General Busy-ness: September 2013

Can I get a collective sigh of relief that September is over? With the main Jewish holiday season starting on September 4th, and weekly extra things to do until the month ended, well, it was just a lot. I've already told you about the start of school, what it was like to be in The New York Times, and how my first big business trip went. Here's what else we did.

The first month of school and religious school has gone fairly smoothly for both kids. Hannah is very excited about taking clarinet lessons at school this year (she specifically asked me to blog on this very point), to be in the choir both at school and synagogue, and was awarded her classroom's "Citizen of the Week" designation during the second week of school. Fourth grade seems to be a big step up in responsibility, and she's taking it all very seriously. Max is settling into his new routine well, and has fully abandoned pirates for camouflage and secret spy activity. Kindergarten gets off to a very slow start, and he's excited to finally have his first "full" day in the classroom tomorrow. At synagogue, there was a special ceremony welcoming the kindergartners to the community, where he received a tiny Torah that is now a prized possession of his.

Our sukkah

Our holidays were very nice this year. We spent part of Rosh Hashanah with Marc's parents, and part with friends. Yom Kippur was also a bit split as Max had a cold, but we all made it to the end of services and enjoyed breaking the fast with friends. Marc has trained both kids in using the power drill, and our sukkah went up and down this year with minimal involvement from me. :) We held our annual open sukkah party, and it just keeps getting better every year. I had a great time attending a few other sukkah parties, too! But by the Shabbat after Simchat Torah, I was a bit worn out from it all. So we took the day off from synagogue and headed to the Museum of Fine Arts instead, one of my favorite places in Boston.

Work was incredibly busy this past month--it doesn't ever seem to slow down for long anymore. I only made it to Zumba once the entire month, and I'm still struggling with the exercise component of my life. But, I am making an effort to pack my lunch at least a few days a week. I bought a nice container that fits in my bag well, and am focused on bringing healthy things that I can pack with as little effort as possible. I find I'm really enjoying eating my lunches from home, as I'm pretty tired of everything around my office as it's been almost eight years working in the same location. If you've got any suggestions for making this even easier, I'd love to hear them!

Veggies with hummus and feta. One container, no waste, minimal prep involved.

I'm looking forward to October. It's my birthday month, fall is my favorite season, and there's a lot of fun but low key activities already on the calendar. I'm very excited to be taking professional family photos this month. I've wanted to do this for a while now, and Hannah and I had a fun shopping trip looking for our outfits for the photos. Although I'm not really sure I can top how much I love this photo below.

Stacking Stobers

So how was your month? What are you looking forward to this fall?