Fall is in Full Swing

Technically Fall doesn't hit until September 21st, but in Chez Sam, we are in full on fall mode. DD2 is fully immersed in her non-senior slide list of classes, and I'm already  bracing for some academic melt down. She started show choir on Sunday and now will be back to her 2 practices a week, plus choreo weekends sprinkled throughout fall. Vocal jazz is also two days, and concertino is 0 hour before school, four days a week. She is done working at the restaurant until spring after two more shifts this weekend. She really cannot work with her school load during the week, and would need to ask off so many weekends for show choir, it seems more a nuisance for her and her boss. She is welcome to come back again when the spring season starts up, so that is nice. She managed to put a fairly sizeable chink of money away, technically if she budget well, enough for spending money for all four years of college, though she plans on having jobs each summer, and hopefully a small (very few hours) while at college. 

DH has been a mix of slow and busy. It comes in spurts. Historically fall leading into winter has not been fantastic for earnings, but respectable and we've stayed on budget. I hate though that he often gives up his Thursday, at least in part, because he needs to meet with a customer, and then he doesn't get the rest he should, or the projects done at home he wants, which then puts a damper on our one weekend day as a family. I'm trying to encourage him to go up to the lake on Thursdays, or even Wednesday nights to Thursday night or Friday morning. 

For me, fall is crazy busy at work, but I'm trying to let it stay there. The IT issue is still not resolved and we do not have a software developer on contract which means we are in a holding pattern on some much needed upgrades and enhancements. The temporary project manager seems to really just shuffle e-mails between us, and stop gap developers or help desk folks, which we could just do ourselves. We hear the developer contract should be in place by the week of the 23rd, but I won't believe it until I see him. In fun, I've been invited to join a Mom's of Teens group, both parent so new teens and those that will be experiencing empty nests soon. It is mostly moms of kids in the arts and will be very casual, just coffee and deserts, with a facilitated topic a month. The kick off is this Friday. DH and I have the open house on Thursday ar DD2's school where we walk her class schedule and meet her teachers

I'm also helping to serve lunch on Friday to golfers participating in the 5th memorial golf tournament in honor and memory  of my sister and brother-in-law for the American Legion. Proceeds go to various scholarship programs. It is mostly their friends who organize it, but as family we help out. For newer readers, my brother-in-law died in 2012 from cancer at 53, and my sister, his wife, died unexpectedly 20 months later in late 2013 of a brain aneurysm. Both were very involved in the American Legion and this is a nice legacy in their honor. 

Lastly, DD1 will be temporarily moving in with us next weekend before she starts her new job on September 17th. Hopefully Saturday will be filled with apartment viewings and she will find something. While she wants an October 1 lease, she is committed to her current place to November 1 so has some time, and it would help her financially to not pay double rent. The place she viewed this past Saturday was cute but overpriced and was awkward, with door and bedroom placement that would be impossible to get a couch or her bed in. It will change dynamics a bit in the house, but knowing she will reuse her regular life soon, we'll manage. 

This is the first full work and school week and it feels loaded, but good. I like to be back to a routine. Here's to do more this year than keep our heads above water.