Fall Break(ish)--Family In Town Style!

Okay, peeps.

First: double post day! Woohoo! Kind of my trend, these past few months. No posting, no posting, no posting, and, then: double posting! Ha. Oh, well. You do what you gotta do, amiright?

Second: if you just read the previous post about  peace and downtime, you'll sense the drastic shift of this one. All about our busy weekend happenings, With family in town!

I'll just start with the goods I know you really want. Cousin gloriousness:

Okay. Now that you've seen a couple of pics, you can slog through a tiny bit of background context.

I think it's important to launch with the Universal Truth right now, that, I don't really think we're all that fun to come visit.

That might sound disparaging, and maybe our guests would disagree, but...the simple fact is: we're BUSY. There's never a "free" weekend or a handful of days when company won't be dragged along to everything we have going on, and it's most certainly never chill or quiet!

So, when people hunt for a time to come see us, it's kind of like picking the best of some bad dates.

Truly, I've gotten to the point where I strongly encourage peeps NOT to come see us in August or September (for my mental health and theirs), and it's only once we make it to October that I even feel like it's a decent-ish idea to rope people into our insanity. And even then...not so great.

Harsh, perhaps. But there is a definite seasonality to our current life stage which equates to our capability to host. Might be different for other peeps, but I work with my own mental and logistical state--not anybody else's!

Luckily, little bro, his wife and our stinking adorable niece, were fearless and up for a long road trip with a stop and overnight in Dallas before coming down to see us for some cousin time. And I'm so grateful that they were up for all the baggage that comes along with a visit. Same with the hubby's sister and her fam a couple months ago when they stopped here along a longer road trip. Anyone willing to join our chaos for any length of time kinda deserves a medal. And, then, maybe a weekend to recover from their weekend, ha.

This particular weekend, we had Cross Country, Soccer practice, a Soccer game, Confirmation commitments, and the Fall Fest at our church (involving a Chicklet volunteer hour), so...navigating all of that and trying to sprinkle in any visiting was tricky, but, ultimately, worth it.

Little Bro got major uncle points by waking up looooong before the sun on Saturday morning to witness Chica's Cross Country meet. It was NOT fun setting the weekend alarm for something that started with a five, but it's weirdly awesome to go to these sunrise meets and feel the little teen energy and witness the whole gaggle.

It still blows my mind that I birthed a child who loathes and loves running for sport. Wild!

More than anything, I admire her consistently measured approach to this activity. She is, by no means, the fastest among her peer group of very competitive friends. But, she's proud of herself for her effort.

She adores the participation and family vibe of XC. And she very much takes to heart the coach's advice that, with Cross Country, you are competing against yourself, first and foremost. :)

In fact, a couple weeks ago, Chica got a happy call-out from her coach on one of the weekly wrap-ups that goes to all the parents and students. It was basically saying that Chica and just one other student had perfectly paced themselves for both the uphill then downhill portion of their run that day. So many kiddos were just ready to burst and set an insane pace on the uphill part...and then lose their energy and drastically change their pace on the flip side. But Chica kept is slow and steady. Measured. Just like she always does. And it was a joy to see her light up over the rare, athletic praise.

Additionally, at this first meet of the season, Chica completed her 2 miles in 16:18.6, and that was a personal record for a beginning meet! Again...only competing with herself and blocking out all comparison.

That said...she participates in this sport with a handful of really great, close buddies, and it's a joy to see them all excited and ready to do this hard thing, all together.

She was wiped after it was all over, but she always earns the reward of extra, yummy food! Beyond a brunch out together, the girlies (plus cousin June) stuck close to home and the slew of princess dresses at their disposal for the rest of the day. But Little Man powered through a really hot soccer practice and game that afternoon--also, with his uncle as a witness! Sadly, I FAILED to take any pics. Oye. I guess the rose is off the bloom, now that we're halfway through his soccer season, ha.

Meanwhile...the cousin love and princess dress-wearing was in full force back home!

It's fun to see the playroom used for real PLAY like this, since it's mostly a lounge space for my aging kiddos, these days.

Everybody seemed to go to bed tuckered out--and ready for another early(ish) morning of church and Fall Fest.

It was such a joy to have some happy time, together, even amidst the busyness. I'm not gonna lie: I had a major regroup day, yesterday, dealing with a lot of to-dos and errands and cleaning and laundry to prep for the week ahead, but...isn't that what we're all doing when the weekends wrap up?

I wish I had a better handle on leveling out the insane swings of our life and calendar, these days. But the truth of it is: it's often one foot in front of the other, one day at a time, with the hopes that the things you're packing in to life will be so positive they'll far outweigh any negative of the associated overwhelm!

We've got about 3-4 weeks before we offload both Cross Country and Soccer, and it's kind of insane how quickly it's flying by! But, we're going to do our best to enjoy the thick of things and the height of this Halloween season!

We're deep in the weeds of finalizing costumes and everything for our Halloween away, and I know our whole crew is very much looking forward to the adventure!

Okay...more soon, peeps!

Until then, over and out!