the boys (they almost blew their big lead but pulled off a win in the end), and swimming lessons. 

Working on his back float. 

When we got home, the boys happily played with LEGO for a solid chunk of time with no wrestling/fighting! It was magical!! 

This week will finally be a normal week with no travel… although now I wonder - is a week of travel now my new normal and a travel-free week is more abnormal? That’s what is feels like these days. My Chicago employee will be here for part of the week since he’s running the marathon on Sunday (his first!!). A lot of our 1:1 meetings this spring/summer have had a solid amount of time dedicated to discussing his marathon training and he usually lets me know how his long run went. I’m excited to cheer him on!

How was your weekend?

Weekend Recap

It’s the last week of September. I am actually not terribly sad to see this month come to an end because it’s been intense. I leave for another work trip today. It’s my 3rd week of traveling in a row which is TOO MUCH. I get a 2 week break after this thank goodness. This week’s trip is a team offsite in Chicago so a short flight and lower pressure since I won’t have any in-person client meetings. But there is often pressure to socialize and stay out late with the team but I have decided I will not be doing that. I’m secure in my position within the team and do not need to be the most fun person. 

We had a nice weekend. I took Friday off as I had a friend who was in town for work. I hadn’t seen her in person for almost 7 years when I visited her in St. Louis when I was pregnant with Paul! I picked her up at her hotel, we went out for Mexican, walked around the lake by my house, and then I took her to the airport. This is a friend I met through blogging (who sadly no longer blogs) but despite not seeing each other for many years, we picked right up where we left off and gabbed for hours straight. 

Since it was so beautiful, Phil took Paul to the driving range when he got home from school.

I picked up Taco and when we got home, I pulled out his Halloween costume since he has been asking to try it on. The boys are VERY excited for Halloween. They will probably wear their costumes a lot before the actual holiday. 

Taco will be Chase from Paw Patrol which is a hand-me-down from Paul

Paul is going as Pikachu

I woke up on my own at 6:45 on Saturday which was delightful! The boys slept past 7! It was a rainy morning so we hit up Starbucks for treats…

A donut for Paul (from the grocery store next door) and a raccoon-shaped cake pop for Taco. I hate how expensive the cake pops are but it evens out since Paul’s donut (from the grocery store next door) is cheap.

Is there something on my face? ;)

Then we went to the library where Paul lobbied to check out all of these books. He actually had a few more he wanted to check out but we settled on 5. He is very into graphic novels and will read them over and over again. He gets to read when he goes up to bed every night and I have to pry the book out of his hands! I let him read later on weekends since he can sleep in a bit. 

After lunch and quiet time, the rain had moved out so I took the boys to the park. They had a blast running around and pretended a pine tree was their house where they made croissants (pine cones) - I think they got this idea from Bluey.

They slept past 7 again on Sunday (although Taco yelled for me at 5:40 to cover him with blankets and I didn’t fall back asleep like he did). I laid in bed until 6:30, though, which felt good. 

Sunday was our usual church + Sunday school + afternoon swimming lessons. Phil and the boys watched the first half of the Vikings game before swimming lessons while I rested. The Vikings won and are 3-0 which is shocking to us as we thought this would be another ‘rebuilding season.’ The boys are both progressing well in swimming lessons although I imagine both will repeat their level, which is fine. I do sometimes wonder if we should enroll Paul in private lessons to see if he’d advance to a level of more comfort and then we could put him back in group. But I am seeing progress in him willingly putting his face in the water.

Paul working on the front crawl

Taco working on his front crawl

When we got home, Phil took them to the park so I could start making dinner. I made a marina with blitzed veggies hidden in it. I had mine on spaghetti squash and boys had theirs on pasta.

And then after Taco was in bed, we played Paul’s new favorite game, ‘bank.’ He is very good at counting out money and likes the made up withdrawals we come up with. We make up names and amounts we will withdraw. He’s very interested in money so I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!

How was your weekend? 

10 mile race + weekend happenings

My 10 mile race on Saturday morning went really well! Hurrah! I wasn’t super confident going into the race as I was just so dang tired from an intense week of travel. But I knew I had trained adequately and luckily my body did not let me down. 

It was overcast and a bit more humid than typical at the start but I was hoping the rain would hold off. Well, it didn’t. It started to rain around mile 3 and rained for most of the race. But I would rather run in rain than heat. My co-worker that lives in the area came out to cheer! I saw her twice on the course and then she was at the finish line. 

I felt really good for most of the race! I finished with a time of around 1:43 - so 7 minutes faster than my last 10 mile race in October of 2021 (which was a terrible race since I was fighting a cold - and I was only 10 months post partum and still breastfeeding…). Granted this time/pace is a far cry from previous longer race times (my half marathon PR is 1:52) but my life looks so different so I can’t really compare mom with 2 kids Lisa to pre-kids Lisa. 

