June was a busy month! I’m glad I kept my goals simple, because I stayed plenty busy! We put our house on the market, and that coat of paint on the front porch must have done its job, because we got plenty of offers on the house within hours of opening it to the public! The first two fell through, but offer #3 seems good (so far). I’m torn between wishing we could stay here for a couple more months and hoping that the offer does hold, because keeping the house show-perfect is exhausting with four young children! Mike was horribly sick for our 12-year anniversary, but he did buy me roses a couple days later, and we’ll make it up with a date, sometime… We did enjoy a wonderful reunion with my family, and I got thank you notes off to all the teachers – barely.
Goals for July:
- Enjoy what is likely to be our last complete month in Massachusetts! Focus area: gratitude
- Make the most of summer vacation with the kids! School just got out, and so far we’ve enjoyed quiet days of LEGO, play dough, and small world play – as well as near-daily get-togethers with a few family members who are in the area for a couple more days. My three “big” kids were missing school a little bit, so they were thrilled to choose summer workbooks at Costco this morning that should provide material for hours of self-directed home schooling. I was impressed at the range of workbooks at Costco this year – they had several brands for most grades. Focus area: gratitude and simplicity
- Get Anna started up with early intervention for gross motor and other delays. This is an easy goal since the appointments are made. It’s here mainly because I think early intervention is an amazing service everyone should know about, and use when needed. Focus area: responsibility
- Throw Lily’s fourth birthday party! Focus area: gratitude
- Start teaching the kids French again. They want to learn, we used to speak some French at home, and I used to be a French teacher. I have also discovered that Pinterest makes resource research super easy! I’ve started a Teaching French board – have a resource I should add? Focus area: education
- {Hopefully} fly to California with Anna to find a place to live. Babies love house hunting, right? Focus area: responsibility and education
- {Hopefully} finish up a doll crochet pattern I have (very slowly) been working on. Anybody want to pattern test for me? I would say you need intermediate crochet skills. No pay, but you get the pattern, and I think it’s quite a nice one.
If you can recommend a family-friendly place to live near Silicon Valley, I would love to hear about it! I am starting to realize that, while a family of four is not exactly common in Massachusetts, it’s even rarer in the Bay Area!
What are your goals for July?
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
I’ve been thinking of you MaryAnne and I am always amazed at how much you accomplish but especially now with all the added stress of a move.
Thanks! Blogging is a fun stress reliever, but I may have to lower post frequency as it gets closer.
Have fun house hunting with your travel buddy!
I hope you get lucky and find the perfect thing!
Thanks! I think Mike may actually come along too, which would be a relief since I don’t really want to pick a place without him seeing it! My sister says she will watch the three older kids – which they will LOVE!
A family from my church in Texas just moved to Saratoga. I think that’s near Silicon Valley? Hope you find the perfect house soon!
It is, but I hadn’t even thought to look for housing there. Thanks for the idea!
Wow! I hope everything goes well. You will be quite busy this summer!
June was a crazy blur that did not go particurlarly well. It’s just overwhelming what with the late school year! I’m glad your July goals are simple but it’s still a lot on the plate. Please try to take a bit of time for yourself so you don’t run yourself ragged and get sick.
Have a wonderful time househunting in Silicon Valley. My brother lives in San Jose in Campbell and they are happy there. My cousins live in Palo Alto but that is quite overwhelmingly expensive. I personally love Los Altos. I rented a room there from a friend when I did consulting work and flew up weekly for a year. It’s a nice suburb with great schools.
San Jose is on our list, so I’m glad your brother likes it there. Los Altos is wonderful, but probably out of budget, even with Mike’s housing allowance and subsidies. Maybe we’ll get lucky? You never know… Silicon Valley is wonderful, but such an expensive place to live!
I love reading your goals, post. In fact, every time I see it in my reader, I think, “Oh! I need to make some goals, too!” :)
I think I’m addicted to goals :P
Babies do not love house-hunting, in my experience, but I’m sure you can outweigh the bad aspects (in and out of cars) with the good (babywearing and lots of new things to see). So sad Mike was sick on your anniversary, but I’m glad he’s recovered! I teach a little Spanish during our math lessons, so my kids know the days of the week and numbers up to twenty. It’s not much, but I’m planning on supplementing with my kids’ first tv-watching experience: I Love Lucy episodes dubbed in Spanish. I have bought the DVDs but I’m chickening out about showing them to my kids…
I Love Lucy is great!!! I think Emma would really enjoy watching those.
Good luck with the house hunt! We love our city, but finding a “reasonably” priced place larger than 2 bedrooms is very difficult. Will Mike’s company help you find something temporarily? Are you in touch with a real estate/rental agent? P.S. I’d love to dust off my French and teach J. John learned German throughout high school, and J’s getting a little bit of Spanish in preschool. Happy July!!
Those are great goals for July. I hope that your house sells, and you can start here in time for school. It starts earlier here – we are going back on August 19th. You are right – I haven’t heard of anyone here with four kids, three seems to be fairly common though. Let me know if I can help in anyway in your house hunting.
I’ve got a “teaching languages board,” but I have to admit it’s mostly sign language with a smattering of Latin.