Musings Loosely Matched with Pictures

It's Monday night. James is scheduling Fall swim lessons, Maggie is snoring loudly, and all three kids are snoring softly. This is my final week of yoga teacher training- I take my written test tomorrow night, take my practical Wednesday night (teaching the full hour-long sequence for a grade!), and then teach our community class at graduation on Thursday. I can't believe it's nearly over. I will miss the physical intensity and brain-crushing mental intensity of the training so very much.

James will not

I haven't even passed the final exams yet but I spent an hour this evening on a deep dive of liability insurance, LLC formation, Yoga Alliance Registration (200-RYT, that's me!!), and fees for various spaces around Fort Worth to fulfill my dream of offering an inexpensive drop-in community yoga class to bring yoga to more people. I've also spoken with the owner of my barre studio about an Intro to Yoga Workshop and hope to talk to the head of group fitness at TCU Rec Center (where I also teach barre) about their beginner yoga offerings. Through my (200!) hours of training and practicing (HUGE thanks to my mama friends for letting me run hour-long practice classes in their precious free time), I've found that my passion is bringing yoga to people who haven't done it or don't think it's available to them whether because of the price, perceived intensity, fears of not knowing what to do or being overwhelmed, childcare, etc., I want to make it more accessible, to provide a gateway into this beautiful, powerful, peaceful, beneficial practice. Yoga is for every person and every body and I can't wait to offer it more officially to the bodies around me.

Mamas, post-Friday-night-yoga-practice class!

And so, the night before I even take my first test, I find myself searching the Texas Secretary of State website to make sure my yoga LLC name is available.

But, since I'm still quizzing myself on Sanskrit, modifications, and yoga philosophy, let's cut that off and go through some pictures to recap the last week. Also, Maggie doesn't remember eating her dinner and is not amused that you seem to have forgotten to feed her:

Okay, back we go to last Saturday! The kids had just returned from Papa Gigi Camp, Landon and James were at the climbing gym and the girls and I had a movie morning to watch Wish Upon a Star, a movie desperately beloved by my sister and I in our early years. Now available on Amazon Prime and watched by me for the first time since I was 13, I learned that gorgeous and enviable Alexia Wheaton was played by a very young Katherine Heigl, and also the movie isn't quite as amazing as I remembered it to be, though the girls LOVED it and have requested it the next three times they got to watch a movie, so I guess it holds up for the pre-tween set. Maggie was also super into it.

Also sometime this weekend, Cora took up fort building. Long a favored activity by her older siblings, Cora took it to a new level by eliminating the roof (who needs the hassle and how then can we keep track of everything else going on around us?) and adding detailed decor and food options. It's all so extremely Cora and her well-stocked forts have popped up around the house since Sunday.

Speaking of Cora, I was hanging up clothes in my closet last Sunday afternoon, listening to music on my phone, when I guess she picked it up and opened the camera and took 85 selfies. She left the room before I was done so I didn't discover the pictures until the next day while sitting at work. I very much laughed out loud. At least 50 looked just like this:

As James said in bed the other night, after laughing over some other Cora moment, "can you believe we ever almost didn't have her?" I really truly absolutely cannot. She's the joyful glue that pulls us all together and remains, easily, both her sibling's favorite human in the house.

And speaking of favorites, here's my favorite furry child (and sometimes just favorite child generally), helping me cook dinner tonight:

A quick Maggie story: it's been breaking her heart that the temperatures have been far too hot for her to spend any time outside. She sits hopefully by the door and dashes out whenever we crack it open, flopping down on the scalding hot cement or grass, only to be dragged off before she gets heat stroke. She does not appreciate our life-guarding and seeks out car rides and slivers of sunlight wherever she can find them.

This Saturday, during a front-yard potty break, she flat-out refused to be denied her moment(s) in the sun any longer. She plopped down on the exact sunny-side edge of the shade provided by our giant oak tree and would NOT be budged.

Her eyes begged for more time. Her tongue made clear it didn't care if it had permission or not.

And so, because I know she spent years in a cage indoors, I set a timer and sat down on the front porch, already sweating in the shade, keeping watch over my stubborn, sun-worshipping bulldog who just wanted a Saturday snoozle in the sun.

I woke her up after 10 minutes and she was in jolly spirits. She came to give me a hug, and though I had now sweated all the way through my shirt (while sitting! in the shade!), who can resist her joy?

(I cannot.)

Also on Saturday, because it was too hot to be outside, we went to see Dora the Explorer. The kids LOVED it. I thought it was cute and worth the price of the popcorn and beer I watched it with. James, probably because he declined the popcorn and the beer, declared it the worst movie ever created.

Clearly someone needed some popcorn.

On Sunday morning we headed out to a cement-covered water park, because where else would you spend a day that promised to "feel like" 115?

It was Cora's former preschool's summer party and they very graciously reached out to see if she'd like to join one last time and OH DID SHE.

So I donned my sun protective swim gear (leggings and a long-sleeved rashguard! because nothing says fun in the sun like being covered from ankle to wrist) and off we went. James arriving late because he had swim practice and me leaving early to go teach my barre class. I had a great time, I really do love water slides and Cora's joy on any ride of any kind is infectious, but peeling off wet leggings in a yoga studio bathroom to wiggle into dry leggings is a cardiovascular CHALLENGE I was not properly warmed up for.

The kids had a BLAST. I attempted to get a picture of them in the wave pool, but the namesake waves made it very challenging.

We were all cracking up when we finally landed on this one of everyone facing forward.

James and the kids got home at the same time I pulled up from teaching my barre class and we all lazed around the house for a few hours. James fell fast asleep on the couch, I worked on PTA emails and to-do's (somehow I'm on the executive boards for both the girls' elementary school and Landon's middle school; this was not intended, though I do like being involved and believe in supporting our public schools, but whoah, my PTA email folder was bursting at the seams), the big kids read, Cora made an elaborate fort, and Maggie slept, possibly without even realizing we were home.

It's late afternoons like Sunday that are why our life doesn't actually feel that hectic or busy to me. We had adventures, James and I did our workouts/training/teaching, the kids had a great time and played and swam like chlorinated maniacs, and then we had hours- multiple hours- to just be at home. Chill, do our thing, be utterly unbothered or interrupted by one another unless the interruption is wanted. We don't plan these things, but they always find their way into a weekend and it's like the yin to the fun and busy yang. We love and need both.

Maggie inserted herself in this picture Cora took of her stuffed animals dressed for dinner and it *cracks me up*

We finally roused ourselves about 6 to make dinner. It was make-your-own pizza night and I went with fig and prosciutto with Manchego cheese, arugula, and balsamic glaze on top. It was DELICIOUS and, as Landon adorably exclaimed, "Mom! It's like something you'd see on Top Chef!"

His pizza had sauce and pepperonis and no cheese; not quite Top Chef, but he declared it perfect for him.

We played games after dinner. Cora picked her story and the big kids played another round of Uno.

All in all, it was a pretty great, full, fun, but also somehow relaxed weekend. And now on to the week ahead! James is leading a week-long swim camp, I have work and yoga teacher testing, and we all have TWO Meet-the-Teacher Nights for our kids who are back in school a week from today!

(And Maggie does not have a thing, but does hope a car ride will be involved somehow.)