While I was running, Phil was golfing at a charity tournament with my old coworker. They won the tournament for the 2nd year in a row! It’s a par 3 scramble which is not a typical format for a tournament but he has enjoyed winning it the last 2 years. My MIL watched the boys (we stayed at her house Friday night since the race was in her town) while we were out running and golfing. It’s nice that they are at ages/stages where she can handle them on her own for a couple of hours. 

The boys slept past 7 on Sunday which is such a treat. We went to church/Sunday school and the boys had matching shirts. It was hot and humid. Where is the fall weather? I like sunshine but I don’t need humidity in September!

Phil golfed with friends in the afternoon as a belated birthday celebration so he got to golf twice in one weekend! The boys had swimming lessons and then we went to a birthday party. 

I travel again this week - this time to Dallas Tuesday-Thursday where the highs will be in the mid-90s. Bleh. I’ve officially reached the point where I am ready for cool, crisp fall temps! It looks like the weather will cool off next weekend in Minneapolis, though. 

How was your weekend? Has it been unseasonably warm where you are?

Weekend Recap + Back on the Road

We had a beautiful fall-like weekend but now summer weather returns this week with highs in the upper 80s - right in time for my 10 mile race on Saturday, go figure. If only my race was this past weekend when the weather was PERFECT but so it goes! Here is how our weekend shaped up.

- Friday night was low key as usual. We ate leftovers and I ended up taking the boys to the goose house to play with the toys there to get them out of the house. Phil stayed back to enjoy some silence since he’ll be solo parenting for a good chunk this week. 

- Both boys were up around 6:15 on Saturday morning. I did my final long run (8 miles) once Phil was up. It was 53 with low humidity when I started so perfect running weather. I felt really strong! When I got back and showered, the boys and I went to the library. We hadn’t been there in about a month. I ran into a friend from the neighborhood (hi, Anne!). 

A rare quiet moment when Taco was looking at a book.

- After lunch I was ‘off-the-clock’ so I laid down in bed and read (‘You, With a View’, recommended by Stephany!) and napped while Phil took the boys to the park. 

- Then it was block party time! The boys had a blast scooting and running around on the closed street with the other kids on our block. Phil and I had a great time catching up with the other adults. The shoe kicking contest was fun as usual. The way it works is that each person gets 2 tries - one try for each shoe. There is an under 13 division, women's, and men’s with a traveling ‘golden’ shoe trophy for each division. I actually tied for 2nd! My furthest shoe went 63’ - the winner kicked it 66’.  I did have to carry a kicking, screaming Taco home around 7:30 when it was time for bed… transitions are so hard. Paul and Phil stayed until 8:30.

Shoe kicking!

Racing with other kids on the block!

- I woke on my own at 6:45 on Sunday morning! Not waking to a screaming child is such a treat. I actually had to wake both boys around 7:30 which pained me to do, but letting them sleep too late makes for a terrible bedtime and since it was a school night, I didn’t want to pay for letting them sleep late when bedtime rolled around. 

- The boys went to Sunday school while I went to church at 10. This is a new routine for us but both boys loved their classes and are excited to go back. Phil stayed back to clean and mow.

- After lunch I once again read and napped. Why am I so dang tired? Phil and the boys watched the Vikings (they won!!) and the boys played on their iPads. Then it was time for the first swimming lesson of the fall session. This is Taco’s first session of being in the pool without me - we did mom/parent classes when he was a baby/young toddler but took a long break until he was ready/interested in the water and could be in the pool without me. Both boys did great so we celebrated with macarons after class. 

- Their behavior was not great when we got macarons… They just can’t keep their hands off each other and constantly want to wrestle and mess with each other. I’ve talked to other moms of boys and it seems like this is just how they are going to be for like years to come? Sigh. I used my yelling mom voice when getting them in their car seats which I hate to use.

- So we stopped at a park to run off some of their boundless energy to make the final hours of the day more tolerable.

This week I travel for the first time in 1.5 months. It was a nice break and what our family needed. This is a longer 3-night trip for me. I think I will hit gold status with Delta on this trip. This is the most I have traveled since the year I lived in Charlotte and made silver status on 2 different airline - which is a total waste since silver is worthless but it’s how it worked out. I hope the boys are cooperative while I am away… Solo parenting is hard enough with well-behaved kids, Phil doesn’t need the extra challenge.

How was your weekend?

5 Things Friday - Re-entry Week

Happy Friday! Was this not the longest short week or is it just me? Here are 5 things on my mind today.

