Chilly

The weather has turned cold on us. Yesterday and today have been so gray and wet and dark and dreary, I even turned on the heat last night. It was 49 degrees this morning and I saw that some snow fell in the mountains! No bike rides for a few days, though I guess I could still do a hike if I had the car. But, since it is wet and cold, it's been a good opportunity to get some things done at the computer. If the cold last long enough, perhaps I'll get to house cleaning. But if I don't, there's time. The mess in our house isn't goin anywhere. 

Yesterday Katharine went to a birthday party at Uptown Jungle around 9am. That was perfect for a cold day.

 

It was with her little playgroup of 5 kids. My neighbor offered to take her and bring her back home, so I had the morning to myself which was weird and new, but I guess that will be the norm starting next year when K goes to kindergarten. And after the party was done, the girls still wanted to play, so then Kat was at their house for another two hours. Wow what do I do with myself?!? I should probably start to figure that out. Maybe I'll really be able to stay on top of the house, that would be amazing. I have had the thought recently that after Lily's gone (she moved into the small bedroom upstairs) I'm going to turn that room into the place for exercise stuff. That stuff is currently scattered in little pockets all over the house, much like my art stuff was before we centralized it. I've got the treadmill and some weights in the finished side of the basement, a pull up bar and a few things over under the stairs in the basement, another pull up bar in Lily's closet, yoga mats and weights in my room, yoga mats and yoga blocks in my closet, yeah it's everywhere. And then the boys like to take our exercise balls and throw them around inside and outside. So that will be great I think, I'll get that set up next summer. And with "only" six kids at home, we'll have one room for boys and one for girls. So Lily and Natalie switched a few weeks ago (without permission, as Lily has been told to not do anything until she FINISHES HER ONLINE CLASS) so there's just a big pile of mess outside her door as she waits to get to organizing her junk. K sorry, I lost track of my thought - oh so that will be an exercise room, and I hope to reclaim my art area downstairs asap. As for yesterday, I mostly enjoyed the silence of the house. I ALSO practiced piano! Brushing up on the simplified hymns I kinda learned in Brazil. I did that yesterday and today, I'm refreshing "No Holly For Miss Quinn" by Enya which is another song I learned back in 1995. I practiced violin yesterday too! Katharine sat on the couch and watched me in a bit of a confused daze. I was wondering if she was having flashbacks of violin lessons or some déjà vu feelings that she couldn't quite place. So when Kat goes to kindergarten next year, I'll start to re-develop some talents. I think I'd prefer to paint, but the basement got trashed and I haven't had the motivation to fix it yet. Though a cold fall day should be a good chance to do that... but there will be more fall and winter days. I gotta be in the right mood. So yesterday and today was reading, practicing music, and yoga corpse pose. 

I had a nice visit with Abi today. Her p-day is usually Mondays, but they had transfers this week, so it was moved to today. We were able talk twice today and then again for an hour tonight. She called to say hi to the boys before they left for school, then called again around 4 after everyone was home. Tonight she called while she was getting ready for bed. It was past her bedtime, but she said tomorrow is messed up anyway, cause she has to get up at 3 to get on a bus to go get her new companion. If that were me, I'd want to go to bed asap, but she wanted to visit, so we did. I sent her this pic that I made of a countdown for myself on my mission. If you turn a year and a half into 18 squares, it doesn't look like that much. 

She said she made one but she thought mine was cute and she's going to make hers look a bit more like mine. So blogging and computer stuff today, visiting with Abi, and Katharine's friend Scarlett came over. They played under the desk I was working at.

Earlier this morning when Corey and I visited with Abi (this call was just on the "Abi + parents" line), Katharine was so content and quiet as we visited, it was curious to me that she was so focused on her work. 

She was tying up her Ariel doll. I've found her tied up in sevearl places today, like dresser handles and door stops. Funny. Playing with Candy eyeballs that a neighbor gave us. 

I went to workout at Rec center last night, and for exercise today I did a 6:30pm quick trail run (before the sunsets at 6:49) up techy and then back down to Lisa. Rain was lightly sprinkling but I was ok in a hoodie. The forest felt deserted. 1.47 miles up and down, just 34 minutes. The creek is really high after all this rain! There is no chance of crossing the creek today. My little stepping stone piles are covered in rushing water. Then 7:20pm to rec center to warm up in the sauna for 20 min and then 40 min swim, mostly backstroke, done at 8:306pm. Corey went to the temple today. Maybe I'll try to go tomorrow morning? I still need to figure out a time that I can have a car.