Fall!

Well, it's finally fall, which I always think of as my New Year. Maybe it's just because I've always been an education junkie, but come Labor Day, I always start thinking about where I'm headed and what I'm going to do with myself--it used to be about picking classes, choosing activities and all of that. Now it's about cleaning out the closets and the e-mail box, losing 20 pounds and setting a new running goal.

Of course, there's also the age-old school stuff to relive through the kids. Kate and Isabel both started at new schools this fall. Kate is in 5th grade and she's now at Washington Latin, which extends from fifth through ninth grade (it will ultimately go all the way through twelfth grade, and our expectation is that Kate will stay there for the duration). She's truly becoming a middle schooler with lots of added responsibility (she will take her first city bus ride on her own today - yikes!), piles of homework, and more self-direction. I also got her a cell phone, which I NEVER thought I would do. Izi has started at the local public elementary school, which has a nice preschool program for 3 year olds. She's really enjoying being in the big school, wearing a uniform, eating in the cafeteria, and all of that "real school" stuff.

As for me, I'm out there running and doing my best to be out there four or five days a week. It's a little tougher than it used to be, since I rarely run without pushing 50 pounds of kids in front of me. When Cara visited in July, we went out running and we did a pretty good job of reminding each other to "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" (as all of you parents out there will recognize from Finding Nemo). It's tougher to remind yourself of that, but I'm working on it.