Keep on Keepin' On

My mother has been sent back home, for which I am eternally grateful.  I was not ready for the upheaval that we endured last fall and winter.

I've figured out what to do with my grandfather's estate, which is a whole lot of nothing. I'll notify the creditors that he's dead and if one of them wants to open probate they can have at it. 

My brother continues to be a pain in the ass with his very messy divorce and the drama that comes with it, but at least that is the only family issue I am dealing with right now.

As for the kids, we have survived the first three weeks of school.  It's been a transition for PS (and us), starting high school.  Her classes are hard and her days are long.  She doesn't have any of her old friends in any of her classes or her lunch period, but I think she is doing ok and starting to make new friends.

She tried out for the soccer team, but was cut.  This was no surprise to her parents.  She had deluded herself into believing that she would make the team no matter what. She never, ever practiced at home, and refused all of the soccer camps and clinics I offered to send her to.  By the second day of practice, when she saw the skills of girls who have been playing competitively for years, she knew it wasn't going to happen.  It was tough on her, but it was a life lesson that she needed to learn, and no amount of nagging from me was going to teach her what she learned from that experience:  you have to work for the things that you want.

Anyway, she dropped soccer and picked up art--something that she does have a lot of talent for and spends hours a day "practicing." She also joined the robotics team.  The team went to nationals last year, and we are all super-geekily excited about what they will do this year.  The machines these kids build are simply phenomenal.

SS and TT are in their final year of elementary school. No big changes for them--except that they now change classes and they have two classes together. They have never had class together. I made the very conscious decision to separate them in pre-K (I would not have done it if I didn't think they were ready for it, and I would have fought to keep them together if I though it was necessary) and they have never been in the same class.  Interestingly, they are not at all excited to have classes together now. Even though they always eat lunch together and have mostly the same friends.

So, we're off.  I miss our relaxed summer evenings and the much lighter summer traffic. But at least the weather is cooler and we have Halloween and Thanksgiving to look forward to--which are, hands down, the best holidays.