November

Silas practices photography as means to get his hands on a phone.

Freddy's with our fun house guest.

Thanksgiving with the Hofts.

Thanksgiving

5 Months

Jones Gap

Last weekend was our Brevard Friends Trip 2.0.  We hiked around my personal favorite, Jones Gap State Park.  Perhaps the biggest understatement on the blog to date, but fall in the mountains is beautiful.  My kids were pretty great company on the trail.  I love seeing Silas as a nature explorer. Rory also loved the Ergo cuddles and attention of being passed around all weekend.  We did not try our luck accompanying the group all the way to the falls, but my sweater put in an appearance for me!  We all got to put our stamp of approval on Ryan, watch another Robert Durst drama, and eat pretty well too.  I love my buddies!

October

This was a bit of a rough month, but a good one too.

I went back to work.  The job is good but the transition was hard.  Besides dropping off your sweet kissable babies at daycare, it's difficult to jump in after having a substitute for the start of the year.  My first week was a field study week, so I was pretty much like 'Hello, I am Mrs. Hoft...get on the bus."  

In addition, we have a new superintendent so there are some different procedures I had to adapt to. Namely accountability. I was observed almost everyday of my first two weeks.  That is more than all the years of my teaching combined.  Probably a change for the best, but intimidating when you are still learning your students' names.  I guess because I had been out and have three different schools to report to, all the administrators were eagerly waiting to check me off their list.

Speaking of different schools, it is almost impossible to figure out who is who as far as staff.  I get about 200 school-wide emails a day from various people and I don't even know which school they are at or if "New Bus Duty Roster" or "After School Activity Log" applies to me.  (I can't ask for fear it does and I get something new added to my plate.  I am doing a lot of seeking forgiveness later lately.) It is also pretty humbling to introduce yourself to the five sets of teachers with whom you will be working with the disclaimer that they are on their own for recess duty since you will be needing to go pump mid-day.  Do they even know to what I am referring??  Is there a more delicate way to put it?? Who knows.  Everyone has been pretty accommodating so far.  Anyways, I survived and am feeling a bit more ducks-in-a-rowish.  We got the morning routine figured out decently even though it starts earlier than I would like.  My school kiddos are mostly fantastic, and the ones that aren't are the ones that need the most love anyways.

On the home front, I had a few new things keeping me busy.  I joined a softball team.  It is a church league of a friend, so I know basically no one.  They are pretty nice and I am pretty terrible, so maybe they are nicer than I deserve.  It is not the funnest to feel socially and physically awkward at the same time, especially in an arena you used to feel confident in.  I would have rather stayed home pretty much every game, but I could say that about anything.  Dang my parents for instilling the "stick with what you start" lesson a little too thoroughly.  I guess I am glad I did it.  It makes more memories than the couch.  

It was also my month in the rotation for teaching Sunday school.  That is nothing new and pretty easy, but still just one more thing to add to the weekend calendar.  Then we all got sick and we decided to not spend any money. I am hoping these two were unrelated.  My car cost us 600 dollars in repairs negating the "no spend" attempt but is back on the road and promising to last until at least the end of double day care payments.  I actually loved not having to grocery shop for a month.  I don't know if it is impressive or grotesque that we can live for a month off the food in our pantry and freezer.  We have been opting out of our bags of frozen broccoli for awhile and it was time to Konmari the kitchen.  We didn't even have to get too creative with meals and had most food groups most days.  The only bad part was having to cook every night.  We bought bread, milk, and eggs with a left over birthday gift card.  We bought gas of course, and candy for trick-or-treaters with Amazon cash back bonuses.  The planning was fun and I lost a few pounds so I will call it a win.  Now when I eat all the things I missed I think they are a bit of a let down.  I keep on eating them anyways.  I wanted it to be a lesson in doing without and not feeling the need to treat yourself all the time, but we live in such abundance that I still was never hungry once.  I am pretty sure Silas didn't even notice, except for the lack of cheez-its.  He was having a grand time finishing off old summer popsicles.  

 

Not sure why I felt like typing so much.  Now back to the usual sparsely captioned pictures of children.

Backyard Camping

Packed only toys.