September has flown past, temperatures are slowly dropping, and it even rained once this month! It’s time to set October goals, and to go over September.
I did okay with my September goals – not great. Johnny’s school situation is better, but it’s not ideal. I have his IEP meeting as well as a parent teacher conference this week, so we’ll see what we can do to improve things further. I managed to make occupational therapy and speech therapy appointments for Anna, but – the medical system and our insurance being what they are – we won’t actually see anyone for an evaluation until the end of October for OT and then early November for speech, and those appointments will come with hefty copays. I miss the much more straightforward Early Intervention program we used in Massachusetts, where services were provided always through Early Intervention, and they billed your insurance directly. I also found out that we will probably have to find her another physical therapist since her current one has a pretty unbearable commute to get to our house (and doesn’t have an office I can take Anna to). Mike’s fall schedule hasn’t been too bad yet, but I also know it will only get busier. He hasn’t been working weekends much, and that is nice! Emma and Johnny got to go help out in his lab one Saturday when he did work, and they LOVED that! I signed on to help with school Scholastic orders, but that should be a pretty easy commitment. I also help out with Lily’s class once a week, which is fun – Anna comes along and does her best to keep up. I did turn down other opportunities to “get busier”, so I think I did okay with my balancing commitments goal.
In spite of goal shortcomings, September was a pretty nice month. We managed to meet up with several friends, and that was fun. I am hoping the cooler weather sticks around for most of October, and particularly that we get some rain! Here are some specific goals for October:
- Enjoy fall! This is my favorite time of year! Theme: gratitude
- Make sure Lily practices violin at least five days a week. She started lessons after asking to play for years, and so far she is doing really well. She enjoys playing and is very good at focusing. I feel very fortunate to have found a teacher we like who is affordable and comes to our house for lessons! Themes: responsibility and education
- Continue to think carefully before accepting commitments and be conscientious about how we all spend our time. Themes: simplicity and gratitude
How was your September? What are you hoping to get done in October?
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
September was busy but great! We’ve got some travels this month which should be fun!
Can’t wait to hear where you are traveling!
I hope you will work out an IEP plan for Johnny! It’s SO important to make sure our kids are met at the point of their need. And it’s so cool that Lily loves playing a violin!
It is really fun to see Lily loving violin!
So far the school seems interested in working with us, and willing to get creative. I think it will take some time and trial and error, but I’m hopeful that we will find a solution that works for everyone!
You’re very organised with your goals and such. I, uh, October I just want to keep everyone alive! No, well, my parents are visiting, so I suppose there’s that.
I hope you have a great visit with your parents!
We’re looking forward to it!
Oh, I love Scholastic fairs! I remember them as a teacher. Should be fun. Glad to hear that you are slowly finding your way with supportive services for your children. Sounds like you are a doing a great job of not taking on too much. Enjoy fall on the West Coast!
I’m not helping with the fair – just the class book orders, which should be very mellow. :)
I always appreciate your monthly goal posts as they help me focus in and think about what I’m wanting to achieve. I love your focus on gratitude and have been thinking about that a lot myself lately, and in general I feel that a key goal for me this month is family — specifically focusing on quality time and connections. One of my brothers is coming to visit this month as is my mom, so that helps me focus on family as well. I want to do a better job of soaking all of the time and connecting, which has become a bit harder as some of our filmmaking work grows in the time and attention it needs. Balance, right — this another thing you help me remember.
Hooray for family visiting! Balance is a constant work in progress, but gratitude really does help me focus. I love the giving back posts from your blog!
I need to get back to working on specific goals. I’ve somewhat done that, but not as much as I’d like to.
Wow looks like you had a lot on your plate in September! I hope all goes well with your two kids’ schooling and PT.
September was pretty good for us, but I felt stretched with our budget. Lots of strange expenses, and my pay moving to bi-weekly which makes it seem like I have a smaller paycheck. But lots of fun, and I’m excited for everything in October—my eldest’s birthday, fall, Halloween, pumpkin patch, pumpkin pie :)
Mike moved to bi-weekly pay when he switched jobs, and it really does feel like a smaller paycheck! Happy birthday to your eldest this month!
September is always craziness for us trying to get used to the new schedule. It’s much easier this year since all the kids stopped playing town soccer so now we have our Saturdays more free. Hooray! I thought October would be smooth sailing — it’s usually much easier than September since we have our routines and car pools in place — but our moms will be visiting at the same time our son will be getting surgery so it’s going to be a different routine. I will stick to your plan of simplicity and gratitude. And also just taking it day by day. It’s much more managable that way!
I hope your son’s surgery goes well!
I told a lot of commitment that I could not do the after my September. It is not easy to say no some times when you want to do it all. I have to think about how it would look and how it would do. My main goal for october really is recover. :)
That sounds like a wise goal!
These sound like great goals. We are working on purging unneeded toys and clothes this month.
We did some of that over the summer, but there is still a ways to go!
I’m in the same boat with commitments. As much as I’d like to be involved more in J’s school, I’m physically and mentally exhausted. It was fun seeing you at Science Saturday! My goal is to publish a few posts that have been back logged since they need more processing than I have time for.
Good luck making time for everything! We really enjoyed your Science Saturday activity!