Is it Monday already?

I remember a time in the not so distant past when our weekends were considered restful interludes. Peaceful divisions, if you will, of our typically busier weekdays. That doesn't seem to be the case so much anymore! I welcome--in fact, embrace--the busyness, but I feel utterly exhausted by the time Monday rolls around each week. A brief recap of this weekend may better illustrate my point:

By a turn of fortunate events, one of Darren's alternating Friday's off fell last week, perfectly coinciding with Dylan's birthday, which meant we had the entire day to celebrate! We were up at the crack of dawn that day, whipping up a batch of yummy chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and going non-stop for the rest of the day. It was a wonderful birthday! But our weekend was just getting started.

Saturday morning, as is typical now, found us rising early once again to ready the kids (and the diaper bag!) for Gym Magic. Since Caitlyn's class is at 10:00, and Dylan's follows immediately after at 11:00, we are there until noon, after which it's time for grocery shopping and a few miscellaneous errands. When we finally returned home Saturday afternoon (having completely missed Meghan's nap), we decided to play outside in the backyard and Darren got to work on a scrumptious pot of homemade chicken soup. I had planned to take Dylan and Caitlyn with me to the 5:30 Mass again that night, but was feeling very tired and slightly sick, so we opted to wait until Sunday morning. We ate late that night and fell into bed, exhausted, somewhere between 10:00 and 11:00.

Sunday mornings, once spent so lazily, have brought about an entirely new routine, one which we still haven't worked out entirely but hope to do so soon. Dylan's CCD class time is from 9:30-11:00, and since we overslept and missed 8:00 Mass and 9:45 wasn't an option for Dylan, we devised a plan that worked well enough for us but which meant that it was, again, a very busy morning! Rather than making several trips back and forth, Darren attended the 9:45 Mass after dropping Dylan off at class. After picking him up again at 11:00, they drove home to get the girls and I, and we all went back to church to attend the 11:45 Mass together. (Since it was the second time for Darren, he was the default parent to walk Meghan in the back of the church!) After a quick stop at the grocery store, we came home to enjoy heaping bowls of reheated chicken soup with fresh bread and sliced cheese, and the kids and I (because I was determined to celebrate the first day of Fall!) made a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! (Celeste, I love that you did the same thing!) I tried to rest for a bit after eating and cleaning up the kitchen, and then it was time for me to leave for work.

While I was gone last night, Darren had the pleasure of enjoying a little tea party with the kids, reading the Fall story from Tomie dePaola's Four Stories for Four Seasons, eating cookies, and making fall pictures with foam leaf stickers, markers, and construction paper. I am so glad he had the opportunity to enjoy this sort of evening with the kids! They all had a really great time and left their pictures out on the kitchen counter for me to see when I returned home from work last night. The sight of them brought happy tears to my eyes! I think I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow at around 2 a.m., and then I was up again by 7:30 this morning!

I'm tired now. Exhausted. But happy. Happy for another new day of learning with my kiddos, although I'm thinking that, by necessity, these Monday's may start to see a sort of unschooly approach to our learning. There is a mountain of laundry waiting for me. I am always so careful to have it completely caught up by the time the weekend arrives, (in an effort to minimize pesky extra chores during our time off together), but I am always astounded on Mondays at the amount of laundry that our little family of five is able to generate over the weekend! It's going to be another busy day, but I welcome it. I love what Celeste had to say recently about the busyness of family life. This is life! And oh, how I love it. But I have to admit...I'm keeping a watchful eye on the clock this morning, counting the hours until lunchtime...because after that, it's time for naps!