1. Paul started 1st grade on Tuesday! It was a beautiful morning but he insisted we take the photo inside because there were kids outside our house waiting for the bus and he was embarrassed about the sign. He's already embarrassed by his mom at 6.5. Sheesh. He was very excited for school but also a little nervous.

2. Re-entry has been ROUGH for the boys. I don't remember it being this tough last summer but maybe I blocked it out. Mornings have been rough and there has been so much attitude. Taco's back to his normal bedtime but wakes up in the worst mood most days. We're trying to get Paul's bedtime earlier but he fights it each night and falls asleep far later than he should (around 9pm, he should be asleep around 8-8:15 ideally). Then he wakes up so EXHAUSTED but forgets how exhausted he was in the morning when bedtime rolls around. Gah. 

3. Our activity schedule is heating up, too. Paul started soccer on Wednesday. He'll have it on Mondays and Wednesdays. Last time he did soccer he barely touched the ball but Phil said he was very into it this year. Yay! I stayed back with Taco so did not get to observe but I will take him sometime when I'm not traveling. Both boys start swimming lessons on Sunday afternoon and they will also attend religious ed classes on Sunday mornings. I am sure this sounds like a walk in the park to those with big kids, like Sarah and Kae! And don’t get me wrong - it’s not a heavy activity schedule since our kids are too young for that (IMO). The soccer schedule is tricky when I am traveling as it's from 6-7pm and we start Taco's bedtime at 7pm so he can be sleeping by 7:30-7:45. I'm encouraging Phil to hire a neighbor girl to stay back with Taco when I'm traveling so she can put him to bed. 

4. Between back to school and being in the office, I haven't ran since my 8 mile long run on Monday. I'm hoping to fit a 3 mile run in today and then I'll do one last 8 mile run on Saturday or Sunday. My race is next Saturday. You don't really need to taper for a 10 mile race that you aren't going to aggressively run, but I don't know when I will run next week since I'll be in Charlotte Mon-Thur where I have 2 client dinners, moderate 2 panels, and have 25+ client calls (it's a week where sales is encouraged to book a ton of calls). Looking at my calendar kind of makes me whimper... 

Red = client meeting or event. The big blue blocks are what I blocked for travel to/from Charlotte.

5. But ending on a positive, we have a pretty low key weekend ahead of us. We'll lay low tonight. Tomorrow afternoon/evening is our annual block party which features a shoe kicking contest (that I am TERRIBLE at but enjoy participating in). Sunday we have religious ed in the morning and swimming lessons in the afternoon. So Sundays are kind of set for the forseeable future since we have a morning and afternoon commitment. So we'll just need to add in the occasional park visit and those days will be set. 

How was your week? If it's back-to-school week, has re-entry been rough for you as well?

Kid-free Week + Labor Day Weekend

Our kid-free week last week was so wonderful! The boys had a great time with my parents and were apparently on their very best behavior according to my parents. They got to do lots of fun things - pontoon rides, park visits, beach/water play, games with my parents, etc. We FaceTimed twice which did not go well as Taco was not happy during those chats. 

Playing at a cool tractor park

Playing Yahtzee after Taco was in bed! He rolled lots of yahtzees!

Snuggles with papa!

While the boys were away we had an impromptu grilled dinner + cards with friends one night and a double date with that same couple another night. I ran before work one morning and after work another night. Besides that we enjoyed a quiet, clean house! I did miss the boys by the end of the week. It was a little weird to be in the house without the boys. 

I took Friday off and left for my parents’ that morning so I could beat the long weekend traffic. Upon my arrival my mom commented on the marked changes in Taco’s behavior… I guess he was punishing me for being away for a week. I had planned to stay at my parents until Sunday mid-day but I ended up coming back on Saturday night after dinner since sleep was challenging on Friday night and Taco was just soooo moody. 

Sunday and Monday were all about adjusting back to our usual routines, especially bedtimes. Bedtimes had slipped for Paul recently so it’s going to be a bit of an adjustment to get back to his typical bedtime. 

I did my 2nd to last training run for my 10 mile race on the 14th. I forgot to turn my Apple Watch back on after stopping at a stoplight so about 0.75 miles were not recorded. Womp womp. The weather was deliciously cool! I’m ready for the race to be here at this point!

The view at the halfway point. I am lucky to run in such a beautiful area!

The boys got haircuts, too! We are ready for the start of school/fall!

Paul is excited to start school today but Taco has been saying he doesn’t want to go back to school…. So I am bracing myself for a rough week of re-entry. I am home this week and then travel the next 3 (Charlotte, Dallas, Chicago). Fall is going to be BUSY with 8 work trips and 1 fun trip to visit my sister with Paul. Fall is one of my fave seasons but I will need to be intentional about soaking up all the fun or it will pass me by!

How was your weekend? Do you have a busy fall?