Let’s pretend that we are super close besties with busy lives and every Sunday (or so) we make it a point to get together, have a cup of coffee (or tea, or hot toddies, whatever – there’s no judging on Sunday Coffee Chat Day) and just talk about our lives. 

I thought it might be nice to take a few minutes to just write about what’s been going on – a bit of old school blogging about my actual life and not just the printables I’ve been designing, books I’ve been reading, etc. (although those are fun, too!) So get yourself a cuppa something delicious (I’m sipping slowly on a latte from my new coffee mug (pictured above) from The Pioneer Woman’s new collection at Walmart) and let’s gossip like housewives apparently do.

So my kids just got their progress reports back from school – we’ve been in school for about 4 weeks now so this report is really a very small snapshot of what their overall grades will look like, but I think it’s cool that they start the reports early so we have plenty of time to be aware of areas that need attention.

MM pretty much knew what his problem areas were before he even read the report – much like last year, he knew he needed to work better on writing in complete sentences on assignments and keeping his handwriting legible. I can already tell he is working on this so I’m not terribly concerned about it.

BB is a smart cookie and doing really well. Her lowest subject is phonics right now – she has no problem reading words but the first graders are getting their first taste of labeling vowel sounds, etc. and it’s totally new material for her so she hasn’t mastered it – yet. I’m just giggling over the fact that my six year old daughter is learning to do things that I was never taught in all my years of schooling. Basically, private school education continues to impress. Most importantly, both kids seem really happy and nobody appears to be drowning in school work yet.

MM is back in karate lessons after taking a little time off due to his stitches and working hard to catch up with his classmates. He and Dan have started working on basic strength training / core exercises in the mornings because after a quick few minutes watching him work on home practice for karate, it became evident that both he and Dan could use more effort there. I’m just staying quiet over here drinking my latte, hoping they don’t notice me. lol

Did I tell you yet that BB learned to tie her shoes over the summer and has been wearing sneakers with shoelaces for about a month now? This is an exciting development but also often results in me standing around biting my tongue, waiting for her to finish tying her shoes. Again. She is quite resistant to the double knot despite my ranting about how it will mean she won’t have to tie her shoes so often during the day. Remember when they were tiny blobs and I could do all of this myself?

My newest hobby #473 is adult coloring books. I tried buying books like these for the kids and was all “noooo you are doing it wrong!!!!!” when they started coloring like normal 6-9 year olds so I picked up one of these books so that I’d leave them alone and stop trying to live vicariously through them so much. I even splurged on these colored pencils using some Amazon points I’d earned. The tin is super pretty and makes me feel like I’m doing something important (yay for lying to being delusional).

The dog is doing some new dog training classes that might help him to be a more respectable member of canine society or maybe at least I’ll stop feeling like a prisoner in my own home when somebody knocks on the door or rings the doorbell. I’ve developed a Pavlovian twinge whenever I hear a doorbell and I think that alone is a sign that we needed to try something new. So far the new classes seem like they might be on point as far as targeting the behaviors that we need to work on so cross your fingers for us.

So I could go on, but this post is getting preeeeeeetttttty long. Let’s call it a day and pay attention to our familes and stuff. But before I go, it’s your turn to dish. What’s going on with your life? Join in on the conversation in the comments section!