We may have gotten an extra 24 hours with February 29, but lost one hour this past weekend with the time change. This 167-hour week was not quite as miserable as when I had babies and toddlers, but the 4-year-old was up until almost 10:30 last night. The big kids were likewise not very tired at their bedtimes, with the result that rousting them from bed this morning was…hard.
I slightly sympathize in that the older boys really didn’t get to sleep in this weekend. I made sure the 16-year-old was up bright and early Saturday morning to go take the new digital SAT. I think he had mixed feelings about it. It was shorter (which is good) but taking something in a new format is always challenging. We’ve been viewing this as a practice run and he can take it again in May. I definitely remember taking the SAT as a high school junior myself so it’s a little weird to be at the life stage of seeing my kid do it.
The 14-year-old had an all-day tech rehearsal on Saturday for the middle school musical, for which he is running the sound system. He and the 12-year-old both performed with their school’s jazz band at a local jazz fest on Friday night. This was fun to hear! Another life stage milestone: when the kids’ ensembles are actually really good.
Continuing with the musical theme, my 16-year-old and I sang with the church choir on Sunday morning. Then in the afternoon I went to an all-Bach concert at the church featuring (among other things) a concerto for double harpsichord. I had not heard any of the BWV numbers featured in the show before but now I can cross them off the list I suppose (actually I probably won’t…I often listen to pieces twice to become more familiar with them – so I’ll just enjoy them a little more when they come up in the regular order).
On Friday, my 9-year-old had a half-day, so I had him go out in the woods for a while with me to try to climb this tantalizing tree– it has a huge branch that appeared to be just a bit higher than he could get to. We took some rock climbing holds and our cord out to put it around the tree. But then after we put it on and he started climbing, he realized that he could climb the tree more easily from a different approach (using another tree that was near it) and so he made it up there with no assistance.
I did not climb any trees but I did try running for the first time since the unpleasantness of January. I did a combination of running and walking on the treadmill — basically running for a few seconds then walking for a few seconds. I put the treadmill at a pace (4.4 mph) that could be fast walking or very slow running and then just alternated (so I didn’t have to keep toggling). It felt OK at the time but my back was a little sore this morning, so who knows. I got in the lottery to run the Broad Street 10-miler in early May but I suspect that won’t be happening.
One life systems update — I had been trying to think through how to manage the big kids’ laundry. They are supposed to put dirty clothes in their hampers, and then after it is washed, the clothes would go back to their rooms. But sometimes the clean clothes would then sit on their floor or on their beds for a while, and become indistinguishable from dirty clothes that wound up in various places…So I bought a bunch of cheap laundry baskets. Now “dirty” is in the hamper and “clean” is in the laundry basket. Yes, the clothes mostly just sit in the laundry baskets for a while…but at least they’re not winding up mixed with the dirty clothes! Happy post-time change Monday everyone 🙂
Also a 5 kid mom here and we do the same with laundry. Our other rule is their laundry doesn’t get washed and folded until hampers are filled (ie. No dirty clothes on the ground) and laundry baskets are empty and put away.
@G – yeah, I’m thinking the laundry baskets might need some sort of time limit on them. But it’s not the end of the world if they just keep pulling outfits out of there and wearing them…by the time it’s laundry day again they’ll likely be mostly empty!
Yes, Ms. Laura Vanderkam, there is also a time change where I live right now in Calgary, Canada.
@Yukun – I’m not sure anyone enjoys this time change!
Your laundry system sounds great— I wish I had thought of a system like that when my kids were at home!! Even if clothes aren’t put away, they’re is some separation between clean and dirty. So many times a daughter’s clothes went through the wash again, without being worn, because they had lived on the floor for a couple of days. They lay next to the ‘dirty’ clothes and picked up an odor of dirty laundry, according to Girl #1.
Or she went through 3-4 outfit changes before school, then a week later, remembered ‘wearing’ one of the discarded items, so it went into the dirty hamper— even 5 minutes on her body, looking in her mirror counted as ‘ It’s dirty— I wore it’
There were more important battles during her jr- sr high years, so I gritted my teeth and mostly let it go. (Going away to college and spending her $$ for get clothes clean and dry did what I couldn’t accomplish😁)
@Marj – it is true that there are more important battles. I also try to remind myself that there are some terrible battles that, so far, I have not had to fight. If I was faced with a choice between various terrible things and having a lot of dirty clothes on the floor…I would probably choose the dirty clothes! And empty Starbucks cups everywhere. There are worse things in life.
My oldest son also took the SAT this weekend. My kids do very few chores around the house, but they are all now responsible for their own laundry and it is amazing. I’m pretty certain my 11yr old does rewash clean clothes that he mixes with the dirty, so I should probably help him come up with a good system. It certainly won’t be actually putting the clean clothes away haha.
Your laundry system sounds great— I wish I had thought of a system like that when my kids were at home!! Even if clothes aren’t put away, they’re is some separation between clean and dirty. So many times a daughter’s clothes went through the wash again, without being worn, because they had lived on the floor for a couple of days. They lay next to the ‘dirty’ clothes and picked up an odor of dirty laundry, according to Girl #1.
Or she went through 3-4 outfit changes before school, then a week later, remembered ‘wearing’ one of the discarded items, so it went into the dirty hamper— even 5 minutes on her body, looking in her mirror counted as ‘ It’s dirty— I wore it’
There were more important battles during her jr- sr high years, so I gritted my teeth and mostly let it go. (Going away to college and spending her $$ for get clothes clean and dry was eye opening. It quickly did what I couldn’t accomplish😁)